'Dimensions' 2008

‘Dimensions’
Doctor Who Convention
14 - 16 November 2008
Britannia Hotel, Newcastle Airport

The latest in the very successful series of North East England Doctor Who conventions proved to be every bit as interesting and enjoyable as previous events.

The new venue proved to be just about ideal for the task although the wait for meals took a little longer than one would have hoped (the 'minute steak sandwich' missed out the word 'thirty').

Organisers 10th Planet (http://www.tenthplanetevents.co.uk/) had assembled a fine array of guests for the weekend. Some were making their convention debuts.

The format is simple. Every guest will appear on stage for an hour (or more, in some cases) for an interview, with plenty of opportunity for questions from the audience. Then there is chance to meet the celebrities at the signing sessions. The queues seemed to go down much faster than in earlier years, even though there well over 300 people. Possibly the change of rule to only one autograph per guest (more available by payment) meant less time for people to chat.

There are other bits and pieces too, such as coffee clubs, in which a small number of people can chat with their favourite guest. I tend to stick to the main events and watch as many of the stage talks as possible. The interviewers were especially good this year; probably the most consistently excellent they've ever been at 'Dimensions'.

Here's some pictures from a very fine weekend....

Anneke Wills
'Polly'

Louise Jameson
'Leela'


Wendy Padbury
'Zoe'

Christina Cole
'Lilith' (the witch in ‘The Shakespeare Code’ )

Richard Gauntlett
Urak in ‘Time and the Rani’

with

John Smithson
Camera man for the early William Hartnell stories

Nicholas Courtney
'The Brigadier'

Pop along to: http://www.annekewills.com/ to order volume 1

of Anneke's autobiography, and preorder volume 2 while you're there.

Trevor Martin
The Doctor in the 1974 stage play, ‘The Seven Keys to Doomsday’

(and a Time Lord in ‘The War Games’)

Wendy Padbury
'Zoe'

K-9

'Pudros'

One of the highlights was the reuniting of four of the Second Doctor's

companions, including 'Polly' and 'Victoria'

...later joined by 'Zoe' and 'Jamie'

Frazer Hines
Jamie

Cheryl Hall
Shirna in ‘A Carnival of Monsters’ (…and Citizen Smith’s girlfriend!)

Claire Rushbrook
'Ida Scott' in ‘The Impossible Planet’ and ‘The Satan Pit’

Sylvester McCoy
The Seventh Doctor

'Big Finish'

Makers of many original Dr Who audio plays and a whole load of other goodies.

Find out all about them and their excellent products here:

http://www.bigfinish.com/

Deborah Watling
'Victoria'

The final panel saw the Seventh Doctor actively seeking questions from the audience

...and he was joined by 'The Brigadier' for a fine finale

Goodbye - until next year!

2009 UK Chess Challenge

It is time to enter your school into the 2009 UK Chess Challenge.

It's the biggest chess tournament in the world and one which always brings a huge amount of enjoyment and pride to the participants, whatever their current level of play.

It is open to every school in the country. The initial stage is normally held in your own school and the top scorers then qualify for the regional 'Megafinals' in which they battle for places in the national 'Gigafinals'.

It's an opportunity not to be missed.

For full details, please visit the official site over at: http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/

Meanwhile, tournament organiser IM Mike Basman has kindly given his permission for me to reproduce his recent fabulous essay....

Saving the World
Essay by UK Chess Challenge Organiser Mike Basman

Ever since the rise of mass communications, saving the world has become a prominent theme. Early prototypes were Dan Dare and his American counterpart Superman. Since then there have been numerous others, and the sprawling fantasy genre from Harry Potter to Eragon have all featured young, energetic heroes doing great deeds.

