Chess
Raymond Keene
iterary prizes (Booker and Nobel) are in the news, so I have decided to award the Spectator 'honourable mention' (sorry, no :large cash sums) for the outstanding chess books published this year.
I have no doubt that the winner is Grand- master Jon Speelman's Best Chess Games 1970-1980 (Allen and Unwin, £9.95). At a time when books with languageless notes (or games scores with no notes at all) are so frequent, it is a pleasure to come across an anthology furnished with deep verbal and tactical annotations, which really tell you what the author thinks, even revealing when he has doubts about what is actually going on. The title speaks for itself, and I might add that Speelman has devoted, on average, 7 full pages to the discussion of each of the 47 main games he has selected. The players covered include Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi, Fischer and Spassky, and there is also one game by each of the leading English players.
In a completely different category,
though still very worthy of note, is Simon Garrow's The Amazing Adventure of Dan the Pawn (Batsford £3.95). Designed for very young children, it aims to awaken their interest in chess by weaving an engaging story around an army of humanised chess pieces. There is a modicum of instruction blended in with the tale, and the message is well supported by some brilliantly executed cartoons. Garrow's method represents a revolutionary way of teaching chess and I expect his book to be enormously suc- cessful. I always believed that the clause in chess book contracts referring to film and dramatic rights was unnecessary, but this book could prove to be the exception.
Another candidate is John Nunn's Benoni for the Tournament Player (Batsford £6.95). This consists of a detailed discussion of a sharp and interesting defence to the QP opening, namely 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6, one that has been cham- pioned by Tal, Fischer and Kasparov. Com- pared, though, with John's The Pirc for the Tournament Player, I feel that the weight of analysis here brings it closer to his specialist monograph on the Sicilian Naj- dorf, and that, apart from an excellent in- troduction, the author has done more to analyse the opening for the expert than ex- plain it for the neophyte. In this respect, less crowded pages and more imaginative use of bold print would be a valuable aid to comprehension. Nevertheless, this book
become real Benoni connoisseurs.
All of the books mentioned this week can be ordered from Chess, Sutton coldnea, or the BCM, 9 Market St, St Leonards4n. Sea, Sussex.
Finally, the Batsford Chess Society provides many cut-price book offers, and membership can be obtained by writing t Paul Lamford, c/o B. T. Batsford, 4 Ftz" hardinge St, London 1,7411.
4, Browne — Bisguier: US ChampionshiP 197 Pefroff's Nfef3 Dence. 56 1 e4 e5 2 Nf6 3 NxeS d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Ad ddy QI3dx3d5Bei717R0e-10 BNfc56182cN4 eN3bN4 x9cc3xd135 QxNxcd33 c6,10,1.!1 is very natural but unfortunately it is .1"- tan slow and Browne gets the chance to rncnrut A immediate and vicious attack. 14 ell' the beautiful move which lays bare, at a stroke6 deficiencies of Black's position. If 14 . • •ro. then the weakness of the long diagonal leir„,,,•(15 catastrophe. 15 Re5 Qd7 16 Rael Be6 17 c'? —14 18 Rxe6 fxe6 19 Qxh8 + Bf8 20 Qf6 and win_firls' is Rg8 15 Re5 Qd7 16 Rael Be6 17 Ng5 trho3 Nxf7 Bxf7 19 Rxe7 Qxd4 20 Rxr7 Oxe3 cid,- gxh6 22 Rbl Rg5 23 h4 RbS 24 Rth5 Rxh7 Rdl + 26 Kh2 Rd2 27 Rxh6 Rx22,,2134 Rxf2 29 Rh8 + Ke7 30 h6 Kb6 31 Kh3 a531146 33 cxb4 axb4 34 Re8 Rf 1 35 Kg2 Rf6 36 kit 40 37 h7 Rxg5 + 38 Kf3 Rh5 39 h8 = Q Rxh8 Black resigns. A beautiful gain'the Browne. He penetrated deep into the heart of kes position to find precisely the right tacticals1r3ed, wriich it not only justified, but even demon' This week's game is from Jon Speeltnen book, and the brief notes have been ev• tracted from his copious comments.
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