| The English firm Gambit Publishing (http://www.gambit books.com) is clearly the number one publisher of chess books today, both in terms of quality and quantity. Four recent productions confirm the trend and emphasize the variety of offerings. Chess Training for Budding Champions (2001, 176 pages, figurine algebraic, paperback, $19.95) by Swedish IM Jesper Hall has a misleading title and cover which might give the impression that it is aimed solely at novices that are a few steps beyond beginner. In fact it is book which can be read for benefit by players covering a wide range of playing strength from 1600 to 2400. IM Hall�s first book is a sort of self-training course which offers the reader plenty of positions to solve and recommended books to read, but perhaps most importantly gives lots of common-sense, but not so widely practiced suggestions. For example everyone who has ChessBase will have a large database of games and a special file with their games. More ambitious individuals will have files devoted specifically to their openings, but how many of us have a file devoted to games that inspire us? Inspirational games that remind us of why we play chess. Hall points out that such a file can be just the tonic to take when we have suffered some particularly difficult losses. Hall�s experiences as a trainer show through in this work which covers not only topics like how to analyze your games and how to study position-types, but also the importance of psychology in chess. GM Valeri Beim�s book Chess Recipes from the Grandmaster�s Kitchen (2001, 128 pages, figurine algebraic, paperback, $19.95) shares one example with Hall�s book and at least a few more instructional works including that by another Gambit author, Croatian GM Drazen Marovic. It�s the classic Botvinnik-Zagoriansky, Sverdlovsk 1943, where the action starts after (1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.b3 Nf6 4.Bb2 Be7 5.e3 0�0 6.Nc3 c5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Nxd5 exd5 9.d4 cxd4 10.Qxd4 Bf6 11.Qd2 Nc6 12.Be2 Be6 13.0�0 Bxb2 14.Qxb2 Qa5) Botvinik won masterfully after (15.Rfd1 Rad8 16.Rd2 Rd7 17.Rad1 Rfd8 18.h3 h6 19.Ne5 Nxe5 20.Qxe5 Qc5 21.Bf3 b6 22.Qb2 Rc8 23.Qe5 Rcd8 24.Rd4 a5 25.g4 Qc6 26.g5 hxg5 27.Qxg5 f6 28.Qg6 Bf7 29.Qg3 f5 30.Qg5 Qe6 31.Kh1 Qe5 32.Rg1 Rf8 33.Qh6 Rb8 34.Rh4 Kf8 35.Qh8+ Bg8 36.Rf4 Rbb7 37.Rg5 Rf7 38.Qh5 Qa1+ 39.Kg2 g6 40.Qxg6 Bh7 41.Qd6+ Rfe7 42.Qd8+ 1�0) and indeed his play is impressive. Tying Black down to d5 and then opening a second front with g4-g5 shows iron logic indeed. But interestingly Beim, Hall, Marovic and even Botvinnik himself all pass over the innocuous looking 18...h6. How would White win if Black didn�t so obligingly create this target for White to open lines? Despite this one caveat GM Beim�s book is an interesting and original work. It�s not a hefty tome, but the chapters on the technique of analyzing and inverse thinking in chess are worth the price of admission alone. This is not a stand alone instructional work the way Hall�s is, but there is much food for thought for players 2000-2400. Opening books account for probably 80 percent of all books on chess that are published today, but the only recent offering from Gambit is An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black (2001, 272 pages, figurine algebraic, paperback, $23.95) by GM Jouni Yrjola and IM Jussi Tella. It continues Gambits trend of publishing fresh and original work, this time a complete repertoire based on 1...d6. The two Finns cover a lot of ground in this groundbreaking effort. The Pirc is the key component to this repertoire, taking approximately 20 percent of the book. There is a lot of material offered here which can be found nowhere else, though some readers may not like allowing White the forced draw in the Austrian Attack in the Seirawan line after 5...c5 6.Bb5+. One of the strong points of the authors is their communication with the reader. In the aforementioned line they let the reader know what is going on and what his alternatives are, and just how good the alternatives are. They also do a very good job of pointing out various move-order options. For example against 1.d4 d6 2.c4 they analyze 2...e5, but freely admit that after 2.g3 e5 Black is suffering after 3.dxe5 dxe5 4.Qxd8+. The absence of the pawn on c4 being a major plus for White. This book has very good coverage of lines involving �d6 and �Bg4, be it from 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 or 3.e4, with over 70 pages dedicated to this scheme of development. They even offer an alternative repertoire based on the Old Indian line 1.d4 d6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bf5. This is not your typical opening book, or even your typical opening repertoire book. The reader is given choices with the various pros and cons openly discussed. Players from 2000 on up will derive the most benefit from this book and this endorsement includes titled players. The increasing tempo at which games are being played today is putting a premium on good endgame skills. Twenty years ago it might have been sufficient to steer a favorable ending to adjournment, where the win could be carefully worked out with possible assistance from outside sources, but today you are on your own and the clock is ticking. Fundamental Chess Endings (2001, 416 pages, figurine algebraic, paperback, $29.95) by GM Karsten Mueller and IM Frank Lamprecht seeks to arm the reader with the necessary skills to play the endgame correctly. Any reader who manages to make it from one end to the other of this massive and attractively priced tome will no doubt make a quantum leap in their endgame play. Realistically speaking I don�t think many will, but the many diagrams, very helpful prose summaries and exercises to solve make this a book that any real chess player will want to delve into again and again in much the way that at an earlier endgame compendium by Speelman, Tisdall and Wade was. Now, the difference of course is that computers have made things much clearer and few areas remain gray. One very impressive set of pages in the back of the book is a complete table of computer database results for pawnless endings where not only the general result is given, but also the longest win and longest reciprocal zugzwang. You probably will never reach the ending of Queen versus two minor pieces in your lifetime, but if you do Mueller and Lamprecht will show you that two knights are a draw and two Bishops and Knight and Bishop are lost. They will also point out that there exist fortress positions for each of the latter two endings where the defender can draw. In the case of Queen versus two Bishops the relevant position to know is W-Qe6 and Kb4 versus B-Kb7, Bb6 and Bc6. After 1.Qe7+ Kc8 2.Qe6+ Kb7 3.Qd6 Ba7 4.Qe7+ Kb6! 5.Qd8+ Kb7! 6.Ka5 Bc5 with �Bb6+ to follow reestablishing the fortress. Was this analysis the product of a silicon oracles. No! The Italian Giambattista Lolli figured it out in 1763! I can recommend all four of these books without reservation. |