chess book – The Gambit Chess Player

Covers

August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 by lefthandeddragon, posted in Book, chess book, Uncategorized

An old saying states, “Do not judge a book by its cover”.

But we all know that is simply not true. We are drawn to books partly because of it’s cover. When we feel proud and cherish the books we own, then we want to show them off to the world. Or at least place them proudly on our bookcases.

This sounds like a good piece of advice. But many authors and publishers forget this simple idea.

Some old chess books do not look attractive at all. They have bland, ambiguous, or simple covers and one gets the impression that no one really cared about their chess books.

Two words briefly and accurately describe these type of covers; Boring and Bland.

Here are some covers that illustrate this point.

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(This is an old book of Alexander Kotov’s games – in case you forgot your Russian.)

With the passage of time publishers realized that making a more attractive covers means more sales. So, they made covers that were attractive, at least for chess players.

But even then, publishers still missed a great quantity of potential buyers. What if they made covers, not just for the players, but for non-players as well?

Well, it turns out that many non-players actually do buy chess books with attractive covers.

And it’s not just books, but magazines as well.

One medium I enjoy is colored pencils. Here is a recent Chess Life cover that was rendered in colored pencil.

So, if you have a good chess book to write or publish, take pride in your work – make your cover colorful, attractive, and appealing.

Corona Problems? No problem!

March 26, 2020 by lefthandeddragon, posted in Book, chess, chess book, game, games, Infromant, Internet, queen sacrifice, Uncategorized

I haven’t been to a tournament or even a club for some time now.

Mostly this is due with the “Stay Home” initiative.

The gym is closed. So is the local college, the library, the mall, bookstores, movie houses, amusement parks, coffee houses, fast food restaurants, churches, and various work places. The beach is still open here in Huntington Beach. But city and county officials are talking about closing that too.

So, what do if you really want to play chess?

Naturally, there is the Internet. I play on chess.com. But you can find many other sites to play Blitz, Bughouse, and even tournament games.

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And get out those old Informants! The books you acquired some time ago, and just didn’t have the time to read or study from it. Go ahead, grab an issue, a pen, a highlighter and a notepad. Mark up the book, write your notes on the paper, and have some fun!

If you have a word processor, you might enter your favorite games and your notes right onto your laptop.

But what to do if you don’t have any Informants? Well, any chess book will do! Even if it is written by Reinfeld and annotated in Descriptive Notation (DN). Hint! – his best book is 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations.

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And then proceed as above.

And if you are one of those rare chess players who doesn’t own a single book on chess, then you still have options to enjoy the game.

You can always read and study various chess magazines. Even old ones.

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They can be ordered on ebay.com And available in different languages.

You can also download games from the Internet in PDF, PGN, http, or text fashion.

If you want human interaction, you can email a friend. Request games to enjoy or study. Offer to play games via email. Or even by telephone.

Old-fashioned blue telephone on a white background.
I did that, pre-Internet. Just be sure to have a pen and notepad or scoresheet – you might want a copy of the game (another hint here!)

Most important of all, during this time of self-isolation and possible mass paranoia and hysteria, keep busy. Don’t miss an opportunity to enjoy the one thing that a virus can’t block you from doing; that is to enjoy your game, your life.

David Cummings-Yura Ochkoos
Kitchener Octoberfest Open
Ontario, Canada, 2002
[This game can be found in “Across Canada”, in the December, 1992 issue of “En Passant”, published by Chess Federation of Canada. Notes by Escalante (who is stuck at home).]
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.d4 Nc6 6.cxd5 exd5 7.O-O Be7 8.Be3 c4 9.Ne5 O-O 10.b3 cxb3 11.Qxb3 Na5 (ECO gives 11…Bd6 as being equal. But now it appears that the text move is slightly stronger. Meanwhile, we are still in “book”.) 12.Qa4 a6 13.Bd2 Nc4 14.Nxc4 b5 15.Qc2

[Egon Brestian (2475)-Reinhard Lendwai (2405), Austria Ch., 1991, continued instead with 15.Ba5 Qe8 16.Qc2 bxc4 17.Nc3 Be6 18.e4 dxe4 (Qd7!?) 19.Nxe4 Nd5 20.Nc5 Bxc5 21.dxc5 Qe7 22.Bb6 Rab8 23.Rab1 Qf6 24.a4 Rfc8 25.a5 Nc3 26.Rbc1 Nb5 27.Rfd1 Nd4 28.Qe4 Nb3 29.Rxc4 Bxc4 30.Qxc4 Nxc5 31.Bxc5 Qg5 32.Bd5 Kh8 33.Qd4 Rb5 34.Bb6 Rc1 35.Bf3 Rxd1+ 36.Qxd1 h5

2020_03_26_A

37.Qd8+! (Simplifying into a winning 2B vs. R endgame.) 37…Qxd8 (37…Kh7? 38.Qxg5 Rxg5 39.Bb7 wins.) 38.Bxd8 Kh7 39.Bb6 Kg6 40.Be2 1-0]

15…bxc4 16.Nc3 Be6 17.Bg5 Rb8 18.e3 Qa5 19.Rab1 Bb4?! 20.Bxf6 Bxc3 21.Be5 Rb5 22.e4 Rd8 23.a4! Rxb1 24.Rxb1 dxe4 25.Bxe4 Bxd4? 26.Bxd4 Rxd4

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27.Qc3!! 1-0

Books I Love

October 18, 2018October 25, 2018 by lefthandeddragon, posted in chess, chess book, games, Humor, miniature, Opening, Uncategorized

I had a recent discussion with a chess friend of mine. The topic? Chess!, of course.

One interesting topic we covered was answering the question, “What is your favorite chess books you ever read?”

Well, my friend a Dragon junkie, said any book with the Dragon can’t be bad.

I take a slightly different approach about chess books. I love to read and read chess books not so much for instruction, but for enjoyment. So my list is slightly different from most other chess zealots.

First on the list is 1000 Best Short Games of Chess by Chernev, who, with his annotations, make all the miniatures of his book so joyous. One characteristic of Chernev I hope current and future chess writers would seek to emulate is to keep the text and notes to a minimum and let the reader have some space to actually ENJOY the game.

Another book with the same approach is Morphy’s Games of Chess by Sergeant. Notes about the game, and people who played them, are simple and short and they don’t get in the way of the game.

1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate by Reinfeld. Isn’t that the preferred goal of playing every game? Also it’s a good primer for Siamese Chess.

Soltis’ Chess to Enjoy, is exactly that. It is at times, hilarious, thought-provoking, and at all times, entertaining.

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The best periodical, IMHO (for all those who don’t speak Internetse, is short for In My Humble Opinion), are the New In Chess Yearbooks. If you ever want to study an opening, or even a minor variation of an opening, in great detail, then these books are for you! The games covered in each opening are plentiful and there is enough space between the games and the individual moves of the game to keep you from getting yourself a major eye strain.

Do you have some favorites in your chess library? Why do you like them? Leave us a message! =)