In 1965 the Beatles sang, ‘All you Need is Love’. Later John Lennon improved the message with ‘You say you want a revolution - we-ell - you know - we all want to save the world…but if you talk about people who hate - well, I’m telling you buddy, you can count me out! Revolution! Etc…’

In 1985 Bob Geldof ran the Band Aid concert and repeated it 20 years later. There are various G-8 summits and at one of the them Gordon Brown wrote off the Third World Debt. Nonetheless, ‘saving the world’ has not graduated out of specific issues or fantasy worlds, and if you suggest the idea to any mature person, they will look at you from behind their glasses as if to say, ‘Who do you think you are?’

So, ever willing to say the wrong thins at the wrong time, I will make an effort.

Improvement in the world must come from improvement in the people in it. It is statistically clear that better educated, more intelligent people are more productive, live longer and are happier than others, so if we can increase the number of these people, and they can help others to become better educated, this will begin a rolling movement which will eventually include the world.

Many young people have idealism - witness the success of the ‘save the world/fantasy’ theme already mentioned - but they do not see the link between this and their everyday life; they do not see that they are the key to improvement and just go through the motions of school life. The death of enthusiasm is particularly marked in the teenage years where an ‘us-and-them’ mentality dominates.

So the teachers bravely try to keep order and drum learning into them, and the pupils resist sullenly, and then go off and do their own thing. Yet if the pupils realised how important they are, that they are each at the centre of the universe, and that their striving for knowledge and self improvement, alongside their help to others, will be the salvation of the world, we tap into a huge source of energy, and one that needs no financial investment - only a change of attitude.

It could be that education is far too important a matter to be left to teachers - or to the government. If we support the ultimate privatisation of education - down to the level of the child - this does not mean that the child should become antagonistic to the teacher. Far from it, the child would work with the teacher to learn as much as possible, but in this case the child is active rather than passive and can see the ultimate goal, not only of benefiting himself or herself, but also the whole of the planet.

This is an ideal to be given to young people, and one which, because of their natural exuberance and optimism (so frequently destroyed by cynicism) they will enthusiastically embrace.

The qualities of character needed at the moment are:-

1. Kindness
2. Knowledge
3. Honesty
4 Ability to work with others
5. Analytical power
6. Decision making ability
7. Ability to withstand pressure

The first four of these qualities I would call the primary virtues - they are the foundation of character, and notably only one of these - knowledge - can be directly acquired through school. Furthermore, any word used is an inexact symbol, even the word ‘knowledge’ I use in a wide sense, rather than as representing ‘factual information’.

The first four qualities are to be acquired through life, through thought, through study, through experience.

The latter three qualities are a means to turbo-charge the character. They permit better assessments to be made, and also develop the sort of character which can put these assessments into action. What is the use of great thought if it is not disseminated, or if the creator of the thought lacks the will power to put it into effect?

We can see throughout the world that great decision makers hold sway, but often they lack kindness and many people suffer needlessly; at other times the decision makers have poor analytical skills, poor knowledge, or are overcome with emotion and cannot assess a situation properly.

The importance of the game of chess is that it develops the last three qualities on the lost to a remarkable degree. Thought, planning, concentration are improved, all important parts of analytical skill. Thought without action is powerless, and action without thought is mindless. So after deliberating a move, the player then has to put his or her money on it - not once, but 40 or 50 times in a game.

There is immense pressure on the ego, and self esteem is severely tested during a long game; something that is often not evident to the onlooker who only sees two people sitting motionless at a board, but is very familiar to the players. This is the sort of pressure that is experienced by a politician or a businessman taking any decision that involves risk and can also be seen when an artist, actor, playwright, or composer produces a new work.

This article is not a pitch for chess as a means for saving the world; it could be pointed out that chess players have not always proved adept at organising their own lives, let alone those of others. But it does show how chess can fit in with the development of character. In this topsy turvy world, it is remarkable that chess is overwhelmingly popular in primary schools, but virtually non existent in secondary schools. It is precisely in the teenage years that the mind should be developing and where chess should be popular; but it is not.

We are not developing the analytical powers of our youth. There are two other groups of people who could particularly benefit from chess - these are females and academics. Physical oppression over centuries has made females risk averse and unwilling to make decisions, but chess can address both these weaknesses and produce a more confident, decisive individual

The same goes for academics, the intellectuals who are more at home in their ivory towers than in getting down and dirty in the messy processes of decision making in real time and in the real world.

