Guardian piece on John Nunn

[Arshad Ali]

Well, to be accurate, it's a piece on (some) child prodigies past and present. You have to scroll down for coverage on Nunn. I always have his "Secrets of Rook Endings" by my side (I have several copies), as it's the only book with proper coverage of K+R+P versus K+R. Arguably, posterity will judge it to be his most enduring and significant work (along, perhaps, with "Secrets of Minor Piece Endings").

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... -prodigies

[Mike Gunn]

From Tony Miles' Kingpin review of "Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings" (Autumn 1996):

"I should explain that this is the first of Doc's endgame books that I have read, and it will probably be the last. For me chess is a fascinating and some way living game. When 'Secrets of Rook Endings" came out I took the view that producing what was in effect a print-out of exactly the most accurate way to play certain endings was just killing a chunk of chess."

[Arshad Ali]

I haven't met many fans of Nunn's endings books. I have met people who don't like them. It's not even as if Nunn is doing that much original work in the book. A lot of it is simply taking the work of the likes of Cheron or Grigoriev and organising it so that the whole subject area can be seen neatly in one volume. Before Nunn's book, the best coverage I know of (in one volume) was Smyslov and Levenfish's "Rook Endings," which had about 44 pages devoted to K+R+P vs. K+R.

The subject matter of K+R+P vs. K+R is inherently attractive (in my opinion). As is, say, K+N+P vs. K+B. There are numerous little nuances. And there are definite and ultimate answers. Unlike the assessment of some complex middlegame position, where the vague += may change to an equally vague =+ in a few years.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I've got four of Nunn's books: Solving in Style, Tactical Chess Endings, Beating the Sicilian and The Benoni for the Tournament Player. The former two I would definitely recommend; the latter two were very good but are somewhat dated now - the Benoni book contains no coverage of the Modern Main Line (with Nf3 and h3), which drastically limits its usefulness.

[Arshad Ali]

I've got four of Nunn's books: Solving in Style, Tactical Chess Endings, Beating the Sicilian and The Benoni for the Tournament Player. The former two I would definitely recommend; the latter two were very good but are somewhat dated now - the Benoni book contains no coverage of the Modern Main Line (with Nf3 and h3), which drastically limits its usefulness.

It's a general problem with all opening books -- they age more rapidly than books on other areas. For the Sicilian as white, I would use Jesus de la Villa's Dismantling the Sicilian today. Though this too will age. Nunn's book on the Benoni didn't cover properly what I used to play -- the Four Pawn Benoni, which is a jungle of variations.

Nunn's written some decent books. Other than the ones you mention, Secrets of Grandmaster Play (initially coauthored with Peter Griffiths) and Understanding Chess Move by Move come to mind.

[Joey Stewart]

I guess it is the trouble with those sharp lines, which Nunn used to so enjoy playing, there only needs to be a small improvement found and they require entirely new theory to be written.

[Arshad Ali]

I guess it is the trouble with those sharp lines, which Nunn used to so enjoy playing, there only needs to be a small improvement found and they require entirely new theory to be written.

In Beating the Sicilian he gave some offbeat lines. In Beating the Sicilian 2 he apologised because --as he said -- some GMs adopted his offbeat lines, which blew up in their faces, thus showing why they weren't main lines. (I'm quoting from memory; I don't have BTS2 in front of me.)

But this is going back fifteen or more years. These days there are publishers like Gambit (which Nunn has a share of), New in Chess, Edition Olms, Chess Stars, and in particular, Quality Chess, which are churning out phenomenally good opening tracts specifically and phenomenally good chess books generally. Any player who wants to make the transition from so-so club player to master strength cannot at least complain that the literature isn't there. I wish all this material -- books by Nunn, Aagaard, Marin, Dvoretsky, Stohl -- had been around when I was young and the world was new.