Golden Compositions, Purple Prose by Taylor Kingston Mitrofanov's Deflection, by Victor Charushin, translated by Anatoly Lein,1998 Pickard and Son, Softcover, Figurine Algebraic Notation, 92pp., $13.50. This book is the third in Charushin's "Tactician's Handbook" series; reviews of its predecessors Combination Cross and Alekhine's Block can be found in the Chess Cafe Archives. The series is perhaps misnamed. Dealing in narrowly defined, relatively rare combinational themes, these books seem less useful for practical players than for composers of studies and problems. This reviewer finds himself able to muster somewhat more enthusiasm for this entry than Hanon Russell and Glenn Budzinski had for its forebears, but only slightly. The theme this time is the deflection sacrifice, in which, in response to check or a threat, a piece is placed en prise, to be captured, often again with check, sometimes to vacate an escape square for the attacked King, or in its purest form, solely to force the capturing piece to a square from which it is ineffective. Relatively rare in practical play, an example of the latter is Fischer-Ivkov, Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, 1970 (See Diagram). White: Kg1, Qf6, Nd6, Nf3, Bg6; pawns - d4, e5, f2, g2, h3 Black: Kg8, Qc1, Ne6, Ba1, Ba8; pawns - d5, f7, h6 White's murderous attack has been interrupted by check. While 42. Kh2 Qf4+ 43. Qxf4 Nxf4 44. Bxf7+ etc. should still win, more quickly decisive and elegant was 42. Ne1! Qxe1+ 43. Kh2 Ng5 (43. ... fg6 44. Qxe6+ and mate in at most 5) 44. Bxf7+, 1-0. White's 42nd move deflected the black Queen to a square from which she could no longer give a meaningful check. An example of the vacating type is Topalov-J. Polgar, Novgorod 1996 (See Diagram). White: Kg1, Qe3, Rf7; pawns - a5, d6, e6, g2, h2 Black: Kg8, Rb1, Bd3; pawns - a6, e4, h4 Here if 47. Kf2?? Rf1 mate, but 47. Qc1!!, giving the King an out, won after 47. ... Rxc1+ 48. Kf2 Rc6 49. Rd7 Bb5 50. Ke3 Rc2 51. Rc7 Re2+ 52. Kf4 Rf2+ 53. Kxe4 Re2+ 54. Kf5 Rf2+ 55. Ke5 Re2+ 56. Kf6 Rf2+ 57. Ke7 Re2 58. d7 Bxd7 59. Kxd7 Rd2+ 60. Ke8, 1-0. However, the theme finds its highest expression in compositions, the prime example of which (and the source of the book's title) is the following 1967 FIDE gold medal- winning study by Russian Leopold Mitrofanov (1932-1992). (See Diagram) White: Ka5; pawns - a6, b5, d5, g6, h5 Black: Ka7, Ne1, Ne5, Bd6; pawn - h2 White has only 5 pawns against 3 pieces, and while he will soon queen, so will Black. Nonetheless, White wins, the main line being: 1. b6+ Ka8 2. g7 h1(Q) 3. g8(Q)+ Bb8 4. a7 Nc6 5. dc6 Qh5+. Now (See Diagram) White: Ka5, Qg8; pawns - a7, b6, c6 Black: Ka8, Qh5, Ne1, Bb8 comes Mitrofanov's Deflection: 6. Qg5!! -- giving up the Queen apparently for nothing, and with check -- 6. ... Qxg5+ 7. Ka6 -- but now White threatens mate, and because of the deflection Black's queen has no checks -- 7. ... Bxa7 8. c7!!, and mate via c7-c8(Q) or b6-b7 is inevitable. (The point of the Knight at e1 is to avoid a stalemate after 8. ... Qa5+ 9. Kxa5 Bxb6 10. Kxb6.) A true masterpiece of chess composition. It is this book's chief virtue that it spotlights this beautiful work, and presents 152 other noteworthy examples of the theme, 47 from games and 105 from compositions. Most are instances of what Charushin calls "Platov's Deflection", i.e. deflections by minor pieces or Rooks, while a few are the Queen, or "Mitrofanov" deflection. Their beauty and ingenuity make these a joy to play through. Unfortunately, Charushin's prose (what little there is of it) falls well short of the quality of games and compositions. While GM Anatoly Lein has done a far better job of translation from Russian than did the Germans who published Charushin's risible Chess Comet Charousek, he cannot help the fact that Charushin in any language simply has a clumsy, fatuous way with words. For example, Charushin seems downright confused when he says "As befits a genius, A. Troitzky abandoned the deflection idea and forgot it." (One wonders then why Charushin is writing a book about it.) Charushin contradicts himself: on page 14 he proclaims Mitrofanov's study "impossible to surpass" but on page 68 he says another by P. Joita "is considered the most brilliant realization" of the theme. He exclaims over trivialities: "It is incredible but true! Platov's Deflection occurs even in the widespread [sic] Sicilian defense." Occasionally his prose is so badly overblown, one must diagnose it as one of the worst cases of Beautiful Writing- itis since Lasker's Manual of Chess. The following passage drips like syrup-smothered pancakes with overwrought metaphor and hyperbole: "The century-long history and development of this theme ... reminds one of mountaineers storming the highest peak in the world ... More than 100 Bishops, Knights, and Rooks were sacrificed. [Oh, the humanity!] However, no one managed to carry out the ultimate deflection, a Queen sacrifice ... The world was waiting for the entrance of a new genius, one who would finally conquer the summit ... The studies of L. Topcheev and G. Kasparyan ... took steps toward the summit, along the lower elevations. Thirty-three years remained until, finally, the Awaited One appeared ... In 1967 Everest was conquered, and the peak of chess art was achieved ... But only destiny's appointed, Leopold Adamovich Mitrofanov, was able to ascend the summit, kindling an everlasting torch to the goddess Caissa." The publisher's blurb describes Charushin's style as "inimitable"; we can only pray that is true. Unpleasant as Charushin's prose is, a bit more of it was in order to provide more explanatory background and understanding of the theme. Without it, Charushin is able to fill only 70 pages with deflection examples, and so, apparently just to take up space and make a pretense of giving the reader his money's worth, pages 71-88 switch to a completely different theme, the single-bishop mate. This appendix has no relation to the deflection examples. Assuming even that one can master deflections and single- bishop mates from Charushin's examples, it seems doubtful that such rarely employable techniques will do very much to advance one's Elo rating. Those interested in more general, more practical instruction in chess tactics would be better advised to pick up, say, Spielmann's Art of Sacrifice, Vukovic's Art of Attack, Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations, Grefe's The Chess Tactician's Handbook, or Dvoretsky's Secrets of Chess Tactics, to name only a few good books, rather than spend time and money on Charushin's overly specialized series. Composers (of whom this writer is admittedly not one) may be another matter. Mastery of unusual themes is valued by composition judges, and so aspiring future Mitrofanovs may benefit from Charushin's exploration of esoteric byways. Perhaps somewhere there is an ambitious one who will be able to challenge his assertion that Mitrofanov's composition is "a masterpiece impossible to surpass". He might thus benefit the chess world doubly, by creating a beautiful new study, and (one hopes) by teaching Charushin to temper his preposterous verbiage.