Deep Fritz 14

     

  

    This is the newest version which features a 64-bit engine and supports multiple core processors. The Deep Fritz engine is supposedly almost 100 Elo points higher than the previous version. On the CCLR 40/40 rating list, the Deep Fritz 14 engine is only rated at number 20 though, placing it well behind the leaders Komodo 9, Stockfish 6 and Houdini 4. That does not matter though because there are a number of FREE engines, including Stockfish, that you can download.

      The main reason I like Fritz, besides the fact that's it's been my most used GUI and so I am familiar with it, is that it has a nice interface. A few players have complained that documentation is sparse and the interface is confusing, but I have not found that to be the case. Youtube has a lot of videos that cover all it's features and you can best learn how to use the various features just by playing around with it and experimenting.  Of course, a variety of pieces and boards with different color formats are available and you can move the windows around and resize them to suit your taste.  Forget the 3-D layouts though!

      Also, the new version runs faster and flows better on the latest versions of Windows. I am not much into the training and analysis functions, but they are excellent features.

      With a membership at Playchess.com server with Deep Fritz 14 you can, besides play real time online games, watch live commentary of tournaments or take part in training sessions with players like Daniel King, Klaus Bischoff, Maurice Ashley, Dr. Karsten Müller and many more. Deep Fritz 14 includes a free six-month Premium Membership to Playchess.com which is a nice perk that comes with your purchase.

      Deep Fritz 14 gives you access to “Let's Check” which is another feature I personally have no interest in, but it is popular. Over 200 million positions are available that have been deeply calculated by engines...handy for serious opening preparation or correspondence players I assume. This feature has little interest to me in correspondence chess simply because I prefer openings that while basically sound, are little explored. So, letting engines explore those positions for hours to uncover hidden resources is part of the fun of correspondence chess for me. In addition, Deep Fritz 14 comes with a new opening book with over four million positions and a database with over 1.5 million games.

      Some people have complained that the program is buggy, but I have not had any issues running it on Windows 8.1 on a quad core Satellite laptop. The truth is though that upgrading from my old Fritz 12 program didn't get me anything new except an upgraded opening book and database, but I don't consult the Fritz 12 book much and sometimes update my games database so it's not too out of date. If you already have a chess program that you like, I don't see any reason to get this one. However, IF you are looking for a good commercial program, Fritz is my preferred program. Just make sure you download a decent free engine because Fritz, while strong, isn't among the best.

      If you order from Chess Central they will also include Chess Masterpieces by Henry Bird. He wrote the book (available free on the internet) containing 150 games 125 years ago, but it's in old fashioned descriptive notation…”25.Kt takes R” so it is nice that the games are in electronic format. Chess Central normally sells the e-book for $10. This is just a nice little addition IF you are interested in playing over old games.

The Middlegame in Chess by Reuben Fine

 In Fine's opinion, who was the greatest player who ever lived? He was, of course. He also claimed that he knew everything there was to know about endings and it was all in his book, Basic Chess Endings. Fine was a pathetic figure, but at one time he was one of the greatest players in the world.  Born in 1914 was only 23 at the time of his victory at AVRO 1938 and there was a good possibility that he could have become World Champion except World War II intervened. After the war his tournament career was practically over, but he could write about chess.  He died on March 26, 1993 

Fine and Reshevsky

     This 448 page legendary work by Fine was republished by Sam Sloane of Ishi Press last year. It's a completely revised and corrected edition in algebraic notation. NOTE: Do NOT purchase the revision by Burt Hochburg which has just about every mistake you can think of, two or three typos, incorrect moves or diagrams per page and is a disgrace to chess literature. 
     Back to the book...Fine discusses, among other things, the elements of combinations which includes example of how the individual pieces can contribute, pins and discovered attacks, etc. Mating attacks, how to analyze, material advantage and how compensate for a material disadvantage and nine different Pawn structures. Space and mobility where he discusses open files, semi-open files, long diagonals, two Bishops, weak squares, outposts and other positional factors are discussed. Next there are chapters on attacking the castled and uncastled king, the art of defense and how to play balanced and unbalanced positions. He concludes a chapter on how to continue from the opening and finally, with an excellent chapter on the endgame. Positions are taken from a host of games by well-known players but those of Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Lasker, Nimzovich, Reshevsky and Rubinstein predominate. Worth studying.

