| First Anglo-Pacific Invitational Chess Championship (2003, Caissa Editions - P.O. Box 151, Yorklyn, DE 19736, 182 pages. figurine algebraic notation, $21) by I.C.C.F. International Master Erik Osbun Today more and more books are being published, but one type that was common in the past is now becoming scarce. It use to be that all major events had tournaments books dedicated to preserving their memory. Think of New York 1924, Zurich 1953, the two Piatigorsky Cups, Wijk aan Zee 1975, etc... Sadly, that is no longer the case . One publisher that is bucking the trend is Dale Brandreth's Caissa Editions, which has produced many high quality hardbacks of major events from the past. His latest effort, written by well-known California Master Erik Osbun, is an attractively produced paperback devoted to a Correspondence tournament that began in 1985 involving players from the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The nuts and bolts are as follows: There are 135 games given, almost all of which have been annotated. Games are arranged by opening. Opening and player indexes are given. Why should you consider getting this book of an event held 20 odd years ago? First the games are well-annotated. Two, even though the event is in the past, some of the novelties that were produced are still very much relevant to contemporary theory. For example the game Pare-Van Dyck went 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Bb3 a5 9.f3 d5 10.Bxd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Nb4 12.Ndb5?! (13.Nde2 is normal) 12... Bd7! Osbun points out that White might well want to consider 13.Nd4 Bc8 14.Ndb5 to avoid getting the worst of it. In the game White played 13.a3 Bxb5 14.axb4 Bc4 15.Bd4. Previously seen was 15.bxa5 Rxa5 16.Rxa5 Bxc3+ 17.bxc3 Qa5 18.d6 Rd8 19.Kf2 Rxd6 with some advantage to Black in Westerinen-Hernandez, Alicante 1989. Osbun quotes Van Dyck's 16...Qxa5 which looks more convincing: 17.Bd4 Bxd4 18.Qxd4 Qa1+ 19.Nd1 b5 went the threat of ...Rd8 is unpleasant. In the game 15...Bxd4?! was played but Van Dyck gives as better 15...e5!? 16.Bc5 Re8 17.Rxa5 Rxa5 18.bxa5 Qxa5 with equality. If you liked good games with detailed notes combining plenty of prose and analysis then First Anglo-Pacific Invitational Chess Championship will give you many hours of pleasure. |