Bobby Fischer Comes Home: The Final Years in Iceland, a Saga of Friendship and Lost Illusions by Helgi Olafsson

     Yet another book on Fischer and it's one some people loved while others hated it. There are no games and it covers the events leading up to his incarceration in Japan, how he arrived in Iceland and how he spent his time after he got there. 
     Olafsson and Fischer developed a friendship and they spent many hours together during his 1972 match with Spassky and after Fischer arrived in Iceland. Fischer came to be adored by Icelanders and as a result they decided to help him when the US government sought to extradite him for violating US economic sanctions. They formed an "RJF Committee" that got the Icelandic government to send diplomatic cables on Fischer's behalf, but they were ignored. After his arrest in Japan, the Icelandic parliament declared Fischer a citizen.
     Olafsson considered Fischer his friend, but guess what? If you guessed Fischer turned on him, you'd be right. 
     What's wrong with the book? One reviewer wrote that it exposes how conniving the U.S. government is.  That shouldn't surprise anybody, but what country's government isn't? Japan doesn't come off very well either. The book goes into great detail on how they, for no reason, made an unprovoked, physical assault on Fischer that he claimed almost killed him. Of course, when he was attacked Fischer did what he had always done...he bit his “attackers.” See my Blog post, Bobby Fischer Was a Biter.
     Mostly it's boring reading. As Jeremy Silman noted, Fischer had no life outside of chess and his time in Iceland seemed to revolve around going out to eat and hanging out in a bookstore. 
     A few have complained about the writing as being somewhat stilted and therefore, if you are a native English speaker, poorly written. That didn't bother me. 
     In the end, the book is filled with the same old, boring Fischer rants against the United States and, to use Fischer's favorite epithet, filthy Jews, communists and almost everybody else he ever came in contact with. It gets old in a hurry. 
     Olafsson describes meals with Fischer and his role as an agent for Fischer when he tried to arrange a Fischer-Anand match. Who cares about Fischer's meals and one wonders why Olafsson knowingly wasted his time trying to negotiate anything on Fischer's behalf. 
     Is this book worth reading? Yes and no. It was pretty much a waste of money on one hand, but on the other, reading it was like seeing a bad car accident...you just can't look away from all the gore. If you're really strapped for cash or don't think you'd be interested in Fischer trivia or if there's another chess book you think you'd like more, then you can save your money on this one.  
     On the other hand if you don't mind spending $15 on a book that describes what you already know about Fischer's personality, you like reading about one person's misery, you didn't live during Fischer's final saga, or you are just a Fischer fan, then go ahead and buy it.

The Worst Chess Books

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World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book by Dan Heisman

    I think he got the idea from Max Euwe's Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur, but that's OK because I Heisman has improved on the concept and you actually can learn from the games of amateurs. According to the publisher's description, Heisman "gives a blow-by-blow account and patiently dissects the players’ thinking process, offering tips for improving clock management and making better decisions at the board. Because the advantage can swing wildly back and forth, amateur games can be entertaining as well as instructive. Heisman gives a choice selection of cases of chess suicide, for the purpose of suggesting what the victim could have done to prevent disaster."
    Looking at this book, I find Heisman's comments on 30 amateur games very instructive and he covers stuff amateurs are likely to play. Openings like what he calls the High School Variation of the Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2. Bc4). The games are heavily annotated and grouped by theme...things like moving too fast, moving too slowly, endgame mishaps and there's advice on general principles, analysis, evaluation, etc. Probably best for players in the 1000 and up to Expert (2000) range.  For a ton of FREE material be sure and check out his Home Page!

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The Killer Sicilian: Fighting 1.e4 with the Kalashnikov by Tony Rotella

   

First, the Kalashnikov (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5) is actually an accelerated Sveshnikov (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5) making them close relatives. 
    This line (4...e5) is also sometimes known as the Neo-Sveshnikov. The move 4...e5 is not new. La Bourdonnais used it in matches against McDonnell back in 1834 and it was briefly popular in the 1940's. But in the late 1980's 4...e5 was revived with the intention of meeting 5.Nb5 with 5...d6: this is the Kalashnikov Variation. 
     Black accepts a backward pawn on d6 and weakens the d5-square but gains time by chasing the knight. The difference between playing 4..e5 and delaying it a move is that both sides have extra options since neither side has developed their N:  white on c3 and black on f6. 
     One advantage for black is that the variation is fairly easy to learn. Another is that the defense has clear strategic aims. Yet another advantage is that it can be used by both tacticians and positional players because black can chose between aggressive and positional options. 
     Another good thing about this book is, it answers the question, “What if white plays something else?” Like, say, the Rossolimo, Alapin, Closed, Grand Prix. Rotella also covers lines against those, obviously not as extensively, but well enough o get you by. 
     OK, so Rotella is untitled. It's still a very good book that will be useful for players rated from 1600 to 2200 that are looking for a good line in the Sicilian.

