Upcoming Chess Books

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

November 28, 2020

Chess Board Options: A Memoir of Players, Games and Engines

by Larry Kaufman

Paperback, 208 pages
New in Chess, 2021

Publisher’s Blurb

Larry Kaufman can safely be called an exceptional chess grandmaster. He started out as a prodigy, however not in chess but as a whizz kid in science and math. He excels at Shogi (Japanese chess) and Go, and is also a world-famous computer programmer and a highly successful option trader. Remarkably, as a chess player he only peaked at the weirdly late age of fifty.

Yet his victories in the chess arena are considerable. Over a career span of nearly sixty years Kaufman won the state championships of Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, Virginia, D.C. and Pennsylvania. He was an American Open Champion and won the U.S. Senior Championship as well as the World Senior Championship.

‘Never a great chess player’ himself (his words), he met or played chess greats such as Bobby Fischer, Bent Larsen, Walter Browne, Boris Spassky, Viktor Kortchnoi and many others. He worked as a second to legendary grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, and coached three talented youngsters to become International Master, one of them his son Raymond.

This engrossing memoir is rife with stories and anecdotes about dozens of famous and not-so-famous chess players. You will learn about neural networks, material values and how being a chess master helps when trading options. And find lots of memorable but little-known annotated games.

The Author

Larry Kaufman is an American Grandmaster. He has been involved in computer chess since 1967, when he worked on ‘MacHack’, the first computer that competed in tournaments with human players. More recently he has been working on the programs Rybka and Komodo. His book ‘Kaufman’s New Repertoire for Black and White’ is an acclaimed bestseller.

See also:

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Larry_Kaufman

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

December 3, 2020

My Chess Stories

By Vlastimil Hort

Hardcover, 176 pages
Nava Publishing, 2020
In English

Publisher’s Blurb

In this book Vlastimil Hort talks about his personal experiences and encounters in the chess world. A long stay in hospital when he was five years old and a caring doctor who explained the chess rules to him were the beginning of his great passion.

Today, at the age of 76, he can look back on a turbulent and successful chess life. He has participated in tournaments almost all over the world - some of them still legendary today, such as the match »USSR against the rest of the world« At his peak he was among the ten best chess players in the world.

With his unmistakable Bohemian talent for storytelling, he now gives a lively insight behind the scenes of the chess world in 64 stories - sometimes with amusement, sometimes with nostalgia, but always entertainingly and to the point.

The Author

Vlastimil Hort (*1944 in Kladno) is a Czech-German chess grandmaster. After studying economics he decided to pursue a professional chess career in 1968, after the Soviet occupation. He emigrated to Germany in 1985. Hort won the Czechoslovakian chess championships six times and was the German chess champion three times. In his career he has won more than 80 international tournaments.

For 22 years he hosted a popular chess show in German television together with Helmut Pfleger. His humorous contributions are still very well remembered by chess aficionados today.

Contents

1 You’re a free man!
2 The clou
3 Yo se!
4 A duel
5 Tibor Kendelenyi alias Ctibor Kende
6 Silver Spoons
7 A new Star was born
8 Bronstein didn’t win a single game
9 Fallen off the chair
10 Brawlers
11 Waterlogged Rat
12 One Step Forward
13 In Najdorf’s Footsteps
14 A costly affair
15 Who’s Right
16 Colleagues
17 The Czech Engine
18 O Christmas Tree
19 Veni, vidi, vidi
20 Chess companions
21 Toadstools
22 The Good Soldier Svejk
23 Orangutan
24 Dreamers don’t sin
25 A magnetic night
26 The Troublemaker
27 No answer is also an answer
28 Last round a la Bronstein
29 Troyka
30 Tailor’s trap
31 Adjourned
32 A Case of Cash
33 A Case for Sherlock Holmes
34 A Chess Love
35 Good News – Bad News
36 Croatian wisdom
37 Tap, tap from Heaven Above
38 How to be a Blockhead
39 Kerem szepen
40 I’ll check them all
41 Little Round of Poker
42 Vyjezdni dolozka
43 Deep View
44 Much Ado about Nothing
45 A hairdresser never forgets!
46 Who did it?
47 Denial
48 Two Czechs – One Idea
49 From Saul to Paul
50 Earthquake
51 Survival Guide
52 Free Press
53 Visiting the Tals in Troisdorf
54 How to learn French
55 Gellert furdo 1993
56 Fresh start. Green Hornet
57 Sushi
58 Outstanding Invoice
59 King’s Gambit a la Spassky
60 It’s never too late
61 Nonsense
62 Lady in Black
63 Mea culpa?
64 Force majeure

