The Stern Spectral Presence by Taylor Kingston "Kings, Commoners and Knaves" by Edward Winter, 1999 BrainGamz, Inc., Figurine Algebraic Notation, Softcover, 452pp., $29.95. Like Mycroft Holmes, who rarely left his men's club yet had knowledge and powers of deduction on a par with those of his brother Sherlock, Edward Winter is rarely seen outside Geneva, Switzerland, yet for years he has put out a prodigious amount of well-researched journalistic and historical writing dealing with everything from minor questions about forgotten 19th-century games to major events in today's international chess arena. Shunning any personal publicity, he maintains a sort of spectral presence, appearing only in print. These appearances currently take the form of his feature "Chess Notes" and his monthly column "Chess Lore" here at The Chess Cafe. His highly regarded book "Chess Explorations", a compilation of selected Chess Notes, was published by Cadogan in 1996. His new book, "Kings, Commoners, and Knaves" is published by BrainGamz, the same company that manages The Chess Cafe (lest anyone therefore suspect bias in a review appearing on this site, let your reviewer stress that he is an independent, impartial individual who receives nothing for his effort but the book itself). "Chess Explorations" was a hard act to follow, but "Kings, Commoners and Knaves" (subtitled Further Chess Explorations) not only follows but surpasses it. For those in a hurry, or (unlikely for Winter readers) uninterested in the details, I supply a quick verdict: it is an excellent work, and though it's only March I can guarantee it to be one of the best books of the year. For those who, like Winter, revel in the details, the review will now go on at some length, as a book this diverse in its subject matter requires. Its format is the same as Explorations, but by combining both Chess Notes and Chess Cafe work, KCK provides significantly more material, all of it at least comparably interesting and some of it significantly better than Explorations. There is no overlap or duplication between the two books except where KCK may develop an ongoing story further. Though physically smaller, KCK packs more words into more pages, thus representing, I estimate, a 35 to 50% increase in total content over Explorations. The major chapter headings are Positions, Games, Openings, Miscellaneous, Gaffes, Mysteries, Reviews, and Quotes. For games and positions, trite examples are avoided. Winter's taste runs to little-known games by well-known players, well-played games by little-known players, the especially beautiful, and the unusual. Examples of the first type can be found in the article "Janowsky Jottings" in The Chess Cafe archives; an example of the second is Neustatl-Valenta, Prague, 1889 (See Diagram) White: Kg1, Qd1, Ra1, Rh1, Nf3, Bb5, Bc1; pawns - a2, b2, b7, c3, d4, g2, h2 Black: Kb8, Qg4, Rd8, Rh8, Ng5, Bc5, Bf5; pawns - c7, f4, f7, g7, h7 which continued 17...Rxd4 18 cxd4 Bxd4+ 19 Kf1 Qxg2+, 0-1. Winter adds a comment by Steinitz: "We do not remember having seen a finer two-move combination in actual play ... Herr Valenta, who has hitherto been unknown to fame, certainly deserves a reputation in the future." In a later Chess Notes Winter was able to supply further information on Otakar Valenta (1859-1917), thus giving him at least posthumously some of the honor Steinitz wished for him. In KCK the two CN items are merged into one, creating a short but satisfying story. As an example of the unusual, Winter gives the following composition by A. J. Fink, (See Diagram) White: Kg1, Qh1, Rb7, Rf5, Nc2, Nf3, Ba8, Be5; pawns - c3, f6, h4 Black: Kd5, Qc5, Ra1, Rg8, Ne3, Ng6, Ba7, Bd1; pawns - a5, d7, d6, d3, h5 which a 1915 American Chess Bulletin described as "the most humorous position that has ever been set upon a chessboard" (it's White to play and mate in 5). Not everything in these sections is a brevity; there is for example a lengthy comparative analysis of the complex game Capablanca- Bogoljubow, Moscow 1925, and an extended discussion of 19th- century chess prodigies. The "Openings" section has both intriguing minor entries (Did Dus-Chotimirsky coin the name "Dragon variation"? Did Maroczy ever actually play the Maroczy Bind?) and major ones, such as a demonstration that the main ideas of a recent world title match game, Kasparov-Karpov, 1990, were anticipated by Steinitz, Zukertort, Blackburne and Mieses about 100 years earlier, a fact almost completely overlooked by today's annotators. As varied and interesting as the entries involving games and opening theory are (and they would make a quite passable book on their own), they serve here mostly as salad and appetizers. The meat of the book comes in the "Miscellaneous", "Gaffes", and "Reviews" sections. Here