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August 2008 Book Reviews

Fritz 11 In stock £36.50

Catalogue 2008

WWW BCM Chess for Beginners!
NEW BOOKS AND SOFTWARE
PRE-ORDER! Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985 by Garry Kasparov £25.00!! plus postage
Deep Rybka 3 (ChessBase Interface) £79.99 plus postage	Rybka 3 (ChessBase Interface) £39.99 plus postage
Rybka 3 Opening Book £19.99 plus postage	Secrets of Opening Surprises Vol. 9 by Jeroen Bosch £13.99 plus postage
Play 1 b3! The Nimzo-Larsen Attack by Ilya Odessky £17.99 plus postage	222 Opening Traps after 1 d4 by Karsten Müller & Rainer Knaak £14.99 plus postage
Modern Chess Openings 15th Edition by Nick de Firmian £19.99 plus postage	The Flexible French by Viktor Moskalenko £17.99 plus postage
Informator 101 £20.95 plus postage	100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus de la Villa £17.99 plus postage
Streetfighting Chess by Andrew Burnett £15.99 plus postage	Chess Instructor 2009 Ed. Jeroen Bosch & Steve Giddins £17.99 plus postage
The Best of the Best 1000 £29.99 plus postage	BCM, August 2008 £3.70 plus postage
ChessBase Corr Database 2009 £63.99 plus postage	Fighting the Anti-King's Indians by Yelena Dembo £14.99 plus postage
NOW IN STOCK! CHESSBASE 10! Available now!	Zuke 'Em! The Colle-Zukertort Revolutionized by David Rudel £14.99 plus postage
1000 Combinations by Jozsef Pinter £19.99 plus postage	BCM, July 2008 £3.70 plus postage
Starting Out: The Modern by Nigel Davies £14.99 plus postage	Power Play 7 - Improve Your Pieces by Daniel King £23.99 plus postage
Dangerous Weapons: The Benoni and Benko by Emms, Palliser, Ward and Jones £15.99 plus postage	ChessBase Magazine 124 £17.50 plus postage
The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess by Andrew Soltis £15.99 plus postage	New in Chess 2008/4 £6.50 plus postage
The Field 1906 Ed. Leopold Hoffer £24.99 plus postage	The Chess Player's Chronicle 1891-92, Vol. 12 £29.99 plus postage
The Colle System by Nigel Davies £21.99 plus postage	Torre Attack by Nigel Davies £21.99 plus postage
Albin Counter-Gambit by Rustam Kasimdzhanov £23.99 plus postage	New In Chess Yearbook 87 £17.50 plus postage
The Greatest Ever Chess Opening Ideas by Christoph Scheerer £15.99 plus postage	Pawn Sacrifice!: Winning at Chess the Adventurous Way by Timothy Taylor £14.99 plus postage
BCM, June 2008 £3.70 plus postage	Build Up Your Chess with Artur Yusupov - The Fundamentals by Artur Yusupov £15.99 plus postage
The Art of Bisguier: Selected Games 1961-2003 by Arthur Bisguier & Newton Berry £22.40 plus postage	The Chebanenko Slav According to Bologan by Viktor Bologan £19.95 plus postage
The Art of Attacking Chess by Zenon Franco £16.99 plus postage	How to Crush Your Chess Opponents by Simon Williams £12.99 plus postage
Play the Slav by James Vigus £14.99 plus postage	The Huddersfield College Chess Magazine, Vol. 7-8 (Oct 1878-Sept 1880) £26.99 plus postage
The Easiest Sicilian by Atanas Kolev & Trajko Nedev £16.99 plus postage	The ABC of the Modern Benoni by Andrew Martin £21.99 plus postage
London System by Nigel Davies £21.99 plus postage	Endgames for Experts by Rustam Kasimdzhanov £22.99 plus postage
ChessBase Magazine 123 £17.50 plus postage	BCM, May 2008 £3.70 plus postage
Play 1 b4! by Yury Lapshun and Nick Conticello £14.99 plus postage	New in Chess 2008/3 £6.50 plus postage
Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan £18.95 plus postage	Attacking Manual 1 by Jacob Aagaard £19.99 plus postage
Secrets of Endgame Technique by Mark Dvoretsky & Artur Yusupov £18.00 plus postage	Opening for White According to Kramnik Vol. 2 (2nd Edition) by Alexander Khalifman £16.99 plus postage
Beating the Open Games (2nd Edition) by Mihail Marin £17.99 plus postage	My Best Games with Black by Alexei Shirov £25.99 plus postage
Strategy: Step by Step by Rustam Kasimdzhanov £22.99 plus postage	Chess for Scoundrels by Nigel Davies £19.99 plus postage
Hiarcs 12 £34.99 plus postage	Deep Hiarcs 12 £74.99 plus postage
Jon Speelman's Chess Puzzle Book by Jon Speelman £10.99 plus postage	BCM, April 2008 £3.70 plus postage
Starting Out: The Accelerated Dragon by Andrew Greet £15.99 plus postage	Practical Endgame Play - Mastering the Basics by Efstratios Grivas £15.99 plus postage
English Defence by Ilia Odessky £19.99 plus postage	Secrets of Spectacular Chess: 2nd edition by Jonathan Levitt and David Friedgood £14.99 plus postage
A Positional Opening Repertoire for the Club Player by Nikolai Kalinichenko £17.99 plus postage	An Aggressive Opening Repertoire for the Club Player by Nikolai Kalinichenko £17.99 plus postage
Anti-Moscow Gambit by Rustam Kasimdzhanov £21.99 plus postage	New In Chess Magazine 2008/2 £6.50 plus postage
Chessbase Opening Encyclopaedia 2008 (DVD-ROM) £69.99 plus postage	Power Play 6 - Pawns, Pieces & Plans by Daniel King £21.99 plus postage
Books By Publisher Batsford BCM Caissa Editions Caissa Kft (Hung.) Chess Digest Chess Enterprises Chess Player Chess Stars Dover Everyman Gambit Hardinge Simpole Hays ICE Informator McFarland McKay Moravian Chess New in Chess Olms Pickard Russell Enterprises Thinker's Press Miscellaneous Books By Year 2006 Books 2005 Books 2004 Books 2003 Books 2002 Books 2001 Books 2000 Books 1999 Books
Hundreds of Chess Books Available Online! Search our chess book and review pages here!  • BCM Bound Volumes • • New Books & CDs •
British Chess Magazine July 2008 ... what's in the this issue ... click here for details read the July reviews	British Chess Magazine August 2008 ... what's in this issue ... click here for details read the August reviews

