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Chessville
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Chess Tactics Reviewed by Mark Houlsby
"The best strategy is always
to be very strong; first in general, and then at the decisive point.
Apart from the effort needed to create military strength, which does not
always emanate from the general, there is no higher and simpler law of
strategy than that of keeping one's forces concentrated. No
force should ever be detached from the main body unless the need is definite
and urgent. We hold fast to this principle, and regard it as a
reliable guide. In the course of our analysis, we shall learn in what
circumstances dividing one's forces may be justified. We shall also
learn that the principle of concentration will not have the same results in
every war, but that those will change in accordance with means and ends."
"No terms except unconditional
and immediate surrender can be accepted.
Chess tactics is, to--almost--all appearances, an unassuming little book. The caveat has been added owing to the fact that upon its cover it is described, by its publisher, as "A new edition of one of the most lucid chess instructors ever written." Strong words, indeed, but are they justified? Before attempting to answer this, here's a little background: the author is an IM, whose father, John Littlewood, is also a fine player. Suffice it to say, then, that Littlewoods have been around the British chess scene for many years. So, is this "...one of the most lucid chess instructors ever written."? Possibly so, but no definitive answer may exist, since such an answer should most probably need to be predicated upon a clear consensus regarding the definition of "lucid". Not only that, but "lucid" is one thing, "useful" is quite another, and "effective" still another, and as for "comprehensive"...?! The book is a reprint of a Crowood Press edition of 1984. Not possessing a copy of that earlier edition, it's difficult to be certain, but it appears, from what one has read (and that consists chiefly of this review of the earlier edition) that there is not a huge difference between that old edition and this new one. Certainly, the chapter headings remain the same, and it appears that there are no examples included which date from after its original publication. The book consists of an introduction, fifteen chapters, each of which is devoted to a particular tactical motif, and the solutions to the puzzles in all of the chapters are appended after chapter 15. The book concludes with a bibliography (which, incidentally, includes a book written by the author's father, John Littlewood: "How to Play the Middle Game in Chess"). Many of the examples chosen by Littlewood are either strikingly similar to examples which have appeared in earlier works on tactics, or identical to examples published in earlier books. Here are some illustrations of this phenomenon: The very first "game quotation" example in the present book, namely Mikenas-Aronin, USSR-ch 1957, after 33.Qd3?? (as an aside, the diagram as shown in the book, erroneously includes a white pawn on f3, inconsequential to the solution, however):
...bears a striking resemblance to one of the earliest examples cited by David Levy in his book Play Chess Combinations and Sacrifices (my copy is published by Cadogan, which has changed its name to Everyman):
...which, in turn, bears a striking resemblance to Donner-Huebner, Busum 1968, also given by Littlewood after 29.Qc5:
In each case, the winning move skewers the defending queen through to a hapless rook: 33...Rd8! won for Aronin in the first example, 1...Rd7! wins in the second, and 29...Rc8! won for Huebner in the third. Another example is Fischer-Shocron, Mar del Plata 1959 which, apart from its having been covered in a number of books about Fischer, appeared, for example, in The Penguin Book Of Chess Positions, by the Irish IM Hugh Alexander, (Penguin) which was published in 1973, given by both Alexander and Littlewood after 38...Qd8:
Fischer played the seemingly quotidian exchange sacrifice 39.Rxe6! which forced resignation a move later. Again, an example featuring the boy from Brooklyn, Reshevsky-Fischer, Palma de Mallorca 1970, which is given by Levy after 28.Qd7:
...and by Littlewood after the moves 28...Qf4 29.Kg1 The game continued: 29...Qd4+ 30. Kh1 Qf2! and Reshevsky resigned. One does sometimes wonder whether the inclusion of Fischer's games in tactical anthologies might be due at least as much to their being Fischer's games as to their being paradigmatic or even just especially instructive.... Another example of Littlewood's reproducing the already-laboured is that well-known Reti-Tartakower friendly which began as an unusual line of the Caro-Kann, and ended in short order with a Reti queen sac and a double check leading to mate... Then there's Stein-Portisch, Stockholm 1962 which appeared, for example, in Leonid Stein: Master of Attack by Ray Keene, (Tui Enterprises) and another is Korchnoi-Portisch, Wijk aan Zee 1968 which was analysed by Kmoch in Korchnoi's Chess Games ed. Levy/O'Connell, (OUP) etc. etc.. Indeed, not only does the book contain several examples of tactical motifs published before the present volume appeared in its original edition, there are many examples which have been reproduced many times and, one is tempted to suggest, analysed to death in volumes published since it first appeared, which makes one wonder about the decision to produce a "new edition" which seems not to be appreciably different from its parent. One such is Alekhine-Spielmann, New York 1927, which appeared in Alexander Alekhine: Master of Attack (Everyman) which I reviewed earlier. Another is Keres-Gligoric, Yugoslavia ct 1959, which was thoroughly analysed by Keres and Nunn in Paul Keres: The Quest for Perfection which, together with the preceding volume, Paul Keres: The Road to the Top (Batsford) are absolutely essential reading for anyone wishing to improve. Then there's Kotov-Botvinnik, USSR 1959, which is to be found in that fine vade mecum, Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book. (C.I.R.C.) Over and over again, Littlewood's Chess Tactics covers material which has been better covered elsewhere, and, not infrequently, in several other volumes. Dear reader, you may be beginning to wonder whether this book has any virtues at all... Well, it does. One is that Littlewood chooses a number of examples from his own career, which has the advantage that he knew what he was thinking when he played those games. Another, more significant advantage is that it organises the material by theme, so that there is a chapter devoted to pins, a chapter devoted to skewers, a chapter devoted to double attack, a chapter.... This is, IMHO, by far the best approach to studying tactics. All too often tactics books flit between this theme and that theme, not allowing the average reader to assimilate properly the properties of each particular theme under consideration. Astute readers may be wondering why this review was begun with a Clausewitz quote about strategy. Here's why: it has, over a number of years, been dawning on this reviewer that the whole point about tactics is that they are a means to an end. That is to say: more often than not, tactics provide the means to realise a strategy. This is precisely the point which Littlewood makes, quite properly, at the very beginning of the introduction to the book, which it is pleasing to note. The General Grant quote was included in order to make the point that tactics tend not to work unless the conditions are ripe... a point which, IMHO, this little book fails to convey sufficiently forcefully. In summation then:
It would appear from this that the book is aimed (whether intentionally or unintentionally) at players new to chess, who do not yet possess many chess books of any kind, and who wish to familiarise themselves with the basics of chess tactics. Taken as such, it works pretty well.
It's unlikely to appeal as much
to anyone who has been playing for a while and has begun to amass a
collection of chess books of various types, since much of the material
presented here has been presented before, and better, many times.
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