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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 149 OF 330 ·
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Apr-07-05
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| keypusher: Shame on those French, writing a chess magazine in their own language! And shame on your newstand for selling it!!
Seriously, though, it is a nice magazine, have you tried it? Foreign languages are more easily tackled via chess than just about any other way. My French is laughable, but my Spanish is decent and I can read chess annotations in French pretty easily. If you look for cognates I bet you would be surprised how much you would understand. |
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Apr-07-05
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| MUG: <Keypusher> I completely agree! My sister lives in Spain and sends me the brilliant chess mag 'Jaque' whenever she can. I didn't understand a word of Spanish to begin with, but after (trying) to read though a few issues (with Spanish dictionary in hand), I slowly started to pick up a lot of the key words. Also, much of it is common sense, sentences like:
"La posicion ya es muy desesperada" and "Las blancas las que presionaran en la columna h" are pretty obvious. All I have to do now is learn how to pronounce these words! ;-) Another plus is that foreign magazines usually contain a number of obscure games from local tournaments. |
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| Apr-08-05 |
| Halldor: <pazzed paun: ... Are there Any wellknown quality authors who write chess books in FRENCH?> A brief survey in my bookshelves: Michel Benoit (Échecs à Nice). <MUG, Keypusher> I agree! Foreign chess texts are therefore also a good start on getting to know new languages and a fun diversion from the usual. I've found out that few people on the continent speak proper English. (For me English becomes difficult when I have to do something more complicated than order a hamburger...) - Are there some chessbooks in Latin?! <pazzed paun> ...but I still agree with you partially, I like to have my NIC mag in English rather than Dutch, but still I read all Dutch there carefully when I see it in ads and try to figure out what it means... LOL, - not so different from German. |
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| Apr-08-05 |
| Larsker: <I've found out that few people on the continent speak proper English.> Qu'est-ce que you say? Muy dificil understand. Could you say that noch ein mal? |
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| Apr-08-05 |
| Cathal: Ray (If I may) - you mentioned above that you might have some coaching suggestions. I live in the Streatham/Clapham/Brixtonish bit of London. Would you have any suggestions?
Thank you! |
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Apr-08-05
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| ray keene: <cathal> i think aaron summerscale coaches in this area-try going via the bcf-i believe he coaches dulwich college |
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Apr-08-05
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| aragorn69: <pazzed pawn> Visibly not a francophile, are u ? As for <quality authors who write chess books in FRENCH> (and I don't which you would consider as <wellknown> ?), there are a few... From the past: Xavier Tartakower (he became French), Camil Seneca, Albéric O'Kelly (Belgian despite the name), François Le Lionnais. Present: Nicolas Giffard, Alain Villeneuve (endings expert), Sylvain Zinser. |
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Apr-08-05
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| vonKrolock: <Halldor> Modern chess books in Latin... Well, while we find none, i recall Jacopo de Cessolis' "De Ludo Scachorum" or "De Moribus Hominum ed de Officiis Nobilium Super Ludo Scaccorum" (maybe somewhat passé - writen between 1275 and 1300 aD; translated to French during the xiiith Century; it seems that W. Caxton much later published an English version of the French text, that became famous under the title "The Game of Chess" (1474) |
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Apr-10-05
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| vonKrolock: <translated to French during the xiiith Century> better reading: XIVth Century |
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| Apr-10-05 |
| Frank Dixon: Grandmaster Keene, I hope you are doing very well! If you could email me at frankd_chess@hotmail.com, I will send you some chess material of mutual interest. This method would avoid you posting your own email address on this board. Best regards, Frank Dixon, Kingston, Canada. |
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| Apr-11-05 |
| pazzed paun: <Aragorn69> I am not a FRANCOPHOBE. I
have catalogs from several chess book specialists in used books and the French language stuff is tiny or non-existent in list of several thousand items.
I will bet that Tartakover wrote most of his chess stuff in either English or German. AS far as I know those other authors have not been translated into English-and I have never seen them on a must have chessbooks list.
