CHESSBOOK REVIEWS 
Latest book reviews of 1 May 2004.
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.Wilhelminalaan 33n.elburg@consunet.nl
7261 BP RUURLO
The Netherlands.
Chess Books
C.J.S.Purdy’s Fine Art of Chess Annotation and other thoughts Vol.1 by Cecil Purdy
2004
Thinker’s Press
http://www.chessco.com
152 pages
Price $ 19.95
ISBN 1-888710-19-5
This fine revised version of Purdy’s fine art of chess annotation and other thoughts volume one from 1992 has now been completely revised by the well known author professor Dr.Ralph J.Tykodi of Massachusetts who compiled this book mainly from Purdy’s famous chess magazine Chess World.
This book contains around 100 highly didactic analysed games where the material is divided in to three large sections as world champion events, high level master games and 50 down under master games from Australia & New Zeeland.
I am sure that many shall enjoy the world championship games specially the ones from Robert Fischer because they are so understandable analysed that really every chess player can follow it, interesting to mention is that it was the great Bobby Fischer him self who probably enjoyed reading Purdy’s games called Purdy one of the best chess teachers in the world.
C.J.S.Purdy was a international Master and the first World champion correspondence chess champion, if
you ask me this man was more than a world champion in correspondence chess because I am sure he had no help from anybody else.
Together with Volume Two and Three from .Purdy’s Fine Art of Chess Annotation the reader has a unique possibility to lay hands on a remarkable collection master games.
Conclusion: A must for every serious chess player who wants to understands master play in chess!
King’s Indian Battle plans by Andrew Martin
2004
Thinker’s Press
http://www.chessco.com
380 pages
Price $ 29.95
ISBN 1-888710-00-4
The readers from the British Chess magazine had the last few months the opportunity to taste from some articles that IM Andrew Martin’s wrote on his favourite opening the King’s Indian defence.
This latest work from Andrew Martin on the King’s Indian defence has become a real heavy weight with it’s 380 pages and 400 complete games where a small 250 of them are excellent annotated and than not with some kind of simple ECO symbols no nearly every page of this book is filled with a large amount of highly instructive text.
Even that there is no game index in this book the material is very logical divided and pleasantly explained by the author with a pleasant amount of fresh ideas and of course the most important of all are the large amount of latest played King’s Indian games.
For example the famous Mar del Plata variation that runs after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 is well covered with a small 26 pages and 16 deeply analysed example games
Interesting to mention is the interest from the author for sharp lines as for example the feared Benko Attack with 11.g4!
The pleasant side of a book as this are the large amount of suggestions and alternatives as for instance how to handle the four pawns attack with a exciting alternative as for example with the knight move : 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 Na6!?
This line made it to the ECO of chess openings but this works ends in 1998 and the suggestion from Andrew Martin with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 Na6 7.e5 Nd7 8.Be2 c5 9.exd6 exd6 10.d5 Bxc3+ has never seen any kind of print before.
I would like to end with some wise words from the author about the King's Indian attack : Black players beware! Here, ore than in any other line you have to have a concrete plane, clear idea of where you are going,or you will gradually get pushed off the board!
Conclusion: I would consider this as an very important reference work on the whole King’s Indian defence!
Dutch Defence by Nikolay Minev & John Donaldson
2003
Thinker’s Press
http://www.chessco.com
160 pages
Price $ 19.95
ISBN 1-888710-01-2
The cover of this book promises a lot of new and forgotten ideas but I found it personally more a amusing short cut book where most games end before move 25.
Many reader shall certainly enjoy the rare and uncommon lines as for example the delayed Staunton gambit where white delays his pawn sacrifice: 1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e4 a moves that deserves certainly a deeper investigation even it is not mentioned in the latest openings books but it was the great Alekhine who played it at first
against Hallegua a Turkish national from the Quadrangular tournament of the famous Cafe Continental from Paris 1914.
A other interesting idea in the Dutch is the forgotten move from Balogh where the inventor himself once a active first world chess master managed to play the game of his life with it as you can see in the following short cut: Duehrssen,D - Balogh,D ICSB corr, 1928 1.d4 f5 2.e4 d6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.exf5 Nxd4 6.g4 h5 7.f3 hxg4 8.fxg4 Qd7 9.h3 Qc6 10.Rh2 Qc5 11.Bf4 e5 12.Bg5 Ne6 0-1 but players who are interested to take up this opening be care of the weakness on f7 because black can be pushed from the board in no time!
