Latest book
reviews of May 2018
BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG.
Wilhelminalaan 33
7261 BP RUURLO
The Netherlands.
John
Elburg
Chess Books
How to Beat the Open Games by Sverre Johnsen
2018
Gambit Publications Ltd
http://www.gambitbooks.com
E-mail info@gambitbooks.com
253 pages
Price £18.99
ISBN 978-1-911465-23-2
The well known chess analyst Sverre Johnsen from Norway provides the reader with a impressive made full move to move made repertoire book based on the
black lines of the Italian game,and dear reader Sverre Johnsen goes much further than covering only the slow Italian!
As we all know at top level chess the Ruy Lopez is out and the Italian game is in!
The reader will find smashing lines on the Two Knights Defence, Giuoco Piano, Four Knights and Scotch and various other open Games as the King’s Gambit, Göring, Danish,Center Game and so on.
One of my favourites in this book is chapter ten,Evans Gambit and the memorable game:
Fiorito,Mario V - Krantz,Kjell Erik
Evans Gambit Thematic corr, 1988
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Bd6 6.d4 Nf6 7.dxe5 Bxe5 8.Ng5 d5 9.exd5 Na5 10.Qa4+ c6 11.dxc6 0-0 12.Ba3 Nxc4 13.Qxc4 b5 14.Qb3 b4 15.Bxb4 Rb8 16.Qc4 Rxb4 17.Qxb4 Qd3 0-1.
Sverre Johnsen writes after move 5…Bd6!? In 1988 computers didn’t play any important role in correspondence chess,but as a matter of fact most current analyses engines quite like this bishop retreat.
And I can insure you the black player from Sweden Kjell Krantz never used a computer to play correspondence chess!
Kjell Krants did a lot of research on the Evans Gambit but his studies never saw any printed paper.
Mario Fiorito passed away not very long after this game,the extensive tension of correspondence chess was to much for his chess devoted heart.
A interesting suggestion on move two from Sverre Johnsen is 1.e4 e5 2.Be2 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f4 exf4 5.Nf3 now we reach a kind of King’s Gambit where white’s light squared bishop is slightly passively placed but black has lost the option of play …g5.
Conclusion: Important reference work on the Open Games!
British Chess Literature to 1914: A Handbook for Historians by Tim Harding
2018
McFarland & Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
393 pages
Price $49.95
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6839-0
Seldom a chess book has impressed so much as this latest work from Tim Harding on British chess literature and chess columns, the first Scottish chess column began in 1847,the first in Ireland in the 1860s,and the earliest in Wales in 1870.
Uncountable in this are Tim Harding’s research discoveries which bring the reader back in time to players as William Norwood Potter who was chess editor of Land and Water from late 1877 to the close of the column in 1855.
Besides covering various columns I enjoyed reading, research matters on various chess master as, the story from Isidor Gunsberg, Harding:In the late 1880s and 1890 Gunsberg was very active as a professional player, spending long periods out of England, and he gave up his column in the Cheltenham Examiner {and perhaps other titles}because of this. This episode in his life culminated in this unsuccessful world title match against Steinitz. Gunsberg’s lifestyle then underwent a huge change in the summer of 1891 shortly after his return from America.
His first wife, Jane died on 8 May 1891,leaving him with a young family to care for. After this he never played another serious match.
Instead he earned his living by literary work {including a book on chess openings, published in 1895}and by visiting clubs to give lectures and simultaneous displays.
On the rare occasions thereafter when he played a few tournaments, such as Hastings 1895,Gunsberg never recovered his former playing strength.
The first successful chess magazine was The Chess Player’s Chronicle, founded and edited by the legendary Howard Staunton and Tim Harding spends nearly a whole chapter on this
subject.
One short lived magazine of the mid-1870s was The City of London Chess Magazine which began as the house magazine of a club but aimed at a broader audience.
It included games of all kinds, amateur against amateur, amateur against masters, exhibition, correspondence, tournament and classic games.
A major work on Openings was The Synopsis of Chess Openings by William Cook {1850-1917}a Bristol accountant who was also associated with Birmingham Chess Club during his career. Cook was so brilliant to adopt the tabular system of presenting opening variations which had been employed by the German Handbuch ever since its first edition of 1843.
As Harding explains there was a differnce,however;the Germans presented the move sequences horizontally,as Continental works down to the late 20th century Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings have done.Instead Cook used a vertical arrangement which subsequent British authors have used ever since, until databases rendered such works virtually redundant.
We all know Batsford’s Modern Chess Openings but I was not aware that the start of this all began with Chess openings Ancient & Modern which appeared for the first time in 1889 by Freeborough and Ranken.
It was similar to Cook’s Synopsis but with it’s 256 pages it was nearly double the size and much more detailed.
The first four chapters in Harding's book cover chess columns in newspapers and periodicals.Chapters 5 and 6 deals with chess magazines, and Chapter 7 with chess books.
Chapter 8 is completely divided, on doing chess history today. This chapter is overloaded with links addresses and useful tips!
Tim Harding truly helps you here to get started as chess historian
Included are also six appendices, where appendix one British and Irish chess columns to 1914 constitutes over 600 columns a detailed research object, and if you ask me, this is a must have chess book!
Included are Chapter Notes,Bibliography,Index of Games, and a General Index.
Conclusion: A must for every chess historian!
Chess DVD's
The Popular Italian
by Viktor Bologan
2018
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 29.90
Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 or 8.1, DirectX11, graphics card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation. Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX11, graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11, DVD-ROM drive and internet access for program activation.