CHESS NEWS • News Archive: 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008

BCM Blog Latest: "Conquest of Britain" (9 August): http://bcmchess.blogspot.com/ • editor John Saunders

World Junior Championship, Turkey, 3-15 Aug [15/08/08]

The World Junior Championship takes place in Gaziantep, Turkey, starting on 3 August and ending on 15 August. It is a 13-round swiss event. David Howell (ENG 2561g) is 14th seed while Peter Constantinou (ENG 2225) is also taking part. The field also includes Filipino prodigy Wesley So and the Chinese girl player Hou Yifan. Karl McPhillips (IRL 2221) represents Ireland. Sarah Hegarty (ENG 1966) represents England in the girls' championship. Latest: Round 13 (of 13): Sadly, David Howell lost his final game to Abhijeet Gupta so he is out of the hunt for the gold medal. The last game was a nervous affair which went wrong for Howell almost from the outset. But he has had a magnificent tournament which, together with his previous tournament victory in Andorra, shows that he has made a major step forward in standard. He is still young enough to compete in this championship in future years. Last round games now in progress - click here to follow play. Final Scores: 1 Abhijeet Gupta (IND 2551g) 10/13, 2 Parimarjan Negi (IND 2529g) 9½, 3rd= Arik Braun (GER 2533g) - I think he takes the bronze medal - and probably 4th on tie-break David Howell (ENG 2561g) 9, etc. One curious fact was that all three leaders after the penultimate round were former British junior title-holders at some point in the past few years (in fact, each has won more than one British title). Official website • English team coach IM Lawrence Cooper's coverage.

