CHESSBOOK REVIEWS 
Latest book reviews of 1 February 2006
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.Wilhelminalaan 33John Elburg
7261 BP RUURLO
The Netherlands.
Chess Books
Chess Informant issue 94
2005
Beograd
http://www.sahovski.com
364 pages
Price GBP 18.00
Chess Informant 94 comes with a fine selection of 452 annotated games and 509 game fragments all played between June 1st and September 30th of the year 2005.
The material in the Informator is intensive and all the annotations are in the langue less ECO symbols but the Informator is the magazine for the professional and active chess player who is searching for latest chess devolpments.
This issue covers some fine tournaments as the Fide World championship and European team championship but the best game of the preceding volume goes to Topalov – Anand Sofia 2005 and the most important theoretical novelty goes to Kasimdzhanov – Kasparov 93/385 and please see the interesting written theoretical over view and analyses from Garry Kasparov and openings specialist IM Milan Bjelajac.
The best of Chess Informant brings us to the brand new world champion Veselin Topalov who is not afraid to loos as we could see in the latest Fide World championship.
Included as always is a interesting selection combinations, endgames and studies,very nice is the composition from Sochnev;White Kf7,pawns c4,e6 and g5 Black Ka7,Ra2 and Knight h3 =
The list of contributors of the Informator is impressive for example from Russia I found the following players: V. Belikov, I. Bogachkov,Chetverik,D. Frolyanov,A. Galkin ,AL. Gavrilov, E. Gleizerov,A. Iljin,M. Kobalia,A. Kosteniuk,MA. Magomedov,V. Malakhov,V. Potkin,A. Riazantsev,S. Rublevsky,A. Rustemov,VA. Salov, S. Shipov, P.Skatchkov ,S. Solovjov, P. Svidler,E. Tomashevsky,N. Vitiugov, V. Yemelin,D. Yevseev and I. Zakharevich..
Unfortunately correspondence games have a tough time to reach the Informator but I found eight latest correspondence games in this heavy loaded issue!
Conclusion: Written by professionals!
Play 1…b6 by Christian Bauer
2005
Everyman Chess
http://www.everymanchess.com/
224 pages
Price $23.95
ISBN 1-85744-410-8
Play 1….b6 is a very exciting openings book from the young French Grandmaster Christian Bauer who has written a exciting openings book that based on a early development of the bishop to c8.
Some years ago the English Daniel King already went that direction wish his English defence
Everymann 1999 but Bauer digs in this latest Everyman openings book much deeper and covers all lines against the moves 1.c4,1.d4,1.e4 and 1.Nf3.
The move 1…b6 is very flexi able and in this book you shall find all kind of set-ups where some come very close to a kind of hippopotamus but not playable is the good old Owns defence with 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 f5? which the great El Greco already mentioned in his famous hand book of 1619.
But if you like to play a early f5 than go for the move order: 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 f5! The first four move gives quite some scope for transpositions and as we can learn from the young author it is all a matter of taste.
The important game Burnett,R (2444) - Kraai,J (2425) Ch-USA San Diego USA (6), 30.11.2004 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 f5 5.exf5 Bxg2 6.Qh5+ g6 7.fxg6 Bg7 8.gxh7+ Kf8 9.hxg8Q+ Kxg8 10.Qg4 Bxh1 11.Bg5 Qf8 12.h4 Nc6 13.h5 Nxd4 14.h6 Nf3+ 15.Nxf3 Qxf3 16.Qxf3 Bxf3 17.hxg7 Rh1+ 18.Bf1 Bg2 19.Nd2 Kxg7 20.Bf4 d6 21.Ke2 Rah8 22.Bg3 R8h5 23.Rc1 Rg5 24.Rc3 Bxf1+ 25.Nxf1 Rg4 26.b4 Kf7 27.Nd2 Rh5 28.Ra3 a5 29.bxa5 Rxa5 30.Rxa5 bxa5 31.Kd3 Ke7 32.Nb3 a4 33.Nd4 c5 34.Ne2 d5 35.Nf4 Kd7 36.Kc3 dxc4 37.Kb2 e5 38.Ne2 Ke6 39.Ka3 Kd5 40.Kxa4 Rg8 41.Ka3 Rb8 42.f4 Ke4 43.f5 Kd3 44.f6 Kxe2 45.Bxe5 Ra8+ 46.Kb2 Kd3 0-1 is well analysed by Bauer in a impressive eight page coverage where he even mentions interesting sub line as the Perrin variation with 4…Nc6!?
where the author prefers slightly the white site of the board but that is a fact, that the second player has to except that he or she is sometimes a little worse when you open with his queens pawn to b6.
