MARK RUBERY CHESS
In the style of Winston Churchill, who made history as well as recording it, Garry Kasparov put pen to paper and written some of the most important chess books ever to be released. We are fortunate that a World champion has made such a colossal effort as champions such as Spassky, Fischer, Karpov and even Carlsen have barely made a ripple in this regard.
In ‘My Great Predecessors’ Kasparov covers the evolution of chess strategy as imparted by previous world champions and other important contributors. The subject matter is so large that Kasparov has published five volumes that cover all the decisive moments of the world championship matches as well as comprehensive coverage of those who made an indelible impression on the game such as Rubinstein, Bronstein, Reshevsky etc.
Here is an extract taken from an interview that Kasparov gave to Chesscafe.com on his first book: ‘And I would also pick out the game Alekhine played against Euwe, game four in the first match. Also highly underestimated, he played a piece down, just building up the initiative. And this game, like the game Lasker-Steinitz (Wch 1894, game 5) you take the game, and show it to a player, I bet you nobody in the audience will guess the era. So these games will be displayed as probably 1960s-1970s. And that also makes the game unique. If you could see a great player winning the game or demonstrating new ideas that are so much ahead of his time, what else could you ask?’
Euwe,M - Alekhine,A [D81]
World Championship 16th NLD (4) 1935
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qb3 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bg7 6.Bf4 c6 7.Rd1 Qa5 8.Bd2 b5 9.Qb3 b4 10.Na4 Na6 11.e3 Be6 12.Qc2 0-0 13.b3 Rab8 14.Bd3 Rfc8 15.Ne2 c5 16.Bxa6 Qxa6 17.Nxc5 Qb5 18.Nf4 Bg4 19.f3 e5 20.Nfd3
…exd4! 21.fxg4 dxe3 22.Bxe3 Nxg4 23.Bf4 (23 Bf2 Re8+ 23 Kf1 Nxf2 24 Qxf2 Rbd8 is
still pleasant for Black)…Bc3+ 24.Rd2 Rxc5 25.Nxc5 Qxc5 (25…Re8+ 26 Ne4 Bxd2+ 27 Kxd2 Qf5 is more immediate-Kasparov) 26.Bxb8 Qe7+ (Neatly picking up the queen) 27.Kd1 Ne3+ 28.Kc1 Nxc2 29.Rxc2 h5 30.Rd1 Bg7 31.h3 a5 32.Bf4 Qe4 33.Bc7 Qe3+ 34.Kb1 a4 35.bxa4 b3 36.axb3 Qxb3+ 37.Kc1 Bh6+ 38.Rdd2 Qxa4 39.Be5 Kh7 40.Bc3 Qb5 41.Bd4 Qe2 42.g4 Qe1+ 43.Kb2 Bxd2 44.Rc8 Bc1+ 0-1
“The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chess board.” – GM Simon Williams