Conclusion: A very enjoyable read on the Dutch defence!
Judit Polgar the princess of chess by Tibor Karolyi
2004
Batsford Ltd London
http://www.Batsford.com
288 pages
Price $ 22.95
ISBN 0-7134-8890-5
Judit Polgar born in 1976 is the youngest and most successful of the three famous Hungarian sisters who enjoyed in the earlier 1990s superstar status due to there phenomenal chess playing abilities.
The former chess trainer of the Polgar’s GM Tibor Karolyi describes in a honest way the fascinating career and games of the highest rated woman of all time..
She is now among the top ten chess players in the world and regular plays with success in top level events. As the reader can follow in these 89 deeply analysed games she has an exceptionally direct and aggressive style of play based on a perfect opening preparation.
Tibor Karolyi starts analysing Judit her game that he could find in his personal database and that was the game against Istavan Balogh she was that time only nine years old but between these games we can follow her development as chess genius as we can see as her smashing victory against the former world champion Anatoly Karpov played at the latest Hoogeveen chess tournament where Karpov was pushed of the board in a small 26 moves.
Interesting to mention is {Judit: Her style and career page 245} that she never looses interest in the fight even when she finds herself in terrible positions.
Judit learned a lot from her teachers as we can read in this book and that where quite a lot but I would like to mention one and well Lev Psakhis who had a considerable impact on Judit’s chess, as from him she deepened her understanding of Benoni positions, which emerged from her use of the King’s Indian.
Also she was probably influenced to change to the Nimzo Indian defence against 1.d4.
Personally I enjoyed the excellent games nearly all analysed in great depth with move to move annotations often packed with a lot of readable back ground stories as the one when Judit Polgar helped Tibor Karolyi with his own correspondence games when Hungary was to qualify for the email Olympiad and Judit’s love for her husband Gusztav Font is all very touching and gives an excellent coverage in this book from how close the author is with Judit and her family.
Conclusion: A great coverage on Judit Polgar!
How good is your chess by Larry Evans
2004
Cardoza Publishing
http://www.cardozapub.com
144 pages
Price $ 9.95
ISBN 1-58042-126-1
How good is your chess is a challenging exercise book from GM Larry Evans which was previously published by Cardoza some years ago under the title Test your chess IQ.
The 100 chess positions are very readable and nearly all taken from real tournament games where Evans prefers to use your head and not your hands so the advice from Larry is try to work directly from the diagram position simple to improve your visualization skills.
The reader has every time choice out three possibilities as for instance the amassing position between the two players Fidlow & Felice played at New York 1972, that arises after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nxe5 0-0 5.Nc3 d5 6.Nxd5 Nxe4 7.d4 Re8 8.Qf3 Bxd4 9.Qxf7+ Kh8 where white has to go for a clear mate in four!
A other interesting exercise is the endgame position between Robert Fischer and Max Pavey of the Manhattan club championship from 1956/57 where the 13 year old Bobby blundered awful with 40.Bf2?
Conclusion: A very enjoyable test book!
Chess CD's
ChessBase Magazine extra issue 98
March 2004
ChessBase
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Euro 12.99
A old fashion super ChessBase extra issue with a Hugh data file from over 12.000 chess games (Starting with Bethune 2003 & ending with the Dutch lady championship}and a excellent made Klaus Darga becomes 70 multimedia file from around 650 MB.
Many people probably only know Darga from his famous French Winawer game against Fischer please see Fischer's book
{My 60 Memorable games } but many are probably not aware that Darga was already at the age of seventeen German Champion and shared first place at the 1953 youth World championship.
His greatest triumph was the Winnipeg 1967 tournament where he left great players as Larsen,Spassky and Keres behind him and won this all with a fantastic score from 6 out of 9.
Included in this excellent made Multimedia file from Andre Schulz in the English & German language and even a extra database from around 698 Darga games but unfortunately for the English reader the AVI files with the Darga interviews are only available in the German language!
Conclusion: This well filled ChessBase extra magazines includes besides the Hugh data files a very interesting interview with the great GM Klaus Darga.
The greatest tournaments in the history of chess 1851 - 1986
2004
ChessBase
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 29.99
ChessBase Reader included.