Included throw this book are 82 model games where around a dozen of them are from the author himself.
Conclusion: A very exciting openings book!
Chess facts and fables by Edward Winter
2006
McFarland & Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
385 pages
Price $45,-
ISBN 0-7864-2310-2 2006
Chess facts and fables is a interesting follow up from Edward Winter’s previous works on chess research as Chess Explorations, Kings, Commoners and Knaves and A Chess Omnibus.
Pleasant enough Chess facts and fables is published by McFarland & Company and that means a beautifully printed chess book but for the fans of lovely chess books this work has to do with a soft but it is overloaded with great illustrations and that are over the 220 photographs and 122 diagrams of chess positions!
The general index is good for 25 pages a bibliography book list from nearly 11 pages!
All very impressive and the material is divided in to seven chapters: Positions,Games, Miscellaneous, Biography, Gaffes, Mysteries and Quotes.
The whole book is filled with interesting curiosities as for example the story of the forgotten chess master Augustin Neumann {1879 – 1906}who once won the Coburg Hauptturnier from 1904, before Vidmar,Duras,Spielmann,Lange and Nimzowitsch.
Less than two years later he died in hospital, at the age of 26.
Or the story about Mary Rudge who was once the leading lady player of the world.
When she died the BCM issue of January 1920 issue,page 13 accorded her only three lines.
For all readers who are interested in Mary Rudge Tim Harding wrote a interesting article in ChessMail issue 6/2005 on the correspondence career of Mary Rudge and there is even a very interesting internet article on her from John Richards http://www.johnrichards.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/horfield/MaryRudge.pdf
Her play was marked throughout by care, exactitude and patience.Someone said of her,”She doesn’t seem to care much to win a game as to make her opponent lose it.”
She risked nothing, she never indulged in fire works for the purpose of startling the gallery; if she got a pawn, she kept it and won, if she got a”grip” she kept it and won, if she got a winning position she kept it and won.
On page 270 there is a interesting read on Alekhine’s death from around 3 pages; The autopsy said of him that he suffered from arterio-sclerosis, chronic gastritis and duodenitis,that his heart weighed 350 grammes, that the perimeter of his skull was 540 millimetres, and so on….
Conclusion: A fantastic written chess book!
Hilfe,mein kind spielt Schach!
2005
ChessGate
http://www.chessgate.de
info@chessgate.com
142 pages
Price € 13,80
ISBN 3-935748-12-4
A small pocket from the two German chess players and authors Jörg Sommemr a well known child author who published over the 160 books and the famous chess trainer Bernd Rosen have written together a very useful manual that is overloaded with tips for young chess players and there parents.
It is not important if your child is a chess prodigy or he or she is just interested in the game of chess this book is from great use to lead parents, chess trainers and pedagogues in the correct direction.
There is lot of interesting information in this book and I hope it will be translated one day in to the English language.
For example there is some difference between boys and girls play the girls resign much earlier than boys and the girls don’t like to play tournaments, his is all could be a reason that girls give up chess.
Both authors also discuss the interesting step methods from the two Dutch chess players Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden.
Included are tips and advises for chess programs and one thing is sure chess is art!
Conclusion: A very important hand manual for parents of young chess players!
Brett in Flammen 1997-2005 by Alexej Schirow
2005
ChessGate
http://www.chessgate.de
info@chessgate.com
280 pages
Price € 27.80
ISBN 3-935748-10-8
Brett in Flammen is the German title for Fire on board part II from Alexei Shirov which re reviewed on July 2004 and which I would like to repeat on big lines but first this German edition from ChessGate has quite some positive differences.
