Title: Leningrad System: A Complete Weapon against 1.d4
Author: GM Stefan Kindermann
Publisher: Progress in Chess
Heft: 188 pages
Rating Range: 1800 and up

Construction: This is a very well constructed book. The pages are a heavyweight bright white with almost zero bleed through. This is also reflected in the $35 cover price! A bit higher than most chess books, but hey, you get what you pay for.

Bibliography: The author has included every Dutch book that I am aware of and of course a bunch that I wasn’t aware of.  Most of those volumes are in German (I think) and wouldn’t be widely known by most American chess audiences.

My Take: This is a revised English edition of a book originally published in 2002 by the same author. GM Kindermann has produced a complete repertoire to combat 1.d4 based on the Leningrad Dutch.

The layout of this book is simply fantastic. The author starts off with a history of the system, then an introduction to the English edition, and then gives the reader 16 pages titled “Typical Themes and Ideas.” He provides Black and White themes in the Leningrad with a few example diagrams, analysis lines and brief commentary of the ideas. Why this is not done more often by more authors is simply a mystery to me.

We then get the meat of the book which is covered with 28 deeply annotated illustrative games — and I mean deeply annotated. There is a lot of prose and explanatory text but there are also a bunch of figurine algebraic notation and game continuations to illustrate the author’s points. Given that the author is a GM and yours truly is a class C hack, I’ll have to take his word for it, but GM Kindermann seems to be completely honest with his audience.

For example, one of the appeals of the Dutch Defense is that it can be played against anything except 1.e4, sort of. The author does not think that playing 1…f5 is a wise response to 1.Nf3.  He gives very detailed analysis to support his opinion.

This is a very brave thing to do. Think of this, you are producing a black repertoire book and realize that there is a line that is troublesome for your chosen system. What normally happens is that an author will show you a few brilliant miniature games in favor of his system, ignore the best lines for the other side and call it a day; these books generally have “Win with the…” in the title or “an amazing System” in the description. This man actually convinces the reader (he convinced me anyway) that the Leningrad player should start with something other than 1…f5.

Is it a pain to have to learn another defense? Yes, but it’s honest of the author to warn you of any potential nastiness that might befall you should you try to play the system indiscriminately.

He does go on to show how to play the Leningrad against 1.c4 and various other tries for white, such as the Staunton gambit, and Bg5 lines, but there is no coverage for 1.b3 and 1.f4, so you will have to look elsewhere. I don’t think that this is a big deal as I’ve never faced either over the board, and I suspect that many who will buy this book haven’t either. Besides, he can’t possibly cover everything.

It’s an excellent book, but for whom is it written? That is a bit hard to tell, but probably at 1800+ players. Lower rated players can use it, of course, but should stick to the main analysis lines as attempting to go through all the variations and game fragments given will probably be confusing and cause some to lose their minds.

There is a lot of information in here and lower rated players (such as myself) would be better suited to studying something other than the reams of analysis presented in this book. There are introductory books on the Dutch that lower rated players would probably find to be a better fit (the Starting Out Series comes to mind).

I was unfamiliar with Progress in Chess before buying this book, but after looking at the inside cover I see that its editorial board includes GM Victor Kortchnoi, GM Helmut Pfleger, GM Nigel Short, and GM Rudolf Teschner, a rather impressive lot of strong players, so suffice it to say they probably put out good books! This is also volume 16 of an ongoing series so this is not a start up publishing house or a fly by night organization. I only mention this because I’m sure most American chess book buyers are familiar only with the big three (Batsford, Gambit and Everyman), but this “new” name shouldn’t deter anyone from buying this outstanding book.

I am currently transferring all of my games from Chess Assistant format to Chess Base format. Although the price for CA was very good, it has simply given me too many problems and CB is easier to navigate. Now all I have to do is manually move over 90 gamesL. Not cool, I would use the conversion utility in CA to convert my database from CA to .pgn format, but it doesn’t really work. Oh well this will give me a chance to review all of my greatest misses.

