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Chessville
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The end of 2007 saw the debut of two big combination books: The Complete Chess Workout by Richard Palliser and Chess Gems by Igor Sukhin. While the British IM Palliser is fairly well known due to having authored several other chess books such as Starting out: Sicilian Najdorf and Starting out: The Colle, I had never heard of Igor Sukhin. However, a quick search of the ChessBase website unearthed some info on the Russian:
Okay, so both writers have respectable credentials, but whose book is better? To help us with our decision, let’s take a look at each book one at a time. First up is Palliser’s book.
Most of the problems are taken from quite recent games, many from 2007. You are given no “hints,” which I think will appeal to many chess players, myself included. Here are three problems from the very first section called, “Warming Up.” The first is a pretty straightforward two mover from the author:
White to Play
All solutions are given at the end of
this review. The second problem is a bit longer and harder:
A. Chudinovskih – O. Nikolenko
White to Play This third one is really what chess is all about!
White to Play And lastly, our fourth problem is from chapter two, “Attack!” and features a strong GM doing what GMs do best—finding great moves!
White to Play As you can imagine, the problems get tougher as you progress through the book. Palliser has done a nice job on three fronts: First, he covers all aspects of the game, including the opening (Chapter 3: Opening Tricks and Traps), the middlegame (Chapter 5: Loose Pieces and Overloading), and the endgame (Chapter 4: Skill in the Endgame). And of course, the manly chapter with the deep combos (Chapter 6: Fiendish Calculation). Secondly, his examples are NOT ones you’ve seen over and over, but rather very current and fresh ones. In fact, when the book first came out in 2007, it was very cool to be playing through games that had just recently been played. Thirdly, according to the book’s back cover blurb, all the puzzles have been computer checked. This means that there should be no “alternative solutions” or “busts” that sometimes occurs in the old Reinfeld puzzle books.
Okay, so now that you’ve had a taste of Palliser’s material, let’s turn our attention to Sukhin’s book.
Whereas Palliser’s book features puzzles from very recent games, Sukhin goes a different route. His book focuses on the great combos that have been played throughout the history of chess. Another difference is that some of Sukhin’s problems come with detailed analysis. Many new and intermediate players might like seeing these “annotated” puzzles, whereas I think advanced players probably prefer to work things out on their own. However you are really getting “the best of both worlds” here, as after beginning each chapter with detailed solutions, Sukhin follows this up with a section called, “How Would You Play?” where he gives problems to solve without any help. Here is the contents page from Chess Gems:
1 According to the Rules
of Shatranj (ninth-fifteenth centuries)
As you can see, Sukhin’s book takes
you through combinations century by century. But don’t let the fact
that some of these combos are quite old make you think they are any less
interesting. For example, here is the very first problem in the book:
White to move Says Sukhin:
Although 1000 years old, there is nothing “old fashioned” about this puzzle, as it teaches in a very direct way the value of looking for forcing moves. Try to work this one out in your head. Again, you can check out the solution at the end of the review. In chapter five (Anderssen and Morphy), Sukhin gives this classic:
White to move In chapter 10 (Matches of the Second World Champion), we get the famous position where US Champion Frank Marshall made such a stunning move as Black (and which caused White to resign), that legend has it the spectators spontaneously showered the chess board with gold coins! Whether or not this story is apocryphal, the move is a stunner:
Black to move The final puzzle I’ll give is from chapter 14 (The Great Opposition: Karpov-Kasparov) in which British GM Plaskett finishes off his esteemed opponent in fine style:
White to move
This is a tough pick. Both books bring a lot to the table. Basically it comes down to which you prefer, modern puzzles or “the classics.” Knowing the classics is an important part of knowing your chess history; I mean, can you really trust a chess player who has never seen the ending to the Morphy-Duke of Brunswick game!? That said there is something, as I mentioned above, very cool about playing through ultra-recent games. Some Pluses and Minuses about each Book 1) Sukhin’s chapter titles are a bit off the mark. For example, although chapter eight is called, Steinitz-The First World Champion, the chapter contains positions from many other players. The same is true for chapter 14, The Great Opposition: Karpov-Kasparov, where you would expect to find all the puzzles between the two K’s, but which again contain positions from other players, such as the one I gave above between Plaskett and Velimerovic. Admittedly, this is a small thing, but would it have been so difficult to call chapter 14: “The Karpov/Kasparov battles and other great combos from the 1980s and 90s,” which is more accurate? 2) While the diagrams in Chess Gems aren’t bad, the ones in The Complete Chess Workout are larger, less crowded (more white space around them) and easier to read. (This is due to TCCW being a bigger book, which provides more space for the larger diagrams.) 3) Palliser’s book gives you 200 more puzzles than Sukhin’s, but it also costs 5.00 more, so let’s call it a wash.
Like two great chess champions doing
battle, both authors were “up-to-task” and so the result is a hard fought
draw. The truth is that you can’t go wrong with either
book. On a scale of 1-10, Chess Gems by Igor Sukhin
and The Complete Chess Workout by Richard Palliser
both get a 9. Solutions to all 8 Puzzles The Complete Chess Workout 1) A. Kosten - C. Marchal, Metz 2007. 1.Rd8+! 1-0 It’s mate after 1…Qxd8 2. Qxc6# or 1…Bxd8 2.Qc8# 2) A. Chudinovskih – O. Nikolenko, Moscow 2007. 1.Rh8+! Kxh8 2.Qh3+ Kg8 3.Qxe6+ 1-0 3…Kh7 4. Rh2# 3) A. Rodriguez – V. Needleman, San Luis 2007. 1. Rf7+! 1-0 1…Rxf7 Ne8# 4) A. Yusupov – A. Reuss, Altenkirchen, 2005. 1.Nxg6+!! From Megabase 2008: The remarkable knight sacrifice allows White to deflect the black bishop and add momentum to his passed d-pawn. 1...Bxg6 2.d6! Threatening 40.Qh8#. 2...Kg8 [2...Ke8 fails to 3.Qe7#] 3.d7 An impressive march of the d-pawn! 1–0 Chess Gems 1) Abu Naim Al-Khadim (Shatranj problem) 1.Nh5+! Rxh5 2) Rxg6+! Kxg6 3. Re6# 2) Anderssen,Adolf - Dufresne,Jean, Berlin, 1852 (Evergreen Game). 1.Rxe7+! Nxe7!? (better was 1… Kd8) 2.Qxd7+!! Kxd7 3.Bf5+ Ke8 4.Bd7+ Kf8 5.Bxe7# 3) Levitzky-Marshall , Breslau, 1912. 1. Qg3!! 0-1 2.hxg3 Ne2#; 2.fxg3 Ne2+ 3.Kh1 Rxf1#; 2.Qxg3 Ne2+ 3Kh1 Nxg3+ 4.Kg1 Ne2+ 5.Kh1 Rc3 and Black has an extra piece.)
4) Plaskett – Velimirovic,
Banja Luka, 1985. 1.Qxh4! Kxh4 2.Rh7+ Kg5 3.h4#
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