Judgment and planning in chess

Humor & Entertainment

Euwe, Dr. Max

Puzzles & Games

G.Bell

This is a book in Descriptive Chess Notation of great importance not only because of the question it addresses, but because of who asks and then answers that question. Dr. Max Euwe, who was world chess champion from 1935 to 1937, compares and contrasts Bobby Fischer with the three greatest players before him, world champions Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine. Max Euwe is unique in that he had played all of these players in tournaments and had studied all of their games in great detail. He knew more about them and their games than anybody else. He has a chapter devoted to comparing each of these players to Bobby Fischer. The chapters are entitled “Capablanca and Fischer”, “Alekhine and Fischer”, “Lasker and Fischer” and finally “Fischer and the Living World Champions”, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian and Spassky. No other book makes these comparisons and addresses these questions, certainly none by any player of the stature of Euwe. Was Bobby Fischer the greatest chess player who ever lived? In this book, Max Euwe, himself a past world champion who also acted as referee at the famous Iceland matches in 1972, here compares Fischer with previous holders of the world chess championship titles. Here are analysis of games that Fischer actually played against Botvinnik, Petrosian, Smyslov, Spassky, Tal, and Euwe. More importantly, Grandmaster Euwe compares certain aspects of Fischer's play with the best games of Capablanca, Alekhine, and Lasker, the most highly regarded world champions of recent times, who were deceased by the time Fischer was playing in tournaments.

Bobby Fischer - The Greatest?

Biographies & Memoirs

Ishi Press

This is a basic book that teaches strategic planning in chess. It is a book that an entire generation of aspiring chess players studied and read, but seems to be nearly forgotten today. Written by a former Chess Champion of the world, this book has as its basis an entirely novel idea which will help players over a real difficulty. Many books have been written on the openings, some knowledge of which is essential to those who wish to enjoy their chess by playing it well. But after eight to fifteen moves or so the book on openings must of necessity break off, and the student is left with the intimation that the position in question is even, or that White or Black stands slightly better. This book is concerned with the game from then on. The author studies a number of orthodox openings and position from the point where the opening stage has come to an end. He describes the characteristics of the position reached, shows why one or the other side stands better, and gives a thoroughly practical demonstration of the means by which the game can be brought to its logical conclusion.

Judgment and Planning in Chess

Today many more tournament games are being played and club and match games brought more frequently to a finish so that the ending is not left to the adjudicator but is becoming of increasing importance to the ordinary player. For the expert it has long been an outstanding characteristic of his play and it is not an accidental that the greatest masters of chess ave also been the greatest masters of the end game. In the end-game, unlike the opening, proficiency does not depend on the memory but on methodical study and it is not difficult to acquire a skill that will add to points and half-points to the score table. Endgames are predominantly positional in character although combinative and tactical maneuvering often enlivens the play. The best endings have their own appeal, one of accurate timing and precision. But the compelling reason for study is surely the practical one: after a long struggle how heart breaking it is not to reap one's full reward because of poor end-play. In more than sixty examples from play in this book decisive mistakes were made, often by the greatest masters. In many ways the ending is a different kind of game: the importance of the pawn center diminishes; the king becomes more active; there is the possibility of stalemate; and the pawns, no longer a skeleton clothed by pieces, become powerful in them selves. When the number of pawns is reduced then values chance, so that a piece may be worth no more than a pawn.  Rather than a sketchy outline of the whole field, this book makes a fairly thorough study of those endings most likely to occur in play, especially those with rooks. This book is best worked through as a course of study, so that the underlying ideas are absorbed and a sound positional judgment is acquired it is at first not necessary to understand every nuance, far less to try to remember the more difficult variations; indeed one might pass over the sub-variations at first reading. Some of the example, noticeable in the later chapters, are harder than others. Although considered a suitable textbook for the less skilled player, the more complicated studies, and some recent theoretical discoveries such as the analysis of R +BP +RP v. R and Q + KtP v. Q are included. Endings at first difficult yield to further study; the weaker player should never be discouraged, for in time the ideas become clearer and a logical pattern is revealed.

A Guide to Chess Endings

Hooper, David

This is essentially a book on chess history, showing how different styles of chess play became popular and flourished and then faded in popularity, such as for example the Hyper-Modern Style of play that became “All the Rage” in the 1920s and 1930s. Former World Chess Champion Dr. Max Euwe traces the history of chess going through the games of the greatest players in history showing how the earliest recorded games show a wild attacking style. Later styles emphasized development, then pawn structure, then defensive play, then positional. Now primarily strategic planning is emphasized. Dr Euwe's thesis in his new book is that the evolution of the style of a chess player, during his formative years, runs parallel to that of the game itself since the dawn of modern chess in the seventeenth century. Forty-four great games, spanning the three centuries from Greco to Spassky, are analyzed in depth, always with reference to chess knowledge and practice current at the time. From the long history of master chess, Dr. Euwe has selected the great figures whose positive contributions to theory and dogma have influenced the methods of their successors and turned generations of players down new avenues of attack. Particularly admirable is Dr Euwe's thorough exposition of the origins of position play in the games of Steinitz. The detailed treatment given to nine of these games is a chess education in itself. And this is only one chapter. (In the very next, we see Steinitz beaten by a genius of a new kind.) All the rest is here, too - Philidor's pawn power, the combinative wizardry of Anderssen and of Morphy, whose influence was as long-lasting as his career was short-lived, the perfecting of technique in the years before the First World War, the iconoclasm of Reti, Nimzowitsch and Alekhine and the virile approach of the modern Russian School.

Development of Chess Style