[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Winter's Chess Explorations on ChessBase #2

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Winter's Chess Explorations on ChessBase #2
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1210715231.shtml


   [1]This time around, historian Edward Winter offers a number of neat
   old positions to solve. The first is especially well known (but not
   for the reason you might initially think if you're attempting to solve
   it for the first time), and reminds me of the famous "improvement" of
   Nunn* and many others to Fischer-Bolbochan, Stockholm Interzonal 1962.
   [fischer.jpg]
   This position corresponds to a variation in Fischer's My 60 Memorable
   Games that arises after 35...Kh8 (instead of 35...Rxf4 as played)
   36.Nxg6+ Qxg6 37.Rxg5 Rf1+ 38.Ka2 Qxf4 39.Qh3+ Kg8. Here we have the
   diagram position, and Fischer concludes his line 40.Qxf1 "leads to a
   win." Nunn, who typeset an algebraic notation reprinting for Batsford
   in the mid-90s, made a double error. First, he offered 40.Qh7+ Kf8
   41.Qh8+ Qg8 42.Qh6+ Qg7 43.Qxg7 mate as an improvement (it's not; why
   not?); second and more seriously, this line wasn't offered in a
   footnote, an endnote or an editorial bracket; rather, it was entered
   into the text proper as if Fischer himself had written this!
   No one will be surprised to read that Fischer went nuclear over this,
   and you can read all about it [2]here - and should, too - as the same
   Edward Winter with whom this post began demonstrates both his accuracy
   as a researcher and his incisiveness as a writer. But don't go there
   until you first figure out the problem in Nunn et al's
   pseudo-correction, and don't forget to visit [3]the Winter article on
   ChessBase.com when you're done.
   * While I absolutely disagree with some of the decisions Nunn has made
   in his old editorial work for Batsford (he made similar changes to
   Chernev's old book Logical Chess Move by Move), his own books are
   excellent - as are many of the books he oversees with Gambit
   Publishing. So please don't take the above as anything like a blanket
   condemnation of his work, implicit or otherwise.

References

   1. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4625
   2. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer.html
   3. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4625