Customer Reviews

Heroic Tales: The Best of Chesscafe.com 1996 - 2001

5 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recommend anyone who is interested in chess. A lot of articles with various topics. The price is just 25 dollars and you can enjoy reading for at least a week. Some of the articles in fact is quite interesting, e.g. the investigation why Keres' performance after World War 2 was below his pre- War perfomance and cannot get the World Champion is very interesting. ( I must say, the article is interesting, I am neutral and would not comment further, as my interest is in chess, not politics !! ) Anyway, I strongly recommend anyone ( even beginner!! ) who is nterested in chess. As Kingston said in the preface, only regret is some good artcles had to be dis-regarded. Don't be disappointed, Kingston, you can publish The best of ChessCafe.com vol 2, 3 etc. As now it is 2007. More chess events have happened, like Kasparov's retirement, Topalov's triumph in San Luis, Kramnik won the re-unification match, and most recently, Anand become the ( traditional ) 15th World Champions,etc, I do not think shortage of articles is a problem, on the contrary, as readers, we can never get enough !!!!!!!!!

Even for those for whom chess is not an activity, the majority of vignettes are quite fascinating. I do not profess to know the game, however, ignoring the plays and reading the introductions prior to the moves being discussed, I found to be most interesting. The book is divided into segments, e.g., humor, history, politics and such, and one cannot help but enjoy the anecdotes preceding the games being addressed.

Undoubtedly, with hundreds and hundreds of accounts to consider, Mr. Kingston has selected those that his experience and acumen have deemed most worthwhile...and a splendid job he has done, indeed. The variety and scope of material was most gratifying, to this non-player-of-chess; I can only imagine how those who play the game will enjoy this book even more so.

An attempt to paint a rosy picture of FIDE administrators under the guise of impartiality. If you are interested in distorted facts and half truths then this is probably the book for you. If not, don't waste your money !