On the bright side, I thought that I was missing 3 tournaments worth of games (approximately 11). But after reconciling with The USCF site I see that I’m only missing 2 rated games between my paper copies and my electronic database, so that’s pretty cool. One of the games is some quick G25 I played in ‘Da Club and another is a game from the New Mexico Open back in November of last year. That didn’t really shock me, as it was a pretty forgettable performance all around. I still don’t have anything before 2007, but there are only 13 slow games and 6 G15’s that I played, so no biggie, I lost those score sheets a long time ago so no loss there.

So I’m looking at my first game when I started playing tournament chess on a regular basis back in March of 2007.

I was rated 1008 and I had black in the first round against one of the HS kids who was rated 1410 at the time. By the end of 2007 he was rated 1700 and today his rating is over 2100, and me? I’m currently rated 1503! Kids sure do pick this stuff up much quicker.

The game is over at chess.com.

Overall not a bad game, I played pretty well, up until looking at all of the possibilities made me cross eyed and I missed the bishop recapture on move 28. I did come back to beat two 1300 rated players with the white pieces and I drew with a kid rated 1700 with my beloved Alekhine! Although I should have won, maybe I’ll post that one next.

Well I get to look over more gems like these in the months ahead. I should have a book review ready in about 3 weeks if everything works out ok (which it never does). The twist this time? The book just came out about 6 weeks ago! So you should be graced with a book review of a fairly recent work.

Have a good week folks.

Well my book review is finally up on the ICC.fm blog! I’m so excited I could…well I don’t know, but I’m pretty happy about it. You can check it out here.

I’ll post it here later in the week, and archive it in under the Book Review Tab. In the meantime head over there and if you are so inclined why not leave a comment. Most of the posts over there are more journalistic in nature and don’t get many comments. Maybe if you go and comment on my post they will want me to write more. My ultimate goal is to be a chess book reviewer to the patzers. Book publishers would send me new titles for me to review and I could really have a ton more books than I actually need. You know instead of just half ton of books I don’t really need, which is the case now.

Nothing much else to say, things have been pretty quiet here in the wang household, not much to report. School is keeping me busy and my chess action is limited to a few online (correspondence games) on chess.com plus a couple of blitz games thrown in once a day for good measure. I haven’t studied much although once in awhile I go back over parts of Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player. Other than that not much else is going on.

I’ll have something a bit more substantive to talk about next week. (I hope).

Ok so it didn’t last all Summer, but it was my vacation and it did take place during the Summer so bear with me.

So I finally make it to my folk’s place and we promptly did…nothing!  I sat up late nights with my dad, we talked about politics, our beloved New York Football Giants, family, and all other kinds of stuff, and even had a crazed night of Wii playing, I won at bowling and we split our games of tennis and I woke up the next day with a very sore arm. 

There wasn’t anything more than that,  We just hung out with my folks for a few days, we barbecued, and generally just enjoyed one another’s company, it’s been awhile since we were all together, so it was nice to just be.

On Thursday I went into NYC, Mrs Wang had old friends to meet in Manhattan and I had chess stuff to attend to.  I headed to Fred Wilson’s Chess Books.  It is in an old office building in down town Manhattan, one that seemed very familiar to me, but more on that later.

I’ve been dying to go to this bookstore forever, I heard that Fred has a great selection of books and he’s your best bet to find something that’s out of print. Imagine my disappointment when he wasn’t there when I first arrived.  Bummer!  The gentleman at the security desk told me to check back in about an hour, that Fred likes to wander around from time to time, but he should still be around. 

So I headed down the street to the Strand.  The Strand is a famous NYC used bookstore, and while it isn’t technically a chess bookstore they do have a nice collection down in the basement.  I poke around awhile but nothing really tickles my fancy.  I head out hoping that Fred will be there, when I realize that I’m starving!  It was just after 5Pm and I hadn’t eaten since 10am.I head on out to grab a bite to eat.  