First there are around 90 more pages in this German edition and some differences in chapters and text, a much clearer index of names, games and eco codes plus five extra 2005 Schirov games, this all is covered in hardcover and printed in the finest quality which we normally only see by McFarland and Olms.
Shirov the chess genius from Latvia and now living in Spain needs nearly no introduction at all, a immensely strong junior who reached the magic 2700-level before the age of 20.
Shirov is an enormously talented chess player and these 53 games of this book give us an excellent insight of his ability to create unbelievable complications.
Besides all the smashing wins there are in this book also some painful moments as his first Fire on board book from 1996.
Chapter one starts with a nine page introduction on Shirovs career after the year 1996 where he interestingly mentions: So long Kasparov and Kramnik continue their eternal privileges, I am not going to fight for the title of World champion anymore.
But of course, it is no my plan to abandon the ‘struggle with out limits’- the struggle to perfect my play, the struggle against my opponent of tomorrow, the struggle for brilliancy in chess.
Chapter two starts with a readable chapter on creativity where Shiriv discusses his invention on the Sveshnikov with his amassing move: 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.Bxb5 axb5 12.Nxb5 Ra4 13.b4 Rxb4 14.Nbc7+ Kd7 15.0-0 Qxc716.c3
As Shirov wisely mentions most of the brilliant chess ideas are born at home in a quiet atmosphere, by the way the technical aspects of this Sveshnikov game can be found in game 11 of this book where the author makes some use of some of his his older Informator notes, but many games in this book as for instance Kramnik – Shirov WCC Candidates 1998 game 25 of this book have never seen any publication before.
Interesting is the story from Shirov and his simultaneous exhibition in Paris where he was inspired by a amateur to take up the Budapest Gambit.
Please see game 25 of this book Bacrot – Shirov ,Sarajevo 2000 where black went for the Budapest Gambit where Schirov was out of the book already on move four!
Conclusion: A very impressive game collection!
Geheimwaffe Philidor by Christian Seel
Chess Gate
http://www.chessgate.de
info@chessgate.com
132 pages
Price € 15,80
ISBN 3-935748-11-6
The German IM Christian Seel concentrates in this exciting repertoire book on the good old Antoschin variation with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4.
The Philidor has a fame to be a opening that is out of fashion but on the other hand if you know how to handle it with black than it is a very hard nut to crack!
To handle the Philidor with 4…exd4 makes much sense and is much more logical that lines as for example 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 4.d4 Nd7 where black is forced to creep around the edges.
From Euwe I have learned to play 4.Qxd4 but Seel has than dig up the interesting pawn move 4…a6!
The statistics are very good for black in this line and that could be a good reason that Anand went for the new playing line with: 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 and now 5…d5 5.. Be7? 6.c4 0-0 7.Nc3 c6 8.Be3 Re8 9.Qd2 d5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Bb5 Bd7 12.e5 Bxb5 13.Ndxb5 a6 14.Nd4 Nfd7 15.f4 Nb6 16.b3 N8d7 17.0-0 Rc8 18.Nf5 Bb4 19.Bd4 Nc5 20.Qe3 Rc6 21.Rac1 Qc8 22.Nxg7 Kxg7 23.f5 h6 24.e6+ Kh7 25.Qe5 Rg8 26.exf7 Rg5 27.Qe7 and white won,Anand – Nisipeanu,Bundesliga 2005.
Maybe the best move order for white is the old fashion Bilguer move 3.Bc4 but does black has to fear 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.0-0 Nf6 5.Re1 0-0 6.c3 c6 7.Bb3 d5 8.d3 dxe4 9.Nxe5 exd3 10.Qxd3!? as Holzke played so successful against the author of this book!
All together the young Christian Seel has manage to create a very exciting openings book which leads the reader throw safely and sharp positions.
Conclusion: A very interesting written openings book!
Chess CD's
Chess Informant 94 on CD
2005
Beograd
http://www.sahovski.com
Price £ 18.00
All the 452 annotated games and 509 game fragments are safely packed on this Chess Informant openings CD.
