bookReview128

The name New in Chess is well known to chess players for over twenty years. Ask most and they will associate it with the famous magazine and the long running yearbook series ( now coming up fast on number 80!). More recently the folks in The Netherlands have branched out with their own line of stand alone titles. Two new ones are Smart Chip from St. Petersburg, and The Day Kasparov Quit.

These two new releases continue a NIC tradition of producing not only books that help one's play, but also ones that contribute to the legacy of the game. Not everyone can become a Grandmaster and this realization usually happens to most players sooner than later. Fortunately, Caissa does not apportion her pleasure based solely on rating - all of us can appreciate a beautiful combination or enjoy the history of the game. The latter will definitely love the third volume of Genna Sosonko's look back at the interesting personalities he's met throughout his career.

The twelve chapters in Smart Chip from St. Petersburg (2006, New in Chess - www.newinchess.com, 197 pages, paperback, $24.95) examine a wide range of individuals from the blitz master Genrikh Chepukaitis to the rock solid Ratmir Kholmov. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Ludek Pachman. The Czechoslovakian GM, later exiled to West Germany, was a fire breathing communist in his younger year but later became the right hand man for the German Christian Social Union. Young leftists from the West found they met a most formidable opponent when they wished to debate the works of Marx and Engels with Pachman! For a Western reader it helps to have somebody like Sosonko - like Pachman a fellow refugee from behind the Iron Curtain - put things in perspective.

Smart Chip from St. Petersburg not only offers the reader twelve well-crafted tales, but also a number of crisp black and white photos from the past, most of which had never appeared before their publication in New in Chess magazine. Readers of that publication will be familiar with all the stories in this book, except for those of Genna Adonis and Stairway of Life.

This book is recommended to anyone who is not an NIC subscriber or to those who are but would like to have all the stories in one place in a nicely produced book.

The Day Kasparov Quit (2006, New in Chess - www.newinchess.com, 344 pages, paperback, $24.95) by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, appears on the surface to be similar to Sosonko's work, but in fact, it's quite different. Sosonko deals primarily with those who are no longer with us, while the editor-in-chief of New in Chess deals with the living.

The third book by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (after Linares! Linares! and Finding Bobby Fischer) offers the reader thirty interviews with a who's who of top level chess for the last twenty years. Giants like Kasparov and Kramnik have multiple interviews at different stages in their careers and Anand and Leko are both represented, but not only the absolute top have been interviewed. American readers will appreciate hearing form Alex Yermolinsky, Alex Shabolov, and Hikaru Nakamura.

To be a good interviewer it helps to select individuals who have interesting things to say. It also doesn't hurt if you know the right questions to ask, and are not afraid to ask tough ones when appropriate. Dirk Jan passes both of these tests easily and The Day Kasparov Quit has plenty of memorable passages. Just a quick glance at the titles of each chapter could fill a book of chess quotes. A few examples. "He is not God as Ivanchuk said and I proved it." - Vladimir Kramnik referring to Kasparov. "It depends on God. If I feel the moment is there I will go into a monastery." - FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. "Chess players seem to think the world owes them a living. And it doesn't." English GM and successful businessman David Norwood.

The Day Kasparov Quit will provide many hours of reading pleasure for chess players of all strengths and ages. Note that all interviews in this book were previously printed in New in Chess with the exception of those with Miguel Najdorf, Vasily Ivanchuk, and the one with Vladimir Kramnik form Novgorod, 1997.Like Smart Chip from St. Petersburg there are many fascinating photos throughout the book.