 

Botvinnik books

This guy was a fascinating character and you can learn a lot by studying his games!

Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion by Andy Soltis $40 is a lot to pay for a chess book, but this book is published by MacFarland and their books are expensive, but very well produced. Still, that's a stiff price for a book. 
     Anyway, Soltis begins his Preface with a question posed by his wife: Why would anyone want to read about such a cold personality? Her question forced Soltis ask the question, “Why did I want to write about him?” True, Botvinnik was a great player from the past, but this book covers more that just his chess career. It is also a window into the politics of Stalinist Russia and the Soviet players in the mid-twentieth century. As for the games themselves, this book, with 87 games, has lots of diagrams and the games are heavily annotated and at the end of the book includes career record against opponents, notes on sources, a bibliography, index of openings and opponents and a general index. 
     Botvinnik was a strange bird. He had to really hated his opponents before he could conquer them and he had a high opi ion of his importance to the cause of both communism and chess, especially Soviet chess. One thing Soltis was unable to satisfactorily report was whether or not other Soviet players were forced to lose matches to Botvinnik, but given to secrecy that was so prevalent during that era and the fear under which people lived, it's not surprising. I guess we will never know for sure.

As a cheaper alternative is Botvinnik: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala is a viable choice. This book has 60 games divided into sections: Attack, Defense; Dynamic Elements, Exploiting Imbalances, Accumulating advantages and Endgames. One complaint is the author's writing style...it's annoying. Look Inside at Amazon.

 And then there are books by Botvinnik himself. 

Complete Book of Chess Strategy: Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z by Jeremy Silman

“An easy-to-understand guide to chess strategy...has always been the amateur's dream...This book makes that dream a reality.” That's part of the blurb and it is also not true.

    Silman has written some good stuff, but this book isn't one of them! It's neither well-written nor well-edited and the title is misleading. Besides that, most of the book covers very basic stuff that only an absolute beginner would need. 
    Even the layout is crappy. Lots of blank space on the pages and the diagrams and printing looks like it was designed just to increase the length of the book. About ¼ of the book covers openings. Further, each concept only gets about half a page which is hardly enough for giving the reader a complete guide to anything. 

   My dad had a saying which I never completely understood, but somehow it seems appropriate here. When something wasn't very good he used to say, “I wouldn't hit a dog in the (butt) with it!” Silman appears to be going the way of Fred Reinfeld. Reinfeld's early books were GREAT, but at some point he discovered that all the time and effort he put into writing good chess books didn't pay off so he turned to pumping out trash. One has to wonder if this is what happened to Silman!

Basic Chess Openings and More Basic Chess Openings by GM Gabor Kallai

    Generally I am not a fan of opening books, but these two are highly recommended to players in the, say, 1000 up to 1800 or 1900 range. Both books were originally published in 1997 making them, as opening books go, ancient, but that's OK because they are BASIC books.

     Both books are guides to the openings and cover popular modern openings. Many opening books have a bewildering array of variations, but in these two books Kallai concentrates on developing a solid understanding of the ideas of each opening with main thrust being that you need a to establish a sound and promising position out of the opening which will help in formulating a viable middlegame strategy. In this book Kallai teaches the basics of e4 openings. For 1 d4, 1 c4, and 1 Nf3 you need the companion book. 

  

     Also published in 1997, this book covers 1 d4, 1 c4, and 1 Nf3, as well as some of the lesser known alternatives to 1 e4. As in Basic Chess Openings Kallai describes what you are trying to achieve with each opening. 

     The books are published by Cadogan which has a reputation for poor bindings that allow the pages to fall out after moderate use, so just be aware of that.

Bobby Fischer’s Conquest of the World Chess Championship by Reuben Fine

     
There was a time, long ago, that Fine was one of the best analysts in the world, but after he quit playing in 1952 he degenerated, apparently in frustration over his failing to have become world champion and, possibly, he had other psychological problems. 

     This book is proof of Fine's loss of the ability to objectively analyze games. In his analysis Fine even attempts to explain the psychological motivations behind the moves as if he had been inside the players' heads. 

     The first 92 pages are history where he writes about the world championship from 1938 to 1948 and the controversies with the death of Alekhine and several other top players of the day. The whole purpose is Fine's attempt to prove he should have been the World Champion. 

