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64 Great Chess Games

by Tim Harding

Introduction

After his multimedia exploits with the "Total Marshall" (see Magazine 77), the prolific CC-SIM Tim Harding has now produced an anthology of 64 high-quality games (subtitled "Masterpieces of Postal and Email Chess") which will delight, in particular, the CC fraternity, but should also be instructive reading for every OTB player.

This time the medium is simply paperback, but you get a chunky 304 pages for your £15.99, contrasting favourably with some of the slimline offerings available in the current chess book market. However, the real value of this publication lies in the superb balance achieved between game selection, expert analysis and lucidity of annotation. The resulting harmony shows off the particular fascinations and artistry of the correspondence game in fine relief, and totally dispels the uninformed criticism which, inter alia, often portrays CC players as no-mark anoraks, exchanging Fritz moves with each other!

Contents

The starting point is game selection. Harding has sensibly gone for variety over time, rather than tried to subjectively rank the "64 best CC games ever". The timescale ranges from 19th to 21st century, and the players include top OTB grandmasters such as Andersson, Barcza, Chigorin, Kasparov, Keres, Maroczy, Penrose, Simagin, Steinitz and Vidmar, as well as the great correspondence chess specialists like Anton, Berliner, Elwert, Palciauskas, Purdy, Rause, Rittner, Sloth, Timmerman, Zagarovsky and Umansky, and high quality games by talented amateurs too.

The spread is genuinely global; nobody gets more than three games; the opening variations and styles of play are well differentiated; and every game lasts at least 25 moves.

Review

Each game has been comprehensively analysed, beginning with the circumstances under which it was played, examining the main strategic ideas involved and looking closely at the principal variations possible. The annotations provided by the players are freely quoted, but Harding (and his editor CC-SIM Jonathan Tait) are not content with slavish reproduction of supplied material - commentary is often challenged and/or lines extended in order to show (warts and all) just what might have happened as well as to apply underlying rigour to what did.

Best of all however (to my mind), is the presentation format, and in particular, the way in which a context is always provided to aid understanding. This ranges from the player biopics, through the background notes to each game, to the interplay of text and move notation in the notes. Nowhere is the reader abandoned to endless computer analysis; there is always a clear explanation of what is going on before any detailed analysis is given. This makes for a very instructive text, suitable for most grades of player.

It's really nice to see a dedicated CC production amongst the welter of chess literature, and this offering deserves seriously high commendation not only for raising the profile of CC, but by raising the bar generally for chess publishing standards. It's an ideal reference volume, and will repay your investment over many years - perhaps some suggestive noises about Christmas presents are now in order!

"64 Great Chess Games" is produced by Chess Mail, and retails at £15.99 (25 Euros). Orders placed from the UK or Ireland before 31 October will avoid p&p. Tim will gladly receive your business at 26 Coolamber Park, Dublin 16, Ireland, or you can order online at the Chess Mail website.

Sample Game

Tim has kindly consented to me reproducing one of the 64 games in full here, to demonstrate the presentation quality. I've chosen one with a Scottish flavour, featuring Colin McNab, albeit on the losing end to Arild Haugen of Norway (there are no Scottish wins in the book, which I'm assured will be remedied in any sequel! Perhaps one of our roles in world CC is to lose instructively...) SCCA readers should also recognise the victor - he has been giving George Pyrich a hard time of it in the current friendly international, and one of their games appears in the games column of this magazine.