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Author: Jan Timman
229 pages
New in Chess 2004
Reviewed by John Watson
Three days ago I received in the mail POWER CHESS WITH PIECES: The Ultimate Guide to the Bishop Pair & Strong Knights by Jan Timman. A cursory examination shows it to be a typically well-written Timman piece about a subject we don't see very often: the treatment of minor pieces in the middlegame. His subject is somewhat different than a “complete” exposition of minor piece tradeoffs. Rather, Timman tackles a set of practical high-level examples that give rise to various types of minor piece configurations. He gives unusually lengthy coverage to good knights versus bad bishops, apparently because this was the subject of some 1996 lectures that he gave on the subject.
The contents reveal this choice of material: Chapter 1 “The Power of the Knight – Games”, which consists of 12 games and 76 pages; Chapter 2 – “The Power of the Knight – Endgame” (excerpts covering 23 pages); Chapter 3 – “Domination of the Pair of Bishops” (10 games and 73 pages); Chapter 4 – “Domination of the Pair of Knights” (3 games and 24 pages); Chapter 5 – “Domination of Bishop and Knight” (3 games and 21 pages). Since the wording is awkward, I should clarify that in these cases “domination of” means “domination by”.
As always, Timman chooses complex positions in which nothing is immediately clear. In the examples that I've browsed through, the exploitation of an advantage can only be achieved, if at all, by the most precise play. From what I can tell, plans for the defender are treated with the same respect as those available to the player who holds the advantage. In general the book is more descriptive and less analytical than one might expect from Timman, although there appears to be sufficient analysis when necessary. I personally find minor piece play of great interest and I look forward to reading this book.
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