Good Advice, 38« Cents a Pop

by Taylor Kingston

40 Lessons for the Club Player, by Alexander Kostyev, 1999
Batsford Books, Figurine Algebraic Notation, Softcover, 214 pp.,
$14.95.

This is the third printing for this book, the other two being in 1986
and 1990. While this hardly puts it on a par with Stephen King or
Tom Clancy on the best-seller lists, it does indicate that there is
some enduring value. It's a safe bet that anyone appointed Director
of the Chess School of Pioneers in the Soviet Union knows a good
deal about chess and how to teach it. In that capacity Alexander
Kostyev worked with hundreds of young players, and helped
develop such masters as GM Arthur Yusupov. In 40 Lessons for
the Club Player he has written a solid, straightforward instructive
work designed for players rated 1700-2050 (BCF 140-180).

It was interesting to come upon this book immediately after
reading Paul Motwani's Chess Under the Microscope and Hans
Berliner's The System. After the meandering silliness of the former
and the over-reaching ambition of the latter, Kostyev's direct,
intelligent style was highly refreshing. He obviously considers
chess interesting in and of itself, and so he sticks to the subject and
does not surround it with artificial excitement or clownish
sideshows. Neither does he presume to have found The Way; he
simply presents an assortment of tools essential for middle- and
endgame mastery and illustrates their use with practical examples.

The format of most of the 40 chapters is: a brief historical
narrative, followed by a game related to the narrative, and then a
series of positions and/or games illustrating a particular theme,
principle or technique with progressively more complex examples.
A sampling of the broad variety of subjects discussed: "How to
prepare an attack", "The classic bishop sacrifice at h7", "When
both players have castled long", "Pawn storm or piece pressure?",
"Basic principles of pawn endings", "Bishop in combat with
pawns", "Can a knight cope with connected pawns?", "An extra
pawn in a bishop ending", "An extra pawn in a knight ending",
"How to draw a pawn down in a rook ending", "The seven
evaluation principles", "Open and closed centres", "How to parry a
flank attack", "Heavy pieces on open files and ranks", "Chess and
life".  

An illustration of the progressive nature of the lessons is the
treatment of the classic Bishop sacrifice at h7. First an elementary
example is given (See Diagram)     

in which White wins with 1 Bxh7+ Kxh7 2 Ng5+ Bxg5 3 hxg5+
Kg6 4 Qh5+ Kf5 5 Qh3+ Kg6 6 Qh7 mate.

This is followed by an example where the Rook makes a different
entrance (See Diagram):  

1 Bxh7+ Kxh7 2 Ng5+ Kg8 3 Qh5 Nf8 4 Qxf7+ Kh8 5 Re3 and
mate shortly.

Then comes an example where the Knight is not its "classical"
location but still plays a significant part (See Diagram):

1 Bxh7+ Kxh7 2 Rh3+ Kg8 3 Qh5 Qh6 4 Nf5! Qxh5 5 Ne7+
Kh7 6 Rxh5 mate.

Then a more sophisticated example from master play is given,
Giffard-Nikolaic, 1979 (See Diagram):

1 Bxh7+ Kxh7 2 Ng5+ Kg8 3 Qh5 Bxg5 4 hxg5 Kf8 5 a4!!   An
important quiet move, vacating a3 for the Bishop. Kostyev aptly
notes "This typical procedure is worth remembering!". 5 Qc7 6
Ba3+ Nc5 7 Qh8+ Ke7 8 Qxg7 Rg8 9 dxc5! Rxg7 (if 9 bxc5 10
Qf6+ Ke8 11 Rc1) 10 c6+!, 1-0. And so the student is led logically
from simpler to more complex examples of this and other
important tactical and strategic themes.