There are few places like NYC, there is a lot to do there and culturally it just can’t be beat.  It is very expensive, and the living is vertical (we build up, not side to side) and takes some getting used to and it certainly isn’t to everyone’s taste.  I left NY 5 years ago, mostly because of the expense. Despite this there are a few things I desperately miss about it.

1. Melting pot of people.  All types of people and nationalities in NYC.  Korean, Latino, Irish, Russian, Indian etc…it is amazing to see how many different types of folks call this country home,  There is no other single city where this is more on display than New York. 

This diversity leads into other areas as well, most notably…

2. Food, all types.  In one block you have Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Italian, French, etc..the list goes on and on, just a cornucopia of food.  This is why New Yorker’s tend to be picky (some call us snobbish) about food.  Name a kind of food and a NY’er has had a good sample of it, and is not likely to be fooled by cheapo imitation stuff easily.

3. Beautiful women.  Just a lot of beautiful women, what can I say, I’m a fan of the ladies

Ok so long story short, I find a block with like a dozen different types of restaurants on it and decide on a small Japanes noodle joint.  The Ramen was slamming!  When done correctly ramen

1. doesn’t come from an envelope with dehydrated vegetables.

2. Has a light flavor.

3. Is simply fantastic fast food.  oh and

4. Sodium isn’t the main ingredient.

So I woof down my noodles, drink my Sapporo  and head back to Fred’s this time he is here.  Fred has a small store, it’s more of an office, with chess books and videos in every possible nook and cranny of the place.  I mean I never thought there could be so many books crammed into one place.  I find a copy of Play 1.d4! by Richard Palliser that is out of print for $10!  That is a find.

We talk for a bit about all things chess related, Fred admits to playing the King’s Indian Line in the Palliser book when he was “a deviant 1.d4 player”  (That line itself was worth the trip from Pennsylvia) and I realize that although I could stay here and chat with him for hours I’ve got a tournament to hit at the Marshall.  I pay for my books and head on down to the Marshall Chess Club for some Thursday night Cracktion chess. 

Now for chess geeks everywhere, just being at Fred’s chess book store is cool enough, but imagine being just 4 blocks from one of the most storied chess clubs in all the world!  This is some pretty exciting stuff. 

I make my way down tot he Marshall and meet a cool dude named Mark (I’m pretty sure that’s his name) who tells me that despite what Polly might have told me he would be very surprised not to see her at the Marshall tonight.  He actually looked at me a little funny when I said I didn’t think Polly was going to show up.

True to form Polly just couldn’t avoid all of that fantatic cracktion action at the Marshall and I get to meet my second chess blogger (yay!) we chat for bit and then the round starts.

I haven’t analyzed the games and it probably won’t happen until after I get done with my Economics class in a few weeks.  I will tell you that I lost all 3 games and lost a total of 7 rating points.  That should tell you just how strong the field was.  Being I was the lowest rated player there I wasn’t even playing the strongest players.  My games were against an expert, a strong (1974) class a and a strong (1790 ish) class b.

I did get a good Alekhine game against the expert.  We were running short on time when I just about equalized.  Instead of bringing pieces to my Kingside and getting ready for his final push there I swiped a pawn instead.  He mated me with both of us having about 20 seconds left on the clock.

When he made his final move he looked at me and said, “Well that’s G30 for you”.  He seemed more bummed for me losing than I was!  Truth is his better skill let him see a mating pattern that I missed.  Yes I played a good game and didn’t embarrass myself, but the outcome was as it should have been.

Against the strong class A player I did embarrass myself with a Scotch game.  Although I have vowed that this would be my opening of choice this is the first time I’ve had an opportunity to play it since that proclamation 6 months ago!  It might be time to reconsider.

The final game, well I was going to withdraw because I just wanted to get a couple of games in and didn’t really feel like playing, but I felt it would be kind of a douchey thing to do so I stuck it out.  I won a piece from my much younger opponent, but I got into serious time trouble and he ended up winning.

All in all not a bad experience, although I’ll probably stick to G60 or higher, I just can’t think at 25 w/5 second increment. 