Index


See the review of the German version:

Meine Schachgeschichten (2019)

https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...ss-books/page3

Teasers

From Chapter 21 Toadstools

The deep forests of Slavonia are a mushroom-collector’s paradise. I learned collecting mushrooms as a seven-year-old from my father. After the war mushrooms were an essential food-stock for survival in my home town. Necessity turned into a passion in later times. The forest is my home.

The chef of the hotel Kunjevci was pleased with my findings and added deliciously prepared porcini mushrooms to my menu. The mushroom season was in full swing, just as the tournament in Vinkovci 1967. Around noon was my time to go to the mushrooms. On one of these occasions I met Bobby Fischer at the exit door. “Yes, I’m going to collect mushrooms. Will you join me?” He turned on his heels and was back in a few minutes. I checked his equipment – good shoes, a jackknife and a large basket. Everything was in order.

From Chapter 53 Visiting the Tals in Troisdorf

I rang the bell at a well-known door at a bungalow in Troisdorf. “Please come forward, Vlastimil”, I was greeted warmly and Tal’s wife Engelina led me to a comfy living room. “Mischa will be with you in a minute.”

Shortly afterwards he appeared, the ingenious world champion, as always with a cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth. When we shook hands, I noticed the tremor. We all knew. Mischa needed his alcohol level. Before he could start the day, he needed a mug of strong coffee. Nobody mentioned that half of it consisted of Johnnie Walker.

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

December 17, 2020

The Life and Games of Vasily Smyslov
Volume I, The Early Years 1921-1948

By Andrey Terekhov

Russell Enterprises, 2020
Hardcover, 536 pages

Publisher’s Blurb

Vasily Smyslov, the seventh world champion, had a long and illustrious chess career. He played close to 3,000 tournament games over seven decades, from the time of Lasker and Capablanca to the days of Anand and Carlsen. From 1948 to 1958, Smyslov participated in four world championships, becoming world champion in 1957.
Smyslov continued playing at the highest level for many years and made a stunning comeback in the early 1980s, making it to the finals of the candidates’ cycle. Only the indomitable energy of 20-year-old Garry Kasparov stopped Smyslov from qualifying for another world championship match at the ripe old age of 63!
In this first volume of a multi-volume set, Russian FIDE master Andrey Terekhov traces the development of young Vasily from his formative years and becoming the youngest grandmaster in the Soviet Union to finishing second in the world championship match tournament. With access to rare Soviet-era archival material and invaluable family archives, the author complements his account of Smyslov’s growth into an elite player with dozens of fascinating photographs, many never seen before, as well as 49 deeply annotated games. German grandmaster Karsten Müller’s special look at Smyslov’s endgames rounds out this fascinating first volume.

The Author

St. Petersburg native Andrey Terekhov is a FIDE Master, an ICCF International Master (correspondence chess) and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science. His best results at the board were victories in the 2008 Munich Open and the 2012 Nabokov Memorial. He currently resides in Singapore.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. First Steps 1935-37

Parents and Childhood
Chess Education at Home
The First Tournaments
The First Publications
The First Victories over Masters
Chapter 1 Games

Chapter 2. The Breakthrough Year – 1938

USSR junior Championship
The First Adult Tournaments
The Higher Education Quandary
Candidate Master
1938 Moscow Championship
Chapter 2 Games

Chapter 3. The Young Master – 1939-1940

1939 Leningrad/Moscow Training Tournament
The Run-Up to the 1940 USSR Championship
Chapter 3 Games

Chapter 4. Third in the Soviet Union – 1940

World Politics and Chess
Pre-tournament Forecasts
Round-By-Round Overview
After the Tournament
Chapter 4 Games

Chapter 5. Grandmaster of the Soviet Union – 1941

The Run-Up to the 1941 Absolute Championship
Round-By-Round Overview
The Impact of the Absolute Championship
Chapter 5 Games

