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...to go along with Black to Move and Win! The annotated game Sphinx Legend - Moody, inside, shows the author doing just that, despite giving the chess-playing computer a massive development and playing time advantage. To fully appreciate Magic, it is helpful to read (or at least be familiar with) Moody’s earlier book on similar themes, Universal Chess. Universal Chess covers a lot of ground. It presents the Universal Attack, played by Black, with the moves 1…g6, 2…Bg7, 3…e6 and 4…Ne7. As indicated, the bishops will go to g7 and b7, the knights to e7 and d7. A main difference between the Universal Attack and the Hippopotamus, the author points out, is in that the former Black strives to play …d7-d5 in one move, not …d7-d6 (possibly followed by …d6-d5). The Universal Attack serves both as an easy-to-learn opening repertoire (with the provided analysis) and as an example of a “Universal Position” – in which a player has at most two open or semi-open files, and none of his pieces are ahead of or in front of his pawns. Moody expands upon his theory of Universal Positions, finding examples of them in modern grandmaster chess. Part 2 of Universal Chess, presents examples of early queen “creeper moves” (2.Qe2, 3.Qe2, 4.Qe2, 5.Qe2) in some king-pawn openings, giving some theory as well as analysis. For those who wish to surprise their opponents with sound but unexpected play, this is a treat.
In Part 3 of Universal Chess, the author continues crossing swords with some old foes, adding and correcting analyses. If the Evans Gambiteer is going to have a chance to triumph, then White has to have a way of meeting Black’s attempt to side-step the gambit by moving to the Two Knights Defense after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 with 3…Nf6 (instead of 3…Bc5). Part 4 of Universal Chess contains Moody’s analysis putting the kibosh on the Two Knights, keeping open the door for the Evans. The final chapter of Universal Chess contains challenging analysis of a number of different openings, including the Two Knights Tango, Caro Kann, Center Counter and Nimzovich Defense.
While I am not sure quite what to make of a Class-B player socking it to someone that so many chess players, great and small, have admired and learned from, I do see in some of his writing an anticipation of what John Watson would later call “rule-independence” in his masterful Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances Since Nimzowitsch, (1998). The last six pages (not counting the Bibliography) of Universal Chess introduce Moody’s concept of “Magic”, the game Sphinx Legend-Moody, and some of the author’s thoughts about the inherent limits of computer chess play. Universal Chess is a good, challenging read and a great resource for players of “unorthodox” chess openings. It is single-columned and (usually) double-spaced, with few typos that I could discern – a strength (but not always a given) in a self-published book. I have been unable to find a bookseller with copies available, however, and so offer two clues that might help: the URL at the top of this review (with the Magic information) leads to a web page that has a snail mail address for Richard Moody; and he currently is playing under the name “Sloughterchess” at Chess.com. Which brings us to the author’s follow-up title, Magic…
The core of Magic is an 80-page presentation of the author’s battle against the dedicated chess computer Sphinx Legend (rated in the 1700s, as far as I could learn, but likely stronger with the long time limits used in the match). Illustrated with many diagrams, the game is used by Moody to pose many questions for the reader, offering an opportunity for answers that provide analysis, exposit on strategy (e.g. the use and increment of “internal space” behind one’s pawns), and elucidate concepts of Universal Chess. (I don’t think that I give too much away by saying that the human checkmated the computer in 108 moves.) About 50 pages expound further on the Universal Attack (including the Austrian, Bird, Central, Classical, English, Reti Universal Attacks ). Moody sees this as somewhat revolutionary play (although he counts Karpov as one of its adherents), but it also provides, as noted above, an opening repertoire for the unorthodox openings player. Sixty pages are devoted to further analysis of the Two Knights Defense; and about 30 pages give move opening analysis of Queen “creeper moves,” primarily in the Petroff and Alekhine defenses (good stuff). For some reason, as in his earlier book, Moody also kicks the Latvian Gambit around. While there is some overlap with earlier coverage in Universal Chess, the majority of what is in Magic stands on its own. The author remains confident, as in his earlier works, unafraid to make such pronouncements as:
When he’s not promoting Universal chess, kicking Nimzovich and Hypermodernism around (again), or poking chess computers in the proverbial eye, Moody takes on “The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.” (His suggestion that two top grandmasters, in consultation, would be able to handle any chess computer, should be put to the test.) One dissatisfaction that I have with Magic is that the diagrams (absent entirely from Universal Chess) tend to be large; and when the author is presenting a game with four diagrams to the page, there is little room for words or moves, so it takes a while to get through to the end. As a result, from a quarter to a third of the book is made up of diagrams, which either makes the book longer (and more expensive) or crowds out more analysis and/or argument. Readability and typos are not an issue, (although page 31 is an exact copy of page 30, except for one word less). When it comes to making recommendations, I find myself running in a bit of a circle. Reading Magic reminded me how much I appreciated Universal Chess; which, unfortunately, may be unavailable, as I have already mentioned, but which would be my first suggested choice. On the other hand, if you already have Universal Chess, it would make a whole lot of sense to “upgrade” it by adding Magic – which is available in The Chessville Chess Store, by the way. On its own, Magic will get you
thinking about chess in a whole new way, and for many that will be its draw
– until it gets you searching for more, in the form of finding a copy
of Universal Chess…
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Moody
was an advocate of the Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4!?),
and wrote The Evans Gambit Revolution in 1995, a time when the
opening was getting renewed analytical attention – Cafferty and Harding’s
Play the Evans Gambit (1976, 1997); Harding’s Evans Gambit and
a System Versus Two Knights, (1991, 1996); and Rhode’s The Great
Evans Gambit Debate (1997) – as well as returning to top-level chess at
the hands of Gary Kasparov.
Of
note is Moody’s scathing attack on the theoretical works of Nimzovich.
(Neither does Steinitz escape censure, nor, for that matter do writer James
Gleick – of Chaos, Making A New Science – or physicist Richard
Feynman.)