While this wasn’t the end of my vacation for blogging purposes it is.  I could tell you about the rest of my trip but since none of you know my family or most of the folks in the stories I would tell, well suffice to say you have no point of reference so none of it would be terribly amusing  to you. (although it was absolutely hysterical to me). 

Mrs. Wang and I had a great relaxing time back east and we actually made the trip back to Arizona incident free. 

I would like to thank Fred Wilson for being so inviting and down to earth and for having a kick ass chess book store.  I’d like to thank Polly for making me feel at home at the Marshall, and I’d like to thank the proprietors of that most outstanding Japanese noodle shop for having kick ass noodles, and some pretty waitresses too  I told you I’m a fan of the ladies

PS>Oh and the office building that Fred is in?  My mother used to work there when I was a wee lad, her company left that building when I was about 9, so it turns out I did remember the place.

Have an excellent week folks.

“They” are pretty damned misinformed…

I mean I did just that last week for my vacation and thanks to a recent airfare war; it was more than reasonably priced. Mrs. Wang and I spent less than $500 combined for our roundtrip tickets. So not only was going home again simple it was also relatively inexpensive. Seriously I don’t know where people come up with this stuff.

The journey there:

Ok so my folks live in Pennsylvania now, and we got tickets coming into a town that is relatively close to where they live. It turns out we have a 3 hour layover in Philly, well that kind of sucks so my folks offer to drive the 2 hours over to Philly to pick us up. Pretty sweet huh? One problem, when we get to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix I am informed that we would have to pay an extra $150 each to change our itinerary! Now this is somewhat confusing to me so I clarify that all I want to do is have my luggage taken off the plane in Philly, that’s it. I simply won’t be taking the second leg of my flight. The airline representative says that they don’t care whether I take the second leg of my flight but my luggage must be on that flight.

????

So now I repeat the whole thing to her to clarify 2 points.

1. I would have to pay $300 to change two itineraries, so that our ONE bag can get off the plane with us in Philly.
   
2. If I choose not to pay the $300 to change my bag’s itinerary then my wife and I could get off the plane at Philly, but the bag MUST go on to Allentown PA without us.
   

Now the second one is kind of important, so I am going to re-type the last part…

…my wife and I could get off the plane at Philly, but the bag MUST go on to Allentown PA WITHOUT us.

Anyone else see a problem with unaccompanied luggage making connecting flights without its owner actually on board said plane??? Yeah me neither…

So after hurting my head as I bang it against a wall repeatedly attempting to understand this convoluted logic I acquiesce. I call my folks and tell them that we will indeed be making the connecting flight to Allentown onboard what amounts to a bus with wings, but more on that later.

When we board the flight I realize why our tickets were so cheap, our first flight is onboard an Airbus plane. Now if you have never had the shove a red hot poker in your ass pleasure of riding onboard one of these sardine cans then my friends you haven’t lived. Cramped, uncomfortable, and all around unpleasant and ill equipped. Leave it to the French to design a plane that seats almost 200 people with only two restrooms on it!

Now technically there are 3 restrooms but the third one is up front and it is for the use of all 8 first class passengers. We were told at the beginning of the flight that this was the case and we, the unwashed masses sitting in coach should not look at, let alone use these facilities. This restroom, like the fresh fruit, actual silverware and elbow room was reserved for those of means.

Great, 5 hours of fun!

Luckily for me my navy training pays off here. I can sleep almost anywhere and anytime, survival skill learned while living aboard a submarine, so I’m not actually awake for half of this flight.

We finally arrive at the Philadelphia airport and well suffice to say we’ve got some time to kill. The wife and I get a Philly Cheesesteak, yes I am aware it’s not the real thing, but I wasn’t going in town to get a real one. It was actually pretty good, fake yellow/orange melty cheese and all.

We then make our way to the terminal with the baby planes in it. WOW…I am talking really small freaking planes here kids…

I have taken over 200 flights in my life, I’ve travelled around, and this was only the third time I was in a plane this small. First of all it had propellers! Actual no-shit roundy – roundy propellers! I am not a happy camper, when I booked this trip I didn’t pay attention to the short distance of this leg of the flight, which would have given away the type of plane being used immediately. The flight was only 14 minutes long!

