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| Title: I Play Against
Pieces |
Author: Svetozar Gligoric |
Language:  |
Pages: 288 |
| Cover: Paperback |
Published: 2002 |
| Publisher: Batsford |
Homepage: http://www.batsford.com |
| Price: £ 15,99 |
ISBN: 0-7134-8770-4 |
| Reviewed by: Magnus
Lindfeldt |
Date: 24/1 2003 |
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Grandmaster Retrospective
I have always enjoyed game-collections! When Top-players select their personal favourite games, sprinkle them with instructive and illuminating comments and toss in the odd anecdote, chess doesn’t get much better than that! Anand and Korchnoi’s recent efforts are wonderful examples of this genre at its best. So I was happy to get my hands on this collection by Svetozar Gligoric, who was one of the worlds leading grandmasters in the 1950’s and 60’s. Since I didn’t pick up chess before the 1980’s, when Gligoric was no longer part of the world’s elite, I never knew much about him except as the losing part in some marvelous displays by Fischer and Larsen in their game-collections! But here he shows that he got his revenge against the very same opponents – and more than once.
The 130(!) games in this collection range from 1939 to 2001 and include battles with world-champions Botvinnik, Euwe, Smyslov, Petrosian, Tal and Fischer as well as high-class grandmasters such as Keres, Korchnoi, Geller, Portisch, Taimanov and Larsen. As Gligoric himself asserts, he has maybe played more tournament games than any other grandmaster during his long career, battling it out with veterans Vidmar and Stahlberg in the 1940’s as well as youngsters Sakaev and Jenni in the 1990’s. With such a wealth of material to chose from,
it's not surprising that this book present a lot of very good games against strong opposition. The games are collected according to opening, and this concept work out well. So, of to the chess-store, then? Well, better read on first...
Gligoric analysing with ex-Soviet World Champion Smyslov (Picture
from the book)
Good Old-Fashioned Chess
Gligoric’s career peaked in the 1950’s, a period in which Botvinnik’s
“scientific” approach to the game reflected a more general societal belief in the pursuit of rationalism. The soviet method of combining the mapping of “typical structures” (recurring themes of pawnstructure and/or piece placement) with a very concrete analytical approach revolutionized chess, especially the role and importance of opening studies. Whatever one may think of rationalistic tendencies, I think it’s safe to say Gligoric is very much a child of this era, and this is something that put its mark on this book more than anything else. The approach has even decided the title of the book, “I play against pieces”, suggesting that for Gligoric the game may best be described as
an art form or a quest for truth rather than a dirty, grinding battle of opponents.
One may curiously wonder if he found Tal’s pieces to behave in the same way as
Petrosian's? The quest for objectivity and the view of the game as a coherent rulebased system is inherent in the comments, and
in the book we are reminded of Laskers rule of thumb that knights should be developed before bishops, the paramount role of development, and are even treated to a “calculation of tempi” to show who has the advantage in a particular position. All useful rules of thumb, of course, and surely just meant as a pedagogical device, but set against todays dynamic and less
rule concerned GM’s
Gligoric's comments do seem a bit outdated at times. Well, instead of blabbering away about the value of different perspectives, let me just say that Gligoric’s approach to chess has worked very well for him, and leave it at that.
An Example from the Book
So, instead of plunging into fruitless polemics, let me give you an example from the book where Gligoric’s game and style of writing come together nicely. The following is Gligoric-Lombardy from the Olympiad in Munich 1958. A classic example of a positional squeeze in the Ruy Lopez, and a good illustration of Gligoric’s writing style. I pass you over to the grandmaster (comments slightly abridged):
”After being confronted with an offbeat opening scheme, the fate of the game, according to my logic, was settled at a certain moment when the right and probably the only really strong move had to be found, i.e. a plan that significantly upset my rival’s conception. The further course of play was a ‘matter of technique’, a skilful application of the laws governing the different stages of the chess
game”1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c6
This move was a specialty of the American grandmaster and quite fashionable at the time because Black players got tired of worrying about the d5 square after the natural
10...c5.
11.a4!
The original text move is directed at the weak position of the black knight at a5 and Black’s vulnerability along the a-file, at a moment when he is not quite ready to rid himself of the troubles caused by
it.
11...Rb8
A passive move, played because Black wanted to maintain his pawn on c6 (after the exchanges at b5) in order to control the central
squares.
12.axb5 axb5 13.d4
Now this thrust in the centre has more force, because the fact that the queen is tied to the protection of the knight at a5 doesn’t allow Black to respond with
13...Qc7.
13...Nd7 14.Nbd2 Bf6 15.Nf1 Nc4 16.b3 Ncb6 17.Ne3 g6
Black has established himself on the important e5 square, but at the cost of a rather awkward placement of his minor
pieces.
18.Ng4 Bg7 19.dxe5 Nxe5 20.Nfxe5 dxe5 21.Nh6+
White makes the most of the position – gaining the advantage of the bishop-pair for the endgame, since 21...Kh8?? fails to
22.Nxf7+
21...Bxh6 22.Bxh6 Re8 23.Qxd8
Without his queen it will be more difficult for black to defend the weakened dark
squares
23...Rxd8 24.Bg5 Re8 25.Red1
Thanks to the bishop, White now controls the other open
file
25... Be6 26.Rd6 c5 27.Be3 Rec8 28.Ra7 Kf8 29.Bd1 h5
Black tries to prevent 30.Bg4 after which his position will be exposed to the attack of the active white
pieces.
30.g4 hxg4 31.Bxg4 Bxg4 32.hxg4 Kg7 33.Bg5 Re8 34.Bf6+ Kf8 35.Rd3
Black is helpless against the manoeuvre Rd3-h3-h8 mate, and therefore he sacrifices the exchange in order to prolong what is a futile
resistance.
35...Re6 36.g5 Kg8 37.Rh3 Rxf6 38.gxf6 c4 39.bxc4 bxc4 40.Kg2 Rc8 41.Re7 Na4 42.Rxe5
Black resigned, 1-0
A nice display of classic chess, although you may get the impression from Gligoric’s comments that blacks game was more or less lost after 11.a4 and that the rest of the game was a matter of technique! A bit much, I would say, although it’s certainly true that black’s game was in shambles around move 25.
The game is a good example of what this book is all about: A very nice game, but the annotations are a bit light, and there is little regard to recent developments in opening theory. Personally I don’t mind this too much, but I find it rather surprising since Gligoric in his prime was a renowned opening-expert, and has made many valuable contributions to various theoretical debates throughout his career. But an explanation may be that the current book is actually the 3rd extended edition of a gamecollection that originally appeared in
Russian in 1981. I suspect Gligoric simply has not had the time and/or motivation to revise the games according to developments in the 1980’s and 90’s with the exception of the 10 games in the collection played since 1989. But since this book is not intended as an opening-manual I don’t mind these theoretical omissions too
much
Conclusion:
So what remains to be said? Can I recommend this book? Well, let me start by saying that you will obviously always improve your game by studying the games of top-players. Having said that, however, I am not convinced this is a book every aspiring player will enjoy. It all depends if you sympathize with Gligoric’s approach to the game and style of writing (compare the game quoted above).
Being a child of the dynamic, double-edged chess of the 1980’s and 90’s I found Gligoric’s approach to the game a bit conservative, to put it mildly. But if you’re finding
today's chess too chaotic, variation-laden and bewildering you will surely enjoy the many fine examples of “classis chess” in this collection. Recommended for classicists.
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