bookReviews42

Three New Releases by Everyman Chess by IM John Donaldson

Understanding the Sacrifice (Everyman Chess - www.everymanbooks.com, 2002, 143 pages, paperback, figurine algebraic, $19.95) by IM Angus Dunnington deals with all type of sacrifices, from pawns to Queens, but readers will probably get the most out of chapter one. There Dunnington spends 30 pages dealing with the importance of structure. The following example will give you an idea of what Dunnington is talking about. I have put in to words what I got from playing for the game and the explanatory prose.

The idea of sacrificing the Exchange is nothing new, but in modern chess this is not always connected with the idea of immediately winning a couple of pawns to establish material equality. Often in the Dragon Black will make an Exchange sacrifice for a pawn and better pawn structure. In the following example we see far-sighted judgment by Bulgarian World Championship Contender Veselin Topalov who shows his understanding of chess is much deeper than a FIDE 2650!

Bacrot-Toplaov, Bosna 2000

1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc3+!? 6.bxc3 dxc5 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.Ne5 Be6 9.g3 Nd7 10.Nxd7 Kxd7 11.Bg2 Nf6!? 12.Rb1?! b6! 13.Bxa8 Rxa8

What does Black have for the Exchange? Sooner or later he will pick up the pawn on c4 but the real problem for White is an absence of counterplay. It is very hard for the first player to improve his position while Black can just keep building.

14.f3 Ne8 15.Bf4 Bxc4 16.Rb2 Kc6 17.Rd2 Nd6 18.Bxf6?!

A natural move, but a mistake.

18�exd6 19.Kf2 d5 20.e4 dxe4 21.fxe4 Re8 22.Re1 Be6 23.Kf3 Kb5!

Black soon brought his King to c4, completely tying White up and then advanced his queenside pawns to victory.

Quite an inspiring example! Dunnington�s book is full of similar material on a subject which is not all easy to explain. The positions he has chosen are modern and his explanations are clear and to the point.

The Sicilian Kan (Everyman Chess - www.everymanbooks.com, 2002, 192 pages, paperback, figurine algebraic, $19.95) by GM John Emms covers a variation of the Sicilian that is not well-covered in the chess literature. The only book in English devoted to it in the last 10 years was Winning with the Kan by Ali Mortazavi back in 1996. That was a rather slender volume and written before the wave of ideas with �Qb6 had surfaced.

The Sicilian Kan deals with the sequence 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 and differs from its cousins the Taimanov (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6) and the Scheveningen (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6) in the fact that the development of the Queen Knight is usually to d7 and that ..d6 is often delayed to facilitate quick Queenside play with �b5.

If you have often heard of this opening called the Paulsen you are also right, more so if you give credit to Wilfried Paulsen, who played it before his better-known brother Louis. Of course merely stumbling into a sequence of moves doesn�t confer ownership. However, if you look at Louis Paulsen�s games from Breslau 1889 against Tarrasch, Metger and Gossip you will discover he was a hypermodern well in advance of Breyer and Nimzovitch. In that event he anticipated Boleslavsky�s �e5 in the Sicilian and played the Scheveningen in thoroughly modern style - rather impressive since the opening didn�t get its name until Scheveningen 1923. The late Imre Koenig pointed this out in long-forgotten articles that were published in the Chess Coresspondent and California Chess Reporter in the late 1950s.

The Sicilian Kan offers something for players of both colors. Those who face it will find comprehensive coverage of the most popular line, 5.Bd3, with the bulk of the book (117 pages) devoted to it. All of Black�s tries (5�Nf6, 5�Bc5, 5�g6, 5�Nc6, 5�Ne7 and even 5�d5 (not quite so bad as it looks) are considered. For Black particular attention is paid to the currently very popular line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bd3 Qb6!? which has been used so successfully by GM Goldin in American Swisses.

The Kan is not as theoretical as other lines of the Sicilian so Emms plan of grouping the material around 75 well-annotated games works well for this opening.

The Classical Dutch (Everyman Chess - www.everymanbooks.com, 2002, 160 pages, paperback, figurine algebraic, $19.95) by Polish IM Jan Pinski deals with the line 1.d4 f5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 d6, also known as the Iljin-Zhenevsky system. This is not a very popular line in GM practice, with only Lobron and Polulajabov playing it regularly, but author Pinski believes it is do for a revival and challenges many common assumptions.

The main line has always been 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.Re1 Qg6 9.e4, but Pinski considers this to be clearly better for White. However he feels Black is fine after 7�a5 and 7�Ne4. In his opinion White�s best chance for an advantage is 7.b4 (analogous to Kramnik�s treatment of the Leningrad Dutch).

The Classical Dutch is a complete repertoire book for Black with suggestions against 2.Nc3, 2.Bg5, 2.Nf3 (2..Nf6 don�t allow 2�e6 3.d5) as well as non-fianchetto treatments with c2-c4.