Winter takes the opportunity for various expressions of his first article of faith: respect for factual truth in dealing with both chess history and contemporary chess journalism. A stern but just corollary of this tenet is the castigation of those who violate it (the "knaves" of the book's title). Chief among Winter's currently active knaves are, not surprisingly, Raymond Keene and Eric Schiller. We need not repeat the litany of their myriad sins here; interested readers can turn to The Chess Caf‚ Archives to sample Winter's grisly yet deft dissection of their hypocrisy and ineptitude, of which KCK provides many more examples. Others reprised from Explorations for new offenses include Larry Evans, Jonathan Speelman, Nathan Divinsky, Andy Soltis, Dimitrije Bjelica, The Times, and, apparently, the entire editorial staffs of Batsford Books and the British Chess Magazine. New targets this time include Graham Burgess, Bob Rice, Chris Ward, Bill Wall, Richard Fauber, Anthony Santasiere, and Bernard Cafferty, to mention only a few. While on small fry Winter tends to use darts of wit (e.g. on an ad offering to "Improve your chess with Hypnosis Cassettes - write Pself-Psych"- he comments "We remain psceptical."), for these major and/or habitual offenders Winter tends more to the lash and flame- thrower of direct scorn. Some samples: "[A Keene-Schiller book] goes on to compliment itself as being 'The Definitive Guide ...', but the only definitive guide offered is to the authors' incompetence." "Larry Evans' column in Chess Life continues to be unspeakable." "Poach from a dubious source some suspect chitchat about a deceased master and whisk it up from an alleged one-off incident into a categorical denunciation of repeated misconduct. Yes, being a chess journalist is that easy." "[Graham Burgess and Murray Chandler are] just a routine part of the United Kingdom's injurious coterie of chess writers, editors and publishers. Caveat emptor." "[Santasiere evinces] the prejudiced rambling of an apparently cultured man who, nevertheless, was gravely deficient in common sense." In "Chess Explorations", Winter fired several warning shots toward the current world champion, but in KCK he lets fly several broadsides, e.g. "Kasparov has precious little regard for truth, accuracy, consistency or fairness ... Our admiration for Kasparov's chess skill is immeasurable, but the rest fills us with revulsion." Harsh as these accusatory tones might seem, Winter has the evidence to justify them. This reviewer has been reading works by chess historians off and on over the past 35 years, and few or none compare to Winter in either breadth of knowledge or command of detail. Based on the variety of sources he cites, the apparent ease with which he cites them, and the way in which he integrates them, it sometimes seems he has access to virtually every chess book, tournament crosstable, magazine, newspaper column, pamphlet and piece of correspondence ever written, back to at least the mid-19th century, all so well organized that he can bring up any relevant fact at a moment's notice. That, or he has a photographic memory that makes Harry Pillsbury seem amnesiac. Thus, for example, when Raymond Keene claimed to have discovered a "lost" game, Winter "could point out that the Alekhine-Keres game score is given ... on page 483 of the October 1935 BCM. Finding it there took thirty seconds." Emanuel Lasker said, "On the chess board, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long." While the same is not yet true in chess journalism, thanks to Winter they at least do not escape scrutiny. Lest the reader think KCK is all blame and no praise, it should be noted that several writers are discussed in very positive terms, notably Hugh Myers (Myers Opening Bulletin and other works), Yasser Seirawan and George Stefanovic (for No Regrets), Leonard Skinner and Robert Verhoeven (for their book on Alekhine), Eduard Shektman (on Petrosian), John Hilbert (on Napier) and the late Warren Goldman (on Schlechter). In Chess Explorations, and even more so in the biographical work Capablanca (McFarland, 1989), I admired Winter's thorough efforts of researching and compiling diverse materials, and their intelligent organization and presentation, but found myself wondering "Where is the real writing?". The short items that predominated in the former, and the latter's brief connectives between original sources, were well done, but it seemed a great potential went too often unused when narratives were kept so short and ideas rarely given full essay-length exposition. That is not the case with Kings. Ideas and narratives are developed at length in several essays, notably "The Termination", "Was Alekhine a Nazi?" (moving closer to a definitive answer on whether Alekhine