Yugoslav Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric is one of the living legends of modern chess. A partisan during World War II, a correspondent for the leading Yugoslav daily POLITIKA, Gligoric was the top player in Europe outside of the Soviet Union for many years. Today, at age 79, he is still going strong with three new books coming out.

SHALL WE PLAY FISCHER RANDOM CHESS? might seem a strange topic for Gligoric to write about. After all, his name has long been associated with what we now call classical chess. Gliga, as he is often called, explains this conundrum in the 35-page introduction in which he makes his case for random chess.

Many will recall that Bobby Fischer made his real breakthrough onto the World Chess scene at the Interzonal at Bled-Portoroz. During this event Bobby and Gliga became good friends. Many years later when Fischer decided to come back in 1992, he chose Gliga's Yugoslavia. One can imagine Fischer at the time enthusiastically explaining his passion for random chess to Gliga. Only a few years later, random style tournaments began to be held.

In the introduction to SHALL WE PLAY FISCHER RANDOM CHESS? Gligoric makes the case for why the time is ripe for a different type of chess. He quotes various players, including former Candidate Valery Salov, who point out how computers are killing traditional chess and makes a pointed example of the highly analyzed 8.Rb1 line in the Grünfeld where variations have been worked out well past move 30. Gligoric points to the very narrow repertoire of World Champion Vladimir Kramnik as an example of how top chess players are being forced to specialize more to the detriment of the chess art.

Having made his case for the need for random chess, Gligoric then goes on to trace the origins of a new type of chess leading the reader through examples from the 1700 and 1800s to the 16 by 12 square board with two complete sets of pieces for each side (including two Kings apiece!) from the Capablanca-Maroczy match.

SHALL WE PLAY FISCHER RANDOM CHESS? presents a very comprehensive coverage of all games from random chess tournaments involving strong players including Kanjiza 1996 (won by Peter Leko) and the Leko-Adams match from Mainz 2001 (also won by Leko). Even the exhibition games between Grandmasters Wojtkiewicz and Yermolinsky held at the Mechanics' Institute in 2001 and 2002, can be found here.

If you have any interest in random chess you will want to get Gligoric's book.

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