A very interesting made CD from ChessBase is this extensive over view from the most important chess tournaments of all time where you shall find besides the 1400 annotated games on this CD all kind of other interesting information as stories, photo's and cross tables.
Probably not ever body shall agree with the selection of the 50 best tournaments of all time but here they are: London 1851, New York 1857, Vienna 1873, Leipzig 1877, London 1883, Hastings 1895, St Petersburg 1895, Nuremberg 1896, Vienna 1898, London 1899, Paris 1900, Cambridge Springs 1904, St Petersburg 1909 , Karlsbad 1911, San Sebastian 1911, San Sebastian 1912, St Petersburg 1914, Mährisch Ostrau 1923, New York 1924,Baden-Baden 1925, Moscow 1925, Bad Kissingen 1928, Karlsbad 1929, San Remo 1930, Bled 1931, Moscow 1935+36, Nottingham 1936,Kemeri 1937, AVRO 1938, Salzburg 1942, Sverdlovsk 1943, Groningen 1946, Moscow 1956, Dallas 1957, Bled 1961, Capablanca-Memorial 1963, Los Angeles 1963, Santa Monica 1966, Moscow 1967, Moscow 1971, San Antonio 1972, Milan 1975, Moscow 1975, Leningrad 1977, Bugojno 1978, Tilburg 1978, Montreal 1979, Moscow 1981,Bugojno 1986 and Tilburg 1986.
Every one of these 50 tournaments includes a illustrated database text written by Manual Fruth where the reader is insured from some readable insides.
From the 6843 games and text files that are around 1560 of them annotated where ChessBase was so wise to use so much as possible the original sources included with a lot of extra analyses from the editorial ChessBase team and there quest GM’s.
Where I quess that a small 6700 games from this CD come from other ChessBase sources as the Mega Database but the strong of this collection greatest tournaments in chess point are of course the interesting analyses and not to forget Manual Fruth's well written historical text reports.
A nice example os the folllowing one where the reader can get a idea what kind of reports that he can exspect to find on this impressive made chess CD.
The Leipzig Chess Congress in honour of Anderssen, 1877
(16.7.-28.7.1877)
The recipient of the honour together with a facsimile signature
TABLES
Master tournament:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1 Paulsen,Louis * 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9.0/11
2 Anderssen,Adolf 1 * ½ 1 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 8.5/11 43.00
3 Zukertort,Johannes Hermann 0 ½ * 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8.5/11 38.25
4 Winawer,Szymon 1 0 0 * 1 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 7.5/11
5 Goering,Carl Theodor 0 1 1 0 * 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 6.0/11
6 Englisch,Berthold 0 ½ 0 1 0 * 0 1 1 ½ 0 1 5.0/11 24.25
7 Schallopp,Emil 0 0 0 0 1 1 * 0 1 1 0 1 5.0/11 20.00
8 Leffmann,Karl 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 * ½ 1 1 ½ 5.0/11 19.50
9 Metger,Johannes 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 3.5/11
10 Flechsig,Ernst 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 ½ 3.0/11
11 Franke,August Wilhelm 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 * ½ 2.5/11 11.25
12 Paulsen,Wilfried 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ * 2.5/11 11.25
Tiebreak for 2nd and 3rd places: Anderssen-Zukertort 1-0
Match Anderssen-L.Paulsen:
123456789
1 Paulsen,Louis 01101½101 5.5/9
2 Anderssen,Adolf 10010½010 3.5/9
TOURNAMENT REPORT
On the occasion of the 50th chess birthday of Adolf Anderssen (he actually saw the light of day in 1818 in Breslau!), a chess congress was organized in Leipzig, in which the recipient of the honour himself took part. The chess élite of Central Europe came together along with the English representative Johannes Zukertort (representing the St. George's Club in London).
The congress was intended to unite the previous chess federations (Central, North, South and West Germany) into a pan-German federation and was in fact the birth of the present day German Chess Federation.
