| McFarland & Company, Inc. is unquestionably the Rolls Royce of chess publishing in the world. Noted primarily as a publisher of text books, the Jefferson, North Carolina firm issues beautifully produced works on the royal game on an intermittent basis. The firm�s latest two offerings are The Turk, Chess Automaton (McFarland 2000, 258 pages, algebraic notation, hardcover, $50) by Gerald M. Levitt and The 100 Best Chess Games of the Twentieth Century, Ranked (McFarland 2000, 271 pages, algebraic, hardcover, $45) by Andrew Soltis. The Turk, Chess Automaton is just the sort of work that only McFarland would take on and do justice to. You probably have seen a picture of the Turk somewhere and remember the story of a man hidden inside working the machine by candlelight But did you ever wonder how it actually worked? This deeply researched book answers this question and many more through schematics, photos and articles dating from the 1770s to the present. The Turk was front page news in Europe from its inception and attracted the attention of royalty, politicians and scientists for several decades. In it�s way, it was the Deep Blue of its day, spellbinding both the general public and chess players alike. Mr. Levitt, a retired doctor of podiatric medicine from Naples, Florida, deserves credit for rescuing the Turk from obscurity. This book would make a perfect birthday or Christmas gift. It won�t improve you chess at all, but it�s great fun. Highly Recommended. The 100 Best Chess Games of the Twentieth Century, Ranked by Grandmaster Andrew Soltis, is an ambitious and risky undertaking. One only has to look at Keene and Divinsky�s Warriors of the Mind, a book devoted to ranking the top chess players of all time, to realize the dangers of putting forth a �best of � list where everyone has their favorites. Soltis has set himself a methodology based on five key criteria. Starting with 7,000 significant games from 1900 to 1999 that were published in leading magazines, he whittled the list first to 300 and then later to his final 100 on the basis of aesthetics, originality, level of opposition, accuracy, and difficulty. It doesn�t make much sense to argue with Soltis� final selection, no matter how hard one tries to be objective, subjectivity is going to reign supreme when choosing one�s favorites. That said, all the games the New York City GM has chosen are quite interesting. Where I do have a problem is the quality of the annotations. The comments to the games are reasonable, but nothing exceptional and don�t increase our knowledge. By contrast, I could point out The World�s Greatest Chess Games by Graham Burgess, John Nunn and John Emms. This book, which was first published in the UK in 1998, also presents its top 100 over a slightly different time period (it has nine games before 1900). The annotations are on a high level and the book comes in at 560 pages. To be fair, Soltis� book is physically larger (7� x 10�) and is a hardback, while the work by Burgess and Company is a paperback. But when you look at the difference in the quality of the annotations, and the price ($10.95 versus $45), I can�t recommend Soltis� book, although, if you have the money for both, it�s worth considering. Information on McFarland books can be found at www.McFarlandPub.com or call 1 (800) 253-2187. |