British Championships, Liverpool, 27 Jul - 9 Aug [08/08/08]

The countdown has now started to the 95th British Chess Championships, being held in St George's Hall Liverpool from 27 July.
   Official website: www.britishchess08.com • View/Download games all championship games
  Latest: Stuart Conquest beat Keith Arkell 1½-½ in a rapidplay play-off to become British Champion for the first time. Well done, Stuart! He is the first English-born, English-registered British champion for ten years (though Stuart lives in Spain). He drew his round 11 game with Simon Williams which allowed Keith Arkell to catch him up by beating Gawain Jones. Both players who tied first are relative veterans: Stuart 41 and Keith 47. Scores: 1-2 S Conquest, K Arkell 8/11, 2-6 N Davies, S Gordon, B Lalic, S Williams 7½, etc.
    In the women's championship, Jovanka Houska took the title for the first time after winning her final three games to finish on 6½, a point clear of Susan Lalic on 5½ and Meri Grigoryan-Lyell 5 (who was the only one of the three women players to gain rating points - she did very well). Norms achieved: IM for Jonathan Hawkins and Jack Rudd (his final norm).
    The most notable story of the first week was 12-year-old Felix Jose Ynojosa's score of 4/6, inviting parallels with Nigel Short's performance at the same age in 1977. He faded in the second week and finished on 5/11 but still made a TPR of around 2320. Read the BCMBlog.
Here's my updated historical list of British Champions in all categories. I originally drafted this for the BCF website some years ago but the federation has not kept it up-to-date. Also, I have since made some amendments as the list published in the ECF Yearbook has a number of inaccuracies and misspellings. I've no doubt that my list is still not 100% accurate and I would appreciate any feedback if anybody spots anything wrong.
Other coverage: Prof. David Robertson's blog (he is the principal mover and shaker behind all the big-time events we've seen in Liverpool in recent years, and currently playing in the Major Open).
   The list of entrants shows that the English are determined to wrest back the championship which they once considered their personal property. Stewart Reuben has been running a British Championship quiz on the official website but here's an additional poser for you - when was the last time a born-in-England, English-registered player won the British Championship title? The answer is ... [continued]

6th Staunton Memorial Tournament, Simpsons-in-the-Strand, 7-18 Aug [15/08/08]

The prestigious 12-player grandmaster tournament is stronger than ever this year (category 13), with England's top two grandmasters, Michael Adams and Nigel Short playing together in a UK all-play-all for the first time. Full line-up: Michael Adams (ENG 2735g), Ivan Sokolov (NED 2658g), Nigel Short (ENG 2655g), Loek Van Wely (NED 2644g), Erwin L'Ami (NED 2610g), Jan Smeets (NED 2593g), Jan Werle (NED 2591g), Jan Timman (NED 2561g), Peter Wells (ENG 2526g), Jon Speelman (ENG 2524g), Alexander Cherniaev (RUS 2431g) and - trying for a GM norm at the age of 87(!) - IM Bob Wade (ENG 2167m). Against opposition averaging 2593, Bob Wade's expected score based on rating is a tad over ½/11. I've an inkling he will do better than that, though probably not the 6/11 he needs for a GM norm. Spectators are welcome - games start at 2.00pm start every day (n.b. rest day 13 August, last round starts noon) • Official website: http://www.howardstaunton.com/hsmt2008/index.shtml • View/download games (Rds 1-7). Scores after round 7 (Thursday): 1 M Adams 5½/7, 2 L Van Wely 4½, 3-5 J Timman, N Short, J Speelman 4, 6-9 J Werle, E L'Ami, J Smeets, I Sokolov 3½, 10-11 P Wells, A Cherniaev 3, 12 R Wade 0.

BritBase: Latest Downloads [15/07/08]

Three additions made to BritBase today - games downloads for the recent Irish Open Championship, Scottish Championship and the South Wales International. View/Download Irish Open Championships 2008 • View/Download Scottish Championships 2008 • View/Download 5th South Wales International 2008. My thanks to Jack Rudd for the South Wales International games.

