Hans Ree's book, The Human Comedy of Chess, consists of a series of wonderfully informative articles which originally appeared in a variety of sources, including the magazine New In Chess, and the web site Chess Café. The other articles were translated from Dutch publications, and all the material was revised and updated for this edition. This is Ree's first book in English (he has written five chess books in Dutch). For this we owe thanks to Hannon Russell, who has again made a leading chess journalist's work available to a wider public. Russell was also responsible for the publication of the Edward Winter essays featured in my previous review; in both cases, we have an enrichment of the literature that transcends the usual fare of games, theory, and advice.

Ree's main focus is on the chess world of the 1990s. I enjoyed this entire book, including the various historical articles and an entertaining chapter on endings and studies. But the most compelling sections, particularly when taken as a whole, deal with politics and chess at the world-class level. Despite having read many of these articles before, I found Ree's contemporary reports on world championship events, the champions themselves, and the Byzantine machinations and manipulations at various FIDE congresses to be as enthralling and perceptive as ever. Perhaps that is in part because I found myself agreeing with him so much of the time. Ree is more-or-less equally critical of Kasparov and Karpov, and perfectly willing to portray them as inconsistent, greedy, paranoid, and egocentric, but he does so by sticking to facts and public statements, never being so foolish as to denigrate their chess abilities, nor even the beauty of their play. That might seem easy enough to do, but other critics have consistently tried to combine their own personal dislike of one or both of these champions with a criticism of their play, charging Karpov with winning fixed games and having weak opponents, for example, or Kasparov of winning only due to his preparation and help from computers and assistants; or, most absurdly, charging them both with collusion to fix the results of their matches. Fortunately, Ree is himself a grandmaster, and a lover of chess, and even when he is willing to believe that various rumors and conspiracies are plausible, he never lapses into the kind of madness that stems from personal dislike alone. The one exception to Ree's healthily-skeptical approach appears in his treatment of Ilyumzhinov, the FIDE president. In the latter's case, rumors seem to be accorded factual status, and Ree goes overboard in his characterizations, ignoring context. Of course, Ilyumzhinov is an extremely mysterious character and I wouldn't be surprised if we come to find out that some of the accusations against him are true. It's just that Ree uncharacteristically mixes fact (which can be damning enough) with speculation; and, to my mind, he fails to identify the latter clearly enough. Overall, however, Ree's balance is a strong point throughout, and this is the best writing on contemporary chess politics I have seen.

The chapters of this book are entitled "World Champions," "Politics," "In Memoriam," "History," "The Endgame," "Matches and Tournaments," and "Miscellanea." They are all worth reading; I particularly recommend the "In Memoriam" chapter; it includes among other essays a wonderful tribute to his friend Donner and a shrewd yet respectful characterization of Botvinnik. Ree is that rare case of a strong player who is well educated, intelligent, able to write well, and dedicated to his craft. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to readers of all strengths.

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