actually authored anti-Semitic articles in 1941), "A Question of Credibility" (on chess history as presented on the Internet), and most importantly, "Historical Havoc". "Termination" continues Winter's critical examination of the confusing claims and accusations surrounding the unfinished Kasparov-Karpov match of 1984-85. In view of the fact that Kasparov's camp continues to spew out shamelessly self-serving and often contradictory propaganda on this subject, Winter's effort here continues to be highly relevant (though surprisingly absent is any mention of Kasparov's shrill shill Michael Khodarkovsky). The centerpiece of the book, though, is "Historical Havoc". This essay is variously an assessment, a credo, a lament, an indictment, an appeal, and a proposal for practical action, on the subject of chess history. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who puts, or contemplates ever putting, pen to paper or hand to keyboard on the subject of chess. After such weighty material, the sections "Mysteries" (such as when and where did Najdorf actually play the "Polish Immortal", or what really happened in Marshall's "Gold Pieces" game?) and "Quotes" are almost a relief. The latter provides the book's best laughs, such as James Schroeder's arguable claim "I know more about chess than anybody that ever lived" or the American novelist Spackman's hilarious spoof of Tarrasch: "Chess, like gunfire, like love, has the power to keep men quiet." Shortcomings? While one ventures onto thin, if not non-existent ice, in differing with Winter, I will venture a few suggestions, admittedly based partly on personal taste and curiosity. One, despite Winter's ongoing war against incorrect dates, bad spelling and such, such errors continue in abundance. While that horse deserves what it gets and is far from dead, the persistent flogging may be tedious for some readers. Where such mistakes are relevant to a thesis they clearly require pointing out, but otherwise do we really need to know every time someone misspells Nimzowitsch? Two, while much of Winter's material has current relevance or historical significance, some important subjects are left untouched. One of current relevance might be recent developments in FIDE under its highly colorful president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and another of historical significance would be the many unanswered questions of coercion and fixed games under the Soviet regime, especially with regard to Keres and Botvinnik. Perhaps these have been touched on in Chess Notes (of which I admittedly have not read all); if so they merit inclusion in a book like KCK. I point this out not to fault KCK but to suggest other areas where Winter's investigative and research efforts might bear fruit and be of interest to his readers. While some of those whom Winter targets may consider him a self- appointed busybody, I view his influence on chess writing as stimulating and salutary. It is unfortunate that those who should most heed his advice are probably the least likely to, but by no means do all his admonitions fall on deaf ears. Speaking for myself, Winter's debunking of the historians I was weaned on (Fine, Reinfeld, Horowitz, Koltanowski etc.) was a revelation, and a warning. Working now on my own occasional, relatively minor forays into chess history, I feel him, odd as it might sound, looking over my shoulder, so to speak. I thought myself perhaps alone in this until I mentioned it to the editor of a prominent chess magazine; he confessed to the same feeling. Thus Winter's spectral presence extends beyond print and has a real influence. His standards are stern, but foremost among them is respect for factual truth, which no one who purports to be a journalist or historian can ignore and still call himself such. Today, a 5-minute perusal of online chess newsgroups reveals a serious, if not atrocious level of ignorance and misunderstanding among the general public on the subject of chess history (perhaps not surprising when a high percentage of American teenagers do not even know who were the major antagonists in World War II). History's treatment in chess literature and journalism is often little better, with gaffes comparable to saying that Chaucer wrote Hamlet, perhaps even that Grant defeated Rommel at Waterloo, being committed by prominent writers, who leave them uncorrected even when caught in flagrante delicto. When writers of the Keene/Schiller school are driving better books off store shelves by their sheer volume of chaff, when once-respected periodicals have become little more than sales catalogs, it is clear we need more such as Edward Winter. Readers of "Kings, Commoners and Knaves" will not only be getting a good book, but be casting a vote for better chess literature.