Review: Marcel Duchamp – The Art of Chess
February 9, 2010 by Arne Moll · Leave a Comment
What do a game of chess and a nude decending a staircase have in common? To answer such questions, you must be prepared to leave your conventional ways of thinking at home and then fall down Marcel Duchamp’s rabbit-hole of chess and art. Read more
Review: Revolutionize Your Chess
January 28, 2010 by Arne Moll · 39 Comments
Here’s a confession: I’ve had Viktor Moskalenko’s latest book Revolutionize Your Chess in my possession for weeks already, but I’ve been reluctant to review it. The reason, quite simply, is this: I don’t like it at all. Read more
Review: Improve Your Chess
December 21, 2009 by Arne Moll · 8 Comments
No matter how much criticism Vladimir Nabokov’s posthumously published The Orginal of Laura recently received, I instantly bought the book – and liked it all the same. Some writers are just always worth reading. In contemporary chess literature, apart from the big stars such as Kasparov and Shirov, authors that are always worth buying and reading include Jonathan Rowson, John Watson and, as I discovered only a year ago, Lars Bo Hansen - I positively reviewed his book How Chess Games are Won and Lost last year. Now, Hansen has written an even more ambitious book. Read more
Review: The Immortal Game
December 17, 2009 by Editors · 8 Comments
As an experienced player, when I came across “The Immortal Game: A History of Chess”, by David Shenk, I didn’t feel much inclined to pick it up. I mean, after having read such classics as The Development of Chess Style by Max Euwe, and Chess History and Reminiscences, by Bird, what could some general history have to offer? Further, the author, by his own admission, far from an expert player, is not even a rated amateur. Read more
Review: The Complete Hedgehog vol. 1
December 9, 2009 by Arne Moll · 8 Comments
Are chess books getting better? Take the first volume of The Complete Hedgehog by Sergey Shipov: although I’ve read many books on the Hedgehog system, I think this is the best one by far. It’s more accessible, better explained, better written, it’s much more interesting for readers who do not play the Hedgehog at all, and it’s funny on top of that. Now, did they make such chess books in the 50s and 60s or even the 70s and 80s? I, for one, haven’t seen them too often. Read more
Review: Fundamental Chess Openings
November 30, 2009 by Arne Moll · 12 Comments
Chess is interesting, and chess openings are interesting too. There is nothing scary about opening theory, but there is nothing sacred about it either. This is the message Paul van der Sterren wants to give his readers in his 468-page book Fundamental Chess Openings, published by Gambit. He succeeds wonderfully in bringing this message home. Read more
Review: The Giants of Power Play
November 14, 2009 by Arne Moll · 6 Comments
Do you like to watch porn? Sorry, different question. Do you like feel-good movies? Many people don’t like to admit this, perhaps because they know the world is really a very cruel place, but I think there can’t be much wrong with feeling good about life from time to time. Similary, it can’t hurt occasionally reading a chess book that makes you feel that chess is a really simple game, full of great opportunities and combinations waiting to be executed, rather than a frustratingly difficult enterprise full of failures and broken careers. Read more
Review: Bobby Fischer – Career and Complete Games
November 6, 2009 by Arne Moll · 10 Comments
I am one of those people who, despite all the obvious advantages, dislikes virtual music libraries. I need to have the actual albums to get a feeling for the music, which otherwise sounds utterly inpersonal to me. Call me old-fashioned, but for the same reason I think a nice book – instead of a database – of all games played by Bobby Fischer is an excellent idea. Read more
Review: Dismantling the Sicilian
October 26, 2009 by Arne Moll · 28 Comments
As soon as I finished the first paragraph of the introduction to Jesus de la Villa’s new book Dismantling the Sicilian, published by New in Chess - one of the most amazing first paragraphs I’ve ever read in a chess book - I thought: this book is either total crap, or it is absolutely brilliant. Let’s see what’s so amazing about this introduction right away. Read more
Review: The Most Valuable Skills in Chess
October 7, 2009 by Arne Moll · 2 Comments
The more you understand of chess, the harder it is to understand how difficult it really is. At least, this is my personal experience when explaining beginners the absolute basics of chess. Suddenly, a capture is not obvious anymore; a developing move is not made automatically, and mate in one is not spotted immediately. So, in my view, we have to respect Maurice Ashley for writing a chess book for absolute beginners that’s not only instructive but also entertaining. Read more