Do not panic, in order to give me something to bitch about and to compensate for the short travel time we are made to wait on the tarmac for 2 ½ hours! We waited the first hour and a half to see if the airline could sell the last three seats on our 24 seat plane! Don’t worry, they did. Then the weather went all crappy and we waited an hour to take off L

I may seriously drive out here next time…

Oh, and my bag? Yes they dragged it across the tarmac to the bus with wings, far, far easier than putting the damned thing on a cart and have it taken to the terminal. I sometimes feel as if I’m the last sane person on earth…

Well I’ve got to go, I have homework to do and sleep to get. I’ll tell you more about the trip next week, do not despair the wife and I had a wonderful time, trip to the east coast notwithstanding.

Have a good week

Well kids the past two weeks have been absolutely hellish for me.  Finishhing up my 4th MBA course added with the extra work hours of the end of Summer at work have lead to me getting about 4 hours of sleep a night.  It’s has kind of sucked.

But that’s all bedhind me now!  I’m going back to NYC and points east for a little vacation.  Hopefully I will get to meet Polly next Thursday at the Marshall for some of the Crackation Chess she’s always talking about.  It will be great for me to finally play a game in this place.  I will also finally be posting my ICC blog book review, so be on the look out for it in the near future.

Anyone know of any good chess spots in NYC?  I know of the Chess Forum, Village Chess Shop, and Washington Square Park; I normally hit these places up when I go back into NYC, but I was looking for some places I’ve never gone to before.  Currently I am going to hit up the Strand which is a used book store but I hear they have a good chess section and Fred Wilson’s Chess Books.  If anyone knows of any place that I’m missing let me know.

Have a good week folks, I know I am.

Ok, I have been asked to be a guest author on ICC’s Chess blog!  I will be putting up a book review later this week, and then they have to edit it and stuff, so you have that to look forward to…

Until then, have a good week.

My chess friends

I’m what you might call a ner d. OK so I’m not what you might call, I’m just a nerd. I always have been, I always will be, I’m comfortable with who I am. One way my nerdiness manifests itself is in my love for books.

I love books, books on history, economics, mythology, religion, the occult, chess, politics and books in general. I like being around them, I like the smell of them, I love bookstores, books just do it for me ok?!

Despite that I do not re-read books. Once I start reading something that I’ve previously read, I remember (or at least I think I remember) everything and get bored. That is why despite being my absolute favorite novel of all time I have never reread Shogun. Despite the kinship I felt with Mr. Caufield, when I too was filled with teenage angst, I’ve never reread Catcher in the Rye.

But here is where chess books are different and where my attachment, nay my obsession with them is unlike the love affair I have with other books. They don’t get old. I have actually read Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player (CTTP) 2.5 times now! I had started to reread it when I first moved to Arizona 3 years ago, but left the book in a hotel room L Unlike other books, when I reread CTTP, not only did I not remember everything, I actually got something completely different out of it.

The first time I went through CTTP, it opened my eyes to why I sucked so bad at chess. It helped me to avoid falling into traps and dropping pieces. I just completed the book again about a month ago, and this time I actually began to recognize tactical patterns and implement some of the ideas in my own games, which was very exciting.

I have worked through Chess Exam and Training Guide twice now, and am looking forward to 2011 when I suspect there will be no chance that I will remember any of the problems. As you can see from the picture my copy of The Chess Advantage in Black and White is pretty well worn. I use very little of this repertoire anymore but I like having the book around, and it will remain on my active library shelf for the foreseeable future.

One of the reasons chess books are so different from books in other fields, is that each one, no matter if it is an opening, endgame, or middle game book, is part textbook and part workbook. You can’t just read a chess book; you need to work though a chess book. If you are to take any nuggets of wisdom from your copy of How to Reassess Your Chess, you need to break out a board and start plugging away. They are far more interactive than other types of books. In effect the book you are working through is acting as your guide through a specific chess journey.

