Tournaments Books

I spent many wonderful hours in my childhood reading these books. I would reccomend them for anyone with young readers. Just as entertaining now as they were 40 years ago!

A book that will appeal to Chess History Lovers and Collectors.

The 1924 New York International Chess Tournament was considered one of the most brilliant chess tournaments of all time. The greatest player of that time were there and the play was magnificent. This edition contains the original annotations by Alexander Alekhine.

Why was this tournament specially remembered: There was Jose R. Capablanca, World champion known as the chess machine since he has loss only one game in 95 tournaments and matches over the past ten years. There was Dr Enmanual Lasker who had ruled the chess world for 28 years. There was Alexander Alekhine, soon to be the next world champion. And also there were Tartakover, Reti, Bogoljubow, Yates, Janowski and other great player of that era.

This book contains all of the 110 games played fully annotated by Alekhine. Alekhine also added a 23-page essay where he discussed the theory of openings developed in the tournament.

A book that will appeal to Chess History Lovers and Collectors.

The 1924 New York International Chess Tournament was considered one of the most brilliant chess tournaments of all time. The greatest player of that time were there and the play was magnificent. This edition contains the original annotations by Alexander Alekhine.

Why was this tournament specially remembered: There was Jose R. Capablanca, World champion known as the chess machine since he has loss only one game in 95 tournaments and matches over the past ten years. There was Dr Enmanual Lasker who had ruled the chess world for 28 years. There was Alexander Alekhine, soon to be the next world champion. And also there were Tartakover, Reti, Bogoljubow, Yates, Janowski and other great player of that era.

This book contains all of the 110 games played fully annotated by Alekhine. Alekhine also added a 23-page essay where he discussed the theory of openings developed in the tournament.

There are a number of good books about duplicate bridge. But I'm glad that this one, one of the first really good such books, is still available.

As the authors point out, in duplicate bridge, one routinely risks one's contract to get an overtrick, because the margin by which one beats the other pairs in one's direction does not matter as long as one beats them. Your +630 at 3 NT making 4 may be fine, beating the +620 scores for 4 of a major, while +600 (which you get by making a safety play) may well get you a zero. On the other hand, in competitive auctions, while +200 beats all part scores, you only need to double if you feel that most pairs your way will indeed get a plus score.

Those who play Acol will enjoy the recommendations made to modify it for duplicate bridge. Of course, you may already play many of them. These include a variety of competitive doubles. There are some "old" conventions, such as Swiss, Lightner doubles, and Unusual notrumps. These conventions were around for some time when the book was written (1968), but the way the authors use them is a little different from what you might expect. And some "new" (1968) conventions are suggested, such as Aspro over opponent's 1 NT opening in second or fourth position (bid 2D with spades and a minor, bid 2C with hearts and any other suit).

The book includes a discussion of relay bidding systems and gives an example of a "futuristic" system, namely the "Little Major." I think you may not want to take up this particular system, even if your tournament director allows it, but it makes for interesting reading. And the book then has a discussion of leads and signals.

Oh yes, there is a final chapter about the personal factor. Reese and Dormer give a great example. What blind lead do you make against 3 NT from:

Spades K J 6 3 Hearts Q 7 5 Diamonds J 6 4 2 Clubs 10 9

Anything could be right, so just lead something quickly and smoothly. A player who hesitates over this lead "is not cogitating" but dithering. "Meanwhile, an astute declarer will be thinking" that you do not have a five-card suit, that your four-card suits are unattractive, and that the suit you finally lead may well be short.

And a final piece of good advice has to do with your opponents. When they make a mistake, tend to be silent about it. Good manners are the same as good tactics here.

It's a good book that is well worth reading for tournament players

Grandmaster Ray Keene, chess impresario, broadcaster and writer, has been responsible for organising more world championship matches outside the USSR than any other person in the history of official contests. In 1986 he brought Kasparov and Karpov together and in 1993 Kasparov and Short. Finally, in 2000, after a five year gap with no world title match, Keene raised 2 million dollars to persuade Kasparov to defend his title in London against the rising Russian star Vladimir Kramnik. To almost universal surprise Kramnik toppled Kasparov after his 15 year reign and won with relative ease. He became World Champion without losing a single game, a feat not accomplished since Capablanca defeated Lasker in 1921. Kramnik's secret weapon was the psychological ploy of exchanging queens early in the game and thus regularly depriving Kasparov of his favourite attacking piece. To this end Kramnik unearthed the unlikely Berlin defence, which achieved world wide notoriety as the "Berlin Wall". In this book Ray Keene, present throughout the match as organiser and commentator for the London Times, gives the inside story of the games, while Don Morris, co-founder of the Brain Games Network, entrepreneur and former chairman of the Champagne Academy, highlights the Brain Games Network strategy for presenting intellectual games to the global community in the age of digital TV, broadband communications and the World Wide Web.

First published in 1987. Brussels 1986 was a ground breaking event in many respects. It was Kasparov's first tournament after his gruelling series of marathons against Anatoly Karpov for the world title, and it was the first major tournament televised by the BBC and containing commentary by the players themselves. The majority of the notes are by Grandmaster Ray Keene but readers will also find analysis by Kasparov and others of the greats involved, including Nigel Short and Viktor Korchnoi.

This event contains Short's sensational first-ever win against Kasparov which gave notice that Nigel would go on to become a world title challenger himself. Ultimately Kasparov blew away the field and won a double round event by a substantial margin. The games are razor sharp - indeed double edged - and Kasparov's cliff-hanging battle with Korchnoi - recreated blow by blow for television - has to be seen to be believed!

One of the best books ever written on boxing, specifically amature boxing. The author definately got into the fighter's interior as to why they do what they do. Describes details about the complex relationship between trainer and boxer. William Plummer tries himself a go at the ring by sparring with the best fighter in the gym only to find out that a key ingredient needed to fight is the animal instinct of defeating your opponent and inflicting pain (something he found he did not have, which is something that cannot be said about writing since this man can definately write!). If you want to find out about the inner workings of young men raised in urban areas with little escape from their surroundins except by jail, death or by entering the ring, this book will provide that and much more! Also recomended on boxing are "The Sweet Science" by A.J. Liebling, "On Boxing" by Joyce Carol Oates, "To Swallow a Toad" by Robert Preston Wood.

This is a great book for the student. Imagine if Capablanca could really write and put things into simple terms that the reader could understand. That is what we have here, as Karpov writes from his throne in the days when his supremacy was absolute. But he never suffered from the arrogance (at least in his writing) that plagues the literature of Capablanca and Kasparov. He tells the story of a game objectively, but chock full of high quality advice. Karpov is the best guy to study, as his games shimmer with clarity, and you can emulate his opening style. Plus, he is a modern player who studies hard, so his openings are not occasionally ridiculous, as was Capablanca's, for instance, in the first game of his disastrous match with Alekhine. He never seeks complications, but always plays solid moves from which tactics logically arise. This is a great, great book. You should certainly buy it. I also own How Karpov Wins by Mednis, Karpov's Best Games by Karpov and the 1976 collection of his games by O'Connell and Adams. I think this is the most valuable of all of them. He was at his peak and most eager to talk, and he knew he would have a legacy.

This is an amazing book on the Karpov-Korchnoi world title match of 1978, annotated in typically wonderful depth by Mikhail Tal, who was Karpov's second for the match. The whole story is here, including all the behind the scenes intrigue. This is a large-sized book, with the typewriter font, like Bronstein's Zurich '53 book and some of the other excellent Pergamon books from the '70s. But what make this book special and important are Tal's annotations. They rank up there with the other great annotations he has made of his own games. He freely shares his opinions and wit with us. It is odd that this book is not better known; I think the reason is the goofy title: it sounds as if the book is about the history of scandal in chess. What it really is is a world championship match annotated by Tal!

Howard Staunton, the organiser of London 1851 and writer of the book, was the epitome of mid-Victorian versatility and self confidence. By defeating the leading French and German masters such as St Amant, Horwitz and Harrwitz in gruelling set matches, Staunton had established himself as the champion. Now, by organising the first ever International Chess Tournament, Staunton hoped to display chess in its true colours, amongst the imperial splendour of the 1851 Great Exhibition in Queen Victoria's London. Although Staunton did not win the tournament, this honour falling to the German master Adolph Anderssen, this record of the inaugural international chess gathering provides a fitting monument to Staunton's prowess and love of the game.