So the message of this article is that all of us and all of our children are responsible for saving the world. If we concentrate on the self improvement and the improvement of others and our surroundings, in the space of 40-50 years the major blights on society - war and poverty - will reduce and disappear because these are the result of poor negotiating skills, lack of foresight.

Stupid people will produce a stupid world, average people no more than an average world. Once our children understand that Superman and Harry Potter are imaginary characters, and that they themselves are the reality, they will realise the enormous power and responsibility they have; and they will not want to let others down.

Ultravox: Return to Eden

The first album I ever owned was ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox. I thought it was superb and quite unlike anything else I’d ever heard. Consequently, Ultravox were the first group in which I really took an interest. I even went to see them in concert twice; once for the ‘Quartet’ tour and the other for the ‘Lament’ tour; both times in Newcastle.

I have strongest memories of the ‘Quartet’ show; it was the first concert I ever went to. I remember the curtains drawing apart, the first glimpse of the very impressive ‘Monument’ stage set, the dry ice drifting towards the audience, the first tantalising piece of music from ‘Reap the Wild Wind’…and then suddenly Ultravox were there on the stage, giving it their all.

There was Midge Ure, impossibly cool with his greased-back hair, moustache and sideburns; Warren Cann, pounding the drums into submission and every now and then switching his attention to do ‘something electronic’; Chris Cross, stage-left, master of the bass and definitely the one with the coolest name; Billy Currie, stage-right, lost in a world of keyboards, doing extraordinary things with his legs as he played.

The Messengers, the support act, were part of the main show too, taking up their own position amidst the Monument, stage-left, behind Chris Cross.

I’d not had the ‘Quartet’ album very long at all but every song had already burnt its way deep into my brain, where they remain to this day.

Naturally, they covered all the classic songs from ‘Vienna’ and ‘Rage in Eden’ too. Who can ever forget ‘the bit with all the drums’ at the end of ‘The Voice’?

It was one of those ‘nights you never want to end’. After a wonderful couple of hours, it was suddenly time to climb on the bus back home.

I have seen Midge Ure three times in recent years; once with his band (Newcastle) and twice on his own, acoustically (Darlington and Hartlepool). I never thought there’d be the chance to see Ultravox together again, particularly as there were apparently clashes between certain members.

However, following a period of intense speculation, it was announced last week that they are, incredibly, re-forming for a 2009 tour. Pop along to your usual ticket site if you still can’t believe it, but don’t be so shocked that you forget to snap up some tickets while you are there.

It’s been a long time. I was still at college when I last saw them (that makes it about a quarter of a century ago). Sometimes it’s possible to roll back the years; sometimes it’s not. I am very confident that ‘Return to Eden’ will be a huge success.

Will the next time also be the last time, or will further tours and new recordings follow? Who can say. The only important thing now is to go out there and enjoy it as it happens.

The best place to find all the latest Ultravox news is:

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/

It’s best to add:

http://www.metamatic.com/

....(the official John Foxx website) to your favourites too while you’re at it.

Thanks to the dedicated - and much appreciated - efforts of Cerise Reed and Rob Harris, the two sites have risen far above the level of standard websites and their respective forums are well supported and healthily maintained.

A lot of work has been done on the upgrading and reissuing of Ultravox and John Foxx material and this is an evolving project.

'Vienna' and 'Rage in Eden' have just been given the full treatment (see the official site for full details, including downloadable expanded booklets)





For the best selection of John Foxx material, including limited edition releases (such as the recent 'Impossible' and 'Neuro Video' CDs) you need to keep an eye on:

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/

Impossible

Neuro Video

With so much material being released and 'Return to Eden' a reality, there's never been a better time to (re)discover Ultravox.

Entertainment! Three Great Shows and Two Near Misses

My quest for entertainment recently took me to three fine concerts. It should have been five, but things don't always go according to plan....