The prizes consisted of:
Master tournament
I. 400 Marks
II. 200 Marks
III. 100 Marks (Entry per player 10 Marks)
Main tournament:
I. 120 Marks
II. 80 Marks
III. 50 Marks
IV. 30 Marks (Entry per player 5 Marks)
Also the problem tournament:
Best submission 100 Marks
Second best 50 Marks
"Repeatedly over the past seventeen years, since the first chess federation in Germany was founded, people have envisaged and publicly spoken about forming a common German chess federation; yet it always remained at the level of an idea since the necessary means were not there to bring it into reality. The task of bringing the problem a considerable way closer to a solution fell to the second Central German Congress, which was held in Leipzig in July 1876. At the celebration banquet of the congress, Dr C. Göring, who represented Leipzig in the master tournament, made a highly humorous speech during which he reminded the company that our former champion Anderssen, who had learned to play chess as a boy of nine, would be fifty-nine in 1877 and that this would give the chess world the excuse to celebrate Anderssen's fiftieth anniversary as a chess player. But how? He reminded the company that another great chess player had once expressed his thanks to a host who had generously put him up for several days by letting him win a game of chess on his final day: we could also do something similar here and let Anderssen "win a game", that is organize a congress, arrange for prizes and leave if to the oft-victorious master himself to garner in one of them as birthday present. However, the necessary costs could not be met by the Central German Chess Federation, which could hardly merit the name of "federation", since it consisted only of the Leipzig club; but a way would be found, if people would only accept the idea. And the company agreed to his idea with joy and enthusiasm..."
Call for Anderssen's anniversary as a chess player
The famous veteran of German chess, Professor Anderssen, was that year celebrating his fiftieth year as a chess player, an event that was to be greeted with joy by all amateurs, masters and friends of the noble game and which could on no account be allowed to pass unnoticed.
At the last meeting of the Central German Chess Federation, a jubilee in honour of the master had been called for; it was to take place here in Leipzig and the financial groundwork had happily already been assured by numerous signatures. The celebration was to begin on the 8th of July and consist for the main part of a master tournament, with the object of the jubilee taking part himself, and in addition a main tournament and several subsidiary tournaments.
We hereby invite German chess clubs to choose from their midst a committee, which will make the necessary arrangements and decisions for the jubilee celebration; only the time and the place must be laid down with the agreement of the principal guest, everything else is left to the discretion of the committee which will be set up.
As well as to chess clubs, this invitation is being sent to those outstanding masters of the game who do not belong to individual clubs. Each one of them who is willing to take part will be accepted with the greatest of pleasure by the committee.
We have no doubt that this invitation, issued by some of the master's oldest friends and by the representatives of the Central German Chess Federation, will be received with pleasure all over our fatherland. because Anderssen himself has been a doughty warrior in defence of the honour of Germany on this particular battlefield and has twice won victories for the German spirit ahead of representatives of other nations in competitions on the Thames. An Anderssen jubilee will always remain one of the most important events in the history of German chess.
The course of the tournament
Curiously, the drawing of lots stipulated that the game between the two main matadors Anderssen and L. Paulsen would be played in the final round, and if both protagonists made similar progress in the earlier rounds, then the latter game would be the deciding one for first and second prizes. But the way things turned out would be different, as we will see as we study the course of the tournament.
On the morning of Monday 16th July at 9 o'clock the tournament began in the halls of the Schützengarten and the masters came together in pairs to give combat as prescribed by the rules. A thick knot of spectators gathered round the table at which Winawer faced the doyen himself, Anderssen. They followed with the greatest of attention the game between the two of them as it developed from a Sicilian opening. From time to time groups would leave the table and retreated to the open air of the garden in order to continue without restriction a discussion which had begun in a whisper or to study the phases of the game at a board. Unfortunately there was in this game a small difference of opinion, when Winawer's clock showed that he had overstepped the time limit on move 37; Winawer himself maintained that he could not possibly have overrun the time and that perhaps his clock had continued to tick through some mishap during a move played by his opponent. Dr Max Lange, as a member of the committee, decided that the game had to be considered a loss for Winawer and because of the strict tournament conditions both players had to accept this decision, which was later confirmed by the arbitration committee and was in no way contested by either player during the later course of the tournament.
