Recent Reviews[Complete index of reviews]
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The Final Theory of Chess by Gary
M. Danelishen, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Some observers predict that the progress of
chess-playing computer software will ...cause the end of the Royal
Game, by finally answering the question, “Is chess a win or a draw with best
play – and for who?”. While initial silicon efforts at pawn-pushing
were amusing in their time, current titles can beat most people, and some
programs can beat all players. Against that background, consider Gary M.
Danelishen and his The Final Theory of Chess..." |
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Mastering the
Chess Openings Volume 4 by IM John Watson (Gambit, 2010), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"I
could easily say that the first four chapters of this book by themselves
would have made a fine piece of work. Doing that would however ignore the
real value of Mr. Watson’s labor on this volume. As a manual to help
players understand the Reti Opening those four chapters would be the equal
of anything on the market, at least of what I have seen. Of course it
also works as the final piece in the work on openings in general. What
really comes through is Mr. Watson’s approach to understanding openings..." |
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Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, new translation by
Ian Adams, Quality Chess (2007) reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Aron Nimzowitsch (1886 -
1935) was arguably one of the top half-dozen chess players in the
world from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, taking 1st or 2nd place in a
string of tournaments... He was one of the
leading voices in the “hypermodern” school of chess, which challenged
various accepted strategic notions of chess play... He introduced a
bevy of strategic and positional concepts... It is hard to
find a modern grandmaster who has not been influenced by Nimzowitsch’s
works..." |
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Attacking the
Spanish by Sabino Brunello (Quality Chess, 2009), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"Defenses
in the Ruy fall into two categories: solid lines aiming at equality in the
middle game and active lines seeking counterplay with chances right from the
opening. This book covers three different lines, all of them from the
second category. Any player who defends the black side of the Ruy
Lopez (Spanish Game) will do themselves a big favor by reading this book..." |
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Two Books by Richard Moody Jr. - Magic: Black to Move and Win! (self-published, 2007) and
Universal Chess: The Search For Truth And Beauty (self-published, 1999) both reviewed by Rick Kennedy.
"To fully appreciate Magic, it is helpful to read (or at least be
familiar with) Moody’s earlier book on similar themes, Universal Chess...
The Universal Attack serves both as an easy-to-learn opening repertoire
(with the provided analysis) and as an example of a “Universal Position”...
Moody expands upon his theory of Universal Positions, finding examples of
them in modern grandmaster chess..." |
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The New Dragon
Sicilian by Simon Williams (Everyman Chess, 2009), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"What
once was old is now new again. Chess openings adhere to this statement
at least as well as any other idiom. The great Danish GM Bent Larsen made
this clear in the mid 1960’s. With a seeming minimum of effort Larsen won
games against the best players in the world by playing openings that were at
least 30 years out of date. Well, it has - kind of - happened again..." |
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Social Chess by Christopher Beverly, PhD
(iUniverse, 2007) reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "I came across Dr.
Beverly’s
Social Chess, subtitled What Role Do You Occupy In Your
Relationships? Looks interesting, no? Chess as a metaphor
for social interactions. In fact, the author, with a PhD in
Organizational Development, looks at group interactions – as large as in a
business, as small as in a relationship – and visualizes the group as a
chessboard..." |
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Chess Step by Step: From Beginner to Champion, Book One by Aleksandr
Kitsis (Lulu, 2009) reviewed by David Surratt. "Kitsis
does a good job of integrating each new concept into the knowledge base
established in prior chapters, and keeps the student involved in active
learning throughout the process. Occasional "Did You Know?" boxes
scattered around the book add to the student's interest..." |
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Dangerous
Weapons: The Pirc and Modern by Richard Palliser, Colin McNab and James
Vigus, reviewed by NM Bill McGeary. "My
past experiences with the “Dangerous Weapons” series had been that some fun
lines were brought to light, but not really heavy stuff...
Dangerous Weapons: the Pirc and Modern is a bit different than that,
likely because in these defenses the structure and direction of the game is
declared in the first three moves. Consequently, the material in this
volume comes closer to critical points... |
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True Combat Chess
- Winning Battles Over the Board by IM Timothy Taylor (Everyman
Chess, 2009), reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "International Master Timothy
Taylor feels your pain. As the author of True Combat Chess,
he’d like to help you spread that pain around a bit amongst your opponents.
"The players who wrote me were not IMs or GMs, but their struggles were
essentially the same as my own. I have a hard time beating GMs – a B
player has a hard time beating A players... I get a won game – and
don’t win – everybody who plays knows this one..." |
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Adolf
Albin in America, A European Chess Master’s Sojourn, 1893-1895 by
Olimpiu G. Urcan, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "We may have come
across Tomasz Lissowski’s article at the Chess Archeology website, “Adolf
Albin: The Teacher of Nimzovich?” but know not much else about this creative
and aggressive master. So what is the attraction of the recounting of
three years of Albin’s adventures in turn-of-another-century America?
