C.H.A.T. #2

BRAND NEW CHESS BOOK

There is a brand new book out on former world champion Emanuel Lasker with the simple title Emanuel Lasker, edited by Forster, Hansen, and Negele (2009). This book is clearly a labor of love and with over 1,000 pages, 700 games, and 1600 diagrams it is a chess player’s book. Other areas of interest covered are his childhood and family, and along with work as both a mathematician and as a philosopher. I don’t have this book and I want one for Christmas or my birthday (early January). Many more details on the book and a number of photos from within may be found at http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5946.

PROBLEM CHESS BOOK

I have a confession to make, I hate ‘problem books’ … composed problems that is. Why? Because they almost never have any bearing on the problems or positions I am likely to ever face on the chess board. That has changed as a result of Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett’s posting of a number of problems by the brother Platov from their famous book appropriately titled The Platov Brothers: Their Chess Endgame Studies by T. G. Whitworth. At first I was only tantalized by a few of the problems he posted on his website, http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/, and then he posted this problem and I was hooked.

V. and M. Platov 1909

White to play and win

No solution provided here. If you want to find the solution visit http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/2009/08/saturdays-chess-puzzle_15.html and read some amazing background on these two brothers who lived in Stalinist Russia (one died in a labor camp). The actual solution is given the next day on his website. This is another book I want for Christmas or my birthday. It is a GEM!

CHRISTMAS STORY

What a Christmas gift for a photographer to discover his great-grandfather had been a chess champion. If you go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/4163089219/ you will see the photo he took of the silver medal his great-grandfather won for the Brilliancy Prize at Bradley Beach New Jersey (date unknown) and touching details about his great-grandfather who ‘never lost a match game for the Newark Rice Chess Club.’ Nice, really nice.

ITALIAN CHESS BOOK

Il Libro Completo degli Scacchi by Chicco and Porreca which translates (using an online translator) to “The Complete Book of Chess” or “The Book Full of Chess”. I will choose the former if you don’t mind. I found out about this book in the July 2004 issue of the British magazine CHESS in its “Find the Winning Moves” section. Usually “FTWM” is from actual games, here they were not, but they were all fantastic and I greatly enjoyed the 11 problems provided and learned a lot from each one. Here is one example,

White to play and win

I have used this problem as a teaching tool many times. By the way – I want this book for Christmas or my birthday as well. I want to find out what else is in the book!

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

I have three personal recommendations for chess lovers for Christmas.

Number 1 is Gambits by World Correspondence Chess Champion GM Yakov Estrin which is a delightful little book, 88 pages plus a games index. His writing and analysis makes for great reading and the games – well my favorite is his 10+ year battle with GM Paul Keres over a variation of the Falkbeer Counter Gambit against the King’s Gambit where school boy Yakov defeated GM Keres in a simultaneous exhibition by sacrificing a piece in what must have initially looked like a ‘patzer’s’ move. For only $3.95 plus a like amount for shipping you can get this book on www.Amazon.com – you should get it as it belongs on your Christmas list if you do not have it.

Number 2 is an old masterpiece still very worthwhile, The Art of the Checkmate by Renaud and Kahn. I don’t know if it is available in algebraic notation, but even in descriptive notation it is worth much more than the $9.95 www.Amazon.com is asking for it. For any tournament player below Expert, this is a foundational book. Extremely well written with great explanations of various mates it rates 4 stars out of 4 stars. It belongs on your Christmas list..

Number 3 is one of my favorites, my copy is very dog-eared, and while not a masterpiece it is a very practical book for the aspiring player. Predicament in 2-Dimensions: The thinking of a chess player by NM Ariel Mengarini. Incredible in its ability to address the problems an amateur chess player faces when at the chess board in a tournament game. Did you analyze a variation deeply enough? Should you go back and analyze a particular variation again or not? This book is now a collector’s item and it shows on www.Amazon.com with the 1982 edition out of stock and the 1979 edition, used, going for $23.53. However, it is worth it. Put it on your Christmas list. No, you may not borrow my copy. Nope, not happening!

CHRISTMAS CHESS CARTOON

So how do you feel about chess cartoons? Christmas cartoons? Well, how about a Christmas Chess Cartoon by a GM and not “just” a GM, but a world champion? Try this one on for size by World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk at http://www.chessblog.com/2009/12/my-christmas-chess-comic.html

GIFT FOR ABEL

If you have played chess at the Dayton Chess Club for long you will end up playing Abel Mantle sooner or later. Able has a terrible habit of playing way too fast and his over the board rating suffers as a result, not reflecting his real ability. He can be very punishing if you give his knights free rein on the chess board. Thus when going over the following position from GM Wolfgang Uhlmann vs GM Bent Larsen, 1971 (www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1144365) I thought of Abel. Why? Because as I solved for the reason that Black resigned after White moved in the following position I thought to myself, “Abel would have known the answer to this one immediately.”

Uhlmann vs. Larsen (1971)

White to move after 48. … Kg6

On move 49 White played Nxc5 and Black resigned. Why? Ask Abel (or me) at the club some evening.