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig

   

  
   I just finished a book titled Chess Story by Stefan Zweig. It was originally published under the title The Royal Game and was first published in German in 1941. Zweig was an Austrian Jew born in Vienna in 1881 and in his time one of the world's most translated writers. He left Austria in 1934 with the rise of the Nazis, and became convinced that the world was fighting a losing battle with evil. The Royal Game, whose underlying theme is the power of evil, was the last story Zweig wrote. He completed while in exile in Brazil and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. In 1942, during the months of his exile in Brazil with his second wife, and during the time that they played over master games, Zweig wrote his last book, completing it just days before he and his wife’s double suicide.
     You can read the reviews and look inside on the Amazon site. It's a short book but a great read that was worth the ten dollars.

Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess by Elie Agur

 This book has been in sitting unread in my library for some time and that was unfortunate! I started going through it the other day and discovered I absolutely love it! In addition to a collection of Fischer's games, it's a great manual on the middle game. Agur explains how Fischer played the middle game with such chapters as the g-Pawn, the King's Indian Center, piece placement, material considerations, timing, strategic planning, seizing the initiative, typical maneuvers, space and much more. The best part is Agur's writing which is clear, concise and easily understood. When examining a position Agur has knack for showing how Fischer's approach to selecting a move differed from that of other great players. I am sorry it has been ignored for so long! 5-stars.

Openings for Amateurs by Peter Tamburro

    

    This book is recommended for players below 1800 or 1900 as an aid in explaining the ideas behind openings. Ideas are more important than just leaning variations by rote because at the amateur level opponents rarely follow “the book” for very far and when they play a move that is unfamiliar or forgotten, we have no idea about how to continue. Knowing the idea behind the moves will help keep us on the right path. If our opponent's move is not consistent with the idea behind the variation then we can be sure there is something wrong with it. And, knowing that, we can better figure out a way to take advantage of his move.

     Reuben Fine’s old book, The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, was such a book as was How to Open a Chess Game by Larry Evans and others. John Watson’s Mastering the Chess Openings was written with a similar idea, but Watson's book is somewhat more advanced, perhaps too much so for average players. 
     Tamburro begins the book with general advice that most players are already familiar with. Don't give up the right to castle without good reason, don't lose time in the opening, don't play memorized moves without understanding the idea behind them, don't create weaknesses that your opponent can exploit, know when to trade a B for a N, etc. He also gives advice on how to meet gambits and various fianchetto lines. 
     After that comes the good part...Openings for Amateurs. Tamburro presents an opening repertoire that does not emphasize memorization but ones with clear strategic ideas. The best part is he does not recommend weird, offbeat and questionable gambits or lines designed to “make your opponent think on his own.” Think about it. Once the opponent plays a move that wasn't in the book, or we forget what the next move is, then it is we who are thinking on our own, sometimes with disastrous consequences! 
     As White, Tamburro recommends 1.e4. Against the Sicilian he recommends some of the anti-Sicilians: Against 2...d6 he recommends 4.Qxd4.  His other recommendations are the Rossolimo Attack, the Closed Variation or the 2.c3 variations. 
     Against the French he recommends the Tarrasch (3.Nd2) and against the Caro-Kann he recommends what is known as the Fantasy (aka Tartakower) Variation: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3. This unusual move doesn't have a lot of theory and can get very sharp. 
     Against 1...e5 he recommends the Four Knights Game and the Vienna. 
     As black, against he suggests 1…e5 the Two Knights Defense, 4…Nf6 against the Scotch, the Ruy Lopez, or, if you don't like playing 1...e5, then he recommends the Sicilian Dragon.
     Against 1...d4 he recommends the Nimzo-Indian or the Dutch. He also covers Botvinnik's recommendations vs. the English. 
     All his suggestions are decent mainlines or reasonable sidelines and not foolhardy, unsound or borderline questionable gambits. Perhaps the Fantasy Variation against the Caro-Kann is a little odd and I question the inclusion of the Sicilian Dragon as it requires a lot of theory. Years ago there was a strong master I knew who was a recognized expert in the Dragon and in one tournament he was out in the hallway when someone asked his how his game was going. His reply was that his opponent had let him play the Dragon and “he doesn't know what he's doing, so I'm going to have an easy win.” That was over 40 years ago and I'm sure there's more theory now than there was then! 
     If you’re between below average to just above average and are looking for a way to improve you opening play, this is a good book at a decent price.

