[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: The Wall Street Journal's Five Best Chess Books

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
The Wall Street Journal's Five Best Chess Books
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206371289.shtml


   Not really the WSJ's choices per se, but Gabriel Schonfield's, the
   guest columnist for [1]this past Saturday's "Five Best" column. His
   choices are pretty trite, but that's probably appropriate for his
   audience:
   1. Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games
   2. Kasparov's Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors [Great title:
   how else would we know that it was Kasparov writing about his
   predecessors?]
   3. Tal's Tal-Botvinnik, 1960
   4. Nimzowitsch's My System
   5. Lasker, Lasker's Manual of Chess [Evidently one of Kasparov's great
   predecessors in multiple senses. Ah, marketing.]
   There's some nonsense in his review too, like his claim that Tal's
   victory was "a demonstration that chess can be scientific only in the
   way that Soviet socialism was scientific, which is to say not at all."
   No argument about Soviet socialism, but one wonders if Schonfield has
   noticed computer chess. Also, how about the 9(!!) point swing in the
   1961 rematch (Botvinnik lost 12.5-8.5 in 1960 and won 13-8 in 1961),
   or Tal's own claims in 1979 that, in light of his increased
   understanding of the game, he'd "tear to pieces" his earlier self?
   On balance though, it's a nice little article for the non-chess
   playing public, and it's useful for chess players unfamiliar with
   those books, too. I don't think Lasker's Manual is especially
   invaluable, but I'd wholeheartedly recommend the other books to all my
   readers.

References

   1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120614190121156119.html