Endgame topics comprise about 30% of the book. There is an
excellent review of pawn ending fundamentals, and many
informative guidelines for various piece endings. For example, in a
position like this (See Diagram) 

how many club-level players would know that "The way to defend
against two far-advanced connected pawns is by switching the rook
to the rear of the leading pawn, and attacking the rear pawn with
the king," or that in ending of Bishop and pawn vs. Bishop that "A
draw is achieved in positions where the weaker side's king
occupies a square in front of the pawn which is inaccessible to the
bishop"? There are extensive discussions of minor piece endgames
with only one pawn, endgames which are not the automatic draws 
they are commonly asssumed to be by club players.

I found Kostyev's judgement in choosing instructive positions
quite apt. My own OTB rating is within this book's target range,
and if for me most positions had been either pushovers or
impossibilities it would indicate he had missed his mark. Instead
there was a good mix, some relatively easy, most challenging, but
none incomprehensible. A good many of Kostyev's examples come
from the games of his students, Russian children, rather than from
grandmasters. This makes them more accessible to the club-level
player while not detracting from their instructive value (while also
making clear that Kostyev's pre-teen Russian students would
probably cream most American club players of any age).

Narrative vignettes about the game's early history accompany most
of the lessons. For example we learn that "Francois-Andre Danican
Philidor was born on 7th September 1726 in a small town near Paris
into a musical family. Philidor was not his surname, but a
nickname which became his surname. His great-grandfather was a
court oboist to King Ludwig XIII. On one occasion, wishing to
praise his musician, the king called him Philidor in honor of an
Italian virtuoso oboist Filidori. From then on Philidor's nickname
began to be joined to his surname Danican." This leads into an
interesting discussion of Philidor's pawn-based theory of chess vs.
the Italian School emphasizing piece play. Other interesting
segments discuss chess precursors chaturanga and shatranj,
playing conditions at London 1851, the Morphy-Anderssen match,
and the importance of the Berlin "Pleiades." The historical
narratives serve as refreshing breaks between the challenging
lessons. 

Criticisms? Only a few. The historical narrative, relatively smooth
and chronological through lesson 26, makes an abrupt 100-year
jump in lesson 27 from Morphy to Spassky. From a literary
standpoint this is somewhat jarring. From a technical standpoint,
not all of Kostyev's annotations stand up to modern computer-
assisted analysis. For instance, in his final example of the classic
Bishop sac, Joksic-Korgnati 1979 (See Diagram),

which finished 1 Bxh7+ Kxh7 2 Ng5+ Kg6 3 Qd3+ f5 4 h4! Nc8
5 h5+ Kf6? 6 Qxf5+!!, 1-0, he says that Black "could have faced
the future with confidence" if instead of 5 Kf6? he had played
5 Kxh5! 6 Qh3+ Kg6 7 Qh7+ Kf6 8 Nf3 Nxd6!, gaining three
minor pieces for the Queen. True, the suggested 5 Kxh5 is
indeed the best Black can do, but Kostyev fails to note that after 6
Qh3+ Kg6 7 Nxe6! instead of 7 Qh7+ wins, viz. 7 Nxd6
(relatively best; attempts to save the Queen allow mate, e.g.
7 Bxe6 8 Rxe6+ Rf6 9 Qxf5#) 8 Qg3+ Kh7 9 Nxd8, when Black
gets only two pieces for the Queen. And from a sociological
standpoint at least one of Kostyev's comments hits a sour note:
"This game reveals some of the typical features in the play of
young girls   very many lady players are hindered by a definite
dogmatism when solving various problems  ". In this regard
Kostyev may himself be hindered by a certain dogmatism.
However, neither the analytical mistake or the patronizing
comment are typical. Overall the reader and the game are treated
with a quiet respect that reflects the high regard for chess in
Kostyev's culture. 

On the whole, 40 Lessons for the Club Player is a solid choice,
either for self-instruction, or for teachers seeking suitable course
material for chess camps, school clubs and the like. And at a time
when it seems that any chess work bigger than a pamphlet sells for
at least $20, it comes at a bargain price (38« cents a lesson, to be
exact). If you did not make its acquaintance on either of its earlier
printings, you could do far worse than try it now.