With the included programs Chess Informant reader 2.1 and Chess Informant Expert Lite where you can import these Informator games to one of the above mentioned database programs.
From the two available programs I prefer the Lite version but if you want to do more than scrolling through the games upgrade the Lite version to the Informant Expert 5.0 or even better 6.0.
Throw the years I have imported openings surveys as for example the latest Caro-Kann B12 openings CD but my favourite files are the encyclopaedias as for example ECO D.
In the past there where on the Chess Informant CDs even some free supplements of older ECO’s available but now you have to do with olders Chess Informants as issue 93 in PGN format but than with out any annotations to the games.
If you want to have access to a lot of Informators go for these Chess CD’s or buy the Chess Informants 1-91 or 92-94 CDs which cover four sizes of files as CIE,PGN,CBH, and CA which can all be imported to your ChessBase or ChessAssistant database program but in that case you have no access to the electronic encyclopaedias!
Conclusion: These CD’s are much easier to access!
Mega Database 2006
2005
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price € 149.90
This latest Chessbase Mega Database comes with a impressive collection of 3209769 games and that is more that 3.2 million games where 58006 of these games cover excellent annotations.
And that is around 305598 more games and 3521 annotated games than the 2005 Mega Database.Many of these game analyses come from the well known ChessBase magazines, but there are also game analyses that have seen no publication before.
The Mega Database is not cheap but it offers a lot as a ChessBase openings classification with more than 100.000 key positions and direct access to players, tournaments,middlegame themes and endgames, included is a new Player index with over 200.000 entries.
For example the latest games of the World Chess Team championship in Beer Sheva are all covered but unfortunately I could not find the games of the Coburg Hauptturnier from 1904
which was the first important chess tournament of the great Aaron Nimzowitsch.
For the CBM subscribers there is a special price of € 49.99 and a upgrade price of € 29.99.
Conclusion: The Rolls under the databases!
Fritz Powerbook 2006
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price € 49,99
ISBN 3-937549-68-4
System requirements PC 32 MB RAM,Windows 98,Windows2000,WindowsME,WindowsXP,and Fritz9 plus DVD drive.
The latest Fritz openings book comes with a impressive CTG key from 1.74 Gigh divided from 1133959 games, good for around 18 million openings positions.
These games are by the way also included on the DVD and that means that you can load and replay these games in every key position! Plus performance results and average ratings of the players.
Included is a extra CTK key {book from 93.7 MB }with around 900.000 key positions divided from the strongest GM games from the last 100 years.
With this Powerbook you can exchane Fritz in a openings beast!
Conclusion: Overwhelming openings information!
Hiarcs10
2006
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price € 49.99
System requirements:
Minimum: Pentium II 300 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Windows98 SE, Me, 2000, XP, DVD ROM drive, Windows Media Player9. Recommended: Pentium IV 2.2 GHz or more, 256 MB RAM, Windows XP, GeForce5 graphics card (or equivalent) with 128 MB RAM or more 100% compatible with DirectX, sound card, Windows Media Player 9, DVD ROM drive.
There are many chess engines but not one has such a human feeling as Hiarcs which stands for higher intelligence auto response chess system and is created by the brilliant chess programmer Mark Uniacke.
Again there are some nice improvements in Hiarcs 10 as for example Hiarcs is no able to identify deep attacking motifs and prefers attacking motifs long before they become apparent in his search view of better said his tree. A nice example is the following famous position from the great Fischer where Hiarcs plays directly the brilliant 11..Na4 {Byrne,Donald - Fischer,Robert James,Rosenwald 3rd New York (8), 17.10.1956 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.d4 0-0 5.Bf4 d5 6.Qb3 dxc4 7.Qxc4 c6 8.e4 Nbd7 9.Rd1 Nb6 10.Qc5 Bg4 11.Bg5 Na4!!}
My personal experiences is that Hiarcs 10 is on his best in all kind of pawn structures where you get the feeling that this engine understands more from pawn endings than any other engine.
