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So, Andrew Tocher’s In Your Face Chess Novelties arrives with a space already made for it. The cover is not the only thing to judge a book by, but I always like to give a good look, as it represents the first impression that the publisher, on behalf of the author, makes on the purchasing public. In this case, there is a central graphic, framed by text: a chessboard and pieces over which a couple of Punch-and-Judy-style Jack-in-the-boxes confront each other, with stars and possibly a circus tent in the background. The book’s title is given in an old-style, decorative font suitable for a poster or handbill. Below the author’s name (which frames half the graphic) is the informative sub-title: Something Different for the Club Player Who Wants to Win More Games. I always peek at the back cover of the book, too, despite the old saw that you polish the front of your shoes to give a good impression, but you don’t have to worry about the back of them because by the time people get a look, you are already leaving. Energetic book publishers will put the front, back, spine and sometimes even the page edges to good use. In this case, the text starts with “Opening Novelties where clowns, killjoys, and the romantics play” fills the back, and wraps up (except for a reference to the author) with the suggestion that “you’ve come to the right rodeo or is it the right circus tent?” Gotcha. This is going to be a fun book, aimed at the average Joe Chessboard, which may be a bit over-the-top in style and substance (“we turn chess theory upside down”) but which never takes itself too seriously. Then, there’s that part about winning more games. The Table of Contents gives an idea of the range (and, by inference, depth) of coverage:
Hermes’ Opening – 1.a3 followed by 2.Ra2, or 1…a6 followed by 2…Ra7 – is Tocher’s pride and joy, and his treatment of it in the first chapter was enough in itself to drive one Master book reviewer to apoplexy. My response is more moderated. To quote Hugh Myers, from his 1978 Exploring the Chess Openings:
A significant part of In Your Face’s first chapter, and the book in general, is adorned with the author’s prose, which is sometimes explanatory, but often quite expansive. For example:
Tocher’s point is somewhat diluted by the fact that the diagram that follows those words is wrong (three move into a game, that should not happen); plus, in reality, it was Richard Nixon’s running mate in the 1968 Presidential campaign, Spiro Agnew, who uttered that insensitive quote, not the sitting President. Still, the reader is provided a thread that he can follow through the book: In Your Face is about ideas, attitude and adventure; less so about Hübnerian über Bohnenzählung. It is for the adventurer who can follow the dictum, “Go West, young man!” not for the one who must MapQuest the journey ahead of schedule. By the way, I’ve run across a couple of Bill Wall games (he will play just about anything) with the Hermes Opening, but he seems to have been using the first two moves to donate tempi to his opponent, e.g. Bill Wall – Jay, Internet 2001, 1.a3 d5 2.Ra2 d4 3.e3 e5 4.Qh5 Bd6 5.Bc4 g6 6.Qf3 c6 7.Qxf7 checkmate. Tocher, instead, plans to transfer the Rook laterally to a useful file later on, or keep it in place as bait for a tactically-mined opponent. A line from In Your Face that showcases the Hermes’ Opening with Black, goes 1.e4 a6 2.Bc4 Ra7 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ g6 5.Qd5+ e6 6.Qd4 Qg5 7.Kf1 Nf6 8.Qxa7. Wow. Only half as controversial is the author’s suggestion to play the Latvian Gambit the way Greco intended it to be played: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5 Qe7 (instead of the more popular 3…Qf6 or more recently trendy 3…Nc6). Of course, the average Grandmaster wouldn’t touch that defense with a 10-foot Lithuanian, but a lot of club players have found out the hard way how much damage Black can inflict. Against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 Tocher recommends 3…Bc5, a line GM Anatoly Lein, in The Latvian Gambit A Grandmaster View, claims “is for speculators” and which GM Tony Kosten, in The Latvian Gambit Lives! indicates “is quite popular” but “is still completely unsound.” More Grandmaster prejudice, there: a lot of lines “unsound” at the top levels of play are deadly in club play – the Blackmar-Diebert Gambit as an example comes quickly to mind. (Before the ghost of E.J. Diemer rises up to haunt me, let me mention that NM Charles Diebert has played the BDG with great success, something that led him to write a book about it titled The Blackmar-Diebert Gambit – which