Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
Francis Fields
Posts: 141
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:50 am
Location: London

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Francis Fields » Sat Jul 23, 2016 7:26 pm

Surely chess is a bowl of fruit - though you don't always know how ripe it is until you have bitten into it.

Apart from Dvoretsky my other book would have to be on endgames!

soheil_hooshdaran
Posts: 3148
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:24 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sat Jul 23, 2016 8:54 pm

Chris Rice wrote:
soheil_hooshdaran wrote:Grivas' chess college might be a less expensive way for you to learn those concepts. So are Lev Alburt's books, as Dorfman himself has worked with GM Alburt and considers him "fabulous". The list of books at trainers.fide.com/recommended-books also contains the books of GM & FST Valeri Beim

GM Dorfman called Dvoretsky "a poor Patzer" when I told him about the importance Dvoretsky attaches to space!
I was wondering as you have a FIDE grade of 1795 whether you had actually read and understood any of the above books yourself? I can't see that referring to other people's works in order to understand Dorfman's Method is really going to work.
[/quote]
I also reached a FIDE rating of 1907 and a USCF rating of 2027
I did meet Grivas in Norway one time, the other GMs there didn't seems to have much of an opinion of him and thought better of the other two Greek GMs Skembris and particularly Kotronias.
Well, he is old, but his knowledge and training quality is beyond doubt.
You need not always be a strong player to be a good trainer.
I think Dorfman and Dvoretsky just don't get on as Dvoretsky was a very strong player in his own right though clearly not as strong as Dorfman which is why I think he concentrated on the training aspect more and is considered to be one of the world's best so he's definitely not a patzer and Dorfman knows it.
I have another opinion

John McKenna

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by John McKenna » Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:41 pm

Francis Fields wrote:Surely chess is a bowl of fruit - though you don't always know how ripe it is until you have bitten into it.

Apart from Dvoretsky my other book would have to be on endgames!
I have grapefruit, kiwi & pear in my bowl.

In the battle of the books it's Dvoretsky 1, Dorfman 0 on my shelves as I have the Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual.

An update about this tournament on Crete -

After 6 rounds the Ukrainians are on top. GM V. Bernadskiy (2527) is on 6/6 and has black against compatriot GM V. Sivuk (2509) on 5.5.

Nathan Alfred (2264) is on 4.5 and has black on bd. 12 against his second GM (he lost narrowly to last year's winner Ukrainian GM Borovikov earlier) opponent A. Volodin (2498) from Estonia.

Young Daniel Gallagher (2167) is on 4 and has white on bd. 31 versus an even younger junior - a Greek with a rating of just 1473 and 154th in the start list!!

Chris (2.5/6) & young Karl (1/6) both play young Russians today.

Good luck to all four intrepid English players.

Chris Bernard
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 4:56 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Chris Bernard » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:48 pm

Not much to report on the book front at Paleochora, Crete.

We had a 1 hr power cut around 90 mins into round 8 just at twilight. Everyone still playing piled outside into the town square and waited. I paused the clock and after a few mins or so offered my opponent the draw as the cuts have been 3 hrs or more some days.

I wondered what the rules are when faced with power cuts. Do you pause the clocks and manacle the opponents together or just hope they don't rush off to the nearest bar with their pocket set and start analysing. Everyone here was quite patient and I am sure behaved themselves but when asked the organisers didn't seem to have a plan in place. After all you can't really adjourn and continue again the next day can you ?

Jonathan Bryant
Posts: 3452
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 3:54 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:54 pm

Chris Bernard wrote:... the Greek U12 superstar from Athens ...

suggested I work through Artur Yusopov’s 9 volume course on chess fundamentals as he called it.
I’d wager the young chap/chapess has not actually done that him / herself.

Chris Bernard
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 4:56 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Chris Bernard » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:56 pm

"I’d wager the young chap/chapess has not actually done that him / herself."

I'll ask him tomorrow

Chris Bernard
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 4:56 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Chris Bernard » Wed Jul 27, 2016 11:48 am

... the Greek U12 superstar from Athens ...

"I’d wager the young chap/chapess has not actually done that him / herself."

You are quite right - He has completed Books 1 & 2 and is currently tucking into the 3rd...

Niall Doran
Posts: 255
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:36 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Niall Doran » Wed Jul 27, 2016 1:47 pm

Cool, I've done as much as the Greek U12 superstar from Athens!! And it only took me two years!

Still, I'm surprised by his answer, I honestly expected that the answer would be that he'd done a few bit and bobs from the books, without going through them methodically.

Francis Fields
Posts: 141
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:50 am
Location: London

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Francis Fields » Wed Jul 27, 2016 5:59 pm

In my fruit bowl I have apples and bananas and never tuck into the peppers.

Jonathan Bryant
Posts: 3452
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 3:54 pm

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:39 pm

Niall Doran wrote:Cool, I've done as much as the Greek U12 superstar from Athens!! And it only took me two years!

Still, I'm surprised by his answer, I honestly expected that the answer would be that he'd done a few bit and bobs from the books, without going through them methodically.


That was my expectation too. It seems to me that the Yusupov books are probably - I haven’t read them either - great for those of us who don’t have a coach to build us a bespoke training programme. Probably a smidgeon less useful for those that do. I’d have thought Greek u12 superstars would have coaches who would say, "read this chapter... then that one ... now look at that book" or whatever.

Anyway, the main point was that the average age of people who have worked their way through the entire series must be closer to 112 than under 12. He just hasn’t had the time to do it.

John McKenna

Re: Which Two Books ? - The Quest continues

Post by John McKenna » Thu Jul 28, 2016 11:42 pm

The 9th Paleochora International ended in a four-way tie at the top -
GMs Halkias (GRE), Bernadskiy (UKR), Nevednichy (ROU) & Nikolov (BUL) 7.5/9

The four English players finished further down -
Nathan & Daniel 5.5, Chris 3.5, and Karl 2

A couple of trivia questions -

Which GM wrote an opening monograph on his pet variation with each chapter named after a famous character from Greek mythology?

And, which ancient king fits the following description?

ΦΟΙΝΙΚΟΓΕΝΟΥΣ ΤΕΚΝΟΝ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΝ ΖΗΝΟΣ
ΑΝΑΣΣΩΝ ΚΡΗΤΗΣ ΕΚΑΤΟΜΠΤΟΛΙΕΘΡΟΝ...