Emmylou Harris
Newcastle City Hall
10.9.2008

(Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures. I was relying on the camera on my phone and it struggled to rise to the occasion. Nevertheless, the pictures are included to merely provide a flavour of the occasions. A simple Google search should unearth better pictures for the curious.)

It was a real pleasure to Emmylou Harris. She is one of my absolute, all-time favourites and possesses the finest singing voice I have heard.

She looked and sounded amazing. The two-hour set feaured a sprinkling of the new songs from her most recent CD, 'All I Intended To Be' but there was plenty of room for material from all through her career. 'Pancho and Lefty', 'Red Dirt Girl', 'The Pearl' and 'Born to Run' were the stand-out songs for me.

The five-piece band was on great form too, displaying a mastery of all sorts of instruments (various guitars, drums, mandolins, violins, accordian, various items of bass etc).

I hope it's not too long before Emmylou comes back within reasonable striking distance. She's a simply wonderful artiste.

Stray Cats
Manchester Academy
11.9.2008

I’ve never seen Stray Cats live but have wanted to for some time. When they announced their ‘Farewell European Tour’ I pounced on a ticket a.s.a.p. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as planned.

At the end of a terrific show in Brixton on the previous night, when they did three encores and still looked set for more, Slim Jim Phantom slipped and fell off the stage, breaking his wrist in three places. Rather unfortunate, especially for a drummer.

Despite first announcing that the next show would go on, the more sensible decision was taken to fly Slim Jim back to America for treatment. Unfortunately, that meant that I had a wasted trip to Manchester, as I only found out the show was cancelled as I was getting to leave the hotel.
As yet, there’s no sign of rescheduled European dates but we live in hope.

Stevie Wonder
MEN Arena, Manchester
3.10.2008

I was pleased to return to MEN Arena, in which I’d previously seen the legendary Santana.

This show was similar to the Santana concert in some respects, such as the numerous drummers, generally large amount of musicians (it was quite a packed stage) and the overall sense of rhythm.

I don’t know an awful lot of Stevie Wonder’s work but he was always going to run through his classics. I probably recognised about a third of the songs, mainly those at the latter end of the show.

It was a sell-out show and the audience was very appreciative. Everyone had a whole lot of fun.

Amy MacDonald
Carling Academy, Newcastle
5.10.2008

Unfortunately, illness led to the postponement of this show. Fortunately, I hadn’t booked any train tickets or accommodation for this one and I am available for the rearranged date, so all is well.

Bryan Adams
MEN Arena, Manchester
30.10.2008

I wouldn’t say Bryan Adams was one of my favourite artists, but certainly, it’s easy to listen to most of his work. In fact, it can be a surprise to most people when they stop to think how many of his songs they actually know.

In the 1980s, wiser heads than mine realised that any cassette tape left in a car for more than a couple of months somehow managed to undergo a curious metamorphosis into ‘Queen’s Greatest Hits’. That’s exactly the reason why the whole world grew up knowing so many Queen songs. 20 years on, car cassettes have been completely outmoded by CDs and the modern metamorphosis changes them all into ‘Best of Bryan Adams’ discs.

Anyway, I knew the show would be an entertaining display of pop-rock and going to such things keeps me off the streets. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised; the show was much better than I was expecting it to be.

Emerging through the crowd to a small stage in the middle of the standing area, he started off with a number of powerful acoustic numbers, before pointing to the main stage and shouting, ‘The band!’ The stage, formerly in darkness, was instantly lit up and the band started playing as Mr Adams started to wend himself towards them, shaking hands all along the way. With a final wiggle of his bottom as he ascended the stage-side ladder, he joined the band and launched into hit after hit after hit.

It was a very energetic performance and it was probably the noisiest audience (in a good way) that I have known. At one point, a young lady, randomly selected, was invited onto the stage to sing a duet. She did well!

The energy levels didn’t dip all night. The encore lasted for five songs (the last three acoustically solo) and then suddenly it was time to go home.

