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| Title: Grandmaster Efim
Boguljobow |
Author: Victor Charushin |
| Language: English |
Published: 2000 |
| Publisher: Pickard &
Son |
Homepage: http://www.chesscentral.com |
| Price: $ 29,95 |
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| Requires:
ChessBase or ChessBase Light |
| Test Computer:
Pentium III 450 Mhz, 128 MB RAM and Windows 98 |
| Reviewed by: Søren
Søgaard |
Date: 16/12 2000 |
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This is the first product in a new biographical series
"Famous Grandmasters" by ICCF IM Victor Charushin. This
CD-ROM contains the life and games of Grandmaster Efim Bogoljubow
who lived from 1889 until 1952.
In the foreword it is said that "For over three decades Efim
Bogoljubow dominated the world of chess, along with his rival
Alekhine - yet fate has made the latter name famous while obscuring
the former." This was the first I noticed when reading about
this new product, and it made me a little curious about the rest!! I
admit that Bogoljubow was a great player, one of the leading in the
chessworld in the twenties and the early thirties. But
"dominated the world of chess for over three decades...."
that's a statement I don't like.
The truth is that Bogoljubow had his breakthrough in 1922-23
starting with the win in Pistyan 1922. And as everybody knows he won
a very strong tournament in Moscow 1925 and this was the highlight
together with his win in Bad Kissingen 1928 - again a very strong
field. Here he was 1 point ahead of former World Champion
Capablanca. After this he played two matches about the World Title against
World Champion Alekhine in 1929 and 1934. In both matches he was
without any chance of winning, and lost 15½-9½ in 1929 and
15½-10½ in 1934. The truth is that he was no match for Alekhine,
that surely could use the money!
My point is that Bogoljubow was very strong from 1922 until
1930-31. In this period he won many tournaments with his aggressive
style, but he also had a lot of failures. I admit that he was one of
the strongest masters in this period, but "dominating the chess
world" is in my opinion not true. Alekhine dominated the chess world
from 1927 until 1935, but there where others that was at least as
good as Bogoljubow. What about the great Capablanca (World champion
until 1927), Lasker or even Nimzowitsch? After 1930-31 Bogoljubow
was still a strong master, but his peak was in the years 1925-1929.
After all this, one could expect that I didn't like the CD-ROM
"Grandmaster Efim
Boguljobow". This is not true, I think that Charushin
has made a great work covering the life and games of Bogoljubows.
"Grandmaster Efim
Bogoljubow" contains:
- 1247 games
- 40 photographs
- The story of Efim Bogoljubow
- Over 70 pages of text
- Statistics over 75 tournaments and match cross tables
- Opening key and theme key
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Charushin has made a great job, and I enjoyed reading the story
of Efim Bogoljubow. I actually found a great deal that I didn't know
before! Did you know that Bogoljubow and Alekhine played a match in
1921? One thing that I don't like about these new biographical
CD-ROM is that it's not a book!! It's very hard to read the text on
a screen, after 2-3 minutes I get tired - if this was a book I would
read far more and faster. If all the text was published as a little
book, it would have been a very good product ;-)
I can't resist telling the following story: "When I'm white,
I win because I have white. When I'm black I win because I'm
Bogoljubow!". That's the words of a true chessplayer!
Conclusion:
Charushin has made a great job covering the life and games of
Bogoljubow. The only thing I don't like is that the Publisher
says that he together with Alekhine "dominated the chess world
for over three decades", but I think I've made my point
above!! I really like the CD, but if was published as a book I
would have enjoyed it even more!
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