Chapter 6. The War Years – 1941-45

1941-42 Evacuation to Kazakhstan
1942 Kuibyshev Tournament
1942-43 Tournaments: The Moscow Championship and Sverdlovsk
1943/44 Moscow Championship
1944 USSR Championship
1944/45 Moscow Championship
Chapter 6 Games

Chapter 7. After the War – 1945-46

1945 USSR Championship
1945 USSR-USA Radio Match
1945 Trade Unions Team Championship
The British Tournaments Controversy
1946 Moscow Championship
Alekhine-Botvinnik Match
Smyslov in Czechoslovakia
1946 USSR – Great Britain Radio Match
Chapter 7 Games

Chapter 8. Groningen – 1946

An Informal Candidates Tournament
The Ups and Downs of the Three Prize Winners
Chapter 8 Games

Chapter 9. Interregnum – 1946-47

1946 USSR-USA Match
1947 USSR Championship
The Run-Up to the World Championship Match-Tournament
Chapter 9 Games

Chapter 10. The 1948 World Championship Match-Tournament

Preparations for the Match-Tournament
The Hague
Moscow
After the Tournament
Chapter 10 Games

Chapter 11. Nadezhda Andreevna

Appendix A Smyslov’s System in the Grunfeld Defense

Appendix B Smyslov’s Endgames by Karsten Muller

Bibliography
_________

This appears to be another outstanding book of chess history and the definitive work on Smyslov. We are very lucky to be living in this era of great publishing.

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

March 9, 2021

I just heard of this book today:

He’s Got Moves: 25 Legendary Chess Games (As Analyzed by a Smart Kid)

By Oliver Boydell

Metabook, 2020
Hardcover, 287 pages

Publisher’s Blurb:

Chess prodigy Oliver Boydell breaks down 25 of the most riveting games ever played. From Adolf Anderssen's victory over Lionel Kieseritzky in 1851 to Magnus Carlsen's online triumph against Anish Giri in 2020, Boydell educates and entertains fellow lovers of the game with his sharp analysis. Among the legendary players included in this volume are: Mikhail Botvinnik, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Judit Polgar, Akiba Rubinstein, Boris Spassky, and many more.

The Author:

Oliver Boydell was born in New York City to a Vietnamese mother and an English father. A National Chess Champion and a New York City Chess Champion, Oliver developed a passion for chess at the age of five. He started competing in chess tournaments during the same year and is a regular contender at New York City, New York State, and National Scholastic Chess Championships. Oliver endeavors to become a chess Grandmaster. He loves sports, especially playing soccer and skiing down double black runs with his older brother Sebastien. Oliver is ten years old and lives in New York City with his family.

____________

I will not spoil the pleasure of the first fifteen games in the book by giving the combatants but the last ten are Byrne vs Fischer, Larsen vs Spassky, Spassky vs Fischer, Karpov vs Korchnoi, Kasparov vs Portisch, Short vs Timman, Anand vs Ivanchuk, Shirov vs Polgar, So vs Prusikin and finally, Carlsen vs Giri.

You will have to buy the book to see the exact games.

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

March 27, 2021

Quality Chess UK has some interesting upcoming books for 2021 on its webpage:

http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks...ss-catalog.pdf

Mark Taimanov
I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer

Soviet legend Mark Taimanov analyses his disastrous match against the American chess hurricane, as well as their two previous games.

Tal & Stetsko
The Chess Alchemist

In this gem of a book, Oleg Stetsko has compiled 80 of Tal’s games, as annotated by the Magician himself in a variety of sources, many of which have been translated into English for the very first time here.

Nigel Short
Winning

Winning tournaments takes more than just winning one game at a time. Analysing 8 of his tournament wins, spread over decades, former World Championship challenger Nigel Short shows how winning works.

Ivan Sokolov
Magnus Carlsen’s Middlegame Evolution

Carlsen is revered for his technical prowess, but recently he has made the greatest strides in middlegame play. Super-GM Ivan Sokolov shows what we can learn from the World Champion in this crucial part of the game.

Tibor Karolyi
The Road to Reykjavik

Tibor Karolyi has produced some of the chess world’s best biographical works. Here he documents Fischer’s unique journey, 50 years after the American chess icon won the right to challenge Spassky.