For example it has no problems to find the saving 38..Kd6{Xie – Benjamin,Amsterdam 1994 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nf3 h6 8.0-0 Be7 9.h3 Be6 10.Re1 Rc8 11.Bf1 Nb8 12.Be3 a6 13.Nd5 Nbd7 14.Nxe7 Qxe7 15.Nd2 d5 16.exd5 Nxd5 17.Nf3 0-0 18.Bd2 Qf6 19.c4 Nf4 20.b3 Rfe8 21.Bxf4 Qxf4 22.Qe2 f6 23.Rad1 Nf8 24.g3 Qf5 25.Bg2 Qh5 26.Nh2 Qxe2 27.Rxe2 b5 28.cxb5 axb5 29.Nf1 Red8 30.Rxd8 Rxd8 31.Rd2 Rxd2 32.Nxd2 b4 33.Kf1 Nd7 34.Ke2 Nc5 35.Ke3 Kf7 36.Nc4 Bxc4 37.bxc4 Ke6?
But Hiarcs 10 does not have the skills from Ponomariov as he could not find the winning 24.Nh6!!,R Ponomariov (2695) - Topalov,V (2778) [E06] Sofia, 2005 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Bf4 b6 9.Nc3 Ba6 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Rc1 Nc6 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Ne5 Nxd4 14.Bxd5 Nxe2+ 15.Qxe2 Bxe2 16.Bxa8 Rxa8 17.Rfe1 Bb5 18.Rc2 Nd5 19.Rec1 Bc5 20.Bd2 f6 21.b4 Bf8 22.Ng4 Rd8 23.Rc8 Rd7 24.Nh6+
As Fritz9 Hiarcs10 is able to learn from the games and analyses that you are running with it and that strongly effectively improves his (future} playing strength!
Hiarcs comes with a human Powebook from around 152 MB {This is done by the computer expert Eric Hallsworth} and a database of around one million games.
Hiarcs comes with the latest Fritz9 user face that includes many trainings functions that are even interesting for the professionals under us.
It is possible to do great photo-realistic 3 D boards in various designs but please check first the above mentioned system requirements,it is all great fun but you need quite some speed.
Included a learning course from Andrew Martin on all the basics moves of chess so there here is no prior knowledge needed to take up this chess package.
Conclusion: A great machine!
ChessBase magazine issue 109
2005
November
ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Price Euro 19,90 per issue
Annual subscription costs Euro 99,7
ChessBase magazine 109 November 2005 comes with a large file of 1768 entries where a small 494 games cover excellent annotations.
Some interesting tournaments that are covered in this file are the European Team Championship, the 58th Russian Championship, the Mainz Chess Classic and the American Continental.
The Multimedia files 229 MB contains interesting avi files with interviews from players as Veselin Topalov,Viswanathan Anand ,Alexander Morozevich,Rustam Kasimdzhanov and closing ceremony in San Luis this all was shot by the ChessBase duo Frederic Friedel and Nadja Woisin all taken during the Fide World championship in San Luis.
The openings articles are always a little hidden in the subdirectory called Theory and obtain seven interesting theory surveys: The Gligoric variation with 11.d5 written by GM Boris Avrukh { The main position of this database arises after the following moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 e5 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5 f6 9.Bh4!? g5 10.Bg3 Nh6 11.d5!?} Peter Leisebein continues his research on the Elephant Gambit {Part 6}
GM Alex Finkel digs in the Bern variation of the French defence {1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9. 0-0-0 Be7 10.Bd3 b6 11.h4 Bb7}GM Sergey Erenburg deals with the Sicilian {1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Qa4} where he interestingly writes:
The variation 3.Bb5 has become very popular in the last few years. White avoids the Sveshnikov variation, where Black scores quite good results. In this database we deal with the 3...g6 variation. After the following logical moves 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3, the first player is intending to seize space in the centre. After 5...Nf6, he has a choice of moves to protect his central e-pawn, like 6.Re1 or 6.e5. The creative move 6.Qa4 has its point: White prepares to carry out the breakthrough d2-d4 and creates some pressure on Black's queenside, disturbing the opponent in the completion of his development.
This variation has become a frequent guest in modern practice, including top-level tournaments, thanks to the following games: Morozevich,A - Anand,V 0-1 and Svidler,P - Gelfand,B ½-½.
