Some Recent Books
I didn't request the books and had stopped blogging months before, but the publishers sent them anyway. They won't be reviewed here in anything like a complete sense, but I'll offer a few short sentences about each before asking the publishers to cease and desist.
1. Chess Tests, by Mark Dvoretsky.
Let's start with a reliable entry. When famed trainer Mark Dvoretsky died in 2016, he had several books in the pipeline, and this is one of them. (The delay is in part due to the need for his original work, in Russian, to be translated into English.) I've spent some time with this work, and can say that it's excellent, as usual, and also as usual it's aimed at stronger players. While it's far from his most challenging work (that would be his Analytical Manual, which can bring even GMs to tears), your money would be better spent elsewhere unless you're rated at least 2000. If you are 2000+ and willing to work hard, it's warmly recommended.
2. A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire: New Edition, by Chris Baker and Graham Burgess.
This is a revision of a work first published 21 years ago. The 1.e4 repertoire for White offered by Chris Baker wasn't considered terribly frightening back then, and that's putting it mildly. Graham Burgess has updated the work, but I don't know why. The repertoire suggestions were harmless then and they're harmless now. You can trust me on this: I incorporated parts of that repertoire for a year or two! It was effective against players I would have been a big favorite against with any sane repertoire, but not against anyone else. It might be okay for the extremely lazy or for those looking for a little change of pace, but really: save your money. (Or if you're looking for a repertoire book, get Larry Kaufman's new book, which has the further benefit of giving a repertoire for both sides.)
3. Chess Tactics Workbook for Kids, by John Nunn.
Does the world need more chess tactics books? No, not really. But if one doesn't already have a surfeit of tactics books (or CDs/DVDs/apps/web subscriptions) in their own libraries, this is a decent book for the post-beginner working up to the low 1000s. The book has 13 chapters, most of which are dedicated to stock tactical themes: fork, pin, skewer, deflection and decoy, discovered attack, etc. If you (or the potential recipient) don't (doesn't) already have plenty of books of this sort and is rated below the low 1000s, it's a book worth considering.
4. Chess Logic in Practice, by Erik Kislik.
This is the most interesting-looking book of the bunch, as it covers atypical topics. The originality of the book starts from the jump, as even before the Foreword IM Kislik offers an unusual scale of material values: queen = 10, rook = 5.25, bishop = 3.55, knight = 3.45, pawn = 1, bishop-pair +0.50 bonus, one tempo +0.25. For the rook pair he suggests a 0.30 pawn deduction, unless it's two rooks against a queen, in which case there's no deduction (or bonus).
The book has two parts: the first is "Thinking Concepts", and the second is "Positional Concepts". Among the sections in the first part are "Optical Biases", "Overpressing", "When Playing a Bad Move Wins a Good Game", and "When You Have to Go for It". The second part includes sections like "Sliding Moves", "Playing with a Bad Queen", "Painfully Slow Moves", and "Neutral Bad Bishops". (The last, seemingly oxymoronic title reminds us that calling a bishop "bad" in the technical sense means that the bishop in question is hemmed in by its own pawns, particularly one or more center pawns. It does not mean that the bishop is an especially ineffective piece.)
While not every topic is as new as Kislik's catchy headers suggest, the book covers a lot of fresh ground and will expand most readers' fund of chess concepts. I'd recommend browsing the book on the publisher's (Gambit's) website, Amazon, or wherever else you can find a sample. My guess for the target audience is around 1800 and up, but if you're below that and find the book attractive after reading the sample, go for it.
Reader Comments (1)
Does Kislik offer good arguments for his piece values?