Chess
Fewer books
David Levy
I do not know whether the poor weather is responsible, but during recent weeks the crop of chess books has been more slight than normal. Strangely enough, the book which struck me as the most interesting new offering does not include a single game of chess or even so much as one diagram of a chess position. It is a discussion by Arpad Elo, founder of the chess rating system, of various statistical aspects of chess, and although much of the book is rather like an advanced text on statistics, I feel that there is something here to fascinate everybody.
Elo's bookis entitled The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present (Batsford, £6.50 hardback). It includes some fascinating comparisons between today's Grandmasters and those of the nineteenth century, and a discussion of how demography affects the chess world. Heavy going, but none the less interesting.
Practical ndgame Lessons by Edmar Mednis, is an expanded collection of the author's lucid endgame articles that have been appearing in the American magazine Chess Life and Review for the past eight years. The chapters are all well conceived and although the book is not comprehensive (it could not be without at least trebling its size), the student will find much of value. It is published by Batsford and at £3.95 the paperback is a bargain, though the diagrams leave much to be desired.
Yet another Batsford book (I do not own shares in the company and if more publishers add their wares to the market I shall review their books to prove it), Complete Games of Mikhail Tal 1960-66, edited by Hilary Thomas. My principal reservation about this book is that the annotators' names are not appended to each game, so although we are told that 'many of the games have notes based on contemporary annotation that derived from Tal himself' we are kept almost entirely in the dark as to whether a particular piece of analysis stems from the ex-world champion or his siamese cat. I hate to criticise anything bearing the magical name of Tal, but at £4.95 for a softback with half the number of pages of the Mednis book I would not rate this a good buy. Nevertheless, I cannot resist using this book as an excuse to publish a beautiful, typically Tal game, from his successful 1960 match. The notes are mine.
Botvinnik-Tal, World Championship Match (6th game): King's Indian,
1 P-QB4 N-KB3 2 N-KB3 P-KN3 3 P-KN3 B-N2 4 B-N2 0-0 5 P-Q4 P-Q3 6 N-QB3 QN-Q2 70-0 P-K4 8 P-K4 P-QB3 9 P-KR3 Q-N3 10 P-Q5 PxP 11 BPxP N-B4 12 N-K1 B-Q2 13 N-Q3 NxN 14 QxN KR-B1 Tal took a long time over this move, rejecting the immediate ... N-KR4 and . P-KB4. The move played was partly to leave the other rook defending the QRP and partly to convince Botvinnik that Tal did not have any serious ambitions on the K-side. 15R-N1 N-R4 16 B-K3 Q-N5 17 Q-K2 R-B5 18 KR-B1 QR-QB1 Now Black is ready for . . . P-KB4. 19 K-R2 P-B4! 20 PxP BxP 21 R-QR1 N-B5!? Tal had seen this idea several moves earlier. The sacrifice may not be entirely correct but over the board it was extremely difficult to refute. This speculative type of sacrifice has always been Tal's hallmark. 22 PxN PxP 23 B-Q2 23 P-QR3 was suggested as an improvement, but who knows? 23. . . QxNP 24 QR-N1 P-B6 25 RxQ? It was subsequently shown that 25 BxP BxR 26 RxB Q-B7 27 B-K4! RxB 28 NxR! is good for White, but Botvinnik had not noticed the possibility 27 B-K4. 25 . . . PxQ 26 R-N3 R-Q5 27 B-K1 If 27 B-K3 RxN 28 R(3)xR R-Q8 wins. 27 . . . B-K4ch 28 K-Nl B-B5 Tal could have won at once with 28. . . RxN! 29 R(N3)xR R-08 30 R-B4 B-N7. 29 NxP RxR 30 NxR(4) RxBch 31 B-Bl B-K5 32 N-K2 B-K4 33 P-B4 B-B3 34 RxP BxP 35 R-QB7 BxP 36 RxQRP B-B5 Not 36 . . . RxN?? 37 R-R8ch, and only then 38 BxR. 37 R-R8ch K-B2 38 R-R7ch K-K3 39 R-R3 P-Q4 40 K-B2 B-R5ch 41 K-N2 K-Q3 42 N-N3 BxN 43 BxB PxB 44 KxB K-Q4 45 R-R7 P-B6 46 R-QB7 K-Q5 White sealed 47 R-Q7ch but resigned without resuming.
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