Mihail Marin
Learn from Bent Larsen

GM Mihail Marin examines Bent Larsen’s best games, showcasing the unorthodox and combative style of play for which the Danish legend was loved and admired by chess fans around the world.

Michael Adams & Phil Hurtado
Think Like a Super-GM

Michael Adams, with help from Phil Hurtado, compares his thoughts to those of players of all levels and helps the reader to see how they can transform their thinking.

Gawain Jones
Coffeehouse Repertoire 1.e4 1&2

These two volumes constitute nothing short of a 1.e4 player’s sweetest dream: a complete repertoire supplied by a top-class GM, combining coffeehouse trickery with theoretical rigour.

[Marc Andre Beaudry]

I will gladly read Ivan Sokolov's book about Carlsen middlegames. This should be fascinating. Mihail Marin book on Larsen should be a great read. Marin is a good author and Larsen is a great forgotten player. He was one of the first to play a4 and h4 consistently and strongly.

Michael Adams book should be a must read also.

I heartily recommend Wesley So chessable e4 part 1 and 2 LTR (lifetime repertoire). This to me is a book of the year. Wesley chooses sound and agressive openings and he is a great teacher.

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

May 29, 2021

Two on Fischer are about to be published.

The Unstoppable American
Bobby Fischer’s Road to Reykjavik

By Jan Timman

New in Chess (2021)
Hardcover and Paperback
In English
256 pages

Publisher’s Blurb

Initially things looked gloomy for Bobby Fischer. Because he had refused to participate in the 1969 US Championship, he had missed his chance to qualify for the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca. Only when another American, Pal Benko, withdrew in his favour, and after the officials were willing to bend the rules, could Bobby enter the contest. And begin his phenomenal run that would end with the Match of the Century in Reykjavik against World Champion Boris Spassky.

Fischer started out by sweeping the field at the 23-round Palma Interzonal to qualify for the next stage of the cycle. In the Candidates Matches he first faced Mark Taimanov, in Vancouver. Fischer trounced the Soviet ace, effectively ending Taimanov’s career. Then, a few months later in Denver, he was up against Bent Larsen, the Great Dane. Fischer annihilated him, too. The surreal score in those two matches, twice 6-0, flabbergasted chess fans all over the world.

In the ensuing Candidates Final in Buenos Aires, Fischer also made short shrift of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, beating the hyper-solid ‘Armenian Tiger’ 6½-2½. Altogether, Fischer had scored an incredible 36 points from 43 games against many of the world’s best players, including a streak of 19 consecutive wins. Bobby Fischer had become not just a national hero in the US, but a household name with pop-star status all over the world.

Jan Timman chronicles the full story of Fischer’s sensational run and takes a fresh look at the games. The annotations are in the author’s trademark lucid style, that happy mix of colourful background information and sharp, crystal-clear explanations.

The Author

Jan Timman is the author of many bestselling books. His Timman’s Titans won the 2017 ECF Book of the Year Award. In The Longest Game, Timman revisited the epic rivalry between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. His most recent book Timman’s Triumphs: My 100 Best Games again met with wide acclaim.

Contents

Preface
Prologue

Chapter 1 The road to Palma
Chapter 2 Palma de Mallorca
Chapter 3 The match versus Mark Taimanov
Chapter 4 The match versus Bent Larsen
Chapter 5 The match versus Tigran Petrosian

Index of openings
Index of Names
Bibliography
_____________

I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer

By Mark Taimanov

Quality Chess (Glasgow) (2021)
Hardcover
In English
248 pages

Publisher’s Blurb

In 1971 Robert James Fischer defeated Mark Taimanov by the sensational score of 6–0 in Vancouver, but the match games were far more competitive and tension-filled than the final score would suggest. Twenty years later Taimanov put pen to paper, reflecting on the experience. Exactly 50 years after the match, this is the first English translation of Taimanov’s original Russian text.

Taimanov, one of the elite Soviet grandmasters of his time, provides a richly detailed, honest and emotional account of the drama on and off the board. Despite the catastrophic match score, his love for the game of chess is evident throughout. Taimanov also discusses his early acquaintance with Fischer from 1960, including detailed annotations of both of their pre-1971 games, as well as the personal consequences of the match result.

With fascinating additional archive material and analytical contributions from some of the brightest young stars of the American chess scene today, I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer is the ultimate insight into one of the most famous matches in chess history.