    One of his biggest errors is his claim that Spassky's preparation for the match was superior to Fischer's. Really?! Spassky was totally unprepared for Fischer's openings! When Fischer played the English as white and the Alekhine as black, Spassky was totally flummoxed. The fact that Fischer was better prepared was proven by his “surprising” choice of openings and his quick play. Spassky used a lot of time in the openings, got into time trouble and made mistakes. 

     Fine also claims that no really great games were played in the match which is absolutely wrong. 

     Jeremy Silman wrote that this is without doubt one of the worst chess books ever written, but then admitted that he loved it and advised that “if you see this book in a used bookstore, grab it and prepare for a lot of fun.” Dr. Anthony Saidy advised the publisher,“Do NOT even think of reprinting this terrible book.” I agree with Silman!

Chess Openings Wizard

     Because I play a lot of correspondence chess and these days what with engines being employed by almost all players, opening preparation is more important than ever, so I investigated using Chess Opening Wizard. It appears that it's actually geared more towards OTB players who want to improve on their opening play.
     Chess Openings Wizard (desiger Mike Leahy) is similar to the 'tree' function in ChessBase, but more advanced. You produce database called ebooks. It's generally recommended for players rated about 1800 up to expert (2000).
     Studying openings for players in this range is not the waste of time it is for lower rated players because they already have an understanding of the basics. For most non-masters, no matter how well they know an opening, they tend to collapse as soon as they are out of their book simply because they have such a poor understanding of basic middlegame and endgame concepts.
     COW is useful for opening preparation which it does in the form off trees. The advantage to this tree method is that transpositions are accounted for so you don't have to ferret out the same position that can be reached through different move orders.
     You can also purchase a number of ebooks, but like all opening books, they will be out of date. It's better to make your own ebook and then copy and paste the games into a PGN file and then import the files into your own ebook.
     There are three versions: free, express and professional. You can download the free version; it is a trial version of the express version. This is rather strange, but the express version becomes the free version after the trial ends and it can be used permanently.
     The trial of the express version comes with a number of ebooks which can be viewed even after the trial expires. With the free version you can view ebooks, but changes can't be saved. That makes the free version pretty much useless. About all you can do with the free version is find transpositions and use the training feature to run through all the variations. A lot of the stuff covered is pretty obvious.
     One major complaint about downloading the software from official site is that you get a ton of Spam from the owner...at least that's the rumor.

Summary:
Free Version: Comes with demo ebooks that describe all the openings by name and ECO code. To get the free version (and apparently a lot of Spam) you sign up for a 30 day trial of the Express version and after the 30 day trial is over it becomes the free version; it will work indefinitely.
Express Version: You pay $67 for it. Has the ability to edit your own openings and do analysis with an engine.
Professional Version: Costs $167.

For a comparison chart of the feature offered see HERE

I decided that Chess Opening Wizard it not a product in which I have any interest. You can't do much with the free version except look at outdated opening analysis and the Express version is not worth the price because if you are a beginner, low rated or average player, you shouldn't be spending a ton of time on detailed opening study anyway. And when it comes to playing correspondence chess, I don't need to memorize anything plus I can make my own opening books using any number of programs. Maybe the Pro Version is worth $167 if you're going to be playing your FM, IM and GM peers.

Soviet Chess 1917–1991 by Andrew Soltis

 

     The publisher, MacFarland, has published some truly beautiful chess books, but on the downside, they are pricey. This book was awarded the title “Historical Book of the Year” by the United States Chess Federation.
     In addition to 249 beautiful games, the book also has photographs and 63 crosstables. Soltis traces the growth of chess from the Revolutionary days, World War II and then through the period of Soviet-dominated chess in the 1950's up to the Fischer era.
     Soltis also writes about Stalin's Russia and the fact that chess players were not immune from his wrath and he gives his opinions of the effect of Soviet oppression on the character of many GM's, but of course that's all speculation. Still, the way of life they experienced DID have its effect.
     My acerbic old friend, National master, author and chess historian James R. Schroeder claimed the book is very poorly written, but that's Schroeder. He complains that it's filled "inane comments" such as “The tragedy of Spassky’s brief reign was that it came just as Bobby Fischer returned to chess.” Schroeder opined that there is no tragedy when any champion loses his title and added that because Fischer did not play after 1972 there was nothing to prevent Spassky from becoming world champion again, had he been good enough.
     Schroeder also didn't like what he called "trivia" and “war stories” such as accounts of how some Soviet players died during the war as a result of starvation, etc. He complained of Soltis referring to a player named “Abraham Yanofsk.” Schroeder wrote that there is no such person, adding, “Daniel Yanofsky was a grandmaster and his second name is Abraham.” Give me a break, Jim! 
     He also claimed a lot of factual errors were made, but I wasn't interested in digging into all that!
     Personally, I think it all makes fascinating reading and I enjoyed the “trivia” and “war stories.” Chessplayers of those bygone days were real people, not just a foreign sounding name and some moves on a chessboard! As for it being grammatically incorrect in many places, I'm not an English major and I easily understood what Soltis was saying, so for me, it's a moot point. A great read with lots of interesting games if you don't mind the price!!

