ChessCafe.com Weekly Newsletter, October 28 - November 3, 2009

PO Box 1201 Harwich, MA 02645 1-877-91-CHESS (1-877-912-4377) Issue #28 October 28 - November 3 Welcome to the ChessCafe.com weekly newsletter. You can keep up-to-date with new product releases, read reviews of selected products, and follow the latest postings at ChessCafe.com. Plus, try your hand at solving our weekly puzzle. Enjoy! Here & There Life is Easy Jealousy, irresistible urges, late-night addictions, and thirteen hours of video lectures. Oh, my! Anything to Win According to this documentary, Bobby Fischer was an eccentric recluse who would do anything - rational or not - to win. The Inception of Modern Chess A reassessment of the history of chess with the methodological standards borrowed from the mature history of science. The Worst Luck Levon Aronian is a man inclined to irony, but even for him taking up the Wohly against the world's top players would be driving irony to an unseemly extreme. The In-Laws It used to be that 2245 was considered a decent rating. Times apparently have changed. Maybe it is time to lighten up a bit and have fun. More Chaos One of Stefan Buecker's favorite weapons against the King's Pawn opening, Balogh's Defense, comes with an extra bonus for those who play the Dutch. Book Notes When a club player decides he wants to raise his rating to the next class level, he typically looks to improve his middlegame or endgame understanding. Often, however, the true secret to improvement lies not in studying additional chess material but in learning more powerful thinking process. Full of helpful tips and principles, The Improving Chess Thinker is the result of more than forty years of 'think out loud' chess exercises. The range of subjects addressed includes everything from analysis and evaluation theory to time management skills. In Improve Your Chess: By Learning from the Champions, Lars Bo Hansen shows how chess understanding has evolved and explains how and why a study of the great champions of the past and present will significantly improve your chess. Throughout the book, the emphasis is firmly on improving your chess, and equipping you to improve your chess further by studying on your own. Newsletter subscribers who order both The Improving Chess Thinker and Improve Your Chess: By Learning from the Champions can save and additional $7.50 by entering the coupon code "improve75" (without the quotes) at checkout. This offer is only being made to subscribers and is valid until November 3, 2009. Celebrate the release of Fritz 12 by saving 10% on all ChessBase products throughout the month! You will see the discount applied once you add the item to your cart. Weekly Puzzle   Quote of the Week White to Move/Solution Below   Improvement at chess involves diagnosing your weak points, and then training systematically to eliminate them. Steve Giddins 101 Chess Questions Answered Reviews in Brief Fritz 12 by ChessBase I am slightly jealous of those considering the purchase of Fritz chess software for the first time, as they will find Fritz 12 a breeze to learn and navigate compared to past releases. Previous Fritz owners, who only used the basic functions, might find themselves eagerly exploring the readily visible and accessible features Fritz 12 has to offer. This is without a doubt the most pleasing aspect I found in Fritz 12. Fritz 12 has such an enormous amount of functions that I am unable to detail all of them. If you are familiar with Microsoft Office 2007, then you will be familiar with the new interface of Fritz 12, which utilizes an ergonomic menu design called Ribbons. This graphical layout allows software developers to display, both graphically and verbally, menus from complex multi-function software. You might find an irresistible urge to click on the attractive icons to find out what they are for. Fritz 12 comes with a one year premium access to playchess.com, where there is a host of valuable extras for those willing to explore its contents. You can play using the Fritz software interface and chat with other opponents. The standard Fritz 2D layout with realistic board-sounds tops the chart in my coolness meter, and using this interface on playchess.com has been known to turn players into late-night addicts of the royal game. You can also participate in tournaments, watch broadcasts, see GMs play live, and much more. Overall this is one terrific product, a "Man's Best Friend" as Carsten Hansen affectionately titled his review of Fritz 8. I would recommend Fritz 12 to anyone, whether they own an earlier Fritz version or not. Read the full review here. Order Fritz 12 for only $53.96 until October 31, 2009.     New Catalog Additions 10/28 The Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation (DVD) 10/27 The Improving Chess Thinker (Heisman) 10/26 Arkhangelsk (DVD) 10/25 Starting Out: The Trompowsky Attack (Palliser) 10/24 Fighting the Ruy Lopez (Pavlovic) 10/23 1...e6: A Solid Repertoire against 1.d4 and 1.e4 (DVD) 10/22 Dangerous Weapons: The Pirc/Modern 10/21 The Complete Hedgehog (Shipov) 10/20 Improve Your Chess (Hansen) 10/19 Power Play 11: Defence (DVD) 10/18 Teaching Chess, Step by Step: Activities (Book 3) 10/18 Teaching Chess, Step by Step: Exercises (Book 2) 10/18 Teaching Chess, Step by Step: Teacher's Manual (Book 1) 10/17 Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess (Hardcover) 10/16 Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate (Nakamura) 10/16 Studies For Practical Players (Dvoretsky) 10/15 Bobby Fischer: The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion (Hardcover) 10/15 Bobby Fischer: The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion (Paperback) 10/15 ChessBase Magazine #132 10/14 Play the Catalan (Davies) 10/13 7 Ways to Smash the Sicilian 10/12 Fritz 12 (In Stock) 10/12 Dangerous Weapons: The King's Indian 10/10 The Budapest Gambit (Taylor) 10/9 Chess for Rookies (Pritchett) 10/8 Kill K.I.D 1 (Semkov) 10/7 The New Sicilian Dragon (Williams) 10/6 Opening for White according to Anand, Vol. 12 (Khalifman) 10/5 The Most Valuable Skills in Chess (Ashley) 10/4 B33 - Sicilian Defence 10/3 Chess Informant #105 (Book) 10/3 Chess Informant #105 (CD) 10/3 Chess Informant #105 (Book + CD) Puzzle Answer: 21.e5! dxe5 22.Ne4! Nh5 23.Qg6! exd4 24.Ng5! 1-0 Spassky-Petrosian, World Ch match (game 19), Moscow 1969 (Source: Improve Your Chess: By Learning from the Champions) Copyright 2009 BrainGamz, Inc. All Rights Reserved.