About the Author (from the Publisher’s Foreword)

I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer sounds like the sort of ‘jazzed-up’ title a Western publisher might choose instead of the sober title the Russian author preferred. But that’s not the case here – I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer is a direct translation of the Russian title Mark Taimanov wanted.

The author is sadly no longer with us, having died at the age of 90 in 2016, but his wishes were clearly expressed to us by his Russian publisher and his widow: his title was to be used, his text was to be faithfully translated – a task Douglas Griffin performed admirably – and no computer corrections added in his main text. If we wanted to add text, we could do so at the beginning of the book and the end, but his story should flow as he intended in the heart of the book. We were happy to follow the author’s instructions.

So, who was Mark Taimanov? I suspect younger readers might know him only for the Sicilian variation named in his honour, or for losing 6–0 to Bobby Fischer. In the pages that follow we shall learn all about that match, its origins and its aftermath, including severe personal consequences for Taimanov.

But there was so much more to Taimanov – he was one of the greatest chess players of the 20th century. Twice he tied for the Soviet Championship, once winning the play-off against Spassky and Averbakh, once being edged out by Botvinnik. Taimanov won Olympiad team Gold, while his record in European Team Championships was extraordinary – in four such events, he achieved a clean sweep of four team Golds and four individual Golds. He still played strongly at an advanced age, winning the World Senior Championship twice.

Strict judges might place Taimanov just below the great World Champions of the 20th century, but he should be pushed no lower.

Chess was just one of three outstanding careers that Taimanov enjoyed, with music and writing the other two. He was renowned as a world-class concert pianist. And typically of Taimanov, his career was long – at the age of just eleven he starred in a Soviet film, though curiously playing a violin rather than on his favoured piano.

As publishers, we rarely mention an author’s personal life, but Taimanov also lived his life to the fullest in this area. He married four times, including becoming a father to twins at the age of 78.

Contents

A Necessary Foreword (1993)
Preface (1992)

Bobby Fischer, as I Knew Him

1 Fischer – In Life and at the Chess Board 13
2 His Personal Development – Talent, Character, Image 29
3 The Pinnacle of a Career 35
4 Breakdown 47

The Long-Suffering Duel

5 ‘Civil Execution’ 53
6 On the Eve of the Match 57
7 The Start – Game 1 63
8 Endgame Catastrophe – Game 2 75
9 The Most Bitter Game – Game 3 95
10 Agony – Game 4 109
11 “I’m sorry” – Game 5 123
12 The End – Game 6 139

The Aftermath

13 The Origins of Fischer’s Reclusion 153
14 Postscript 155

Appendices

15 Translator’s Notes 161
16 Additional Games 167
17 Additional Material 189
18 45 Years Later 195
19 12 Interesting Positions – by GM Jacob Aagaard 201
20 Thoughts and Solutions 207

[Aris Marghetis]

Upcoming Chess Books

May 29, 2021

Two on Fischer are about to be published.

The Unstoppable American
Bobby Fischer’s Road to Reykjavik

By Jan Timman

New in Chess (2021)
Hardcover and Paperback
In English
256 pages

Publisher’s Blurb

Initially things looked gloomy for Bobby Fischer. Because he had refused to participate in the 1969 US Championship, he had missed his chance to qualify for the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca. Only when another American, Pal Benko, withdrew in his favour, and after the officials were willing to bend the rules, could Bobby enter the contest. And begin his phenomenal run that would end with the Match of the Century in Reykjavik against World Champion Boris Spassky.

Fischer started out by sweeping the field at the 23-round Palma Interzonal to qualify for the next stage of the cycle. In the Candidates Matches he first faced Mark Taimanov, in Vancouver. Fischer trounced the Soviet ace, effectively ending Taimanov’s career. Then, a few months later in Denver, he was up against Bent Larsen, the Great Dane. Fischer annihilated him, too. The surreal score in those two matches, twice 6-0, flabbergasted chess fans all over the world.

In the ensuing Candidates Final in Buenos Aires, Fischer also made short shrift of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, beating the hyper-solid ‘Armenian Tiger’ 6½-2½. Altogether, Fischer had scored an incredible 36 points from 43 games against many of the world’s best players, including a streak of 19 consecutive wins. Bobby Fischer had become not just a national hero in the US, but a household name with pop-star status all over the world.