ChessBase 13 - No Buyer's Remorse

     Ever since I stumbled on Fritz 12 for $20 in Office Max several years ago it has been my GUI of choice because I absolutely love it. I never used the Fritz engine; I always used free ones. The only exceptions were I did purchase Houdini 2...a mistake because it wasn't that much better that Houdini 1.5...I also purchased Komodo 8. While K8 is a little different than the free Stockfish 6, it was another case where I could have saved my money. Also, I purchased ChessOK Aquarium 2012 because I wanted to use the IdeA analysis function, but the program sits unused on my laptop. I tried to like it, I really did, but it just never measured up to good, old Fritz.
     I am not a person who needs the latest gadgets like Blu-Ray and cell phones. When it comes to phones, all I want to do is to be able to make an occasional phone call...I don't need the capability to take pictures, text or set off guided missiles in Nevada with my phone. But, I decided to treat myself and buy a Cadillac. No, not the car, but the Cadillac of chess programs...I purchased Chessbase 13 – Starter Edition.
     ChessBase offers packages from starter to Mega and Premium. Not being a GM or playing correspondence chess at that level, I didn't feel the need to purchase more than the basic version which does everything I need it to. The Starter Package comes with Big Database 2014 and access to ChessBase's online database (over 6.4 million games). It also has access to the “Let’s Check” and “Engine Cloud” which requires a Playchess.com membership which I don't have and don't want, but there is also a guest access. Also included is something else I'm not interested in...a six month subscription to ChessBase Magazine...a whole 3 issues.
     Cloud Computing allows you to analyze positions with the help of the best computers available, if one is so inclined; I'm not, but it's available. I do like the ability to find examples of similar endgames, pawn structures and maneuvers with similar structures or similar moves though. I never use clouds, not even for my personal stuff...backing important files up to a CD is all I need, but if one is so inclined, the cloud storage is good. At least if you are a professional player. In his book, Shirov commented that once his laptop was stolen and he lost all the games he annotated for the book of his best games and had to start over. A couple of years ago my laptop hard drive crashed and fortunately everything important was backed up on a CD, so I can see the value of cloud storage.
     Why buy this program? People buy new stuff like cars, phones and computers all the time. So, availing yourself of the latest in openings, training for endgames and middlegames, game analysis, accessing millions of games, GM coaching and paying online are all valid reasons for making the purchase. While on the subject of having access to millions of games, GM William Lombardy once made a snide remark to a lowly, rating challenged non-GM. When the guy said he had a database with a million games, Lombardy asked how many of those games he had actually played over as if to suggest it was a waste of time and money. The old codger missed the point entirely. Before computers, in our quest to improve, we had access to only a relatively few examples of how to play our favorite openings, typical middlegame positions and endings. Now with the click of a button we can locate hundreds of examples and make the learning process quicker and easier. It beats searching through your books “by hand” trying to find similar positions. That was something we had to do in the old pre-computer days with our postal games and it was the reason why I subscribed to every chess magazine I could.  Anyway, not caring for Aquarium and after having used the Fritz 12 GUI for years plus having made my own databases and opening books for years, it was time to upgrade and let someone else do all the work.  And so far, there has been no buyer's regret.

Chess Praxis by Nimzovich

 