is also on my shelf.) For a taste of the two Latvian Gambit lines, by the way, visit the following Chessville pages: 3.Nxe5 Qe7 and 3.exf5 Bc5. An Orangutan (1.b4) line in In Your Face Chess Novelties has just been discussed by IM Gary Lane in his column at the ChessCafe where he calls it the Kucharkowski-Meybohm Gambit (I have no idea if he is kidding or not) and uses the words “astonishment”, “amazing” and “incredulous” in his first two sentences. Looks like an endorsement to me! Torcher likes the move Bxf7+, and fits it into a number of openings like a circus knife-thrower, including one line in the Bishop’s Opening, Greco Gambit that I could not even find in Tim Harding’s excellent book on 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4. It will not be pleasant for your opponents to be on the receiving end of those flying blades. There’s a whole lot more in In Your Face, but I just wanted to mention 1.d4 d5 2.Qd3, variously known as the Amazon Attack, the Rhino or the-beginning-of-the-shortest-proof-game-with-copied-moves (followed by 2…Qd6 3.Qh3 Qh6 4.Qxc8 mate). If that doesn’t leave your opponent scratching his head, you could always take off your shoes and start juggling them… What else? Well, the book’s layout inside is serviceable, but not nearly as exciting as its contents. Perhaps this is how the author wants it to be, so that his ideas are not overshadowed. Perhaps it is an artifact of the publishing arrangements between Tocher and Thinkers’ Press. I hope that the Tocher realizes that he is joining some serious company, as through the last four decades TP has published some very good books – I have at least a dozen on my shelves, from personal favorite The Nimzovich Defense (1973) through the fun-fun-fun John Hurt books The Center Gambits (1976) and The Sicilian Wing Gambit (1983) to the eye-opening The French Defense: New and Forgotten Ideas! (1988) and Richter-Veresov System: The Chameleon Chess Repertoire 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5 (2000) to the various C.J.S. Purdy titles, including The Search for Chess Perfection (1997) and CJS Purdy's Fine Art of Chess Annotation Volumes 1, 2 & 3 (1992, 2001, 2002). Certainly Chessville readers are drooling over the new 4th edition of Jeremy Silman’s classic How to Reassess Your Chess, but how many remember who published the 1st edition almost 20 years ago? As a final note, the author of In Your Face Chess Novelties might have considered identifying it as a third edition – revised and improved, of course. In 2007 Tocher self-published There's A Lot More to Chess: Begin Your Games with Genius (ISBN: 9780979518928) with Bennett & Hastings Publishing:
In 2009 he self-published the same-titled There's A Lot More to Chess: Begin Your Games with Genius (ISBN: 9781593524227) with Christian Services Network. Comparing that book’s Contents with that of In Your Face Chess Novelties, there are not a lot of differences. The newer title has added “A Long Introduction” by the publisher; it has the phrase “a Papal Tangent” inserted into the title of Chapter 7; and there is the addition of an “Openings’ Index” and a “Colophon” at the end (with a resulting change in pagination). Why overlook the opportunity to point out that the book has stood the test of time? The bottom line is: if you are a club player looking for something different to use to win more games – you could study the endgame (for most club players that would really be different), you could perfect your martial arts skills and power up your chi, you could study Sartre and the Existentialists and decide that it really doesn’t matter much, anyhow… Or, you could Join The Circus (or is it the Rodeo?) and take a flyer with In Your Face Chess Novelties. Just keep your cell phone camera ready, to record your opponents’ responses to your play!
The publisher also sent me a 26-page
PDF booklet of annotated games with unusual openings, titled You Don't
Know Jack about Chess! by Bob Long. It's a hat tip to those who
dare and win and includes a Damiano Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6!?) against
Fischer in a simul (Bobbly lost 1/2 a point) and a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) with some analysis that I've never seen before
(and, after a decade of research, I thought I'd seen it all). The
cover has a picture of Fischer, altered to give him a big grin. It
reminds me of Batman's nemesis, the Joker, and I can see RJF doing a Jack
Nicholson: "I'm the world's first homicidal chess artist. I do Caissic
art until someone dies..." Buy the book from Bob, and he'll toss
Jack in.
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