How dare I review a book in an exotic language, of
which I know not one word? Well, I appreciate the graphics! Most of all, I am
tickled by it. I collect chess books in all the European languages, plus a
few in Arabic, Chinese and Indonesian. And now I am the proud possessor
of the very first chess book ever written in the Gaelic language!
A century ago, the U.S. tried to stamp out Spanish
in Puerto Rican schools. That effort failed. Per report, the Irish
government has mounted a campaign to restore the speaking of Gaelic, long
after world-dominant English took over Irish speech. I heard that the government
even sent an inspector into a teacher s home to make sure she was not cheating
linguistically! Shades of the Quebec language police who harass Montreal shops
for displaying English signs.
FICHEALL (Chess) is a handsome production. It starts
with the elements and progresses thru the usual steps to an annotated master
game, a page on Fischer with his blitz game vs. Fine, quiz positions and a couple
of complex problems. It concludes with a Gaelic-English glossary
which taught me the word for mobility soghluaisteacht! The last page is about
the author, with color foto of the fetching lass, who has just represented
her country at the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad. There are colored drawings, mostly
of a king pondering, and a detached cardboard chess board and pieces.
Every person of Irish descent should get this book.
Barack Obama, that includes you no blarney.
