A
year ago I was working on a project that called
for an exploration of Alekhine's games. What most
interested me was his matches and, after sifting
through my library, I had no trouble finding annotated
versions of his Capablanca marathon, his victory
over Euwe in the 1937 rematch, and his two match
victories over an overmatched Bogolubov.
I was amazed, however, that I didn't
have even one match book on his 1935 Euwe match.
Trying to rectify this problem,
I called the USCF, but they didn't have anything
on this contest. I tried Chess Digest, but still
failed to find what I was looking for. Then I
began to look in used bookstores and call every
chessbook seller that I could think of-- still
no luck. Finally, I just gave up. I couldn't find
even one English language book on the 1935 Alekhine-Euwe
match.
Now, long after I abandoned my
search, Thinkers' Press has come to my rescue
by publishing Purdy's notes to both Alekhine-Euwe
matches. They also tossed in the 1972 Fischer-Spassky
match (the addition of this last match really
wasn't necessary since it interferes with the
general mood of the earlier contests).
Thinkers' has carried on a love
affair with Purdy for quite some time, virtually
resurrecting the memory of the Australian postal
champion. I felt his instructional material for
weaker players was outstanding, but here Purdy's
work, though very good for its time, fails to
shine so brightly. His notes are the main point
of contention. Though they are more interesting
than Botvinnik's dry prose and lazy analysis in
his book on the same match, I get the impression
that Purdy didn't understand all the subtleties
that such high-class games naturally contain (in
other words, he simply wasn't strong enough to
do complete justice to the games of the World
Champions). Nevertheless, his notes are entertaining,
lucid, and do explain many key strategic and tactical
points.
The thing that made this book memorable
for me (aside from finally owning an annotated
version of the 1935 match!) is the addition of
photos, interviews and comments by Euwe, Alekhine,
Lasker, Spielmann and others.
Overall, I'd say this was a very
useful addition to most player's libraries. It's
also another good effort by Thinkers' Press.
YOU
CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT
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