Questions of Modern Chess Theory

QUESTIONS OF MODERN CHESS THEORY
Author: Isaac Lipnitsky
Quality Chess (2008)
229 pages
$29.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

The appearance of Isaac Lipnitsky’s QUESTIONS OF MODERN CHESS THEORY in English is one of the major chess publishing events of 2008.

Preface: Isaac Lipnitsky and his Super-Book, by Efim Lazarev
● Foreword by Anatoly Karpov
● Foreword by the UK Publisher
● Ch. 1 On the Opening
● Ch. 2 The Centre
● Ch. 3 The Centre and the Flanks
● Ch. 4 Conquering the Centre from the Flanks
● Ch. 5 Mobilizing the Pieces
● Ch. 6 Evaluating the Position
● Ch. 7 The Concrete Approach
● Ch. 8 From Critical Positions to Settled Positions
● Ch. 9 Positional Flair
● Ch. 10 Plans in the Opening
● Ch. 11 The Initiative
● Ch. 12 Modern Gambits
● Ch. 13 Opening and Middlegame
● Ch. 14 Reevaluation of Values
● Ch. 15 How Long Does a “Novelty” Last?
● Ch. 16 How is an Innovation Born?
● Appendix: Selected Games of Isaac Lipnitsky

This is not quite the same book that Bobby Fischer carried around with him in the late 1950s. Gone are the 120 pages on the Ragozin Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4), one of Fischer’s favorites in the 1950s and early 1960s. Instead the reader gets all the rest of the original plus12 of Lipnitsky’s best games heavily annotated by the master himself, a preface by Efim Lazarev and a foreword by Anatoly Karpov. All three help to explain why the author and his magnum opus are still relevant today.

Lipnitsky only had a short career, dying at the age of 36, but he was a strong player. How strong? Good enough to tie for second in the 1950 Soviet Championship only half a point behind Paul Keres. The dozen games that appear at the back of this edition of QUESTIONS OF MODERN CHESS THEORY with victories over Petrosian and Tal to name but two scalps give further evidence that he was a world-class player in the early 1950s before his illness started to take away his strength.

Karpov writes that it was remarkable that Lipnitsky’s masterwork didn’t just disappear. It was published in Kiev in 1956 far from the Soviet chess center of Moscow, in a small edition and with printing errors. But strong players from the aforementioned Fischer to Mikhail Botvinnik appreciated the ability of Lipnitsky’s work to stimulate them. A childhood friend of David Bronstein, Lipnitsky, in his writings and games, exhibited the same creative spark and concrete approach to each position. One notes in both his favorite Ragozin system and against the Catalan (cf. his game with Keres from the 1950 Soviet Ch.) his predilection for playing ...a6 and ...h6 in the opening to influence matters in the center.

One of the things that makes QUESTIONS OF MODERN CHESS THEORY still useful today, and to such a large range of playing strength, is the large amount of prose in this book. Lipnitsky explains things well and in detail.

Highly Recommended

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