CALCULATE LIKE A GRANDMASTER: Learn from the World-Class Attacking Players
Author: Daniel Gormally
Batsford (2010)
288 pages
$17.95
Reviewed by John Donaldson
CALCULATE LIKE A GRANDMASTER: Learn from the World-Class Attacking Players by Grandmaster Danny Gormally is a personal look at a complicated subject. Ever since Alexander Kotov came out with his classic THINK LIKE A GRANDMASTER the question of how to improve one’s ability to analyze has been a hot topic. Gormally, a self-effacing English Grandmaster with a sharp playing style, believes the best method for sharpening one’s calculating ability comes from studying the games of some of the great attackers including Tal, Shirov, Topalov, Morozevich, Anand, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov.
The notes to the games in CALCULATE LIKE A GRANDMASTER are good and Gormally offers plenty of useful advice (one being when confronted with several plausible choices always analyze the most forcing line first), but what makes this book more than a standard treatise is the author’s lively writing style which is never boring. What other chess book is likely to mention Robert Mugabe, or Ernst Stavro Blofeld head of SPECTRE? American professional players will identify with his story of English titled players battling it out for a 300 pound prize in a weekender after shelling out 150 pounds for lodging and travel and with the rent due shortly. Self-torture is not limited to either side of the Atlantic!
Gormally brings Alexey Shirov’s love of chess to life when he relates how Shirov, a world class GM, asked him with great interest about some of his (D.K.’s) games when he was still an IM. Such curiosity and dedication to the craft make one recall Alekhine, who engaged in similar behavior where he would look for new ideas wherever he could find them. The author shows his class when he pays tribute to the late Bob Wade, who contributed to British Chess in so many ways for over half a century.
CALCULATE LIKE A GRANDMASTER will benefit players from 1800 to 2300 who would be wise to follow Gormally’s advice, “spend as much time as you can in the company of stronger players. Stronger players think in a different way, but if have the raw ability you can soon bring yourself up to think on their level.”