A very impressive display! If any readers have the chance to see Mr Adams and co. doing their thing, I’d advise them to snap up the opportunity. It won’t be regretted.

Coming up next in my quest for entertainment....the 'Dimensions' Doctor Who Convention at Newcastle. A full report will naturally appear in due course.

Chess Reviews: 70

King’s Indian Attack
By GM Nigel Davies
ChessBase

GM Davies has had considerable experience with the King’s Indian Attack and is the ideal choice of presenter for this DVD.

Over the course of more than five hours, he guides the viewer through the main strategies and plans of the King’s Indian Attack via 23 illustrative games.

Given the somewhat slippery nature of the KIA, the coverage focuses more on the ideas and plans side of things rather than specific move orders and lengthy theoretical lines.

GM Davies explains that there are two main ways to add the KIA to one’s repertoire. It is possible to use it in all games via the normal move-order 1 Nf3, 2 g3 etc. Played that way, it can be a good practical choice for club players, especially those with little time to follow the latest theoretical developments.

It can also act as an extra string to a 1 e4 player’s bow. For example, the French Defence can be met by 1 e4 e6 2 d3 (an occasional Fischer favourite) and the Sicilian can come in for the same treatment too, especially after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d3.

The Caro-Kann isn’t immune either; there are a couple of illustrative games showing how the late, great GM Leonid Stein roughing up those who tried to keep his tactical ability at bay with 1 …c6.

The first half of the DVD looks at games arising from 1 e4 and 1 Nf3 is examined in the latter half.

The first illustrative game shows the 11th World Champion in action, demonstrating the sort of devastation a strong player can inflict once having seized a deadly combination of extra space and the initiative on the Kingside.

Fischer v Myagmarsuren Sousse 1967

The game is famous, but if you haven’t seen it before then why not see if you can spot the mating finale.

One problem from White’s point of view is that Black has a very tough nut to crack in the form of this key position.

Dolmatov - Lautier
Rubinstein Memorial 1991

GM Davies advocates an aggressive plan with 8 Nh4 and 9 f4. Conventional wisdom has it that Black is comfortable after 8 …f5 or 8 …f6 (well known to French Defence aficionados, thanks mainly to the efforts of top 1...e6 author John Watson). The presenter freely acknowledges that the system is a good one for Black. His solution is a suggestion to trade pawns with 9 exd5 and to focus attention on the potential weaknesses on the e-file.

Naturally, starting a game with 1 Nf3 grants the opponent quite an array of different responses, including some odd looking tries. Black’s standard defensive tries are all nicely covered and lines are also given to cover peculiar tries such as 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 g3 b5 (incidentally, a former Karpov favourite).

So, dear readers, when it comes to the King’s Indian Attack the choice is yours; it can be your main White weapon or an occasional addition to your existing repertoire. Either way, studying this DVD is a great way to acquaint yourself with all the knowledge you need to get yourself up an running with a new opening.

Power Play 7:
Improve Your Pieces
By GM Daniel King
ChessBase

Grandmaster King starts the latest DVD in his impressive series by jumping straight into 16 test positions, encouraging the viewer to use a set of real pieces with which to conduct the analysis.

He also recommends playing through all of the moves up until the point that each test position is reached, to appreciate the flow of the game and provide an instructive link between the different phases of the game. Such an approach will help the student build up a series of clues towards the correct continuations.

Having made the viewer work, GM King then introduces the content of the DVD.

The path to improving one’s pieces relies on manoeuvring, often in a general sense. Particular attention is paid to pawn structures and their influence on various pieces, in the context of whether they are good or bad; for example, the hypothetical bad ‘French Bishop’.

The test positions are explained, one by one, with follow-up lectures to broaden the picture with further instructive illustrative games. GM King breaks things down to the basics, piece by piece, but impresses the need to keep a sharp tactical eye despite the outwardly positional nature of the games.