As I look back on my past two and a half years of tournament play and serious study, I am a little saddened that I have so few books that I hold dear to me. Don’t get me wrong, my copy of Starting Out: Alekhine’s Defense, has served me well and I cannot wade into the thick of a weekend tournament without it by my side, but I don’t feel a connection to it. Special books do more than just transfer knowledge; they reach out and befriend you.

This doesn’t mean that they are holy or should look like they belong in a museum. I’m always amazed at people who attempt to keep books in pristine condition*. I think it is ridiculous to be so careful or formal. Pages must be dog – eared, passages should be highlighted, and food and beverages should be (accidentally) spilled on a book. Bottom line you should be familiar with your books and they should show some signs of use, these are merely signs that they are loved & appreciated J

Despite my deep affection for chess titles, only a few have truly become permanent “friends”, certainly part of this is due to my study methods which have primarily entailed solving tactics problems. I understand that solving problems is necessary and indeed have contributed immensely to my improvement over the past two years, but a tactics puzzle book elicits about as much emotion as a hammer. Not many people get really fired up about the hammer in their toolbox.

Although I am very busy with school, I am beginning The King in Jeopardy, hopefully this book will become one of my lifelong friends, and it too will have a permanent spot on my shelf after we are done with our journey. What I would like to know dear readers, what books have become your near and dear friends and why? (They don’t have to be chess books)

*I’m not referring to rare or collectible books. If you happen to have a copy of Catcher in the Rye, signed by J.D. Salinger, well that’s obviously worth babying…

Author: Bruce Pandolfini

Publisher: Fireside Chess Library (Simon & Schuster)

Heft: 320 pages

Rating Range: 1000 – 1800

Construction: The book is fairly well constructed, but it falls into the really cheap book so don’t be poking around too much category. Bottom line is it is pretty cheap, $14.95 regular price $12.71 from Amazon, so if the pages aren’t of the highest quality, who cares? The binding on my copy was pretty good and it held up well.

Review: First I’d like to say the Bruce Pandolfini gets a lot of flak in the chess book buying world, and I’m not sure why. Admittedly this is the only book of his that I ever owned, but I have to say it is a good one. The one thing I can say is that there are a lot of typos, I mean A LOT! I had found a few years ago when I first bought this book, but I was only concentrating on the heavy piece endgames and a few K+P endgames. This site here has a list of corrections. So I guess I can see people’s beef with Pandolfini, however shouldn’t the editor have caught this? I mean I count 32 of 239 positions with typos!

Anyway the book is laid out by position, or should I say situation. It starts off with elementary checkmates like Q+R, R+R, K+Q and K+R and then it goes into minor piece checkmates and so on. Overall the book was well thought out and well laid out…

Yes there is a but,

But, once again this is no longer the darling endgame book that it was back when it was first published in 1988! Simply put for less than $5 dollars more you can once again buy Silman’s book, which by the way I don’t think has many typos. If you are looking for an endgame book and this is in a used bookstore cheap, or at a garage sale, then pick it up, otherwise, I’m afraid all roads lead to Silman.

Author: Yuri Averbach

Publisher: Everyman Chess

Heft: 112 pages (lightweight!)

Construction: The pages were ok, the book is small and is dirt cheap, so you can’t really complain about the less than perfect paper. I do however have a problem when pages fall out of a book, especially when it happens two weeks after purchase, as happened with this one.

Rating Range: Beginner to 1600

Review:

This is another book that Igor Khmelnitsky recommends in Chess Exam and Training Guide. It is a good primer book on endgames; however it simply is outclassed by many other recent additions to chess endgame literature released in the past few years. It is now simply an ugly sister to Silman’s instant classic and others that have been released. This book was published in 1993 (at least that’s when Everyman started publishing it) so I’m sure it filled a niche, but it simply doesn’t fit the bill anymore.

It sells for $10.17 on Amazon, and that is a very low price, but for another $6.47 you can buy Silman’s book, which is far more substantial and better formatted. I can’t recommend this book; there are just too many other options available to the improving player these days.