Finally, a book I can recommend

Bent Larsen’s Best Games: Fighting Chess with the Great Dane

     Bent Larsen (1935-2010) was known for playing unusual openings and his fighting chess; he defeated all the World Champions from Botvinnik to Karpov and was a candidate for the World Championship four times. He also won a ton of tournaments. 
     In 1967-1968 he won five elite international tournaments in a row and even Bobby Fischer bowed to his accomplishments when in 1970, in the match Soviet Union vs. the World, Fischer agreed to take second board behind Larsen...an unprecedented concession of Fischer's part!! That's how good Larsen was. 
     This book has more than 120 of Larsen’s best games, all annotated by Larsen himself. When it came to openings his opponents never knew what to expect and you'll see various flank openings, including Larsen's Opening (1.b3), Sicilians, King's and Nimzo-Indians, the Vienna and the Bishops Opening, etc. I can't think of a player of his caliber who ever played just a wide variety of openings except Tartakower. 
    You don't get to be as successful as Larsen by being a one trick pony; he was a master of opening innovations, middlegame strategy and tactics and endgame play and, rare among many GMs, he was an excellent writer who was able to describe the what was happening in an understandable way. No engine variations, the didn't exist, and the variations are mixed with verbal explanations...great! He also gives autobiographical information and his opinion of other players. 
     As has been pointed out by others, there are some small errors: impossible moves, incorrectly named openings and flipped evaluations. But, it seems it's a rare chess book these days that doesn't have editing errors...a sign of the times. When compared to the content, these are minor distractions.
     Well worth the money.

Carlsen Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala

Paperback, Figurine Algebraic Notation. Also available in the Kindle edition.

  

     I admit to being stuck in a time warp when it comes to chess. I have not played over more that a handful of games by players since Kasparov reigned. The problem is I don't understand the games by today's players...30 moves of engine generated opening theory and they break all the beloved principles of strategy I learned from Fine, Pachman, Euwe and others. 
     Plus, I think having hundreds, or is it thousands, of grandmasters in the world has taken some of the prestige from the title. Grandmasters used to be sort of mythical people who lived in far off places and you never actually saw one. I played in a weekend Swiss once and everybody was all excited. Why? The rumor was a master had entered! He finally showed up and he was sporting a 2202 rating. I remember one guy taking his daughter, who looked to be about 5 years old, up to the guy and telling her, “This is a real chess master!” Nowadays you can see them all over the place. I even saw a former U.S. champion at the mall once.
     SO...I bought Cyrus Lakdawala's Carlsen, Move by Move a while back to add to my collection of games by the greats of the past. First, on the downside, I absolutely hate Lakdawala's writing style. I hate Bisguier's, too. Knights and Bishops are just that...Knights and Bishops. They are not steads, horses, cavaliers or prelates. Pawns aren't Infantrymen and Kings aren't Monarchs, etc. Lakdawala is even worse...he writes about the black Queen emitting odd, adenoidal grunting sounds in response to her sister’s intrusion. To me it's neither entertaining nor humorous. It's sophomoric. 
     One feature I did like is Lakadawala challenges the reader to answer questions at critical points thus making the book, in addition to a collection of games, an instructional manual. For example, in this position against Kasparov (Reykjavik Rapid, 2004) it's Carlsen's move.

