An anticpated book...

Jan Timman is publishing a new book through New In Chess, Timman's Titans: My World Chess Champions. Here's a part of the advertising blurb from the publisher:

In this fascinating book, Jan Timman portrays ten World Chess Champions that played an important role in his life and career. Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) he never met, but the story of how in Lisbon he bought one of the last chess sets belonging to the fourth World Champion is one of many highlights in this book.

Timman has a keen eye for detail and a fabulous memory, and he visibly enjoys sharing his insider views, including many revelations about the great champions. Timman’s Titans not only presents a personal view of these chess giants, but is also an evocation of countless fascinating episodes in chess history.

Each portrait is completed by a rich selection of illustrative games, annotated in the author’s trademark lucid style. Always to the point, sharp and with crystal-clear explanations, Timman shows the highs and lows from the games of the champions, including the most memorable games he himself played against them.

I'm pretty sure the connection to Botvinnik will be the one he covers in the introduction to The Art of Chess Analysis. I presume the connection to Fischer has a lot to do with his joint book with Euwe on the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match, though he may well have covered the 1992 match in person.

In any event, I have been very impressed with both of the books of his that I own, and look forward to owning this one. There's always another shelf to be cleared....

Milan Vidmar & two opposing views

Peter Doggers has written a report about the recently concluded 20th Vidmar Memorial tournament, won by Andrei Volokitin. It includes the following information about Milan Vidmar:

The Netherlands had Max Euwe, Germany had Emanuel Lasker and Slovenia had Milan Vidmar (1885–1962). In those days chess was usually not a profession, and Vidmar had his own career as well. He was a doctor in mechanical engineering and worked at the University of Ljubljana. The Electric Power Research Institute there still bears his name.

But of course Vidmar was also an absolute top class player in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. He played for the top prizes among bigger names such as Capablanca, Alekhine and Rubinstein.

Vidmar was one of the players who was awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE in 1950 for being recognized as having been world class when at their peak. In the same year, Vidmar was the chief arbiter at the Olympiad in Dubrovnik; he was also the arbiter at the 1948 world championship tournament in Moscow.

That's more than enough for a memorial tournament, isn't it?

I had to laugh, for I remembered what Jan Timman had to say about an earlier version of this tournament in his book The Art of Chess Analysis (originally Het groot analyseboek in Dutch):

The Vidmar Memorial Tournament is held every two years. For some reason or other, the fifth in the series, in 1979, attracted me immediately. Not that I have ever played through a game of Vidmar's - at least, never a game he won; but probably I have seen a number of his losses printed among the collected games of Alekhine, Capablanca, and Euwe. Frankly, this splendid tournament is a rather exaggerated mark of honour for a not very brilliant chess player. - (pg. 185)

Incidentally, The Art of Chess Analysis is available from Amazon for $8.53 - a steal! I highly recommend this book - unless, of course, you are a big fan of Milan Vidmar! 

Added: I decided to see if I could find a game Vidmar won in any of my printed books. The obvious place to start was 500 Master Games of Chess by Tartakower & du Mont. Sure enough, they've got seven games of Vidmar's in the collection - and he lost the first six of them! But the seventh game (from Berlin, 1918) was a game he won, as Black, against no less worthy an opponent than Rubinstein. Not only that, Tartakower & du Mont claim this game featured the first use of the Budapest Defense in a "Master's Tournament". The link takes one to the site ChessGames.com. In the comments (which are worth a read) they mention that this was Vidmar's most famous won, his second most famous being a win against Max Euwe! But in Timman's defense, few players put games they lost in their games collections, Fischer being the most famous counter-example.

Attica! Attica!

The other day I posted the game Morozevich vs Vachier-Lagrave, Biel 2009. That game featured a rook trapped in prison behind its own pawns and king. Today I was looking at New In Chess 6/2015 and saw a new composition that Timman has just published. This problem also features a trapped piece, and it seems that freeing that piece is the key to winning the game.

Timman 2015 (after Simkhovitch)

White to play and win

4q3/4P3/4P3/4k1p1/p3BbP1/PpP2P2/1P6/QK3R2 w - - 0 1

Solution below.