Book of the week

Can you spare a couple of hours a day for a week?

Then our next Chess Tales 'book of the week' might be just the thing for you. It's the latest offering from International Master Gary Lane.

Gary is a profilic author, famous for his opening repertoire works and chess help columns. He also beat yours truly in an indecently small number of moves (but I won't hold that against him).

His new book, "Improve your chess in 7 days", is a break from the opening treatises and, judging from the title, is the perfect chess book for our modern hectic lifestyles.

From the synopsis, it's:

"... packed with practical tips, hints on how to improve, learn from the champions and find out how to beat them - in just a week. With one short chapter for each day of the week, the book is ideal for social chess players and includes a sprinkling of chess cartoons to keep you smiling as you read: Day 1 - So You Want to be Good? Day 2 - Understanding the Openings; Day 3 - Strategy versus Tactics; Day 4 - Creating the Attack; Day 5 - Avoiding Blunders; Day 6 - Mastering the Ending; and, Day 7 - The Art of Swindling. With comments and advice after each move, this is as clear a guide to improving your chess as you will ever need."

It's currently on offer (30% off) on Amazon:

Grandmaster interferes with play

When putting together this morning's piece about Buenos Aires 1994 I came across a witty anecdote about a grandmaster 'interfering with play'. It happened in the 9th round of the Lloyds Bank tournament that year, when English IM's, Gary Lane and Chris Ward were drawn together and both having realistic hopes of qualifying for the PCA Grand Prix:

"The tension was extreme as time drifted away, then in serious zeitnot, the two players blitzed out their remaining moves in order to attain the time control. A reconstruction was then required to see if they had indeed made the necessary 40 moves.

The tension fell, Lane and Ward took their place to finish their critical game. ...
Lane was thinking about his next move when suddenly the Estonian GM Lembit Oll passed behind Lane, reached over his shoulder picked up the queen and placed it on e4!! Completely dumbfounded, the two players explained that rather than analyzing they were in fact still playing. Shocked by his mistake Oll blushed and immediately ran out of the playing hall.

Coming back to their senses, the two Englishmen could not restrain themselves from bursting out laughing. Other players naturally (who had not seen the incident) asked them to be quiet, whereupon Lane and Ward explained what had happened which led equally naturally to general uproar!

The story doesn't end there; everyone then settled back down to their games and Lane, after some thought, played the move suggested by Oll: 45 Qg4-e4(!)

Phlegmatically, Chris Ward wryly smiled to his opponent and coined the phrase: 'The move recommended by the grandmaster!'", Christophe Gueneau, Sicilian Love

Chess in Australia

One of the great things about Chess Tales is that our readership is spread all over the world, from China to the States, Egypt to Iceland, Bolivia to Scandanavia and all over the rest of Europe. It's particularly pleasing to see people from unexpected places like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Vietnam, Japan and the Phillipines, and from chess meccas like Moscow and Reykjavik. As a film buff though my favourite so far has to be Skokie, Illinois (answers on a postcard please!).

I was just getting ready to bemoan the lack of Australian readers, and even question whether chess was played there, when we got our first visitor from 'down under' (Laverton, Melbourne). Aussie Grandmaster Ian Rogers used to play regularly in Europe, but players making the long journey are definitely a rarity.

International Master and profilic author Gary Lane is an Englishman who went the other way. He now represents Australia, and even had the temerity to mercilessly slay 'our own' Nigel Short at the last Olympiad.

Gary and I played at the Isle of Man tournament a few years back, where he found an excellent 'surprise' move that won on the spot with almost all the material remaining on board. Check out Gary's regular column at Chess Cafe, and be sure to pose him some difficult questions.

Roger Coathup - Gary Lane, Port Erin 2003
1 d4 Nf6; 2 c4 g6; 3 Nc3 Bg7; 4 e4 d6; 5 Be2 0-0; 6 Bg5 Na6; 7 h4 e5; 8 d5 c6; 9 h5 h6; 10 Be3 Nc5; 11 Qc2 cd; 12 cd Qa5; 13 Bd2 Bd7; 14 hg fg; 15 a3 Qc7; 16 f3 Nh5; 17 b4 Na4; 18 Rc1 Ng3; 19 Rh2 Qb6! 0-1 White is powerless against the threat of Qxg1