"Schlechter's Chess Games" by Tom Crain, 1998 Caissa Editions,
Hardcover, English Algebraic Notation, 283pp., $30.00

"Schlechter's..." Ist Nicht Schlecht

When our review copy of Caissa Editions' new release
"Schlechter's Chess Games" was received, it was a bit of a
puzzlement. Hadn't the definitive work on Schlechter been done by
Goldman in his posthumously released "Carl Schlecter! Life and
Times of the Austrian Chess Wizard"? And, in fact, hadn't it been
Caissa Editions that had published Goldman's book? Yes indeed,
to both questions. So what could this book be offering?

It turns out that the author, a name probably unknown to most
chessplayers (as well as this writer) set out to compile a collection
of all known games by the Austrian grandmaster. He has
apparently done this in good fashion, culling games from many
sources and, for the first time, bringing them together in a
comprehensive collection. Curiously, we are unable to tell you
precisely how many games are in the book! They are not
numbered, the opponents' index concedes that more than one game
may appear on a page (were we inclined to count manually) and
the author himself has failed to let us know. Shame on both him
and the publisher for this little lapse. In addition, diagrams and
photographs are scarce; annotations are nonexistent. The book is
almost straight text and game scores.

Readers of previous reviews of Caissa Editions' publications will
be familiar with our high regard for the quality of their books. This
release, however, falls a little short of the marks set by such
outstanding books as Hilbert's "Napier: The Forgotten
Chessmaster" or Jimmy Adams' effort on Baden-Baden 1925.

First there is the matter of formatting. The very first Caissa
Editions saw a basic Courier font used throughout. (For those of
you not expert in the world of type fonts, "Courier" is a style that
resembles the old-fashioned typewriter typography, very
plain, evenly spaced letters). However, that was
soon discarded for the more readable and stylish proportional fonts
(such as the one you are probably reading this review in -Times
Roman). For some reason, they have reverted in this book to the
old Courier style. The effect is to give the book an amateurish
look.

Ah, you say, stop nit-picking. What about the content? Well,
before discussing content, it should be pointed out that the simple
use of a proportional font could have easily reduced the size of the
book by 10-15% AND made it easier on the eyes, so this is not
only about typographical toddies.

It would be easy to criticize some of the preliminary material. In an
attempt to give the reader a feel for the atmosphere in Europe in
general and Vienna in particular around the turn of the century (or
'fin de siecle' Vienna as the author continually calls it) we are
given a somewhat disjointed, rambling narrative the value of which
is not readily evident. The author's style itself could have used the
guiding hand of an experienced editor. Burt Hochberg, where are
you when we need you? Casual, almost slang expressions abound
(e.g., we are given Match 'Stats', Career 'Stats', etc.) and the
author's conclusions and analysis are often contradictory.

For example, Schlechter is often portrayed as the great drawing
master. The author discusses this in a section entitled "The Truth
About Remis Koenig". He states that "[e]arly on, Schlechter
acquired the nickname 'remis koenig' [sic] or 'draw king.' The
nickname stuck with good reason." Statistics ('stats') are then
presented indicated that 49.5% of Schlechter's games were drawn,
comparing this to some of the other masters of the era.

In the very next paragraph, we are told that "...it would be a
mistake to conclude from these raw figures that Schlechter played
to draw." Unfortunately, although a very brief effort is made to
reconcile this apparent (actual?) inconsistency, we are still left
somewhat perplexed. Moral of the story: don't bring up a topic
worthy of in-depth discussion if it is only going to be treated
superficially.

Nevertheless, this book has a lot to recommend it. The author
clearly has put an enormous amount of effort into producing what
must be described as the definitive collection thus far of
Schlechter's games. The games are presented chronologically by
tournament, and the crosstable of each tournament is given with a
few brief relevant remarks offered by the author. Match games are
in their own section near the end of the book, again given
chronologically.

There is interesting information usually given with most games.
The source from which the author obtained the game is usually
given, as is the exact date and day of the week the game was
played. A nice touch. If the game in question has additional
significance, the author notes it.

No review of this book could be complete without comparing it to
Goldman's monumental work. In both form and substance, "Carl
Schlechter! Life and Times of the Austrian Chess Wizard" must be
considered superior. However, this may also be unfair, as Crain's
objective was to pull together as many games of Schlechter as
could be found and serve them up as a comprehensive collection.
The bottom line is that although Goldman's may be an overall
bigger and better work, Crain's will also find a deserved place in
the libraries of Schlechter fans and historians. And who knows,
maybe someone will let us know how many games it contains...

Two games from the book:

"Schlechter earned a beautiful game prize for his win over
Janowski."
Schlechter-Janowski, Round 11, Monday, June 26, Ostende, 1905,
Queen's Gambit Declined
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.e3 Be7 6.Nf3 0-0 7.Bd3
b6 8.cxd5 exd5 9.0-0 c5 10.Ne5 Nxe5 11.dxe5 Nd7 12.Bf4 Bb7
13.Qf3 Re8 14.Qh3 Nf8 15.Rad1 Ng6 16.Bg3 Bf8 17.f4 a6 18.Bc2
b5 19.e6 fxe6 20.f5 exf5 21.Qxf5 Qe7 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.Qxd5+
Qe6 24.Be4 Rac8 25.Qxe6+ Rxe6 26.Bd5 Rce8 27.Bxe6+ Rxe6
28.Rd8 c4 29.Bd6 Rxd6 30.Rfxf8+ Nxf8 31.Rxd6 Ng6 32.Rxa6
Ne5 33.Rb6 Nd3 34.Rxb5 1-0

"The next game has a pretty problem-like mate."
Schlechter-Von Bardeleben, Round 4, Thursday, May 21, Prague,
1908, Center Counter Defense
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d3 Bg4 6.Nge2 e5
7.Bd2 c6 8.0-0 Nbd7 9.f3 Bc5+ 10.d4 exd4 11.Ne4 d3+ 12.Kh1
Qd8 13.Nxc5 Nxc5 14.fxg4 dxe2 15.Qxe2+ Qe7 16.Qxe7+ Kxe7
17.Bb4 b6 18.Rae1+ Kd6 19.Rd1+ Nd5 20.Bb3 a5 21.Ba3 a4
22.Bxd5 cxd5 23.Rxf7 g6 24.Rf6+ Ke5 25.Rxb6 Ne4 26.Kg1 Rhc8
27.c3 Rc4 28.Rb5 Rd8 29.Bb4 Ke6 30.Rb6+ Ke5 31.Rb5 Ke6
32.Re1 Rcc8 33.Rb6+ Ke5 34.Rb7 Kf4 35.Rf7+ Ke5 36.Rxh7 Re8
37.Rg7 Kf6 38.Rd7 Ke5 39.Rd1 Nf6 40.Rd6 g5 41.Re1+ Ne4
42.h3 Re6 43.Rd7 Rb6 44.Rd1 Rb5 45.Re7+ Kf6 46.Rf1+ Kg6
47.a3 Rc6 48.Rd7 Re6 49.Bf8 Reb6 50.h4 gxh4 51.Rg7+ Kh6
52.Rf5 Ng3 53.Rh5+ Nxh5 54 g5 mate 1-0