Carlsen played 15.Rae1 and the reader is presented with a question and answer:

     As for the games, GM Alexey Dreev said Carlsen doesn’t actually play chess and he's not a real player because all he does is wait for his opponent to make a mistake rather than try to outplay him like real chess players do. GM Vladislav Tkachiev said Carlsen isn’t capable of finding new ideas. GM Sosonko explained it that Carlsen is a product of computerization, and inspires no interest whatsoever for writing about him. Anand said in an interview that he couldn’t figure out Carlsen’s style and playing Carlsen was like playing a human computer. One reviewer complained that Lakdawala seems to have over-relied on computer analysis in his annotations and now you know the reason for that.
     I must admit, even though Carlsen is the probably the best player in the world, playing over his games was no where near as enjoyable as playing over those of Alekhine, Tahl or Fischer or a couple of dozen other players you could name. 
     Expect to see more and more players like Carlsen. David Bronstein wrote, “the majority of chess players today know only how to set groups of pieces. They don’t think in a creative way any more. Groups of pieces fight for some square or sector of squares on the board.” It's been happening for a long time though.  Forty years ago GM Rossolimo was complaining that players of his day were no longer interested in the beauty in chess, they only played to rack up points. I understand that though.  Time was when you couldn't make a living at chess, but after Fischer the money got big and now you can make a living at it...but only if you score points.
     Should you buy the book? While it does have some instructional merit, I'd say no. There are better instructional books on the market and there are players whose games are a whole lot more fun to play over.

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1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations by Fred Reinfeld

     Pattern recognition is a very important skill and this classic by Reinfeld drills it into your memory by testing your ability to recognize them and trains you to calculate variations. The problems range from simple mate in one all the way up to ten moves. A great feature is that with the diagrams no hints are given, only who is to play. That's good...in a real game you don't get any hints.
    Reinfeld starts out with Queen sacrifices then some typical mating patterns are covered and then ends with a selection of compositions. He breaks down the problems by tactical motif, usually starting with the easiest first. This is a good way to help you learn to spot tactics by recognizing patterns.
    Bruce Alberston has converted this book from descriptive notation to algebraic, but one rather strange decision by was that he did not correct Reinfeld’s analysis with the help of an engine. Naturally, some of Reinfeld’s solutions are wrong and if, for whatever reason, they were not changed, at least incorrect solutions should have been pointed out. Or, was Alberston just too lazy to check 1001 positions with a computer?! 
     Except for that, this is a great book that taught a generation of players about tactics and after going through the book it's almost guaranteed that you will be spotting tactics in your own games. Highly recommended. 

Pump Up Your Rating: Unlock Your Chess Potential by Axel Smith

    
 When I noticed this book with its kind of silly title and promise to unlock hidden potential, my first question was, who is Axel Smith?! 
     It turns out Axel Smith is an International Master who boosted his rating from 2093 to 2458 within just two years. That's pretty good. Then, when I thought about it, the thought occurred that maybe Smith is some kind of prodigy so maybe the pumping up of HIS rating was only natural. It turns out Smith (born 1986), from Lund. Sweden, was not a prodigy. In 2006 he decided to focus on improving his chess after he won the Swedish junior championship and he was awarded his IM title in 2008. In January 2006 Smith's rating was a modest 2093, but then by January 2008 it was over 2450. After that his progress slowed, but at that level that's natural. 
     What player wouldn't be thrilled over a 365 rating point jump in two years? Still, there are some unanswered questions and some things about his training that Smith appears to have left out of the book. He put in a LOT of hours and, oh, by the way, former SuperGM Ulf Andersson was his coach. It never hurts to be able to study 8 hours a day and have a GM on staff to coach you. 
     Smith recommends something he dubs the "Woodpecker Method" for learning tactics. It's Michael de la Maza's debunked approach for learning tactics but with a new name. You get yourself a a set of puzzles and keep working them until the patterns are firmly imprinted in your brain. The difference is that Smith demands more than de la Maza did. He advocates that you need to analyze all the variations when you repeat a problem rather than just recognizing the first move from memory. He starts you out with a set of positions for you to work through, but for most players they are probably way too complicated. Besides all that, who has time to work through a thousand of those puzzles a day?! If you worked at chess 8 hours a day that's 125 puzzles an hour, or about 30 seconds each. 
     Some of his advice IS good, in fact excellent, but it must be remembered that, like almost all chess books, it contains a healthy dose of crap. Smith studied and played tournament chess over ten years, analyzed games with paid coaches, including GM Andersson and read a boat load of chess books. Personally, I'd venture a guess that Ulf Andersson probably had a LOT to with his improvement, but we'll never know because he conveniently leaves that information out. 
     So, what if you don't have the time to do all that woodpeckering and can only study a couple hours a week and can't afford a GM coach, or don't want one? Is there anything of merit in the book? Yes! 
     While it seems the book is intended for a 2000+ player it can definitely be beneficial to lower rated players and it has some very interesting ideas. It might be too hard for anyone below 1500 though and no matter what, that old bugaboo of chess players, hard work, is going to be required. 
     Smith covers opening preparation, middlegame play and endings and offers advice on how to practice and improve. He divides the book into two parts, first he covers strategy and thinking and then in the last half of the book, he offers advice on training. 
     For example, in Chapter One he discusses “No Pawn Lever – No Plan” by which he means Pawn breaks.  Andersson’s games were used as his models as seen Chapter Two where he discusses different types of exchanges and material imbalances. 
     Chapters Three and Four deal with thinking and calculation. For example, he offers a list of questions to ask yourself when calculating and one of the most important is to ask if the position is critical. He also explains what a critical position is. In Chapter Four he offers up a “method” for calculating. The truth apparently is that methods advocated by Kotov, Mark Buckley and others aren't really used by strong players. GM Andy Soltis confessed that despite all the different methods being advocated, in reality GM's skip around all over the place like everyone else. 
     In Part Two Smith offers a training program for improvement, supposedly it's the program that helped him jump from around 2100 to IM in two years. There's really nothing new in his program. He recommends: 

