Reviewed by John Watson

Tim Harding as author and publisher has done it again. His recent 64 GREAT CHESS GAMES (correspondence masterpieces, reviewed in an earlier column) and his remarkable database of correspondence games MEGACORR, are top-quality products. MEGACORR is now out in its 3rd edition, although I only have the 2nd, so I will forego a description of it. In RED LETTERS he has coauthored with ICCF Grandmaster Sergey Grodzensky a remarkable book that summarizes every Soviet Correspondence Championship (from 1948 to 2002), complete with the results and crosstables of each event. A small selection of exceptionally interesting games is given for each event. It’s quite amazing that so much fits into 160 pages – subjectively the book doesn’t seem that short – although one would still wish for a few more games. The Soviet correspondence championships were no minor affair: Harding quotes Grigory Sanakoev that his greatest achievement was not his World Correspondence Championship but his 2nd place in the final of the 6th Soviet Union Correspondence Championship!

The division of labor in this work is clearly (and refreshingly) laid out by Harding in his Preface. The players shared (approximately equally) the research into results and personalities, with both contributing to the collection of photographs. Harding edited the CD (see below) and found most of the games (“and notes”, presumably those from other players). In the end Harding put at least his share of actual work into the project. Still, what most would consider the essence of the book itself was written by Grodzenky: he researched and wrote all the main chapters covering all the championships and provided notes to every game except for a minority of previously annotated ones. A chess historian, Grodzensky provides the descriptions of the events and players. In fact, his original Russian version of the book is given in a separate HTML file on a CD that Harding put together, along with other features. Both the CD and book have numerous photographs of the players, with the CD also giving short summaries of the careers of the individual participants.

Regarding his CD that comes with the book, I’ll quote parts of what Harding himself says about its contents:

“On this CD you can find:

“Championship games database, USSRCCCH, in ChessBase formats (new and old), Chess Assistant format and PGN, including all the games we have found from the championships. Many of the games are annotated, some deeply ... the ChessBase (CBH) version is  ... the master version of the database, complete with opening and thematic keys.

“Supplementary games database, USSRCCCH, (also in multiple formats) with more than 3,000 games from other USSR correspondence chess competitions... There are also games from earlier USSR Team Championships, and many games from semifinals and championship First League tournaments....The original Russian text in Adobe Acrobat PDF format...

[An HTML section includes:] An illustrated guide to the players and arbiters in the championships (with many more photographs than appear in the book). Crosstables of all the 21 championships in HTML format with some games linked to the crosstables. Those championships for which we have complete game files (the 16th onwards and also the 4th) are presented in HTML format pages created by Palview3, so that these games can be played through onscreen with your web browser....”

All this is very impressive and easy to browse through; I particularly enjoy playing through these often amazing games with the javascript playing board.

On the slightly negative side, the book itself is relatively short and one would like more annotated games in it. I should also say that most of what are called the “annotated” games in the database tend to have only other games merged in, i.e., without commentary. But that is standard practice (see the remaining reviews) and, when one includes both the book and the CD, you’ll find more than enough fascinating chess material here. In conclusion, I highly recommend RED LETTERS to all chess fans, with a “must buy” designation for lovers of correspondence play.