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| May-03-15 | | john barleycorn: There is a free download available of Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy https://www.google.de/search?q=lude... |
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| May-08-15 | | TheFocus: <You know, comrade Pachman, I don't enjoy being a Minister, I would rather play chess like you, or make a revolution in Venezuela> - Che Guevara. |
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| May-23-15 | | TheFocus: <It would also be feasible to look for parallels between the growth of chess ideas and the general development of thought in human society, for despite its individual characteristics chess cannot be divorced from other aspects of culture. Our game mirrors the intellectual level and cultural trends of the times. However, such a theme would require a separate, comprehensive treatment of its own, beyond the scope of this work> - Ludek Pachman. |
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| Mar-06-16 | | TheFocus: Rest in peace, Ludek Pachman. |
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| May-11-16 | | RookFile: He wrote some first class chess books. |
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May-11-16
 | | gawain: I learned a lot from Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy. |
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May-11-16
 | | perfidious: < PhilFeeley: How is it possible this guy doesn't (or didn't, I guess) have a rating?> Pachman was 2510 on the January 1975 FIDE list, though clearly past his prime by then, aged fifty: http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo197... |
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| May-11-16 | | RookFile: He must have been a top 20 player in the world at one point. |
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| May-11-16 | | Howard: Probably back in the late 50's---that was probably his peak period. |
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| May-11-16 | | john barleycorn: <Howard> Pachman's peak year was 1959 according to various sources. |
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May-11-16
| | perfidious: < RookFile: He must have been a top 20 player in the world at one point.> Hard to imagine that was not the case: a strong, professional GM who was a tough out, though not quite of candidate stature. |
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May-11-16
 | | eternaloptimist: <gawain> That book is 1 of the best books of all time IMO! |
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| May-11-16 | | diagonal: <He must have been a top 20 player at one point> His peak ranking was #14 in October 1959 (SONAS ELO, according to historical chessmetrics data). Pachman was a solid player around the top twenty during the 1950s, and consistently a top fifty player of the world (today labelled as supergrandmaster) from 1947 to 1967, in a period when the top ten was heavily 'occupied' by players from the Soviet Union. In 1958, at the Interzonal in Portoroz, Yugoslavia (Slovenia), he missed a possible play-off spot for the Candidate's only by half a point: the tournament was won by young and meteoric rising <Tal> with 13.5/20, <Gligoric> was second with 13, followed by <Benko> and <Petrosian> with 12.5, then <Olafsson> and <Fischer> (who was on friendly terms with Pachman these days) both with 12.0 points (all six players qualified to join <Smyslov> and <Keres> for the Candidate tournament in 1959 of the best eight players to determine the Challenger of reigning Champion Botvinnik in 1960). Ludek Pachman finished that Interzonal with 11.5 points (together with Bronstein, the unlucky World Champion Challenger from 1951, and others; great Larsen, already a GM since 1956, born the same year as scandinavian compatriot, advancing (then IM) Olafsson, was sole 16th, Averbakh, Szabo, Filip, Matanovic (the only player to beat Tal) Panno, Rossetto failing all, it was pretty close in a strong field: <http://soloscacchi.altervista.org/w...> 21 participants, and one Interzonal tournament per three-year-cycle. FIDE ELO started later, just when Pachman's otb strength began to fall considerably. |
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| May-12-16 | | diagonal: In 1955, at the previous Interzonal tournament in Gothenburg (it was a 21-player round robin, with the top nine players qualifying for the Amsterdam Candidate’s in 1956), Pachman already was missing a possible play-off spot to advance only by half a point. The winner was <Bronstein> with 15/20 (an impressive +10 =10 -0), <Keres> was sole second with 13.5, <Panno> was clear third at 13, followed by <Petrosian> 12.5, <Geller> and <Szabo> each had 12 and the other qualifiers were <Filip>, <Pilnik> and <Spassky> with 11. Just missing out with 10.5 were Ilivitsky and Pachman, they even played a reserve playoff match for the gallery: Prague Candidates Reserve Playoff (1956). |
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| Aug-21-16 | | Pyrandus: Pachmann vs Portisch? |
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| Dec-19-16 | | parisattack: <RookFile: He wrote some first class chess books.> Agree!
Back when single-volume Evan's MCO 10 and Horowitz's Theory and Practice were about all available in the English language on chess openings, along came the translation of Pachman's four volume set Modern Chess Theory. It was a very hot property at the local chess club! I probably loaned out Indian Systems a dozen times. (The others - Queen's Gambit and Closed Games, Open Games, Semi-Open Games.) The Spring Books editions were most collectible. Then came the English Invasion with the Batsford 'Whites' and of course Ken Smith's many monographs on specific openings. In the early 1980s Pachman did a serial similar to Euwe's Schach Archiv - 'Eroffnung - Up to Date' with some fine variation-specific analysis. |
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| Dec-19-16 | | zanzibar: <parisattack> I guess you're talking about the 1960's then? If it were the 1970's, do the Chess Digest series on opening qualify? (I'm not too familar with the Batsford series, but the Chess Digest series also had white covers - and were very extensive in topics: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_... I think Smith's pamphlets were also published by this company.) |
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| Dec-19-16 | | parisattack: Those are what I call the Batsford 'whites' because of the covers. I think Chess Digest/Batsford had some sort of arrangement as some of mine say the former, some the latter. Chess Digest/Ken Smith did a zillion of those little opening monographs, I don't have a full listing, but think first were late 60s. Soltis did many of them - some good, some bad, some ugly. :) The early 'bis' series came out in the same time period but those never got translated into English. |
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| Dec-19-16 | | zanzibar: <Those are what I call the Batsford 'whites' because of the covers. I think Chess Digest/Batsford had some sort of arrangement as some of mine say the former, some the latter.> That's what I thought then, although I think I've only seen the Chess Digest label (but admittedly, I haven't seen too many). <Chess Digest/Ken Smith did a zillion of those little opening monographs, I don't have a full listing ...> Yes, it would be quite a task to document the entire list. I was happy to find the Tartan series documented
http://twchesssafari.blogspot.com/2... (etc.) I haven't looked too deep, but there's this link with some Ken Smith stuff: http://chesspowa.blogspot.com/2009/... which includes many positive comments about Smith. (Might have to hop over to his bio...
Kenneth Ray Smith Is this the guy? His bio only mentions his publications on the Smith-Morra) |
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| Dec-20-16 | | parisattack: That's Ken Smith, alrighty. He was a very big man. Played in a few Colorado tournaments. I have some of his old book lists and a rather comprehensive list which <Ed Labate> was kind enough to share with me a few years ago. Chess Digest (his magazine which ran for several years late 60s-early 70s) had some excellent content but production values were generally awful...nothing like for example Purdy's Australian Chess Review, Check! or Chess World. Thanks for the Tartans link <Zanzibar>! I will add it to my list of sources. |
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Jun-10-18
 | | WTHarvey: Here is a collection of mates and combinations from Ludek's games: http://wtharvey.com/pach.html Find the winning move. |
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May-12-19
 | | Fusilli: I read his autobiography many years ago. I barely remember anything now, but I do remember it was an engaging read, profoundly political, and passionate. |
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| Aug-07-19 | | Nosnibor: One of the few non Soviet players to have a good score against Bobby Fischer with 2wins,4 draws and 2 losses. |
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| Jan-16-25 | | Chessdreamer: I doubt some games here are misattributed and
were actually played by
Ales Pachmann. |
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| Jan-16-25 | | stone free or die: <Chessdreamer> <I doubt some games here are misattributed ...> Did you intend this...
<I have my doubts, and think some of the games here are misattributed ...> |
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