     I have to admit that I never read this book until just recently. Chess Praxis is a classic and the great thing about it is that it can be read for both enjoyment and instruction. Originally intended to be a followup to his My System, it was designed to provide games that showed how he applied the ideas he described in My System, so it should probably be read after reading My System, but it's not necessary as Nimzovich himself pointed out. This edition is in algebraic notations and has a preface by by IM Jeremy Silman. 
     Nimzovich covers Centralization, Restraint and Blockade, Over-Protection and Other Forms of Prophylaxis,The Isolated Queen Pawn and the Two Hanging Pawns; the Two Bishops. Alternating Maneuvers Against Enemy Weaknesses When Possessing an Advantage in Space and Forays Through the Old and New Lands of Hypermodern Chess.
     All of these strategies are shown by using Nimzowitsch's games with his ideas embedded in the annotations. There over 109 complete games with a lot of other fragments that he played against Tarrasch, Chigorin, Maroczy, Reti, Alekhine, Capablanca, Rubinstein, Spielman, Bogoljubow, and, also, lesser lights.
     One thing I noticed about the games is that the themes the games are supposed to represent are not always so clear cut as the examples he used in My System, but that is not really surprising; often in real life things are not so simple.
     The chapter on isolated and hanging pawns alone is worth the price of the book. It almost makes you want to play all your games with hanging or isolated d-Pawns! There's a danger in this though. Years ago I read Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy and after thoroughly digesting the book, in my first tournament game I was enamored with the idea of gaining a N outpost. I succeeded in getting it to a fine square on the Q-side and was very pleased with the outcome of my strategy. Unfortunately, I had neglected what my opponent was doing and after plunking my N on the unassailable c5 square from where it influenced the center and dominated the Q-side, I realized that my opponent had been setting up a winning attack on the other side of the board and I was facing a mating attack. It was a painful, but valuable lesson.
     In addition to being a nice collection of Nimzovich's games, Chess Praxis is also an excellent book on strategy. One thing often neglected in instructional books (and opening books) is complete games. It's helpful to observe how winning positions are achieved and how the winning positions need to be followed up to the conclusion. It does most of us no good to be shown a game fragment and be told one side is winning; we need to be shown how it was achieved and the conclusion. Nimzovich accomplishes this by using a lot of endgames and late middlegames. For some that my be boring because the exciting moment has come and gone, but think about how many times we non-masters have achieved a won position or played a nice combination but then don't have the slightest idea of how to follow it up and administer the coup de grace.
     Another thing I really liked about this book is that, unlike many of today's books, there's not pages of computer generated analysis that nobody plays through anyway; his notes are short and to the point plus there are many narrative discussions where he verbally describes what's going on in a clear, concise manner.
     If you can get a basic understanding of positional play, you'll avoid a lot of tactical mistakes because your position is sound...generally speaking, that is. There are positions where you have all the positional advantages but an unnoticed weakness allows a sound tactic. By introducing yourself to the nuances of chess strategy you can't help but improve your game. 
     Recommended for those beyond the beginner stage and below master. That said, even if you just play over the games by Nimzovich you can't help but absorb something from his notes.

Favorite Chess Books of the Masters

 

    Back in January Chessdotcom had a list of chess books by IM Jeremy Silman in which he listed the ones he considered the best of all time as well as those that were considered by GM Yasser Seirawan, IM John Donaldson, IM Dr. Anthony Saidy, IM Daniel Rensch, IM John Peters, IM Cyrus Lakdawaka, IM David Pruess, IM John Watson and IM Jeremy Silman.
     The list is quite diverse, but I noticed some universal selections: My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer, Zurich 1953 by David Bronstein and My Best Games (Vol 1 and 2) by Alekhine. I might also add that there is also available Zurich 1953 by Miguel Najdorf; I have both and personally prefer Najdorf's. C.H.O'D Alexander wrote a slim book that was intended to be part of a trilogy of Alekhine's games that covered the period 1938-1945, but naturally the number of games and their quality was nowhere near approaching the two books by Alekhine himself.
     These titled players also included books that contained the games by their favorite players such as Tahl, Keres, Botvinnik, Marshall, Capablanca, Korchnoi, Bronstein, Shirov, Larsen, Rubinstein, Smyslov, Petrosian and Karpov.
     Diverse books on tactics, strategy and the endings were also mentioned and a few of the players also enjoyed books on chess in general such as Masters of the Chessboard by Reti, The Human Side of Chess by Reinfeld, Soviet Chess by Soltis and even Blindfold Chess by Hearst and Knott were just a few that were mentioned. The thing that struck me in the list of the favorites of these players who went on to gain international titles was the absence of books that lower rated players seem to flock to: openings.

Chess: Skills - Tactics - Techniques by Jonathan Arnott

     Published October 1, 2014, the blurb says, "The perfect tool for anyone wanting to improve their performance, from beginners learning the basic skills to more experience players working on advanced techniques A practical, no-nonsense guide, Chess will help you give you that all-important advantage. Standard chess rules and basic notation are explained, as well as how to use each piece effectively, three phases of the game—openings, middle games, and endgame—and tactics and strategy for planning success. Advanced techniques are also offered, with advice on analyzing a situation, opening repertoires, when to sacrifice, and endgame principles, as well as hints and tips for developing chess even further. There is also a section on using computers for analysis and preparation."

