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Chess
Brilliancy
Reviewed by Andy Howie Everyman Chess, © 2002 ISBN 1857442741 Softcover, 224 pages
In describing where this book fits in the world of chess books, I will draw on an analogy. If chess study is taken as a meal, then this book would fit nicely into the “Dessert” category, enjoyable but not essential. After studying books on openings and techniques, it is a pleasant interlude to go over a few of the brilliancies and find out why they were labelled in such a manner. Most of these games within the book have been previously analysed to death and used as part of most people’s study of masters, there are some very famous games within the book. As a study aid I am not really convinced of its benefits to the accomplished studier, however it could be an interesting first book for a player wanting to study master games. This book is basically a collection of games that have achieved a brilliancy prize. It is split into 4 chapters and takes us from the first ever prize to current Chess Informators. The author tries to define brilliancy but his conclusions are very unclear; he quotes Don Quixote in an attempt to summarise it: “Brilliance in itself attracts our hearts, which see and know it.” This year at the Linares tournament, there was a fierce argument about the “most beautiful game” in which one of the judges was purported to say “Ngxe5 by Radjabov against Kasparov gave me a sensation of beauty. It is beautiful that a child of 15 has the courage to make that move with black against Kasparov in his Linares debut.” Certainly after following the first game to have won a brilliancy prize in the book, you will understand that Kasparov’s arguments about prizes being awarded to games that are flawed are blown well and truly out of the water. Chapter 1 is entitled Brilliance and it’s Myth. It takes the reader in a journey from when the brilliancy prize was first awarded. The first game was Henry Bird and James Manson in New York in 1876. The Chapter then covers some of the earlier classics and mentions others that didn’t quite make it, showing the reasons why. The games in this section are littered with quotes from the players concerned, which makes for some interesting reading. Chapter 2 is “Yesterday’s Classics” it shows some of the classic games, again with clear description of the key moves and the potential consequences. The main highlight of the chapter is the game between Botvinnik and Capablanca at the AVRO tournament in 1938. In a 1970 television vote in Belgrade, this game in particular was voted the best game of all time. The chapter concludes with a section on brilliancies in drawn games. It also includes the first ever brilliancy prize by a drawn game between Tal and Aronin. Chapter 3 is the bulk of the book and is entitled Rating by Aesthetics. Here it covers games that have been printed in Chess Informator who, from volume 5 in 1967, began printing the 10 best games of the previous issue (6 months), selected by a jury. Each game has a paragraph giving some history to it along with an explanation of key points and some very witty anecdotes. One that I find very amusing occurs on page 76. There is a subsection called Relay, which covers Informator Volume 19. The paragraph reads “It was rather like a chain reaction: the third prize winner lost to the second, who in turn lost to the first.” The chapter concludes with Infomator Volume 72 in 1998. The final chapter is called From the Pages of History. Here the author concludes that “It is natural that mass brilliance in chess, as in life, does not exist.” The chapter could have the title, “The games that weren’t good enough for the previous chapters but should be mentioned anyway”. This chapter has a different feel and appears to be simply a list of games, one after the other. The annotations are sparse and one gets the feeling that they are there simply as a space filler. The book also has an index of players as well as an index of openings. This is especially good for aficionados of a particular opening for them to see how brilliancy can be achieved. When I first opened the book, my eyes were drawn to the clear, neat text and quality of paper. With each page being split into two distinct columns the text flows easily, is pleasing to the eye and is highly readable. The diagrams are clear and easy to follow. In conclusion, this book was a very
interesting read, informative in places as well as light hearted in others.
It gave a welcome break from the sometimes “drudgery” of openings,
middlegame tactics and endgames. I would recommend it to anyone who has an
interest in the history of chess or someone wanting something different to
read.
Buy this book at the Amazon closest to you by clicking on the flag above.
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