1) analyzing your games and making a list of mistakes
2) using a De la Maza method to study tactics 
3) doing serious opening study using ChessBase 
4) mastering approximately 100 key endgames. 

     He also recommends finding yourself a training partner because he believes that will likely offer the best chance of improving. That may be hard for a lot of players though. Living here in the city of Butt Crack, I would be hard pressed to find a training partner who would be interested in serious study and even if I did, their schedule isn't like to be compatible with mine. 
     Smith also discusses the use of engines in training. Like everyone else, Smith advises against initially analyzing your games using an engine. Analyze them on your own first then go over them with your training partner (if you have one) and only then check them with an engine. 
     Then make a list of mistakes you have been making, Honestly, I think about the only list you can make is 1) tactical errors. Really, how many non-masters will know about positional errors, incorrect positional evaluations or understand why they lost a complicated ending?
     Speaking of endings. Smith says you learn endgames by playing them and then analyzing them and he gives about a hundred endgames to memorize (which you can download). He says you study these endings once and after that, you need to review them annually. His memory is clearly better than mine! 
     All in all, it's clear that Smith has a passion for chess and he's a good writer, but in all honesty, the methods he gives are perhaps too ambitious for the average working stiff who has to devote time to work, family and life in general. It's also probably too much for an aging brain to absorb, too. But, that said, Smith offers a blueprint for improvement that one can probably modify to fit their schedule. 
     I can recommend this book to those that want to improve, but with two caveats: 1) Remember that Smith was working with a GM coach and 2) Don't expect to see a 400 point gain in your rating.

Development of Chess Style by Euwe (revised by Nunn)