Little anecdotes are often given too, such as the presenter reminiscing about GM Keene announcing loudly - Victorian-style - checkmate in three against him!

Here are a couple of samples from the test positions to give an indication as to what to expect.

Illescas Cordoba - Short
Linares 1995

How should White continue?

King - Larsen
Hastings 1990

This one is a cautionary lesson. White eventually won after 73 moves, but sometimes deep manoeuvring can lead to curious oversights by even the great players. What should White play here?

There are 28 lectures with the length of each one varying between two and a half minutes and 27 and a half minutes. The total run time is just under 5 hours; excellent value for money, as always with ChessBase.

A run of five games by Kramnik towards the end of the DVD show the former World Champion on rather better form than he was in his recent title challenge.

The ‘Afterword’ makes good use of a Fischer game, highlighting the temptation to win material mid-way through the unfolding of a plan.

Taking material can win a game, but can also be a distraction, destroying concentration and changing a formerly favourable trend of play. It’s a tricky problem and one we’re prone to get wrong over the board. Fischer’s powerful game should help us all think twice before stalling a good plan to pick up sundry booty.

It is possible to play all of the video clips without analysing the test positions, and the viewer would definitely learn a lot. However, by the far the most rewarding experience would be to enter fully into the spirit of the presentation; trying very hard to assess the given positions before moving on and comparing one’s findings with the chess secrets revealed by GM King.

This is another excellent addition to a very fine series. Products on the middlegame might not have the quick-fix appeal as a manual on an opening but the lessons given here are for life; no amount of developing theory is ever going to dilute the wisdom provided here.

For further details of Chessbase products, please go to:
http://www.chessbase.com/

Missed a review? Pop along to my archive:
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2007/12/chess-review-archive.html

New: Openings Workshop

Former British Senior Chess Champion Norman Stephenson has started a series of articles covering interesting opening ideas.

The first of his articles can be found over on my junior chess site:

http://www.chesslinksproject.btik.com/p_Home.ikml

Chess Reviews: 69

How Chess Games are Won and Lost
By GM Lars Bo Hansen
Gambit Publications
256 pages

In his introduction, Danish Grandmaster Lars Bo Hansen outlines the five main phases of the game and outlines his proposed plan to help readers on the way to chess improvement.

Right from the start there something a little bit different from the normal chess improvement manual. The phases of the game are usually considered fully listed as merely opening, middlegame and endgame but here the two main phases of transition are given full coverage and encouraged to celebrate their own special existence rather then act of bits and pieces of the other phases.

The contents of the book fall quite naturally into six main sections:

The Opening

The principles of the opening play are discussed and there is a considerable amount of practical advice on how to build an opening repertoire.

One subsection, ‘Where Does the Opening End?’, examines a position at move 27 of a Queen’s Indian Defence - the belated starting point of theory!

Several top-level game continuations are quoted. The author goes on to say that this sort of extremely deep preparation is something beyond the reach of all but the very top player, and the important thing for lesser mortals is to develop a repertoire that can match one’s own style and strengths.

The Transition to the Early Middlegame

Following a general discussion about central pawn structures - in which the Chigorin Variation of the Ruy Lopez comes under specific scrutiny - the author switches his attention to play arising from the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit, examining, in great detail, the possibilities for both sides.

The Middlegame

Various methods of battling for the advantage are examined, followed by a general look at typical middlegame tactics.

Some are really eye-catching, including this fantastic display of ‘quiet moves’. The moves are fully annotated in the book; for now, just enjoy the sequence and try and fathom out the motives for each of Tal’s surprising moves…

Tal - Miller
Simultaneous Display, LA 1988
23 h4! Qg3 24 Rd1! Rf2 25 Qxf2! Bxf2 26 Rxd5! 1-0

Transition from Middlegame to Endgame

Strategic Endgames are on the agenda in this section, in which ‘…The value of concrete calculations and tactics is decreasing, while long term factors take over centre stage’.