Whilst this was taking place, Göring was going down to W. Paulsen in a Göring Gambit, Schallopp to Leffmann in a Ruy Lopez; Zukertort had a quick win in a Vienna Game against Professor Franke and in the game between Flechsig and Englisch a Four Knights (one of the most popular openings in this tournament, along with the Ruy Lopez) had to be concluded as a draw. L. Paulsen had a hard struggle as Black against Metger, who developed very well against the former's 1....e7-e6 and 2...g7-g6 and was favourably placed, without however managing to gain a decisive advantage against Paulsen's stubborn defence. As time grew on, the latter managed to achieve a tiny material advantage; but in the meantime, the allotted span for the game had been reached and with the agreement of the players its continuation was adjourned to a later date on which both would be free. Upon this there was a little difference of opinion between the other participants in the tournament (but not the two affected players) about the consequences of such a necessary break; some maintained that the adjourned game be played out immediately the bell sounded for the next session of the tournament and that neither of the players should consider a new game until the old one was finished. We cannot agree with this point of view, because what would the consequence be? ...
In round seven a decisive moment came earlier than expected:
Göring played Anderssen; Anderssen responded with a Sicilian Defence, soon went over to the attack, as was his wont, and won a pawn, then the exchange and then a second pawn. Then Göring managed a small counterattack, by means of which he won back the exchange as a result of a sacrificial combination, but without actually saving the game. But Dr Göring had more faith in his attack and after the knight sacrifice was accepted, he announced mate in three while playing the first check. There was mate there, but is was so well hidden that Anderssen, without looking at the position more deeply and believing that his opponent was in the wrong,made his reply, after which mate in two was indeed forced. But had Anderssen only looked at things for a moment, he would certainly have spotted the hidden mate and the even better hidden rook sacrifice which thwarted the mate and ensured his victory because of his extra pawns after simplification.
This first defeat for the master clearly altered things in the tournament; because if Paulsen did not meet a similar fate at the hands of another protagonist, then he could afford to lose his later game against Anderssen without abandoning his claim to the first prize. And Anderssen had in any case to aim to win the said game, since a draw or a loss could even deprive him of the second prize. It is a curious coincidence that precisely that person who started things going for the organisation of the tournament now by means of this surprise and unexpected turn of events deprived the person being honoured of any hope of the first prize.
While this was happening, Franke beat Schallopp in a King's Gambit, declined by the latter with d7-d5, before ruining his chances with superficial treatment of the opening; it can probably be excused, because on the same evening Schallopp gave his blindfold exhibition.
IMPORTANT GAMES
An important game took place in round 2; superb technique from White after bad handling of the opening by Black:
Paulsen,L - Zukertort,J 1-0
In round 4, there wan another important encounter:
Zukertort,J - Anderssen,A ½-½
White won an interesting Falkbeer Countergambit:
Franke,A - Schallopp,E 1-0
Anderssen gave away a won game in round 7 by falling into a mate in two, which would be very painful for him to remember later:
Goering,C - Anderssen,A 1-0
the meeting between the two main favourites took place, appropriately, in the last (11th) round:
After 1.a3 and a clear advantage to Black, the latter blundered on move 22, but he was already in first place:
Anderssen,A - Paulsen,L 1-0
In the same round, Zukertort beat Flechsig and brought about a tie-break:
Flechsig,E - Zukertort,J 0-1
The interesting consultation game:
Goering/Metzger/Paulsen,L. - Schmid, C/Zukertort 0-1
Decisive game in the match for second place:
Zukertort,J - Anderssen,A 0-1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Deutsche Schachzeitung 32. Jahrgang 1877
Schallopp, Der Schachkongress zu Leipzig im Juli 1877 (Leipzig 1878, Von Veit & Comp.)
ditto Reprint St.Leonards on Sea 1968 (BCM Classical Reprint)
Conclusion: A CD with excellent made tournament reports!
Giuoco Piano C50-C54 by Reinhold Ripperger
2004
ChessBase
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 24.99
ChessBase Reader included.
The famous Giuoco Piano is one of the earliest recording methods of opening in chess and it simple starts after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5.
Ripperger’s material is compressed in three large databases as his personal learning base that is good for around 11 text files and 240 deeply annotated model games where the reader is invited to take up one of the oldest chess openings known in chess.
As Harding & Botterill described in there Italian game the name Giuoco Piano {meaning ‘quiet game’ in Italian} is quite inappropriate and thy prefer the term Italian game which is not only more accurate but also easier to pronounce!
When the reader has worked throw these instructive games he can continue in the two Hugh ChessBase database files from 27229 & 16984 games where a small 300 of them carry excellent {mainly ChessBase} annotations.