     Chess history is NOT boring...it's fun, interesting AND...instructive! Study of the great players of the past is a great way to improve. 
     In this book Euwe showed the historical progression of theory through annotated games. The Development of Chess Style was first published in 1968 and Euwe's writing style is somewhat dry and formal, but what is important is his explanation of chess style and theory. 
     His chapter on Steinitz is a clear, no, brilliant, presentation of Steinitz' theories. Euwe's annotations are clear and concise and lower rated players cannot help but benefit from them. 
    This edition has benefited a lot from updating by GM Dr. John Nunn. Nunn has added footnotes and made some major corrections to the annotations that have enhanced Euwe's presentation. Nunn also converted the book to algebraic notation. Nunn rewrote the chapter on the Soviet School and added new chapters on Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Topalov. He discusses their styles, contribution to theory and added annotated games. Unlike Euwe, he spices things up with a little humor, but does not get ridiculous to the point of being flippant. 
     On the down side, guys like Louis Paulsen who was a pre-Hypermodern whose play actually gave birth to some of Steinitz' theory and Adolf Anderssen is pretty much ignored.  Euwe, a modest man, also ignores his own contributions to chess, giving only scant examples from his play. In what I find as a rare tribute, Euwe gives attention to contribution to theory by Flohr and Bogoljubow not exactly major players when it comes to cintributing to the development of chee, but apparently, Euwe thinks they had something significant to offer. 
     Euwe's opinions are sometimes at odds with other authors. Euwe, while clearly admiring Lasker, claimed that it wasn't possible to learn much from him. Reuben Fine, on the other hand, claimed that chess players are Lasker's pupils. It should be pointed out that Andrew Soltis attempted to clarify Lasker's importance in his excellent book, Why Lasker Matters.  Nobody pays any attention to Lasker today, but Soltis shows how "modern" Lasker was. He took risks when necessary, made positional sacrifices, knew when to transition into the ending, used psychological evaluations of his opponents to his advantage and was often more concerned with making practical moves than the theoretical best.
     What does this book do for the improving player? It will help in understanding of the concepts that today's chess is built upon. The 61 games teach the fundamentals of positional play. Development, mobility, the center, king safety, weak squares, pawn structure, Q-side majority, open files, two bishops, material advantage are the building blocks by which superior positions, usually culminating in tactical fireworks, are built. The best part is that you absorb all the information on what today is a neglected area on a way that is actually fun and painless. You'll enjoy the book and at the same time pick up a knowledge of positional play that cannot hurt your game, only help it.  It's also cheap compared to a lot of chess books on the market these days and they don't have half the substance.  Love this book.

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Chess Assistant 15 Houdini 4 is a unique tool for managing chess games and databases, playing chess online, analyzing games, or playing chess against the computer.

Chess Assistant has a long history of innovative and advanced analysis functions and now, with a built-in CQL search system, it has also taken the lead in advanced search functionality.

The program comes in two versions: Chess Assistant 15 and Chess Assistant PRO, the latter one being a better choice for more dedicated players, as you receive the PRO version of Houdini 4 (which supports up to 32 cores and 32 GB of hash) and more additional tools, such as the advanced Aquarium interface. Read the rest of the article…

Anand: Move by Move by Zenon Franco

  Download a 16 page pdf sample HERE!

      Franco is a Paraguayan Grandmaster living in Spain who wrote a previous book on Anand in Spanish. Unlike a lot of hack writers it appears Franco has well researched his material because he always references multiple sources. This book, a paperback of 376 pages in figurine algebraic notation, starts out with a 25-page description of Anand's style. It seems his main strength can be summed up in one word...flexibility. Franco notes that Anand changed playing style to defeat Kramnik and Topalov in World Championship matches. He actually compares Anand’s universal style to Fischer's! 
     For some people comparing Anand to Fischer sounds like blasphemy, but even though I am no GM, I have to agree. Many players, when they think of all time greats think of Morphy, Capablanca, Alekhine or Fischer, but I am reminded of an interview with Samuel Reshevsky where he said he didn't think Capablanca's play fell off towards the end of his life, but that other players were playing at a much higher level than they did during Capa’s heyday so his results were not so good. 
     In his book, Fire On Board, Shirov commented about his meeting with Botvinnik and their discussion of the Botvinnik Variation. Shirov said the meeting was of no interest to him because the old man was stuck in the past insisting that certain moves were best when Shirov knew better. 
     I could quote many examples, but each succeeding generation of players has built on the knowledge of their predecessors and as a result, they have advanced their understanding of chess to the point that surpassed that of the previous generation. So it is my opinion that Anand is greater than all those players that belonged to bygone eras. His games may not be as flashy as those guys, but his play is of a higher level than the greats of yesteryear. 
     This book has 32 annotated games from 1991 to 2014 and they games are well annotated. One thing I really liked is that Franco adds a lot of color when he also explains Anand's situation in the tournament so we know the circumstances under which that particular game was played. 
     A good thing about the annotations is even though he surely used engines, the annotations have a human flavor, not just a lot of engine variations. Another great feature is at critical junctures Franco poses questions with answers designed to make you think and keep you involved. If one were to actually take time to think through the questions, one could actually learn something and improve their play. That would be a lot of work though and my guess is most player won't bother, but by putting in the effort, this book doubles not only as a games collection by one of the best players in history, but as an instruction manual. Another nice thing about the annotations is even though he surely used engines, the annotations have a human flavor, not just a lot of engine variations. 5-Stars!

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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!