The only people I have heard of writing chessbooks that were translated were Renaud and KAHN -art of checkmate-one of those guys from the fifties Horowitz or Chernev-said that book was sold in English in a
brown paper cover and called "the art of mating translated from the French" some nonchessplayers bought the book and very disappointed! lol. and Jaque Mieses wrote a book or two. still and all a very small output. |
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Apr-11-05
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| IMlday: If one is going to try a foreign magazine for chess literature, I highly recommend Russian. After surmounting the symbolic difficulty of Cyrillic script it is phonetic, the letters sound as they are printed, a big improvement on English where spelling and pronunciation often vary greatly. For following chess annotations a vocabulary of 100 words is probably quite sufficient. Writing or speaking Russian is much more difficult than just reading it on the page, one third 'fluent' is probably sufficient in practice. However this did lead me astray in one game against Mike Dougherty where I followed a Boleslavsky note which suggested that it was debatable whether Black had sufficient counterplay. I recognized 'sufficient counterplay' but 'debatable' was over my horizon and I barely drew. |
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| Apr-11-05 |
| Andrewpatrick: Ray Keene,
I was happy to come across An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player in my university library. I'm an intermediate player just starting to compete in tournaments looking for an easy to learn opening repertoire while I am learning about other elements of the game. I am interested adopting your repertoire recommendations. However, I have two concerns: 1. Unfortunately, I have an older edition of the book (1984). Are the lines you recommend in your book obselete and has the theory changed so much that I might want to turn elsewhere or to the newer edition? Does the Pirc still have enough bite to play? I know Kasparov derides the Pirc. I'd love to adopt your recommendations, especially since they same very straightforward, but do you think they are still current enough to play with in class tournaments? |
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Apr-12-05
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| ray keene: its a bit dated but there are lots of good ideas |
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| Apr-12-05 |
| TedBundy: A weak player that's easily forgotten. |
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Apr-12-05
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| keypusher: <tb> A tired old troll who's best ignored. |
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| Apr-12-05 |
| sandyobrien: <Andrewpatrick>
At an intermediate level understanding the concepts of opening theory is more important than memorizing all the variations you can pack into your brain. So, don't worry about your repetoire that much. It's usually safe to stick to a few key openings at intermediate level. Visiting this site, examining openings, clicking through the opening explorer at your leisure and you'll most likely get a good enough understanding and "feel" of where to put your pieces. |
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| Apr-13-05 |
| Dick Brain: <sandyobrien> That's what they all say until the day arrives when they lose the Black side of the Max Lange Attack to a player rated 1000 points less ;) |
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Apr-13-05
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| Ron: <IMlday: If one is going to try a foreign magazine for chess literature, I highly recommend Russian.> I tend to agree. I am impressed with the magazine 64; I do not know Russian; a friend of mine, an immigrant from Russia, explained some analysis from that magazine, I think it was about a Ivanchuk-Kramnik game in the 1990s. My reaction: "This is pretty good analysis."
One time I walked into a Russian book store, to see what what sort of chess related materials it had; I bought a book; I do not know Russian, but I was able make out by inference the moves of the games, and the analysis; my friend translated the book's title as "Positions in the Middlegame." There is a goldmine of non-English chess writing. |
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Apr-13-05
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| Gypsy: <IMlday: ... I followed a Boleslavsky note which suggested that it was debatable whether Black had sufficient counterplay. I recognized 'sufficient counterplay' but 'debatable' was over my horizon and I barely drew. > A great little story! When I was ~17, I learned a passable Russian by laboring through Maya Sistema (My System). I knew enough from school to start what seemed an overwhelming project and towards the end of My System I could also read Pushkin, but not Lermontov. Since then, I re-read My System in Russian, English and Czech. Interestingly, My System becomes a somewhat different book in each language -- each language focuses one's mind on a different aspect
of the book. |
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| Apr-14-05 |
| Jamespawn: Hey Gypsy have you read My Praxis also? I`ve read that its better than My System and I was wondering what was the difference. I haven`t read either book in any language ;) I understand its a hard read for someone at my level ( 1500 on my absolute BEST day) |
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Apr-14-05
