A Book Notice for Dvoretsky's For Friends & Colleagues, Volume 1
Mark Dvoretsky, For Friends & Colleagues, Volume 1: Profession of a Chess Coach. Russell Enterprises, 2014. 384 pp., $29.95.
Mark Dvoretsky was a fine player in his own day, making it to around 35th in the world rankings, but he is best known as one of the world's most successful trainers and the author of some of the most challenging training material ever written.
This book is not of that sort, and is not meant to be. Dvoretsky has written a memoir, of which this is the first part. (The nature of the forthcoming second part isn't especially clear.) In it he first discusses his playing career, then his work as a trainer of such stars as Artur Yusupov, Sergey Dolmatov and Alexey Dreev, and then spends some time talking about his writings (which primarily flowed from his work as a trainer).
The book has some chess content, but it's mostly a pleasant trip down memory lane. At least the trip is pleasant for the reader; for Dvoretsky, remembering some of the disagreeable aspects of living in the Soviet Union would naturally be less of a delight. Dvoretsky has critical things to say about a good many people, but there are others he praises - and some individuals are recipients of both sorts of comments. There aren't any training "secrets" in this book, though he has some insightful things to say about the training process - both in terms of nuts-and-bolts and psychology too.
The writing (or perhaps the translation, or a combination of both) is occasionally a bit dry, and there are chunks of the book that will be of more interest to those with a deep knowledge of chess and life under the Soviet regime. Nevetheless, if you're a Dvoretsky fan and/or a fan of chess history, you'll enjoy and want to get the book. If you like chess stories and a bit of "dirt", you'll probably also like this book. Also, while the chess content is light by Dvoretsky standards, there are around 90 lightly annotated games and game fragments in the book, and as one would expect they are interesting and often instructive as well. It's not a perfect book, but I think that many readers of this blog will want to pick up a copy.
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