Lakdawala - The Sveshnikov

 Boris Spassky is the most underappreciated World Champion in chess history, remembered as the Soviet who lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972. In this two-volume work, biographer extraordinaire Tibor Karolyi puts the focus on Spassky’s brilliant career and life story.

Born in 1937, Spassky barely escaped with his life when evacuating from the Siege of Leningrad as a young boy. This book tells the story of how that boy subsequently learned to play chess and rose through the Soviet ranks to become the strongest player in the world in the late 1960s.

International Master Tibor Karolyi is a renowned author and trainer from Hungary. His biographical works for Quality Chess have received glowing praise from readers and reviewers. 344 pages

Although known for a long time, the London started to catch up in popularity just in the last decade or so. I guess the reason for this is probably the desire of many players to focus more on the practical side of chess, with less use of engines and less memorization of long theoretical lines, and more about positional understanding of game. I must say, it received a huge boost not only in the number of games but also in a deeper understanding of the positions arising from the opening. In the past it was used from time to time, but only a few players employed it on a regular basis, such as grandmasters from former Yugoslavia, Milorad Knezevic and Vlado Kovacevic, and the English GM Tony Miles, who used it often.
Today, Kamsky is one of the players who uses it very often, and of course Magnus Carlsen, but we have many other grandmasters and non-grandmasters who now have it in their repertoire on a regular basis. I must say that it’s also important to emphasize the move orders of the line, and due to that we have an immense number of transpositions, which you don’t find so much in other openings.
My experience with the London is good and bad: after I lost a game to grandmaster Volkov in the Rilton Cup, I decided that such positions are not exactly my cup of tea, but in 2019 I picked it up again in one game in a World Senior tournament and produced a very good game. So, as in any opening, good and bad games can happen, but the London itself became a very important part of 1.d4 theory.
Milos Pavlovic, 2024.

248 PAGES Hardcover

Encore un titre passablement mal choisi... En fait de magie, ce livre se veut un manuel d’entraînement pour joueurs avancés, consacré aux tactiques complexes. Il regorge donc d’analyses complètes et poussées, sans doute utiles pour qui veut travailler à fond la question, mais que l’amateur d’esthétique échiquéenne trouvera certainement indigestes... A vous de voir.

Le pion-dame isolé est un thème récurrent qui peut surgir de bien des ouvertures : automatique avec la défense Tarrasch (pour les noirs) ou l'attaque Panov (pour les blancs), il peut aussi surgir d'un Gambit-dame accepté, d'une Ouest- ou d'une Nimzo-indienne, voire d'une Grünfeld... En bref, de n'importe quel début fermé. Résumant l'éternel conflit entre structure et dynamisme, le jeu avec ou contre le pion-dame isolé répond à des règles précises, mais qu'il faut comme de juste savoir adapter aux circonstances... Avec ses textes de présentation, ses 95 parties commentées et ses 70 parties d'entraînement émaillées de questions, ce CD vous permettra certainement de mieux y parvenir, d'améliorer vos résultats dans ce registre, et peut-être même vous incitera-t-il à changer votre répertoire d'ouvertures...