Chess Mail

IT’S hard to dislike a
book which tries to
make chess fun.
It’s Your Move by GM
Chris Ward (Everyman Chess,
144pp., stg. £14-99, ISBN
1-85744-296-2) is a puzzle
book with a difference: personalised
multiple choice!
First he introduces five
characters whom you would
probably recognise at your
local chess club and then
each puzzle is seen through
their eyes. Ambitious Andy,
Ballistic Bob, Cautious Carol,
Devious Dave and Steady
Eddie have very different
styles and temperaments and
they each choose a different
move each time. Your task
is to identify which of them
is right about each of the 50
test positions.
This is a book which is
clearly aimed at the younger
reader, and the typesetters,
First Rank, have signalled that
bytheir choice of the typeface
Comic Sans (except for the
figurine chess moves). This is
my 10-year-old daughter’s
favourite font. However,
adults could enjoy this book
too.
The Ultimate Chess
Puzzle Book by GM John
Emms (Gambit Publications,
240pp. larger format, stg.
£6-99, ISBN 1-901983-
34-X) is a very different and
much more heavyweight
BOOKS
Reviewed by
Tim Harding
affair. It contains 1001 puzzles,
most of which are likely to
be new to readers as they
are drawn from recent games
(1998-2000), the author’s
own practice and littleknown
USSR Championship
games.
They are graded to begin
with basic tactics and get
progressively harder. After
page 64, hints disappear and
most positions are presented
with no advice: just like real
chess! This book would take
a lifetime to exhaust and it
would be a good present for
an improving player who
really needs to be tested.
The Hedgehog by Romanian
GM Mihai Suba is one
of the few chess books to
emerge during 2000 from
the Batsford stable (156pp,
stg. £14-99, ISBN 0-7134-
8696-1). It’s a strange piece
of work, packaged in a rather
dull way. It doesn’t help that
he just dives into his material
without defining terms.
What is the Hedgehog?
Chapter 18 of “The Chess
Analyst” by North American
CC Champion Jon Edwards
is much more helpful: “I do
not think of the Hedgehog as
an opening at all, but rather
as a structure that players can
reach from many different
openings... [involving] black
pawns on a6, b6, d6 and e6...
[with] no white d-pawn.”
If you want a collection of
lightly-annotated games on
this theme, Suba’s book may
be of some value. However,
if you want to learn how to
play the Hedgehog, then it is
not much use unless you are
already an advanced player.
His text looks as if it was
delivered in a fairly raw state
and not given much editing,
whereas it needed tender
loving care.
Batsford’s new owners
Chrysalis will have to do a
lot better than this if they
want to regain the loyalty
of readers and authors. Last
April we made a proposal to
them about co-operation in
our small series of planned
titles and we didn’t even
get the courtesy of an
acknowledgment, despite
reminders. I think Everyman
Chess and Gambit Publications
don’t have much to
worry about right now.
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