Routine Retread

"The King in the Opening" by Edmar Mednis, 1998 Chess
Enterprises, English Algebraic Notation, Softcover, 100pp., $8.95

American Grandmaster Edmar is one of the more prolific chess
writers today. His syndicated endgame column is popular and
instructive, while his other columns, notably appearing in "Chess
Life", have also attracted a nice following. He is the author of a fair
number of books, the most recent of which appears to be "The
King in the Opening".

The objective of the book, as stated in the author's Preface, is "...to
help the student score more points by showing how to use the King
as an inherent part of successful opening play." The book is
divided into nine short chapters: (1) Castling; (2) King the Center -
Open Positions; (3) King in the Center - Closed Positions; (4)
Coping With Sacrifices; (5) The King on a Forced Flight; (6) The
Active King as a Power; (7) King Moves to Prevent Threats; (8)
King Moves to Prepare Action; and (9) Correct and Incorrect King
Moves. Six of these nine chapters have additional subchapters.

What is not readily apparent is that this is a reprint of a book
written by Mednis sixteen years earlier. David McKay Co.
published "King Power in Chess" in 1982. This re-issue has
replaced the English descriptive notation with English algebraic
and added more diagrams. This according to Mednis in his Preface.
As the original "King Power in Chess" is out of print, and we do
not have a copy, we cannot state unequivocally that the book is
otherwise a mere retread of the 1982 book, but we were unable to
identify any games used or presented by the author that date after
1978. Can it be that Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, et al,
i.e., the most recent generation of grandmasters, have nothing to
offer for this edition? Hardly. Could their original and creative
approaches not have contributed to this edition's theme? Again,
hard to believe.

For example, games 14 and 16 of the 1990 Kasparov-Karpov
World Championship Match featured Gary, as White, dusting off
an old line of the Scotch: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6
5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4. It seems to
this writer that had the author wished to bring the material current,
this line, as particularly played out in the 14th game (where there
followed 8...Ba6 9 b3 0-0-0 10 g3 Re8 11 Bb2 f6 12 Bg2 fxe5 13
0-0 h5) could have been used effectively. There are several
sections where a discussion of the king's position in this opening
would have been more than appropriate. Alas, 'twas not to be. The
author was content to go with the previous text - 'as is'.

From Chapter 1, Section 4 ("Castling by Hand")...

A sophisticated version of Queenside "castling" is shown starting
from G. Ligterink - E. Geller, Wijk aan Zee 1977, after White's
13th move of an ultra-sharp Sicilian Najdorf: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3
d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Qb6 8 Qd2 Qxb2 9
Nb3 Qa3 10 Bxf6 gxf6 11 Be2 Nc6 12 0-0 Bd7 13 Khl.

In order to win the "poisoned" b-pawn Black has lost valuable
development time. However, because White's b-pawn is missing,
there are basic weaknesses in his Queenside position. Black aims
for counterplay against White's Queenside before White has
sufficient time to get at Black's loosened Kingside:
13 ... Rc8! 14 f5 Ne5!
Activity is of utmost necessity here. After 14 ... h5? 15 fxe6 fxe6
16 Rxf6 White has advantageously recovered his pawn. 
15 fxe6 fxe6! 16 Bh5+ Kd8! 17 Ne2
After 17 Rxf6 Qb4! 18 Qg5 Kc7! Black's King is safe and he
threatens both 19 ... Qxc3 and 19 ... Be7. After 19 Qg3 Kb8! the
double attack on the Knight forces White to move it, and this
leaves White's e-pawn unprotected.
17 ... Kc7! 18 Nf4 Kb8! 19 Qf2 Bh6
Black has castled the "Kingside" way on the Queenside, making
his King safe and the Rook ready for action along the c-file.
According to Geller White should now continue with 20 Nd4!
Bxf4 21 Qxf4 Rhf8 22 Qh6, with Black having only a slight edge
after 22 ... Qc5. Instead, White tries a combination - with a hole! 
20 Nxe6? Bxe6 21 Qxf6 Bc4
Overlooked by White. Since 22 Qxh6 Bxf1 is hopeless for White,
he plays on a few moves with a piece down and then resigns.
22 Rfe1 Ng6 23 e5 dxe5 24 Rab1 Rhf8 25 Qb6 Rc6 White
resigns

The book does have its interesting moments. When discussing the
acceptance of the stock sacrifice on h7/h2, Mednis states "Always
play the King to g8 unless a definitive analysis shows that this
loses by force" (page 55; italics in the original). Then, after making
such a broad statement, he gives but two examples of the retreat to
g8. No doubt a lengthy chapter could have been devoted to this
topic alone and we are left somewhat unsatisfied by this tantalizing tease.

The book is neither very good nor very bad. Chess Enterprises has
a history of bringing out books at very reasonable prices. Such is
the case here, but, unfortunately, the instructional value of this
book is diminished by the author's use of examples showing, but
not usually explaining the "theory" of the use of "The King in the
Opening."