CHESS GEMS
Author: Igor Sukhin
Mongoose Press (2007)
335 pages
$23.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

My heart sank when this book arrived. Not another book on tactics! I feared the worst or, at the very least, yet another example of the old chess mass production line. "Okay", I said to myself. "Take a deep breath, open it up, and don't disrespect the author too much by making odd faces."

I can't really be blamed for my attitude. Tactical quiz books are a dime a dozen, most recycle the same old crap, and few offer anything new or interesting. Even the "good" ones lack flair or imagination, and most are better used as toilet paper substitutes than real study material. That's not to say that the cream of the crop don't have their uses, but with three trillion in print, why in the hell do we need another?

So I opened it up (quite proud that I was at least making some effort), started on page 10 (the beginning of Chapter One), and ... fell in love with it!

CHESS GEMS begins by taking us back -- WAY back to the ninth through fifteenth centuries. Things were a bit different a thousand years ago. The chess heroes of that time sported names that few would recognize now: Abu Naim Al-Khadim and Al-Adli ruled the chess world then, while Abu Al-Fath made men fall to their knees and women pant in desire in the twelfth century (alas, chess professionals don't seem to have the same effect on the populace anymore).

Names weren't the only thing that was "different." The rules themselves hadn't quite caught up to the modern game: rooks, the king and knights were the same, but pawns couldn't move two squares on their initial turn and they could only be promoted to a queen. This isn't as good a deal as one might think since was a pretty pathetic piece (it could only move one square on a diagonal -- in a way it was nothing more than a physically disabled bishop). As for bishops, they were more like bishops on crack -- like the old queen and modern bishops, they were also stuck on diagonals, but they had to jump over a diagonal square before capturing something in the same motion (they could also leapfrog an enemy piece without taking it)! This means that they couldn't take anything one diagonal square away (thus a Bishop on b2 couldn't take anything on c3, but it could leap over c3 and take something on d4). Other glitches: castling didn't exist, and you won if you stalemated your opponent's king.

This reminds me of a trip I look in December of 06 to India. We were in New Delhi and wandering about looking at various funky shops when I saw some interesting chess sets in one. An old man that owned the shop noticed my interest and said (in broken English), "Let's play a game!"

I refused, but my companions got quite excited and insisted that I play. In the blink of an eye, we were wrapped in mortal combat.

Old Indian Siddhu vs. Silman
1.g3 e5

After playing this, the old gentleman looked at me and calmly said, "Oh, pawns can only move one square at a time. That move isn't legal."

One of my companions who knew nothing about chess asked, "Jeremy, you don't even know the rules?"

Okay, perhaps the two square pawn move didn't exist when he learned the game. I acquiesced and moved my pawn back to e7.

He screamed, "Touch move! Touch move! You have to move that pawn!"

I couldn't believe this guy, but I decided to go along with it and do my bit for cultural harmony.

1.g3 e6

He now thought for 3 minutes. A bad sign!

2.Bg2 e5

A 5-minute think followed. I decided to blitz out all my moves, but still worried that the game might end up taking several hours to complete.

3.b3 Nf6
4.Bb2

After 10 minutes thought. All the while I glared at his happy face and inwardly screamed, "MOVE! MOVE!"

4...d6
5.e3

He took 15 minutes for that one! I felt like I was drowning when something occurred to me, so I asked, "You know about castling, right?"

He smiled innocently in my direction and then replied, "No, there's no such a thing. Quit cheating! But you can use the L-move."

"L-move? What in hell is the L-move?"

"You don't know this move? I am beginning to doubt that you really know how to play chess at all. Everyone knows that you can move your King like a knight once a game."

"Fine," I said, "we'll play it your way." I had decided that I'd leap across the table and choke him if he invented any new rules. Thankfully, that situation didn't arise.

5...c6!

I smiled when I played this. If you can't beat him at your game, beat him at his!

6.Nh3

Only 8 minutes for this. He seemed quite proud of it!

6...King to c7!!

Bam! Oh Yeah! I almost did a jig around the table but I settled for a quick chair dance. I can't remember if any other move in my chess career gave me as much satisfaction as this one.

He quietly nodded, as if giving me my props. I mated him in another 12 moves, thanked him for the game, and left. Two days later I was robbed by an Indian motorbike cop while driving about in the middle of nowhere. But even that, and the crawling beggars, and the stump people, and the burning human bodies, and the dozens of sacrificed goats, and the enormous blood-drinking insects, couldn't take away the good mood that 6...King to c7 created.

Anyway, after this insane digression it's time to return to the review:

You might think that players of the ninth century were awful, but they were actually extremely skilled. Here's a position from a game by Abu Naim Al-Khadim (9th Century).

1.Rxb5+! Rxb5 (remember that 1...Bxb5 isn't legal) 2.Ne6+ Qxe6 (or 2...Kd5 3.Nc7+ Kc5 [A queen only moves on a diagonal, thus it can't capture the knight.] 4.Rc4+ Nc4 5.Na4 mate) 3.Rxc4+ Nxc4 4.Na4+ Kd5 5.e4+ Ke5 (legal since white's queen can only threaten diagonal squares next to them) 6.Qf4 mate. Sweet!

We also are given a rendition of the Legend of Dilaram, a tale about a beautiful wife and a husband that loves to gamble on chess. The authors follow this charming tale with a position from the treatise of King Alfonse X the Wise, 1283.

Having enjoyed a fascinating history lesson and some lovely positions and stories, we then come face to face with four chess problems from that period -- two from the twelfth century, one from the treatise "Sea of Reason", and one from 1501. These are great fun, since we get to pit our chess skills against those of long dead dudes from a zillion years ago.

Chapter Two (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries) takes us back to names that we're familiar with: Lucena, Greco, Damiano, Lopez, Polerio, etc. Here we get another fun lesson in chess history, exciting combinations by the masters of those eras, followed by 12 problems (from that time period) for us to solve.

And on it on it goes, with history and stories and brilliant combinations preceding "move and win" problems from the chapter's dates.

Chapter Three: From Stamma to Philidor (eighteenth century)
Chapter Four: From Napoleon to Staunton (first half of the nineteenth century, with 52 problems!)
Chapter Five: Anderssen and Morphy (1851-1860)
Chapter Six: First Unofficial World Championship Match (1861-1870)
Chapter Seven: Zukertort and Chigorin (1871-1880)
Chapter Eight: Steinitz The First World Champion
Chapter Nine: Lasker and Pillsbury (1891-1900)
Chapter Ten: Matches of the Second World Champion
Chapter Eleven: Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe (1921-1940 with 108 problems from games of that period!)
Chapter Twelve: Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal (1941-1960)
Chapter Thirteen: Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer (1961-1980)
Chapter Fourteen: The Great Opposition: Karpov-Kasparov (1981-2000)

All in all, the author gives us 1,000 combinations to try and solve!

Igor Sukhin has created a thoroughly delightful book that is suitable for players from 1000 to grandmaster. CHESS GEMS serves the reader on several levels: tactical tests, chess history, pure reading enjoyment, fun, and instruction.
 
Needless to say, it gets my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION and deserves a place in every chess library.

Click to buy (or get more information about): CHESS GEMS: 1,000 COMBINATIONS YOU SHOULD KNOW