Technical Endgames

The author provides a subjective selection of illustrative positions, with the emphasis firmly on those form his own experience. There’s also some interesting material on unbalanced material situations, such as Rook and Bishop v Rook.

Practical Tips

The tips given include how to work with computers and how top prepare for specific opponents.
The concluding tips feature acronyms geared up to assists players in time-trouble. Specifically: DAUT, NUPM and KAPP. The first of these (originally formulated by GM Nunn) stands for ‘Don’t Analyse Unnecessary Tactics’. Dear readers, if you don’t know the others you’ll just have to buy the book to find out.

This is an interesting and very readable book. It is similar in style to John Watson’s ‘Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy’ and GM Yermolinsky‘s ‘The Road to Chess Improvement’; if you liked those books, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

The author has clearly worked very hard to produce an impressive manual for the developing chess player. Readers will find an abundance entertainment and instruction in this excellent book.

101 Chess Questions Answered
By FM Steve Giddins
Gambit Publications
128 pages

I enjoyed reviewing a previous book by FM Giddins (see review column 31: http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2007/11/chess-reviews-31.html) and was looking forward to the release of this one.

In his own words:

‘This book covers a wide variety of aspects of chess, including tactics, strategy, openings, middlegame and endgame, chess history, computer chess and chess organization. It is aimed primarily at relative newcomers to the game, especially those who are familiar with the rules of chess, but have little or no experience of competitive play.’

Each ‘Chess Question’ and its answer typically takes up one page (occasionally two).

The material is split into eight sections:

General

The Opening

Tactics and Combinations

Planning and Strategy

Positional Play

The Endgame

Competitive Play

Training and Computers et al.

The early questions and answers offer advice on how to go about finding a chess club, before covering some basics of the openings.

The tactics are fairly elementary and work well as illustrative examples. The reader has the opportunity to spot winning continuations against six world champions on the road to improving their tactical skill.

Solokovsky - Lasker
Simultaneous, Moscow 1899
White to play and force resignation.

‘Positional Play’ asks questions about all sorts of pawn structures and comparisons of the strengths of various pieces.

Here’s one example:

‘Knowing which pieces to exchange and which to retain is an essential part of positional play. One very good reason for exchanging pieces is to remove a key enemy unit.

Makogonov - Botvinnik
Sverdlovsk 1943

The light squares in White’s camp, d3, e4, f3 etc., are weak. Botvinnik immediately exchanges off the two white minor pieces that can defend those squares, leaving White with only his dark-squared bishop:

13 …Bxc3! 14 bxc3 Bf5! 15`Bxf5 Qxf5

Now the weakness of the light squares is very clear. Black has a large positional advantage, and went on to win.’

Incidentally, despite Botvinnik making things looks simple (and there are plenty more examples of him doping exactly that in this book), Makogonov was certainly not a weak player. At Sverdlovsk he held second place, behind Botvinnik, ahead of the likes of Smyslov, Kan and Boleslavsky.

I’m not sure that all of the chess books selected for further reading will necessarily hold the attention of a relative newcomer. Some of them, such as Rueben Fine’s Basic Chess Endings and Alekhine’s books on the New York 1924 and Nottingham 1936 tournament, will come across as somewhat unwieldy or unwelcoming, due to their old fashioned and dated layouts. Frankly, updated algebraic editions of some of the real classics are required to make them more accessible for the modern audience.

This book is absolutely ideal for players new to club and tournament chess who would like to plug a plethora of gaps in their knowledge with the minimum of time and fuss. Players with greater experience should also enjoy browsing the contents, especially as some of the illustrative games will almost certainly be new to them.

For further details regarding the Gambit books, please visit their website: http://www.gambitbooks.com/

Lasker’s Manual of Chess
By GM Emanuel Lasker
Russell Enterprises
278 pages

Grandmaster Emanuel Lasker, the second World Champion, was a fine writer. His Manual of Chess is a famous work and the ‘New 21 Century Edition’ aspires to bring this classic work to the appreciation of the modern audience.

