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1-800-388-KING (5464) Issue #115
March 25 - 31
Welcome to the USCFSales.com weekly newsletter. You can keep up-to-date with new product releases, read reviews of selected products, and follow the latest news from the U.S. Chess Federation. Plus, try your hand at solving our weekly puzzle. Enjoy! Here & There
at ChessCafe.com Lost in Translation
Bruce Pandolfini answers a number of questions concerning foreign language chess books as well as a question as to whether the great masters of the past would have been even greater had they learned algebraic notation rather than descriptive. Trial & Error
Geniuses, who can find the right solution on the spot, are rare. To learn by your mistakes is, in the long run, at least as successful. This month Stefan Buecker covers a critical variation in the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Age of Empire
During the heydays of Yugoslav chess Hans Ree often compared it to an empire where the sun never sets. In the former Yugoslavia there was always or nearly always an international tournament going on and often several at the same time. Book Notes  Chess Informant #103 is available and shipping. This volume brings a thoroughly refined selection of 918 annotated games (407 full games and 511 game fragments) featuring contributions from the world’s best players. The new edition of John Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book features fifty new puzzles (with hints and detailed solutions) and many extra diagrams. Overall the book is sixty percent larger than the first edition and is guaranteed to test your skills to the full.
Reviews in Brief |  The Scotch Game (DVD)
by Nigel Davies GM Nigel Davies begins this DVD with an anecdote of how as a youngster he concocted an opening that began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4. He began to investigate it a bit and discovered that it was called the Scotch Game, but that it was not recommended by theory because it gave Black free play for his pieces. So he moved on to openings such as the Ruy Lopez. It wasn’t until Garry Kasparov revised the opening and began playing it in world championship matches that its theoretical reputation was rehabilitated. Davies notes that to this day it is a major problem for Black as to how to meet the Scotch and that many strong players, such as GM Rublevsky, continue to keep it in their repertoire. He notes that the Scotch is a very direct opening in which the pieces come into conflict quite quickly. Therefore, he finds it to be “quite a suitable opening at club level, because there is nice lively play” without the slow maneuvering of the Spanish. The problem is that the Scotch now has a “lot of theory attached to it,” which is “largely Kasparov’s fault, of course.” With the first part of this DVD he aims to present an “easy way to get on board the Scotch Game” by playing the Scotch Four Knights variation. On the second part he tackles the “enormously complicated” 3.d4 main lines, but warns that he barely scratches the surface because he could fill ten DVDs in order to cover everything. Of the thirty-four video segments, fourteen are devoted to the Four Knights, seven to the Mieses variation, ten cover 4...Bc5, and one each is devoted to 4...Qh4 and 4...Bb4+. The running time is about five hours. Davies’s presentation makes the opening seem easy to play, although it is never that easy in practice. If you have an interest in the Scotch, this is a fine introduction. The DVD also contains the whole training course in audio-format for Pocket Fritz 3. No additional software is needed to run the DVD as it comes equipped with the ChessBase 9 Reader that installs onto your hard disk. If you already have CB9 or one of the Fritz family playing programs, then you do not need to install the reader. The nice thing in this scenario is that if you have question concerning a move that isn’t covered, you can just click on Fritz for an answer. The system requirements are Pentium-Processor at 300 MHz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP/Vista, DVD drive, mouse, and soundcard. | | |
| | | |  John Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book
by John Nunn “Test and improve your over-the-board decision-making” is the caption on the cover of John Nunn’s revised edition of his puzzle book, and he has provided much material for study. The book was originally published in 1999 and this new edition was brought about for three reasons: first, to correct errors in the original edition; second, to add additional puzzles, and third, to change the layout of the solutions. Fifty puzzles were added to bring the total to 300. The solutions were made more user-friendly by the addition of a substantial number of diagrams. These revisions brought the page count from 208 to 336. In the introduction Nunn states, “I decided to combine the aims of entertainment, self-assessment and instruction, but with the emphasis on the last of these.” The puzzles are not organized by any type of combination, method of attack or mating motif. They are presented simply as a collection of positions in which you are to determine the best move. The general procedure for solving a puzzle is simply to look at a diagram and try to find the best move. If you need help with the solution, you can go to the hints chapter to find the difficulty rating of the puzzle (assigned by Nunn on a scale of 1 - 5) and get a clue as to where the solution lies. Hints are not provided for the test positions. The solution is included in a separate chapter to eliminate the chance that you will “accidentally” see the solution. Read the full review here. | | |
| New Catalog Additions 3/24: Mastering the Chess Openings, Vol. 3 (restock)
3/23: Essential Chess Endings for Advanced Players (restock)
3/22: John Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book (2nd ed.)
3/21: ECO E: 4th ed. (CD)
3/20: Top TNT, Vol. 2 (CD)
3/19: Chess Tactics for Advanced Players
3/18: Chess Informant #103 (Book)
3/18: Chess Informant #103 (CD)
3/18: Chess Informant #103 (Book + CD)
3/17: New In Chess Yearbook #89
3/15: The Scotch Game (DVD)
3/14: The Flexible French
3/13: ChessBase Magazine #128 (DVD)
3/12: Scandinavian Defense: The Dynamic 3...Qd6 (2nd ed.)
3/11: Attacking the King - for Experts
3/10: Winning Chess Middlegames
3/8: The Black Lion
3/7: An Aggressive Opening Repertoire for the Club Player
3/5: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 68, The 3...Qd6 Scandinavian
3/4: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 67,
The Progressive Way of Handling the Maroczy Bind
3/3: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 66,
The New and Improved Accelerated Dragon
3/2: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 65,
Sound and Unsound Ways to Play Sharp Openings
3/1: March Scholastic Special
22/28: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 70,
Refuting Lines in the French, Caro-Kann and Alekhine
2/27: Roman’s Lab: Vol. 69, Dzindzi Anti-English
| Weekly Puzzle | | Quote of the Week | | 
White to Move/Solution Below | | Modern players are far more critical and objective than their predecessors. John Nunn,
John Nunn’s
Chess Puzzle Book |
Monthly Specials March 2009  | For the March Competition Special, we are pleased to offer Leko’s One Hundred Wins for the incredible USCF member price of $9.95! - a savings of $20.00! This book features 100 wins by Peter Leko, from 1992-2003. A brief biography, crosstables, and photographs complement these games by the young Hungarian grandmaster.
|  | For the March Scholastic Special, we are pleased to offer The Olympian Premium Chess Set for the incredible USCF member price of $17.95! - a savings of $12.00! This tournament sets features a 3-7/8-inch king with a 1-3/4” base. Available in Black & Natural, this set weighs a hefty 48 ounces has a broad-based design for added stability and comes with four queens! These Specials of the Month are good from March 1 - March 31, 2009. Orders may be placed online, by mail or by phone. These Specials of the Month may be withdrawn at any time and are good only while supplies last. |
 New at Chess Life Online The list of players for the 2009 U.S. Championship (Saint Louis, May 7-17) is almost complete. Confirmed participants include Kamsky, Nakamura, Onischuk and young talents Robson and Hess. Also, in the U.S. Amateur Team Playoffs, held March 21 on World Chess Live, the ACA Beasts of the West won after a tiebreaker against the South. Join the USCF Today 
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Puzzle Answer: 30.Bd5+! 1-0 Van Wely-Brunner, Biel 1993 (Source: John Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book) |
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