It’s certainly been a bit hectic lately, as I continue to juggle a full load of articles to get out. In recent days, the following pieces have appeared:
In Erosion Control magazine, Mar/Apr 2009 issue: Synergy in Planting.
In the Missouri Chess Bulletin, Winter 2009 issue: Spotlight on Missouri Chess: Margaret Hua.
February Scholastic Chess column at ChessCafe.
Review of Let’s Play Chess at ChessCafe.
Would you pay $30 for a one-hour private lesson with a grandmaster? How about $30 for a couple dozen lessons with a GM? That’s what this book feels like. Lars Bo Hansen has a talent for really relating to the “average” club player.
As he describes his own chess development, “I had to learn a few lessons the hard way, as I never had a chess trainer (except for the first few years where I attended a school chess club every Friday), I had to do everything myself – choose my openings, analyse my own games and those of others, decide which books to study to improve, and so on. There was nothing extraordinary about this – that was (and still is) the basic condition for a young talent growing up in a small Western country like Denmark without much of a chess culture.”
Nothing extraordinary except that Hansen won multiple Danish scholastic/junior championships, made IM by age 19, and GM at age 22. This book is Hansen’s guide to self-training, particularly suited for players with little or no access to outside coaches.
You can read my full review of this outstanding book here.
My December Scholastic Chess column at ChessCafe appeared this past week, titled 2008 World Youth Championships. It includes a nice annotated game from scholastic champion Darwin Yang.
In addition, another of my book reviews appeared: 606 Puzzles for Chess Nuts. This is a fun book ideal for a quick practice of chess tactics.
I was pleased to see that my Channel Protection Measures article was selected to be the feature article in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Erosion Control magazine.
I previously submitted an article for the Mar/Apr 2009 issue, and just sent in my article for the May 2009 edition. It is SO nice when these articles are done and turned in. They’re interesting to work on, but challenging in that it invariably takes multiple phone calls, e-mails and voice mails to just obtain contact information for interview subjects. Then these interview subjects typically are people who are very busy working “in the field” and so it takes another round of multiple phone calls, e-mails and voice mail messages to finally conduct the actual interview.
But when the piece is completed, it’s nice to just sit back and relax … for about five minutes, when it’s time to get back to work on the next pending project.
The key to this book, I believe, lies on a page most readers won’t even notice. It’s the copyright page at the beginning; near the bottom it lists three editorial consultants and a translator.
Perhaps when the author wrote the manuscript in his native language, all flowed well and errors were minimal. But somewhere between the original manuscript and the final edited version in print today, countless quirks appear.
The premise of the book is quite promising. Forty-seven players, ancient and modern, are examined with brief profiles, a picture and one or more games. Each profile is short, generally up to six pages in length. My personal chess library is full of books on openings, tactics, endgame strategy, puzzles and single-player biographies, but doesn’t contain a single volume profiling a multitude of players. Even Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors series required multiple volumes.
The full review may be found in the ChessCafe book review archives.
I’ve got two new articles appearing this week at www.chesscafe.com:
My November Scholastic Chess column, titled The Future of Scholastic Chess, Part Two, can be found here. We cover more responses to my questions from eighteen prominent players, coaches, administrators and parents. I conclude with a summary of the main issues raised, and add my own two cents.
Jacob Aagaard’s new book, Attacking Manual 1, is reviewed here. It’s full of typos and editing issues, but nevertheless it’s a definite winner – one that aspiring chess players should have on their shelves.
Viswanathan Anand just retained his world chess championship crown yesterday, defeating previous (three-time) world champion Vladimir Kramnik. So it’s timely that my review is now online of Volume 2 of the DVD Viswanathan Anand: My Career. It contains over 1000 of his games from the year 2000 through June 2008, as well as over four hours of video segments. It can be seen in the ChessCafe book review archives.
My third article for Erosion Control magazine appears in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue. It explores the landmark but controversial Rosgen stream classification system. What could be controversial about streams? Read all about it!
Occasionally, one of my book/software reviews is picked up by the publisher and highlighted at their website. Such is the case with my review of the PowerPlay Vol. 6 DVD, which is currently featured at the prominent ChessBase website.
My October Scholastic Chess ChessCafe column is now online, and I discussed with leading scholastic chess personalities why so many young players leave the game and what might be done about it. The players, parents, coaches/teachers and administrators shared their interesting thoughts with me.
Read about it here.
Chess has seen its share of mercurial, egomaniacal world champions, but the current champion, GM Viswanathan Anand, appears to be a likable, well-mannered gentleman. In Viswanathan Anand: My Career, Volume 1, his demeanor is dignified and personable, if not especially animated, as he reviews his career through the year 1999. Volume 2 covers the period from 2000 to mid-2008.
This DVD consists of twenty-three video segments, totaling just less than four hours of playing time. It contains an astounding 1,423 games, from early 1984 through October 1999; many are annotated by Anand or others. Interspersed among the games he presents are a number of interesting stories…
The full review can be read here.
Pawn Sacrifice! is devoted to what IM Timothy Taylor refers to as “real” sacrifices. He explains, “A real sacrifice is by definition incalculable: the player ventures a real sacrifice based on various positional considerations, or psychological considerations, without any idea if or when he will get the material back.”
“What interests me,” Taylor writes, “are the courageous, imaginative sacrifices that involve risk and have no clear result. This, to me, is really playing chess!” He provides sixty-seven complete games with an interesting method of analysis; at the point of the pawn sacrifice in question, Taylor examines it from three different perspectives: …
Read the full review in the ChessCafe book review archives.
Well, let’s see how much I need to add here …
My “Silt and Sediment Control Techniques” article in the Sept/Oct issue of Erosion Control magazine may be viewed here.
My September Scholastic Chess ChessCafe article titled “2008 Denker and World Juniors” is available here.
And my latest review, of Jon Speelman’s Chess Puzzle Book, can be read here.
The DVD begins with the presentation of sixteen test positions, for which the viewer is asked how to continue. This is followed by a twenty-seven minute introduction in which King examines the game Rustemov–Vaganian, demonstrating how subtle piece maneuvering can completely alter the game.
Many of the video segments revolve specifically around knight repositioning, particularly to the square f5 (for White) or f4 (for Black). “It’s often the case when you get a better square for the knight that things start to happen,” he says.
The entire review may be found here.
My article for the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of Erosion Control magazine is now online. It is titled Silt and Sediment Control Techniques. Here’s a very brief excerpt:
An astounding 5 tons is lost when one millimeter of soil is removed from 1 acre, according to TDEC. Moving soil not only can carry off important nutrients needed for revegetation after construction is complete, but also may necessitate trucking in replacement soil. In addition, an assortment of potential environmental hazards include:
