Busy summer – finally over

Can’t remember ever having had such a busy summer, but fortunately it’s been a very good one! Started it out with almost 3 weeks in Italy, first playing in the tournament Brescia 2009, which went pretty well, finished 3rd in a quite strong field, and really enjoyed being there. Very well organized (although I’m still waiting to get my prize money, but I’m positive they’ll come) and a great place, right next to Lake Garda! Afterwards I went on a backpacking-with-a-suitcase vacation for roughly 10 days, visiting Venice, Florenze, Arezzo for a few minutes by accident :-), Lucca, Pisa, Genoa and finally Milan, finishing with a nice visit to the football stadium San Siro. Simply an amazing trip!

Then I visited my family way up north for a few days, where there was a student party and such for my youngest sister, Eva, because she graduated from gymnasium. Shortly afterwards, she and I took a week’s vacation in London (first time we’ve been on a vacation together, since mid-nineties!), buying a London Pass and hence seeing lots of stuff, not least Wimbledon. Great vacation!

Next up was the tournament Politiken Cup in beautiful Elsinor (Denmark). Lived in a fine house in Hellerup with a couple of nice and entertaining guys, Jens Ove Fries Nielsen and Klaus Berg, but I learned a lesson the hard way: it was way too far away from the playing venue. Never felt really ready for a game, and my play was also absolutely horribly in half of them, trapping my own queen etc. So no wonder it didn’t go well. Managed to make several miracle saves and swindles though, so got away with only some ‘scratches’. But as always it was greatly organized, everything just ran smoothly, the 300+ participants despite.

Last thing on the menu was Arctic Chess Challenge, a tournament in Tromsø, high up in the polar circle. Hadn’t been in Norway for 8 years prior to that, even though I think it’s a great country. Unfortunately it’s just very expensive to live there, even for a Dane, and often likewise for one’s rating, as their junior players are notoriously underrated. ;-) However, if you – like me – are a sucker for mountains and sea, the scenery (and bright nights!) are worth it all. They also organize lots of events and trips, making it a great place to go if you wish to combine chess and vacation. Especially the barbecue party is a must for practically everyone, incredibly nice food (not least the salmon and strawberries)!
Anyway, did quite well in the tournament, finished 8th with a performance not too far from 2600, whereas my ever so friendly roomie, Nikolaj Mikkelsen, had a rough time with the above-mentioned juniors. He’ll make someone pay for that next time, now you’re warned. :-)
Once again we managed to end the trip on a high note, by climbing the mountain Fløya. Great walk, great view!

Took me 20 hours getting back to Århus, but got 5 hours in Riga city, where I’d never been before, so that was nice as well. In 1½ week school is back on, so finally some time for just relaxing and working with chess.
Hope you’ve had an equally gratifying summer!?

3 highly recommendable books

The time span of “near future” can vary a lot I suppose, at least I hope so ;-), but either way, already now you get my first book recommendations! I’m not gonna bother to write real reviews, as I doubt many will come here and read them, and also I’ve had to buy or borrow (thanks a lot to Peter Heine Nielsen, Kresten Kirkelund and the Danish library system) the books myself, but I bet Google can find such for you. Here we go:

Secrets of Endgame Strategy – by Lars Bo Hansen

A book on themes that often occur in endgame play, which doesn’t have to do with pure technique (“Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual” is likely the best for such, for players who wish to reach a 2300+ level), such as playing on two weaknesses, queen vs. two rooks, bishop vs. knight etc.

I loved its obvious inspirational source, the classic “Endgame Strategy” by Mikhail Shereshevsky, which I literally couldn’t stop reading when I finally started last year. That was not the case with Lars Bo’s book, though. However, I would pay a lot more to get this ‘to-be-classic’ into my book shelves; in fact, I just have!
The reason Shereshevsky’s book is much easier to read, is that there’s loads of whitespace, only short explanations, few variations and new chapters all the time. For me that means I’m much more likely to ‘eat the book’ immediately, but it also means that chess-wise the book doesn’t give you as much as you could get, with that number of pages. Comparatively, Lars Bo’s book is a 224 pages (A4!) mastodont, filled with material! It’s built up the same way, but with more and better examples, mostly very new ones by the way, better analysis and explanations, and more themes. Fortunately, the variations are still readable, meaning you can handle them with your mind only, no need for 7 other boards, which I think is way too often the case with for instance Mihail Marin’s highly (overly, in my opinion) acclaimed “Learn from the Legends – Chess Champions at their Best”. Unless I’m sitting and analyzing with someone else, I don’t like to look at tons of long variations, especially if the players surely never saw any of them.

It took me quite some days to get through the book, but I clearly feel I learned that much more from it, not least about the value of the various piece combinations. An awesome book for the serious player who wants to improve his endgame understanding – and it is even more likely to benefit you in the other parts of the game, than those which teach you pure technique.
Rating: (of 5)

Seven Deadly Chess Sins – by Jonathan Rowson

A book about seven categories of mistakes, which are the most common reasons for failing in a game of chess, and what you can do to avoid them.
Already a modern classic, I believe, and it’s highly understandable. Rowson is a very good and entertaining writer – when it comes to this type of philosophical/psychological work at least. And certainly he is very persuasive. The 7 categories he places various mistakes into are somewhat odd, but you are likely to approve fully of it, once he has worked his magic. He wanders a lot though, and I guess you should read the book as much for the sheer joy, as for the chess. I haven’t read any other chess book which made me laugh out loud half the times this one did! And I really liked the massive number of quotes in it.
However, there are also many good points and interesting thoughts in the book, at least if you’re somewhere above – say, 2100 level – and it just might be able to help you with one or more seemingly incurable flaws. Besides, there are some great games annotated in it as well, and till I read “Secrets of Endgame Strategy” this was in fact my favorite chess book!

It is not one you really need to have on your shelf (I actually don’t, but I do plan to get it very soon though) – but it certainly is one you ought to allow yourself to read.
Rating: (of 5)

How Life Imitates Chess – by Garry Kasparov

An autobiography and ‘general self-improvement’ book.
For many years I never read a book without the purpose of trying to learn something concrete, such as a new programming language or playing like Karpov. But once I heard about this book, I decided to make an exception; when Kasparov talks, you listen! Admittedly, I’m a huge Kasparov admirer. As I wrote on Mig Greengard’s (he co-wrote the book by the way) great weblog some time ago:

I highly appreciate the fact that when Kasparov’s name is on something, you know it’s quality. It goes for his CB [ChessBase] videoes, books (although you can argue there’s almost ‘too much’ quality in the “My great predecessors” series for us mere mortals) and the speeches I’ve watched. Not to mention the chess he played; it’s certainly no coincidence that when someone criticize you for playing something, and you can defend by saying “Kasparov played this”, they usually go “oooh”. :-)

In high contrast to Karpov by the way, just look at “his” new books on Caro-Kann. I bet the reason Karpov’s name is on them is for selling copies, not because he has written anything in them.

The book is not supposed to require the reader to have any knowledge of chess, but honestly I wouldn’t recommend it to any non-chess players. However, I suspect – or rather expect – you, dear reader, to be a chess player, so I guess this doesn’t exactly make the book less interesting for you.

I mostly read it before going to sleep, but it was always hard to lay it down, so every time I found myself reading till I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. It felt like one long pep talk, mixed with some autobiography, history lessons and interesting psychology. A “book of the world”, so to speak. Each chapter ends with a short biography of one or more of the “founding fathers” and World Champions, usually irrelevant, but interesting nonetheless.

The book is not likely to improve your chess directly, but it’s a great read, and it might help you work better towards your goals, in chess as well as other parts of life.
Oh, make sure you get the English version, rather than the ‘dumbed down’ American.
Rating: (of 5)