    The book is only 96 pages long and Arnott begins with chess notation and then examines how the pieces move, including a brief summary on their characteristics. This is followed by examples of simple checkmates, draws and the starting position and special rules. He then has chapters on Counting, Pins, Forks, Skewers and Discovered Attacks, Temoving the Guard, Defection and Overloading, Pawn Structures, Outposts, Open Files and Space Advantage. He then discusses general opening principles, coming up with a middlegame plan and basic endgame technique.
     He rounds out the book with chapters on how to analyze, developing an opening repertoire, sacrifices and key endgame principles. He has also added a chapter with test positions and discusses the chess clock, tournaments, computer programs and other miscellaneous material.
     Arnott says this book is aimed at "the average person on the street." As such, the book is aimed at people who know the rules, but not much more and is designed to take them to the level where they will feel comfortable joining a chess club or entering a tournament at the lowest level. I would say it's good for anybody rated under, say 1000, or perhaps someone under 1200 who can skip over the material on how the pieces move and the rules and wants to gain some insight on the basic elements.
     Jonathan Arnott is a chess Candidate Master. He captained Yorkshire from 2002 to 2004, leading the county to two national rapid play titles. He has twice represented a top British side in the European Club Cup, and is an ECF-accredited coach.  You can take a peek inside the book at Google book reviews HERE.
    

     For more advanced players wanting to cover much of the same material on how to attack, then Vukovic's The Art of Attack is still a good book. Just be aware that the book was written in the pre-computer days, so there are errors because engines will find resources that Vukovic missed. For that reason, playing over the material using an engine is a good idea.  Even with errors in analysis, what's important is becoming aware of ideas and recognizing the existence of attacking possibilities. This book shows you what to look for.

 

A Kindle edition is also available:

Good books on strategy, an area not to be ignored, are:



And if you are looking for really cheap, Reuben Fine's old classic, The Middlegame in Chess, is still pretty good.

Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition - Key Moves and Motifs in the Middlegame by Arthur Van de Oudeweetering

    
      I haven't done a review in quite awhile, mostly because I have not found anything worth reviewing...until now. This book is great!
     Strong players have long extolled the virtues of pattern recognition and you can find out more about it by going to my chess blog and in the Search This Blog box type in "pattern recognition." Pattern recognition is one of the most important aspects of improvement, but one of the most neglected as many players concentrate on tactics and openings.
     If you realize a position has similarities with something you have seen before, you are recognizing a pattern. This helps you to get to the essence of a position quickly and find the most promising continuation. To get better at recognizing chess patterns, knowing which positions are worth remembering will save lots of time and energy. Each chapter explains a theme or pattern classified by the type of position and then has examples to illustrate them.  Personally, what I would do is read the book to get an idea of what to look for and then use the technique of playing over a lot of master games and trying to guess the next move as described in my Blog posts, especially the Ken Smith Method.  For those that don't know, back in the 1960's Texas Senior Master Kenneth Smith sold chess books through his publishing house Chess Digest and taught a generation of players how to study chess. Admittedly, a lot of what he recommended was self-serving since he published the stuff he recommended, but his advice was classic. My article on Smith.
     My pet peeve is that Van de Oudeweetering only gives the portion of the game that's under discussion; I wish he would have given the whole game, especially the conclusion. It's one thing to know one side stands better and why, but it's quite another to know how to utilize the advantage and having the remainder of the game as an example is important.
     I like the way one reviewer expressed it: There are two types of positional decision processes...The first is coming up with a move based on analysis, e.g. looking at a position and determining weak squares, piece activity, center control, king safety,… and then conjuring up a move. The second, and more efficient way, is to recognize patterns to efficiently come up with a candidate move.
     Dennis Monokroussos liked the book, too.

Dover Chess Books

 

 

 

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Barnes & Noble e-books - DO NOT PURCHASE!!

DO NOT PURCHASE ANY OF THEIR E-BOOKS!

  My Nook Color was destroyed back in May when our house flooded and it was just yesterday that I got around to installing the Nook for PC app which I downloaded from the Barnes and Noble website. This app allows you to read your books from your laptop. It didn't work.
     I tried signing on to the live chat and the first time got timed out before I could even finish typing my message. It happened the second time, too. The third time I managed to get in contact with somebody and she asked me if I was having trouble with the Nook for PC app; that was strange because that is exactly what I said in my initial contact, 'I am having trouble with my Nook for PC app.' So, she asked the nature of the problem and my reply was, 'I can't read the books I paid for, only the free ones.'  She typed back, 'You can't read the books you paid for, only the free ones?' What the ...! Isn't that what I just wrote?  Anyway, before I typed 'Yes.' I got timed out.
     So, I called their toll free help number and was told to archive and unarchive the books and it should work. I did and it didn't. I called back and was put on hold for a few minutes. When the lady came back she said wait about an hour and something about it takes that long to sync. I waited and the Nook for PC app still didn't work so I called a third time.
     This time the young lady on the help line informed me, 'We no longer use the Nook for PC app because there were so many problems with it. You have to read your books online from the Barnes and Noble website. I would suggest you go ahead and delete the app from your laptop.'
     I asked her why, if it does not work, is it still available for download from their site. She didn't know, but told me she was going to notify somebody that the app should be removed from the website. I also informed her that their chat is as worthless as the Nook for PC app so she said she was going to make a note of that also for the technicians to look at. The whole experience was bizarre.
     If you want to read any Barnes and Noble books without a Nook you must sign in to your Barnes & Noble account and read them directly from the site. B&N has abandoned support for the app without providing a replacement.  None of the available free readers work for the simple reason that you still need your e-mail address and the credit card number which you used to purchase the book in order for the reader to access the book.
     Basically Barnes & Noble is not in the e-book business and they are refusing to support customers who made e-book purchases in the past.

Dover Chess Books

Dover offers a wide variety of chess books for both beginners and advanced players, including books on tactics and positional play, the endgame, and openings. They have many classic books by past masters:  Alekhine, Capablanca, Lasker, and others.

Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory - $16.95

from: Dover Publications

Combinations: The Heart of Chess - $14.95

from: Dover Publications

The Art of Sacrifice in Chess - $12.95

from: Dover Publications

Danger in Chess: How to Avoid Making Blunders - $9.95

from: Dover Publications

Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur - $15.95

from: Dover Publications

Killer Chess - $19.95

from: Dover Publications

An Introduction to Chess Moves and Tactics Simply Explained - $5.95

from: Dover Publications

Simple Chess: New Algebraic Edition - $9.95

from: Dover Publications

500 Master Games of Chess - $29.95

from: Dover Publications

Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 - $14.95

from: Dover Publications

Komodo 8 Chess Engine

    I posted on this about a month ago on my other Blog that I had just purchased the download version of Komodo 8 and I have been testing it out on LSS. While it’s too soon to make any determinations my results since I started using Komodo have been +0 -1 =2. I can’t blame the loss on Komodo though because as Black I played the QGD Chigorin Defense and was never able to recover from an inferior opening position. Here is the final position:

     Even though it LOOKS like black has drawing chances, all the engines give white a winning advantage and a bunch of Shootouts all gave white the win, so it was time to resign and concentrate on the remaining games. The three draws resulted from, as white, an Evans Gambit and a Urusov Gambit (!) and as black, a Guioco Piano. With any luck, I expect to go +2 -0 =1 in the remaining games, but a result of +2 -1 =3 with Komodo won’t be very convincing since it’s about in line with my overall results prior to Komodo’s arrival on the scene. Many more games will have to be played to get a more accurate picture. According to all the engine ranking sites though, Komodo 8 is by far the best.
     The Komodo developers claim it is different from the rest in that its search allows it to often see deeper than any other engine and its evaluation differs because it represents a blend of both automated tuning and the judgment of a grandmaster and computer expert, GM Larry Kaufman.
     Komodo is primarily known for excellent positional play which is important if you are playing on ICCF or LSS where engine use is, if not mandatory, both allowed and advisable. Most of the top engines excel in tactical strength, but the programmers have sacrificed positional play so their engines will score better on tactical problems and do well in blitz play against other engines. In other words, they have stacked the deck for rating list purposes.
     As Komodo developers point out, the judgment of a GM is still superior to engines so it makes sense to emphasize positional play rather than tactical skill. Komodo is especially useful for opening analysis because Kaufman has made sure that the program's evaluations agree in general with accepted theory. Komodo also excels in the evaluation of positions with material imbalance, which it handles more correctly than other top engines. This is a very important factor because my experience has lead me NOT to trust engines in this situation. It seems they often get it wrong.
     On the CCLR 40/40 rating list Komodo 8 pounded Houdini 4.0 as did Stockfish 5, so we can discount Houdini 4.0 as not being worth the purchase price of about $50. So, the real question is, is Komodo 8 worth the $60 purchase price as opposed to the free Stockfish 5?
     On the CCLR 40/40 list, Komodo 8 hammered Stockfish 5 +19 -8 =67. On the other hand on the CEGT 40/120 list Stockfish 5 heads the list followed by Komodo 8 and Houdini 4.0, and the matchup of Stockfish vs. Komodo 8 is almost equal.
     In answering the question as to which is best, the $60 Komodo 8 engine or the free Stockfish 5 engine, it depends on what you are going to do with it. If you are SERIOUS about playing on ICCF or LSS and have 8 or more cores and are willing to devote a tremendous amount of time to preparing your own well researched opening books and spend days analyzing positions, then by all means spend the money for Komodo 8.
     If you’re like me and only have a quad core laptop, play correspondence for fun and like to experiment with different openings (I have played the Sicilian Wing Gambit, the Urusov Gambit, the Grob and stupid stuff like 1.a4 and 1…a4, none of which have been outright refuted!!) then stick with Stockfish 5.