GM Dorian Rogozenko deals with the Alapin Sicilian {1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 g6}Jerzy Konikowsski digs again in the Modern Benoni { 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Be2 exd5 9.cxd5 Re8 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Ng4 12.Bg5 Qb6.}
And at last a theoretical article from GM Zoltan Ribli on the English {1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Nd4 5.Bg2 Nxf3+ 6.Bf3 Bc5}
You shall find on this CD a large number of other databases as Strategy from GM Peter Wells {Good and bad pieces revisited},Endgame by GM Karsten Muller {Karstens deals this time with endgame highlights from this ChessBase magazine,Tactics by GM Valery Atlas, ICCF Telechess {With informative articles and 2187 correspondence games!},109 Telechess {This second database of correspondence and e-mail games has been prepared Roberto Alvarez and Juan Morgado where they provide the readers with nine interesting text reports and 6696 correspondence games!}History contains two articles one from John Donaldson on GM Igor Ivanov and 160 best Ivanov games, and a historical report from the unfinished tournament Mannheim 1914 {Included is very interesting tournament report with photo’s and 100 games.
Alekhine got around 1100 marks and that would be in terms of purchasing power today of around 11.000 euros and that was not bad for 1914!
Included on this CD are a demo with new ChessBase products, updated with the latest version of ChessBase 9 and a Fritz8 service pack and not to forget a booklet from 26 pages!
Conclusion: A very important reference CD!
ChessBase Magazine extra issue 109
January 2006
ChessBase
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Euro 12.99
ChessBase magazine issue 109 comes with a large collection of 8090 games {all without any annotations to the games}played between 19/11 2005 {starting with AUT-chT20}and 18/12 2005 {ending with the tournament of Dalworth op Euless}.
I found a interesting Latvian Gambit game: Torino Caballero,Luis F - Selva Salvador,Antonio (1991) [C40] Benidorm op-B Benidorm (1), 11.11.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 Nf6 4.d4 e4 5.Ne5 d6 6.Nc4 Bxf5 7.Bg5 Be7 8.Ne3 Be6 9.c4 c6 10.Nc3 Nbd7 11.Be2 0-0 12.0-0 Qe8 13.Rc1 Qg6 14.Bh4 Rae8 15.Bg3 h5 16.d5 Bg4 17.dxc6 bxc6 18.Bxd6 Bxd6 19.Qxd6 Bxe2 20.Nxe2 Ne5 21.Rc3 Qg5 22.Nd4 Rf7 23.f4 exf3 24.Nxf3 Nxf3+ 25.Rxf3 Rfe7 26.Rg3 Qh4 27.Qxc6 Ng4 28.Rxg4 hxg4 29.Qd5+ Kh8 30.g3 Qh6 31.Nxg4 Qh3 32.Qc6 Qh6 33.Qd5 0-1
The multimedia files go to Emanual Lasker and The Delights of Thinking
On the weekend from 20. October to 23. October the Lasker Society organized a big exhibition in honour of the only German World Champion. There were a lot of eminent guests, including one who had actually played against Lasker in 1935.
Conclusion: The photo’s with personal belongings from Lasker are very interesting!
Six world champions
2005
Convekta
http://www.convekta.com
E-mail support@chessassistant.com
Price € 86,16
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: IBM-compatible PC, 64 Mb RAM, Hard Disk 300 Mb of free disk space, Windows 2000/NT/ME/XP, CD-ROM. No additional software is required.
This interesting package from six world champions comes from Convekta the well known inventor of the Chess assistant database program.
All these six world champions and that are on this CD Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik. Emanuel Lasker and Jose Raul Capablanca are all included in this package where Lasker and his contemporises Capablanca and Alekhine have to share there files on one CD, but after the installation there is no need for the CD anymore.
By the way there are on this CD five installation languages and well German,English,Spanish,France and Italian.{On the Tal CD I even found six installation languages!}
The price is very attractive for six world champion collections you only pay around 14 Euro for a one CD!
For example the Spassky CD has around 2526 entries and 50 historical photo’s ,indeed all world champion CD’s contain extra and some times even rare photographs of the world champions.
