|
| Title: Chess
Informant 83 |
Author: Chess
Informant |
Language:  |
Pages: 398 |
| Cover:
Paperback |
Published: 2002 |
| Publisher:
Chess Informant |
Homepage: http://www.sahovski.com/ |
| Price: £
18,00 (Book+CD: £ 22,00) |
ISSN: 0351
1375 |
| Reviewed by: Soren
Sogaard |
Date: 26/5 2002 |
|
QuickReview
For this review, I didn't receive the electronic version of the new
Chess Informant so I only take a quick look at the book. In
the last review of Chess Informant 82, I looked at some minor
problems using the software from Chess Informant. As I don't have
the new Software I don't know if these things are fixed, but
according to Chess Informant website, it still cost £ 18 to buy
Chess Informant Reader 2.1+. You can also download a free beta
version of "Chess Informant Expert", but it is good
to know that the size of this version is 10 Mb! The free beta
version is a trial version and can only be used for 60 days. I still
think it is a bad move to take money for things like pgn-format etc. I hope
Chess Informant will change it in the future so it will
be free for subscribers of this popular product. Well, back to the
book!
There are not many changes (if any) in the book since the last edition,
except that the games and tournaments of course are different ;-) I don't
know if the team behind Chess Informant read my last review, but
they in fact decreased the number of endgames. I still think that
there shouldn't be any endgames in this opening book, I very
much doubt that there is many who look at these 6-7 pages. The annotators
are still some of the best players in the world including Kasparov,
Kramnik, Anand, M. Adams, Morozevich, R. Ponomariov, Ivanchuk,
Shirov, Lékó, Bareev... So the quality of the analysis is still
very good. I only found one minor thing that I think could have been
better. Sometimes there are some editorial comments (which is OK),
but when it is given at move 1, I think it would have been better to
give it as a single game. Take a look at this example from game 8:
Li Wenliang - Ponomariov
Moscow 2001
1.b3 [1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.d4 Bb4 5.Bd2 Bxd2
6......(22 moves!)
Content
- Tournaments and games between October 1st, 2001 and January
31st, 2002
- The 10 best games
- The 10 most important novelties and 3 pages with theory
covering the most important novelty
- 548 annotated games and 643 fragments
- Tournaments includes: Hoogeveen, Yerevan, León, Moscow,
Pamplona, USA (ch), Wijk aan Zee, match Kramnik - G. Kasparov,
FIDE WC Ponomariov - Ivanchuk...
- Tournament tables
- 9 Endgames and 27 Combinations
- "The Best of Chess Informant - Jan Timman" (20
pages). Games, Endgames, Combinations, photos and statistics
The best game
The best game from Chess Informant 81 is from Dortmund, and was
played between the two World Champions Kramnik and Anand. I was in
Dortmund and saw the game, and even though I was very impressed by
Kramnik I'm really surprised that it was chosen as the best game.
The reason is that Anand was playing way below his standard, but I
have to admit that Kramnik was very determined as he sat down to
play this game. The key moment in this game was of course 15.d5!,
and the game quickly ended (Anand had as far as I remember over 1
hour left at the clock when he resigned at move 39!).
Kramnik - Anand
Dortmund 2001
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0–0 a6 7.Bb3
cxd4 8.exd4 Nc6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.Bg5 0–0 11.Qd2 Na5 12.Bc2 b5 13.Qf4
Ra7 14.Rad1 Bb7 15.d5!
Although Anand found a couple of only moves after this, it is my
impression that most of the spectators in the playing hall thought
that Kramnik would win this position.
The bottom line is that there have not been many changes in this
issue, and that Chess Informant still is one of the best periodicals
around. I hope that the team behind Chess Informant will develop
their software further, and that subscribers doesn't have to pay for
using the "Expert Reader".
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