Chess Books
How to Beat the Open Games by Sverre Johnsen
2018
Gambit Publications Ltd
http://www.gambitbooks.com
E-mail info@gambitbooks.com
253 pages
Price £18.99
ISBN 978-1-911465-23-2
The well known chess analyst Sverre Johnsen from Norway provides the reader with a impressive made full move to move made repertoire book based on the
black lines of the Italian game,and dear reader Sverre Johnsen goes much further than covering only the slow Italian!
As we all know at top level chess the Ruy Lopez is out and the Italian game is in!
The reader will find smashing lines on the Two Knights Defence, Giuoco Piano, Four Knights and Scotch and various other open Games as the King’s Gambit, Göring, Danish,Center Game and so on.
One of my favourites in this book is chapter ten,Evans Gambit and the memorable game:
Fiorito,Mario V - Krantz,Kjell Erik
Evans Gambit Thematic corr, 1988
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Bd6 6.d4 Nf6 7.dxe5 Bxe5 8.Ng5 d5 9.exd5 Na5 10.Qa4+ c6 11.dxc6 0-0 12.Ba3 Nxc4 13.Qxc4 b5 14.Qb3 b4 15.Bxb4 Rb8 16.Qc4 Rxb4 17.Qxb4 Qd3 0-1.
Sverre Johnsen writes after move 5…Bd6!? In 1988 computers didn’t play any important role in correspondence chess,but as a matter of fact most current analyses engines quite like this bishop retreat.
And I can insure you the black player from Sweden Kjell Krantz never used a computer to play correspondence chess!
Kjell Krants did a lot of research on the Evans Gambit but his studies never saw any printed paper.
Mario Fiorito passed away not very long after this game,the extensive tension of correspondence chess was to much for his chess devoted heart.
A interesting suggestion on move two from Sverre Johnsen is 1.e4 e5 2.Be2 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f4 exf4 5.Nf3 now we reach a kind of King’s Gambit where white’s light squared bishop is slightly passively placed but black has lost the option of play …g5.
Conclusion: Important reference work on the Open Games!
British Chess Literature to 1914: A Handbook for Historians by Tim Harding
2018
McFarland & Company,Inc.,Publishers Box 611
Jefferson,North Carolina 28640.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com
393 pages
Price $49.95
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6839-0
Seldom a chess book has impressed so much as this latest work from Tim Harding on British chess literature and chess columns, the first Scottish chess column began in 1847,the first in Ireland in the 1860s,and the earliest in Wales in 1870.
Uncountable in this are Tim Harding’s research discoveries which bring the reader back in time to players as William Norwood Potter who was chess editor of Land and Water from late 1877 to the close of the column in 1855.
Besides covering various columns I enjoyed reading, research matters on various chess master as, the story from Isidor Gunsberg, Harding:In the late 1880s and 1890 Gunsberg was very active as a professional player, spending long periods out of England, and he gave up his column in the Cheltenham Examiner {and perhaps other titles}because of this. This episode in his life culminated in this unsuccessful world title match against Steinitz. Gunsberg’s lifestyle then underwent a huge change in the summer of 1891 shortly after his return from America.
His first wife, Jane died on 8 May 1891,leaving him with a young family to care for. After this he never played another serious match.
Instead he earned his living by literary work {including a book on chess openings, published in 1895}and by visiting clubs to give lectures and simultaneous displays.
On the rare occasions thereafter when he played a few tournaments, such as Hastings 1895,Gunsberg never recovered his former playing strength.
The first successful chess magazine was The Chess Player’s Chronicle, founded and edited by the legendary Howard Staunton and Tim Harding spends nearly a whole chapter on this
subject.
One short lived magazine of the mid-1870s was The City of London Chess Magazine which began as the house magazine of a club but aimed at a broader audience.
It included games of all kinds, amateur against amateur, amateur against masters, exhibition, correspondence, tournament and classic games.
A major work on Openings was The Synopsis of Chess Openings by William Cook {1850-1917}a Bristol accountant who was also associated with Birmingham Chess Club during his career. Cook was so brilliant to adopt the tabular system of presenting opening variations which had been employed by the German Handbuch ever since its first edition of 1843.
As Harding explains there was a differnce,however;the Germans presented the move sequences horizontally,as Continental works down to the late 20th century Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings have done.Instead Cook used a vertical arrangement which subsequent British authors have used ever since, until databases rendered such works virtually redundant.
We all know Batsford’s Modern Chess Openings but I was not aware that the start of this all began with Chess openings Ancient & Modern which appeared for the first time in 1889 by Freeborough and Ranken.
It was similar to Cook’s Synopsis but with it’s 256 pages it was nearly double the size and much more detailed.
The first four chapters in Harding's book cover chess columns in newspapers and periodicals.Chapters 5 and 6 deals with chess magazines, and Chapter 7 with chess books.
Chapter 8 is completely divided, on doing chess history today. This chapter is overloaded with links addresses and useful tips!
Tim Harding truly helps you here to get started as chess historian
Included are also six appendices, where appendix one British and Irish chess columns to 1914 constitutes over 600 columns a detailed research object, and if you ask me, this is a must have chess book!
Included are Chapter Notes,Bibliography,Index of Games, and a General Index.
Conclusion: A must for every chess historian!
Chess DVD's
The Popular Italian
by Viktor Bologan
2018
http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
Price Euro 29.90
Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 or 8.1, DirectX11, graphics card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation. Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX11, graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11, DVD-ROM drive and internet access for program activation.