11-1-14 UPDATE:  In a match conducted last month on an AMD FX-8350 8-core with 4GB hash per engine and the Syzygy 6-men tablebases and a long time control of 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment, the match was tied at +16 -16 =68.  So it appears my conclusions are...WRONG!!  There really does not appear to be any need for most of us to spend the money for Komodo. Details of the match HERE

Kindle and Nook Apps

     I was surprised to find out some people thought you had to have a Kindle or Nook to read digital books, but that’s not true. Whether you have a Kindle or Nook you can generally purchase books online cheaper from Amazon or Barnes and Noble (for the Nook) than from a book store and the digital editions are usually cheaper. By the way, most of the free books are digitized books that are out of copyright protection and most of them are of very poor quality. There’s not much point in trying to save a little money downloading them; they are usually boring and sometimes hard to read; if you want cheap download the $0.99 ones.
     Both the Amazon app for Kindle and the Barnes and Noble app for the Nook offer pretty much the same things. You load them on your tablet, smartphone or computer and when you buy a book once you can read it on any device with the app installed. Of course, you can also read that same book on the Kindle or Nook if you own one. I used to have the Nook, but it got destroyed when our house flooded back in May so now I just download and read books on my laptop.

Good Opening Books

Her are some good general opening books.  The book on the King's Indian Attack is especially good because to play it properly you have to have at least a general idea of how to meet each black setup. Also, the King's Indian Reversed is a good attacking opening that does not create any weaknesses in white's position.  The attack will be in the nature of a methodical buildup and so the chances of making a serious blunder resulting in an immediate loss is less likely to happen to white than in an open position that resulted from a gambit opening.


You can download the FREE Amazon app Kindle for the PC HERE

ChessBase Starter Package

 

 

Product Features

• ChessBase 12 Starter Package & Guide to ChessBase DVD & Art of War E-Book (3 item Bundle)
• ChessBase 12 - Integrated CB online database with more than 5 million games - Access to player encyclopedia with over 30,000 pictures
• ChessBase Big Database 2014 + automatic update through December 31, 2014 - ChessBase Magazine subscription, half year: 3 issues DVD + print
• Guide to ChessBase is a series of multimedia videos that will guide you step-by-step through using ChessBase programs.
• FREE the epic "Art of War" by Sun Tzu, completely re-mastered for the 21st century by ChessCentral

Highly recommended to the tournament or correspondence player. Chessbase is a database management system that allows you to search millions of masters games that come with it for similar positions and analyze your games. Plus, they offer excellent support for their products.

Backgammon Sets and Accessories

The Backgammon Store sells equipment for the serious backgammon player. They offer vinyl, fine leather, plastic and exotic wood. They also produce their own line of backgammon sets in their own workshop.

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Must Have Dover Chess Books (Cheap!)

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy by Irving Chernev. Over 60 games featuring games by the greatest— Capablanca, Tarrasch, Fischer, Alekhine, Lasker and others. Chernev’s annotations occasionally contain serious errors…play over the games with an engine or if you just want too, and aren’t worried too much about occasional faulty analysis, play over them just for enjoyment.

 

500 Master Games by Tartakower and du Mont. Must have!

 

Simple Chess by Michael Stean. This one will actually teach you something! Aimed primarily at novice players but helpful for all players. Stean isolates the basic elements and illustrates them very well. Algebraic notation.
 

Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by Bronstein 210 masterpieces. Algebraic notation. This a MUST HAVE…REALLY!!

 

Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory by Macon Shibut. You do NOT need this book about the best chess player of the nineteenth century which analyzes his games in depth and discusses other players of the period but it’s great reading.

107 Great Chess Battles, 1939-1945 by Alexander Alekhine.  Algebraic notation. Why would you NOT want to read a book by Alekhine?

Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur by Max Euwe and Walter Meiden

     This book contains 25 games chosen and annotated to help amateurs learn how to avoid a variety of weak strategic and tactical mistakes. The games were selected to point out how masters exploit typical errors made by amateurs and because they are not grandmaster games, they are easier to understand. The authors introduce concepts that appear in the game at the beginning and then when they appear in the game, they explain them.
     The book was apparently written for players in the 1200-1600 range, but I seriously doubt it will help anybody very much because the strategic concepts are given only brief explanations and you can’t learn much from playing over a single game. I wouldn’t bother buying it or, for that matter, borrowing it from the library. Note: it's not in algebraic notation either.