Jan Timman chronicles the full story of Fischer’s sensational run and takes a fresh look at the games. The annotations are in the author’s trademark lucid style, that happy mix of colourful background information and sharp, crystal-clear explanations.

The Author

Jan Timman is the author of many bestselling books. His Timman’s Titans won the 2017 ECF Book of the Year Award. In The Longest Game, Timman revisited the epic rivalry between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. His most recent book Timman’s Triumphs: My 100 Best Games again met with wide acclaim.

Contents

Preface
Prologue

Chapter 1 The road to Palma
Chapter 2 Palma de Mallorca
Chapter 3 The match versus Mark Taimanov
Chapter 4 The match versus Bent Larsen
Chapter 5 The match versus Tigran Petrosian

Index of openings
Index of Names
Bibliography
_____________

I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer

By Mark Taimanov

Quality Chess (Glasgow) (2021)
Hardcover
In English
248 pages

Publisher’s Blurb

In 1971 Robert James Fischer defeated Mark Taimanov by the sensational score of 6–0 in Vancouver, but the match games were far more competitive and tension-filled than the final score would suggest. Twenty years later Taimanov put pen to paper, reflecting on the experience. Exactly 50 years after the match, this is the first English translation of Taimanov’s original Russian text.

Taimanov, one of the elite Soviet grandmasters of his time, provides a richly detailed, honest and emotional account of the drama on and off the board. Despite the catastrophic match score, his love for the game of chess is evident throughout. Taimanov also discusses his early acquaintance with Fischer from 1960, including detailed annotations of both of their pre-1971 games, as well as the personal consequences of the match result.

With fascinating additional archive material and analytical contributions from some of the brightest young stars of the American chess scene today, I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer is the ultimate insight into one of the most famous matches in chess history.

About the Author (from the Publisher’s Foreword)

I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer sounds like the sort of ‘jazzed-up’ title a Western publisher might choose instead of the sober title the Russian author preferred. But that’s not the case here – I was a Victim of Bobby Fischer is a direct translation of the Russian title Mark Taimanov wanted.

The author is sadly no longer with us, having died at the age of 90 in 2016, but his wishes were clearly expressed to us by his Russian publisher and his widow: his title was to be used, his text was to be faithfully translated – a task Douglas Griffin performed admirably – and no computer corrections added in his main text. If we wanted to add text, we could do so at the beginning of the book and the end, but his story should flow as he intended in the heart of the book. We were happy to follow the author’s instructions.

So, who was Mark Taimanov? I suspect younger readers might know him only for the Sicilian variation named in his honour, or for losing 6–0 to Bobby Fischer. In the pages that follow we shall learn all about that match, its origins and its aftermath, including severe personal consequences for Taimanov.

But there was so much more to Taimanov – he was one of the greatest chess players of the 20th century. Twice he tied for the Soviet Championship, once winning the play-off against Spassky and Averbakh, once being edged out by Botvinnik. Taimanov won Olympiad team Gold, while his record in European Team Championships was extraordinary – in four such events, he achieved a clean sweep of four team Golds and four individual Golds. He still played strongly at an advanced age, winning the World Senior Championship twice.

Strict judges might place Taimanov just below the great World Champions of the 20th century, but he should be pushed no lower.

Chess was just one of three outstanding careers that Taimanov enjoyed, with music and writing the other two. He was renowned as a world-class concert pianist. And typically of Taimanov, his career was long – at the age of just eleven he starred in a Soviet film, though curiously playing a violin rather than on his favoured piano.

As publishers, we rarely mention an author’s personal life, but Taimanov also lived his life to the fullest in this area. He married four times, including becoming a father to twins at the age of 78.

Contents

A Necessary Foreword (1993)
Preface (1992)

Bobby Fischer, as I Knew Him

1 Fischer – In Life and at the Chess Board 13
2 His Personal Development – Talent, Character, Image 29
3 The Pinnacle of a Career 35
4 Breakdown 47

The Long-Suffering Duel

5 ‘Civil Execution’ 53
6 On the Eve of the Match 57
7 The Start – Game 1 63
8 Endgame Catastrophe – Game 2 75
9 The Most Bitter Game – Game 3 95
10 Agony – Game 4 109
11 “I’m sorry” – Game 5 123
12 The End – Game 6 139

The Aftermath

13 The Origins of Fischer’s Reclusion 153
14 Postscript 155

Appendices

15 Translator’s Notes 161
16 Additional Games 167
17 Additional Material 189
18 45 Years Later 195
19 12 Interesting Positions – by GM Jacob Aagaard 201
20 Thoughts and Solutions 207

These both seem to be exceptional offerings!!

