Batsford
has also come out with the odd but entertaining
training book THE CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS by Liu
Wenzhe. He is a strong player of chess (an IM)
and expert in several other mind games. The Introduction
describes various intellectual and philosophic
achievements; it also talks in the briefest possible
manner about his political persecution. Liu Wenzhe
is also a trainer of the Chinese Olympiad teams
that have done so well in recent years.
At the very least one must grant
that this book is original: the author fills it
with elevated philosophic speculations, non-Western
theories of thinking, and other out-of-the-ordinary
ideas. On a chart near the beginning of the book
he lays out the major schools of chess with their
“theory,” “goal,” and
“contribution.” We have the Italian
School, the Classical School, the Hypermodern
School, the Soviet/Russian School, and of course
the Chinese School, the latter having the goal
of “thought and sensibility” and the
contribution of “non-logical domain, strategy
of competition.” We learn about “the
origin and nature of chess” (from Chinese
“precursors,” of course), the defining
role of “The Book of Changes” and
other exotica. It’s all rather hard to take
too seriously, but I think that one can still
find some broader insights worth considering.
Anyway, for many chessplayers THE
CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS will stand or fall based
upon the appeal of the games by the new generation
of Chinese stars. I enjoyed them and admired the
eccentric but also ultra-logical way in which
the players and the author annotated the games.
The question is whether one might want to get
a more conventional games collection instead by,
say, Kramnik, Khalifman, or Anand. I’m not
sure, and I don’t know whether to recommend
this book or not. A traditionalist will probably
find it absurd and even irritating, whereas a
tolerant reader with some Eastern philosophic
leanings would probably love it. The rest of us
are very likely somewhere in the middle. I happen
to like the games selection and notes and think
that THE CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS makes good reading.
But you might want to try to look this one over
first before making a decision.
YOU
CAN FIND CHINESE SCHOOL OF CHESS AT
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