Simply put: Chess. Lots of interesting chess, by lots of interesting
people..." |
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Starting Out: The
Reti by GM Neil McDonald (Everyman Chess, 2010), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"Starting Out: The
Reti is neither a compendium nor a repertoire book; it is, as the title
indicates, a book to introduce the reader to the opening. McDonald says
that part of the appeal to him of this opening is that the appeal of the
Reti is not in memorized lines, but instead in having a feel or
understanding of the positions..." |
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Alekhine Alert! A
Repertoire for Black Against 1.e4 by IM Timothy Taylor (Everyman Chess, 2010), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"All of the games and
notes do a fine job of getting the reader a base from which to work. I
found a lot of the material of great value and applaud the author for his
work here.
That
said, I had some problems with the book. The author’s goal is to offer a
repertoire book for Black and not another compendium such as the five books
listed by the author. However, Taylor failed to note..." |
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Play 1.b3! - The
Nimzo-Larsen Attack: A Friend for Life by IM Ilya Odessky
(New In Chess, 2008) reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Odessky [is] an
accomplished chess player, coach, and author...[n]or do I think that I
disparage him by likening his writing style to that of David Bronstein –
after a couple of glasses of Stolichnaya...Play 1.b3!, however, is
equally as much about how a modern master looks at an opening, how he
evaluates a position, how he works backward from it and how he works forward
from others. It is a powerful illustration of a chess mind at work..." |
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Secrets of Opening
Surprises Volume 11, Edited by
Jeroen
Bosch, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "When
I was a kid, DC Comics, in its House of Mystery series, ran maybe a
couple dozen issues with “Dial H for Hero” stories. In them, teenager
Robby Reed had a gadget that he could use to dial (like a phone in those
days) and become different kinds of superheroes. All sorts of
adventures, of course, followed..." |
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Win with the Stonewall Dutch
by Sverre Johnsen, IM Ivar Bern & GM Simen Agdestein,
reviewed by NM Bill McGeary. "I
have only played the Stonewall Dutch once in a tournament. I won’t say that
I played it on a dare, but the best player I know was playing at the table
next to me and thought I was criminally insane. Success followed me that
day, but I couldn’t bring myself to repeat the Stonewall. Well, that might
have changed..." |
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Fighting
the Ruy Lopez by GM Milos Pavolvic, reviewed
by NM Bill McGeary. "Marshall’s
attack in the Ruy Lopez has an extremely unique identity. For decades
players trying to play the attack as Black had analysis in Marshall’s book
to work from, a few games from Geller and Spassky contributed in the 1960’s,
and then Harding’s book in the mid 1970’s.
It
was another dozen or so years until Harding’s collaboration with Nunn in
1989; then some small bits of work were published, and now - another 20
years later - there appears a new book concerning The Marshall..." |
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Chess in Action
(Sterling Publishing Co, Inc.,
2010) by Paul Mantell and Dean
Ippolito, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "There are many books written
to introduce children to chess. Most do their job well. Some do
it with style. To stand out in this crowd, a book has to have
“something” extra. For example..." |
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The Greatest Ever
Chess Opening Ideas by Christoph Scheerer,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Put three chess players in a room, and
you’re bound to have at least four opinions and at least five arguments…
More than anything else (other than an easy mate) players love a good, er,
discussion. From pawnpusher to grandmaster, devotees of the Royal Game
should take a look at Christoph Scheerer’s The Greatest Ever Chess
Opening Ideas. There’s a whole lot to love there..." |
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Improve Your Chess At Any Age by Andy Hortillosa, reviewed by
Andy Hortillosa. "In 2008 Chessville proudly introduced a new columnist to our
readers - Andy Hortillosa. We called his column
The Whites of Their Eyes, A Fresh Perspective on Mastering Tactics.
Andy wrote: "Most authors believe, as evidenced by the books and software
available in the market, that puzzle exercises and solving them are the best
approach to learning tactics. They could never be so wrong. The
best way to learn tactics for most people is to actually learn them by
seeing the transition point in its entirety from the opening phase to the
beginning point of the puzzle..." |
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Dangerous Weapons: The Queen’s Gambit by Richard Palliser, Glenn
Flear and Chris Ward, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Nitroglycerine.
A little bit of it is a powerful muscle relaxant. A whole lot of it is
a dangerous explosive. Take Dangerous Weapons: The Queen’s Gambit.
Steadied by the information within its pages, playing either Black or White,
you can calmly face your opponents. Across the board from you? Boom!..." |
The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the
author of the review,
and do not necessarily represent the opinion of
Chessville or it's Publisher.
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