[Amit R]

These both seem to be exceptional offerings!!

Why are books on Bobby Fischer among the common ones about older players? Has it got more to do with his personality and thus curiosity/saleability , or is it there is that much more to learn from his games , compared to other greats?

[Aris Marghetis]

Why are books on Bobby Fischer among the common ones about older players? Has it got more to do with his personality and thus curiosity/saleability , or is it there is that much more to learn from his games , compared to other greats?

Good question, but to be honest, I won't read "anything" on Fischer. But these authors seem exceptional.

[Sam Sharpe]

Re: Fischer
It has to be the nostalgia factor, as the "Fischer Boom" was responsible for many folks getting into chess.


On another note, does anyone know where to source CHESS STARS books in Canada other than Larry? He is out of stock on several I am looking at. Strangely, Amazon.ca doesn't carry them. Not looking at international due to postage and customs.

[Wayne Komer]

Upcoming Chess Books

May 30, 2021

I grew up with Bobby Fischer playing internationally as an underdog. I followed his play at Portoroz 1958 in CHESS magazine as a WCC qualifier and then, again at Curacao in 1962.

It wasn’t the “crazy” Fischer but the combinative Fischer during these years and it was a great story.

I reported his simul at Hart House in 1964.

Jumping ahead, I was studying in England when Fischer played Taimanov in Vancouver in 1971 and followed the games via Leonard Barden’s columns in The Guardian.

The 6-0 score was totally unexpected. I was talking to Bernard Cafferty shortly thereafter and I asked if there was anything about it in the Soviet Press. Bernard said that they were “as quiet as the grave”.

Eventually, I followed the games of the match at Reykjavik with stories in the British papers and on television every day. Almost everyone I met had some opinion of the play.

This was an exciting era for chess and the culmination of a 14-year run.

I get that many modern players think that Fischer was a crazy anti-Semite and should be totally ignored. One friend says that he blames Fischer entirely for not having a WCC match with Karpov and that is disgraceful.

I won’t try to defend Fischer but I still admire his best games and especially the play in his youth. He was bold, imaginative and relentless.

Now Taimanov, who was criticized for his match preparation and for his devastating loss, spent twenty years thinking about the match and his play and wrote his book in 1992. I can’t wait to read what twenty years of brooding and analysis has told him.

It has been announced that Tibor Karolyi has in preparation a book entitled The Road to Reykjavik. This is expected in October. A further volume on Fischer-Spassky 1972 is devoted to that match.

[Amit R]

Re: Fischer
It has to be the nostalgia factor, as the "Fischer Boom" was responsible for many folks getting into chess.


On another note, does anyone know where to source CHESS STARS books in Canada other than Larry? He is out of stock on several I am looking at. Strangely, Amazon.ca doesn't carry them. Not looking at international due to postage and customs.

Kyrylo Demchenko , who is a distributor for Thinkers Publishing and Chess Informant, is here on chesstalk . He may be able to point you in the right direction for Chess Stars.

[Hans Jung]

Why are books on Bobby Fischer among the common ones about older players? Has it got more to do with his personality and thus curiosity/saleability , or is it there is that much more to learn from his games , compared to other greats?

Yes its nostalgia and a certain fascination based on interesting character and entertainment value but I will tell you this. I used to use Bobby Fischer's My Memorable 60 Games as a training exercise for my best students. Why - in short so many great strategic lessons in his games and high tactical alertness and accuracy. If he initiated a combination it fit into the strategy of a position. AND his analysis was so accurate and clear. First I would assign a game without notes and the students had to identify candidate moves and provide analysis. Only then would they look at the game in My Memorable 60 Games and discuss analysis. This got them to understand the games in great depth and they stuck in their memory. Those that did the work added a minimum of 100 rating points, usually a lot more. As all of them were 1600 or above this was pure gold.

[Hans Jung]

In the above case though I would agree with Aris - these are exceptional books.