The ‘Foreword’ is by GM Mark Dvoretsky and he states that the manual ‘…has not lost its relevance even now, some eighty years after it was first published’.

He concludes:

‘Once you have read the Manual, you will become wiser, which is bound to help you later on, both in chess and in life.’

Taylor Kingston highlights some particularly interesting parts of the manual and explains the extent of his editorial duties. These include checking the analysis with a computer, converting the descriptive notation into algebraic and adding pertinent snippets of ‘Lasker Lore’ at various junctures.

The original work is further augmented by the addition of a number of classic photographs of Lasker and his contemporaries, plus the great man’s tournament and match record.

Lasker’s Manual is divided into six ‘books’.

The Elements of Chess

Lasker starts at the very beginning, with the number of squares of the chessboard, the names and moves of the pieces plus some elementary checkmates and endings.

The Theory of Openings

Typically, for the time it was written, the opening coverage is very heavily biased in favour of King’s Pawn Openings. Theory was very much in its infancy in those days. Lasker’s notes are very much in the style of a common sense survey.

The Combination

Experienced players will start to enjoy the material more from this ‘book’ onwards. The combinations draw heavily from games by the likes of Steinitz, Tarrasch and Capablanca.
Here’s one of the simpler examples…

Steinitz - Hirschfeld
1 Nh5! 1-0

Position Play

The meat of this section is Lasker’s in-depth review of the theories of Steinitz. He does not stint in his praise and appreciation of his predecessor. Such honest thoughts are rare when one champion writes about another, although Garry Kasparov has followed Lasker’s lead in recent years.

‘The world did not comprehend how much Steinitz had given it; even chess players did not comprehend it.’

The Aesthetic Effect in Chess

The search for real beauty in chess involves the examination of wonderful studies in addition to famous combinations.

The following passage is typical of Lasker’s delightful writing style:

‘Let us now conceive of the simple case of a recital. We are told a story. David, no larger nor stronger than any one of us, vanquishes the challenging giant Goliath by means of a sling. If David approached his enemy, the giant would use his exceeding power and his terrible weapons, the brutal force would consume its adversary as a dragon would a lamb. But the brutal force does not get its way, it is subdued by the force of the spirit. When mind overcomes matter, we are charmed.

In chess the brutal force is composed of the number, strength, and mobility of the pieces and the difficulty of the task set. If this brutal force is bested by the few in number, the slight I strength, in moves which indicate rather weakness than force, which announce rather defeat than triumph, by the power of the spirit, by an idea which, seemingly absurd, yet is truth itself, we are delighted.’

His first example is a problem composed by another of his illustrious predecessors.

By Paul Morphy
White to play and mate in two moves

Examples and Models

Lasker presents numerous illustrative games and positions to demonstrate his ideas and theories in practice. The author uses only a single example of his own play, preferring instead to highlight magnificent technique by such giants as Alekhine, Capablanca, Bogolyubov and Rubinstein.
In his concluding thoughts on ‘Education in Chess’, Lasker, as part of bid to add structure to the teaching of chess, offers a timetable to guide a Master in the education of ‘…a young man, ignorant of chess’.

Rules of Play and Exercises: 5 hours
Elementary Endings: 5 hours
Some Openings: 10 hours
Combination: 20 hours
Position Play: 40 hours
Play and Analysis: 120 hours

The final section, ’Analytical Endnotes’, covers corrections and amendments to Lasker’s work by Taylor Kingston. This takes 24 pages and is done in a very respectful way rather than a critical one.

It’s good to see such a classic book treated with the respect, care and attention it deserves. Naturally, some of the original content has dated and is ‘only’ of historical interest. However, the bulk of the work retains its vitality and will provide many hours of entertainment and instruction, from the man who was World Champion for just under 27 years.

Hopefully, Russell Enterprises will continue to resurrect chess classics in this manner. How about the aforementioned Alekhine tournament books…?

For more on books from Russell Enterprises, pop along to:
http://www.chesscafe.com/

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http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2007/12/chess-review-archive.html