Review: Simple Chess
“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.” – Former World Champion Max Euwe.
English Grandmaster Michael Stean was a top 50 player in his prime, although he retired at the quite young age of 29 in 1982. These days, he is perhaps best known for acting as a second to Victor Korchnoi for his World Championship matches against Anatoly Karpov in 1978 and 1981, and for this book, Simple Chess.
The original version of the book was published in 1978 in English Descriptive Notation. It was a small and slim book at just 116 pages. The book was reissued by Dover Publications in 2003. This edition was converted to Algebraic Notation and contained some minor corrections and editorial comments by American chess writer Fred Wilson. This revised edition is now available on Forward Chess.
As the Table of Contents above shows, the book is essentially an introduction to chess strategy. Of course, chess strategy is a big subject, and such a small book cannot possibly provide an encyclopaedic coverage. However, this is not the aim of the book.
Regarding the goals of the book, Stean writes:
“Don’t be deceived by the title—chess is not a simple game—such a claim would be misleading to say the least—but that does not mean that we must bear the full brunt of its difficulty.”
He then discusses how beginners start by knowing little about the game and making many blunders. After the players go through this initial stage:
“Time passes and each player becomes sufficiently competent not to shed material without reason. Now they begin to realize the importance of developing quickly and harmoniously and of castling the king into safety.
So what next? Where are their new objectives? How can the problem be further reduced? If each player is capable of quick development, castling and of not blundering any pieces away, what is there to separate the two sides? This is the starting-point of Simple Chess… Essentially, Simple Chess aims to give you some of the basic ideas for forming a long-term campaign. It also shows you how to recognize and accumulate small, sometimes almost insignificant-looking advantages which may well have little or no short-term effect, but are permanent features of the position.”
As the above quote shows, the book is mostly aimed at post-beginners, but the book is useful for more advanced and club-level players.
The strength of the book is that the author has illustrated the strategic concepts with some very well-chosen examples, and more importantly, he has provided some excellent commentary to explain the games. While strategy is emphasised, tactics are not neglected, as they often underpin the strategic decisions. However, this is not a book that emphasises tactics.
An example of the commentary is Stean’s discussion on the old main line of the Ruy Lopez (Spanish Opening) in Chapter 7 on Space.
Of the above position, Stean writes:
“Never in the history of chess have so many moves been repeated so often so quickly by so many people who didn’t really understand them. Have you ever examined these well tried and trusted moves with a critical eye? Why, for example, should White spend twelve moves to develop just four pieces? Why waste four of these moves to preserve a Bishop which will in all probability later become ‘bad’ when White blocks the center with d5? By answering these questions, we can gain a lot of insight into White’s overall strategy in the Lopez.”
Stean explains the moves and the resulting position in terms of space:
“Black’s position [in the above diagram] has sufficient ‘capacity’ for three minor pieces, but not clearly enough for all four of them. This explains why White is willing to invest so much time early in the game (Bb5, Ba4, Bb3, Bc2, h3) purely to avoid exchanges. If his spatial strategy is to succeed he must leave Black with four minor pieces. These closed Ruy Lopez positions are some of the most subtle and complex in the whole opening repertoire. It is probably no coincidence that nearly all the great players of recent times have been deadly exponents of the Ruy Lopez. In the hands of Fischer or Karpov 3.Bb5 sometimes appears to win by force.”
These quotes are typical of Stean’s writing style in this book. There are no lengthy variations to confuse the reader, just some lucid explanations of the key features of the positions.
Since the book was written in 1978, some errors may be present in the analysis. However, any such errors can be easily spotted by current-day super-strong engines. Moreover, given the aim of the book and its intended audience, these errors, some of which were noticed by the editor, do not detract from the book.
Two further examples from the book are given below, with annotations from the book.
In conclusion, this is an excellent first book on chess strategy. The combination of well-chosen examples and insightful commentary makes it a fine teaching text for post-beginners and club players. The book was well-received when it was first published nearly fifty years ago, and it is still relevant and useful today.
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Classic books offer unfiltered insights into the minds of past chess masters, untouched by modern computer analysis. You can always follow along the books with an engine ourselves, but at least we can see the thought process that went into those old games.
This book no longer seems to be available for sale yet it’s still part of a bundle. What happened? If I buy the bundle will I still get the book?