All together there are in this box four Cd’s and 8596 entries!
When we take a brief look at the Spassky – Fischer match from 1972 than I must say the game annotations to this match don’t reach the level from instance the book Russian versus Fischer from Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov Everyman Chess 2005.
One of my favourites in this package goes to the legendary Mikhail Tal,”The Wizard of Riga” with 2592 entries and probably the most talented chess players of all time.
When Tal did beat Botvinnik for the world championship in 1960 he was at that time the youngest world champion ever.
All material on these six world champion CD’s are integrated in the so called Chess Assistant light version based on the Chess Assistant 8.0 program.
It is for example even possible to do extra exercises where you can try to play as these six world champions and unfortunately it is not a very easy task at least for me.
Included in this programs are build in engines {recommend!}as Crafty,Dragon and Delfi but you can also include other engines as for example Rebel or Ruffian.
The six CD’s come in a DVD package plus a booklet from 51 pages!
Conclusion: A very interesting package!
Game Service 2005
Convekta
http://www.convekta.com/
http://store.convekta.com/shop_model.asp?gid=62&sView=Catalogn
Check out these free chess games!
Chess Magazines
ChessMail issue New Year 2006
Farewell issue 82
http://www.chessmail.com
E-mail editor@chessmail.com
Chess Mail Limited, 26 Coolamber Park
Dublin 16 Ireland
It is said to say but Tim Harding is stopping with his ChessMail magazine the reader can read in his article CM 1996-2006, a retrospective al kind of reasons why he is quitting the ever best written chess magazine on correspondence chess that I ever have seen.
From 1996 Tim Harding has assisted the development of correspondence chess as no other with his ChessMail magazine.
Harding worked nearly ten years on his ChessMail magazine and he saw many countries but sadly enough he made no penny with it at, so must we blame the readers who left Tim disappointed and alone with his broken printer? Or must we point a finger to the ICCF organisation who has sold it’s soul with all the correspondence games who are all going one way direction to the German company ChessBase?
Was ChessMail not a excellent alternative for all those Fernschachs and other written correspondence chess magazines?
For the last time I shall mention the index of ChessMail issue; An end and new beginning, ICCF Congress 2005:a summary report,Moving forward with a new leader {Tim Harding interviews the new ICCF President,Mohamed Samraoui plus a selection games of the new ICCF president}Playing sharp positions in CC by CC-GM Marc Geenen, Former world champion beaten, Chess Mail Volume IX index, BCCA ready to celebrate 100 years by Tim Harding,BCCA adventures in Europe, The first Italian CC tournament by Prof.Carlo Alberto Pagni.Champions league two thirds complete, Mats Larsson wins Section 9,18th CC World Championship ends,CM 1996-2006,a retrospective etc.
Conclusion: Tim thanks for all!
And my dear readers these 82 ChessMail issues will certainly become collectors items!
Latvijas Šaha Vēstnesis
Issue 6 2005
Novembris/Decembris
For information please mail Val Zemitis chess@davis.com
Latvijas Šaha Vēstnesis starts with a full coverage of the chess player Dr.Pirss Pauls Felikss Bols who lived from 1865-1921.
Unfortunately for me it is in the Latvian language as the whole magazine but the games don't give me much problems and it is very interesting to follow the Latvian chess players and that not only for the Latvian gambit that now and than gets a interesting turn.
The motor behind this magazine is the senior chess master from California Val Zemitis.
British Chess Magazine No.1
Volume 126
January 2006
Price: £3.60
The January issue of BCM starts with a detailed 27 page report {A lot of annotated games and photo’s!}of the world team championship that was held in Israel.
Steve Giddins reports on the second weekend of the 2005/6 4NCL {British Team Championship}season held at the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham and good for 11 pages of this heavy loaded chess magazine.
John Saunders has written a interesting report on the World Junior Championship where Steve Giddins is good for the annotations.
Other readable contributions are British rapid play, Reviews and new books, How good is your Zebra?,Spot the continuation, News in Brief, Games department, Quotes and queries, endgame studies, Forthcoming events, Index volume 125, etc.
Conclusion: Heavy loaded issue!