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| Gypsy: < Jamespawn > Yes, I do have Nimzo's Praxis as well. (I also have his Blocade and Carlsbad '29.) Praxis is a great book! Especially great for browsing -- no need to read it from cover to cover. If you are a ~1500 player, I definitely recommend you read My System before Praxis. (If you were at 2000, than the reading order does not matter, I think.) Then re-read or just browse through both here and there as time goes by. These are books by a great chess thinker for thinking men. These books have tendency to motivate new insights into chess thought over many years. While there is a textbook aspect to My System that will probaby add 200 points to your rating right off the bat, that is not what these books are realy about. The Russian (and Czech) version of My System has an introduction by Tal. On his own encounters with Petrosian, Tal illustrates how Petrosian, because he was a more dilligent reader of My System, outplayed Tal in a couple of their grand encounters. After that, Tal re-read Nimzo several times. |
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| Apr-14-05 |
| Frank Dixon: I wish to praise the great value and influence of the book "Flank Openings", by GM Raymond Keene. This must be one of the most influential and valuable chess books to be published within the last 40 years, and it has gone through several editions. I came upon it after I had already been playing for quite some time, and wished it had been much earlier! I broadened my playing style, and improved my strength and results, after reading it, and still refer to it constantly. In my view, the great aspects of this book are: 1) its incisive explanations and annotations, from a thematic, strategic base; 2) collection of many important games in various related systems, all brought together in one place; 3) updates of additional games from various sources, with notes from different Masters; 4) it is very user-friendly, offering high accessibility of the material to players from a wide range of strengths. These virtues make "Flank Openings" an absolute must in any serious player's library, as well as a great bargain! GM Keene has certainly written many fine books, but I daresay this is one of his best! I now want to offer an example of an original game which evolved from my reading of this great book; I would have been unable to play this earlier. W: Frank Dixon (2000)
B: John Klapstein (2060)
Queen's University Chess Club, Kingston (Canada) 2004
Reti/King's Indian Attack, A07
Notes by Frank Dixon
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.d3 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.Nbd2 e5 7.c4 (setting up asymmetry in the centre) c6 8.Rb1 Qc7 9.b4 h6 10.a4 Be6 11.b5 (expanding on the wing while leaving the central situation flexible) Nbd7 12.Ba3 c5 13.e4 Nh5 14.Nb3 f5 15.exf5 gxf5 16.a5 e4 17.Nh4 Nhf6 (17...Ndf6 is also very interesting and may be a bit stronger) 18.d4!? (not sure if this is completely correct, but it does lead to some exciting possibilities) Bxc4 (if 18...cxd4 19.Nxd4 is strong) 19.dxc5! (offering the Exchange) dxc5 (if 19...Bxf1 20.cxd6! Q-moves 21.Bxf1 offers White excellent compensation, as Black's light squares will be weak) 20.Nxf5!? Rad8! (on 20...Bxf1 21.Qxf1) 21.Re1 Bd3 (perhaps not best; I expected the more consistent 21...Ne5! which forces 22.Qc1 with a sharp, unclear situation; this prevents 22...Nd3 because of 23.Qxc4+) 22.Rc1 b6 23.Nd4! Qe5? (centralizing the Queen looks strong, but is Black's only error in the game, as he misses a pretty tactic; he had to play either 23...Rde8 or 23...Rfe8 with a roughly equal game) 24.Nc6! (an easy move to miss; it wins the Exchange) 24...Qe8 (of course he can't play 24...Qxf5? because of the fork 25.Ne7+ winning the Queen for the two knights) 25.Nxd8 Qxd8 26.Nxg7 (it seems there should be something better, but Black's position is quite solid) Kxg7 27.axb6 axb6 28.Bb2! Re8 (giving up his f-file attacking dreams to protect the e4-pawn) 29.Qg4+! (taking advantage of the pin on the long diagonal to activate his hitherto passive Queen) Kh7 30.Qf5+ Kg7 31.Bh3 Re7 32.Ra1 Qf8 (seeking to bolster his tied-down forces from behind) 33.Ra7 Bxb5 34.Rea1 Qf7 35.Rc7 Qg6 (Black seeks relief by trading Queens) 36.Raa7 Qxf5 37.Bxf5 Kf7 (seemingly sliding out, but there is one more problem) 38.Bxf6! Kxf6 39.Bxd7 1-0. |
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Apr-14-05
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| ray keene: <fd> very nice-well done and thanks for the comments |
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| Apr-15-05 |
| BabsonTask: I have four of GM Keene's books :
1. Modern Defence : A classic - very influential. Influenced a generation of British players (for one) and cost me a lot of points, as playing the modern while being a chess rabbit is a sure way to get crushed. (a warning from the book I did not heed, alas) 2. Nimzovitch re-appraisal. Nice prose, good humour, and shows what a great tactician Nimzovitch was. Get a copy. 3&4. ORAP 1 & 2. I much preferred the layout of ORAP 1 and Gunderam's attack in the caro got me some points back. Caro players see 5. c5 and think you are a rabbit (which I am, but I can still bite if you stick a finger too close). 2 passed pawns after 8 moves is an eye opener... ORAP 1 was a fun book - still worth a look. I was disappointed in the 2nd edition - the layout was not as friendly and I really would have liked a section on why certain opening systems were dropped (Gunderam attack being a case in point). It would have been a nice touch for owners of the 1st edition if the 2nd edition said " We used to recommend this system for white but you should no longer play it as after the newly discovered 12...rb8 white is in deep trouble" (for example). All worth keeping an eye out for. |
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 149 OF 330 ·
Later Kibitzing > |