When I compared the latest line from Schiller & Watson Survive & Beat Annoying chess openings {Cardoza Publishing 2003}: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.d5 Bf6 10.Re1 Ne7 11.Rxe4 d6 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 h6 14.Qe2 hxg5 15.Re1 Be6 16.dxe6 f6 17.Re3 c6 18.Rh3 Rxh3
19.gxh3 g6 recommended the strong queen move 20.Qd2! this surprising move is well mentioned on this trainings CD with around eleven practical examples but for the experts under us these games carry no annotations at all.
The Evans gambit is covered with around 170 games where a small 44 of them carry some to excellent annotations.
Included is a test file from 40 exercises to test your Italian skills but the author has completely forgotten the C50-C54
Powerbook!
Conclusion: Recommended to everybody who likes to learn an open fighting game!
Chess Magazines
British Chess Magazine No.3
Volume 124
April 2004
Price: £3.25
This heavy loaded 51 page issue of the BCM is good for the following contributions:
Linares {The End of an Era? A excellent written ten page report from GM Ian Rogers where I did not count the three pages with photo’s from this great event.}Congress diary by Colin Crouch, Aeroflot open {With game notes by Kavalek},Gibtelecom masters {With a seven page report on the Gibraltar tournament by John Saunders & annotations by Jonathan Rowson!}Bermuda Invitational 2004 { A six page report!} The varsity match between the two Oxford & Cambridge Universities were the following game between Joe Conlon – Luke McShane 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.0-0 Bxd5 13.exd5 Ne7 14.c4 Bg7 15.Rb1 bxc4 16.Nxc4 0-0 17.Qh5 e4 18.Be2 Nxd5 19.Bg4 Nf6 20.Qxf5 Nxg4 21.Qxg4 f5 22.Qf4 d5 23.Ne3 Qd7 24.Rfd1 d4 25.g4 fxg4 26.Qxe4 Qf7 27.Nxg4 h5 28.Ne5 Bxe5 29.Qxe5 Qxf2+ 30.Kh1 Qf3+ 31.Kg1 Kh7 32.Qc7+ Rf7 33.Qc2+ Kh8 0-1 was awarded with the best game.
Others are Perth and Kingross congress,Quotes and queries,Problemworld,Spot the continuation, News in Brief {Where the late Ken Whyld’s collection of chess books some 4000 volumes have been sold to the Swiss Museum of Games please see: http://www.msj.ch}Book reviews etc.
Conclusion: A very enjoyable issue!
ChessMail issue 3/2004
http://www.chessmail.com
E-mail editor@chessmail.com
Chess Mail Limited, 26 Coolamber Park
Dublin 16 Ireland
Basic Subscription 42 Euros.
{For eight issues.}
The large majority of this overloaded ChessMail issue is devoted to the Dutch billionaire and correspondence Grandmaster Joop J.van Oosterom.
As we can read in ChessMail Joop van Oosterom employs a staff in Monaco and the Nederlands who look after his interests. Probably if you play with him in a tournament, he does’nt even open his emails but has somebody to do this for him and print them out.
One of his key employees is FIDE Grandmaster Jeroen Piket whose job is not, as rumour tells,to help Joop van Oosterom with his chess games, but who rather is in the process of taking over as Joop’s right-hand-man for his business affairs.
But if you ask me the temptation of asking some help from a chess professional as GM Piket is easy made, and we had in the past a Dutch chess playing millionaire who even owned his own chess club who where forced to play correspondence chess for him,so I am afraid that there could be some truth about the rumours from van Oosterom that he has a lot of help from other players so it is a great pity that van Oosterom did not agree in a personal interview with Tim Harding.
The material in this special ChessMail issue is well written and it starts with the early chess board career where the Dutch Nol van ‘t Riet was good for a excellent inside view!
Very interesting in the contribution from GM Paul Motwani who assesses the chess style of CC GM Joop van Oosterom.{Good for 12 pages!}
The reader shall find in this super written ChessMail issue many brilliant games where you can follow in a very enjoyable way the most successful correspondence chess player of this time!
Besides the van Oosterom material there is an excellent written theory survey from Tim Harding on the Poisoned Pawn and some readable items that no correspondence chess player wants to miss!
Conclusion: A super read on van Oosterom!