Irish Open Championships, 5-13 Jul [15/07/08]

Alex Baburin is the new Irish champion, winning it at his first attempt (despite being resident in Ireland for 15 years). He finished first equal with Alon Greenfeld at the open championship event, both scoring an impressive 8/9 and receiving 2,000 euros each. Third was Mark Hebden with 6½, followed by Stephen Jessel on 6. Two more GMs, Algimantas Butnorius and Stuart Conquest, finished further down the field. A games download/viewer is available (see above). The tournament was held at the Academy Plaza Hotel in Dublin and sponsored by Island Oil and Gas. Official website: http://www.icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=188

115th Scottish Championships, Glasgow, 5-13 Jul [15/07/08]

The Scottish Championship is being held as a nine-round open at Glasgow Academy, with the highest scoring Scot being eligible for the championship title. The first prize is £2,000. Official website: http://www.bcfservices.org.uk/livechess/scottish/2008/. Final: GM Jan Markos (SVK) and Tautvydas Vedrickas (LTU) shared first place in the open tournament with 7½/9. Alan Tate (SCO), of the Wandering Dragons club, took the Scottish title on tie-break (based on FIDE performance) from 2007 champion Andrew Muir. Both scored 6½, as did Ravshan Khamroev (UZB).

5th South Wales International Open, 5-10 Jul [11/07/08]

The South Wales International is a nine-round swiss event with GMs including Stewart Haslinger, Peter Wells and Normands Miezis plus a number of IMs. Official website: http://www.southwaleschess.co.uk/SWI/home.html. Final: GMs Normunds Miezis (LAT) and Stewart Haslinger (ENG) shared first place with 7½/9. David Eggleston (ENG) and James Cobb (WLS) shared 3rd place with 6½, both achieving IM norms.

Yeovil Congress, 13-15 Jun [17/06/08]

Matthew Turner and Chris Beaumont shared first place at the Yeovil Summer Congress over the weekend. 61 players took part in the congress in all. Open: 1-2 M Turner (Millfield), C Beaumont (Clifton) 4½/5, 3 C Purry (Frome) 3. Intermediate: 1-2 Tim Chapman (Guildford/Yeovil), Harry Streeter (Millfield) 4/5, 3-6 Andrew Farthing (Worcester), Megan Owens (Downend), Chris Webb (Dorchester), James Hall (East Grinstead) 3½. Minor: 1-3 Barry Davies (Keynsham), Simon Gray (Yeovil), Raymond (ISCA) 4/5. My thanks to Jack Rudd for the results and for supplying all the games from each section (quick work!) • View/Download games

Pesonen Memorial Match, Middlesex vs Sussex 2007-8 [08/06/08]

John Dodgson reports on a six-board correspondence match between Middlesex and Sussex which was played as part of Middlesex's centenary celebrations in 2007 and also to remember the Finnish-born Sussex player Erkki Pesonen who died in 2006. All six games are available in viewer or for download. Click on the above link.

Chess Skill Questionnaire [05/06/08]

Dr. Robert Howard of the University of New South Wales in Australia is carrying out a study of the chess skills of internationally-rated players. It involves a short online survey. Anyone with a FIDE rating can take part. For further details, click here.

BCMBlog [28/05/08]

Two further items on the BCMBlog in the last day or so: Boris Spassky's interview at Hay-on-Wye (which I attended) and a short obituary of Patrick Taylor, sponsor of the Monarch Assurance Isle of Man tournament for 18 years, who sadly died at the weekend.

BCMBlog: Mike Truran Open Letter, 8 May [09/05/08]

Click on the BCMBlog (http://bcmchess.blogspot.com/) for the text of an open letter sent to BCM by an outgoing non-executive director of the English Chess Federation, Mike Truran. English chess is currently in crisis following the resignation last week of four directors of the national federation - Martin Regan, Peter Sowray, Claire Summerscale and Mike Truran. As we understand it, the reason for the directors' resignations is the ECF Council's unwillingness to engage in a meaningful debate about the future of the organisation and the state of chess in the country. For further background, consult the following: the SCCU website report on the ECF Council meeting of 26 April • debate on the ECF Forum • debate on the Atticus CC forum • Streatham & Brixton CC Blog • North East Chess Forum.

News Archive: 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008

British Tournament Calendar
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plus news, results and games via email or fax +44 (0)20 7486 3355

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