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| Sep-21-08 | | Retireborn: Phony Benoni, many thanks for your response, but I had already looked in the database, and in several other places on the net. Unfortunately it seems impossible to get information about Shamkovich games played before 1960. Soltis' book just says "1958 Soviet Championship semifinal" but gives no placename. I should not be surprised if Shamkovich had shown the game to Soltis himself and Soltis has no more information than he wrote in his book. The game started 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 and Black won in 33 moves. I'm guessing that White is Igor Zaitsev but it would be nice to be sure! |
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| Sep-21-08 | | Calli: Shamkovich did not play in the 1958 Soviet Championship semifinal. He did play in 1957 but no Zaitsev played. You can look at the crosstables and games here:
http://www.geocities.com/al2055perv... |
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| Sep-22-08 | | Retireborn: Calli, many thanks for pointing me to that useful site - having downloaded and searched I've still been unable to identify the game! So when, where, and who played this game must remain one of the many unsolved mysteries of chess, I fear. Thanks again though. Stephen |
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| Mar-10-09 | | YoungEd: It's interesting to read all the posts about various opinions of Soltis' writing. I agree with those who say he's a good writer; I also agree with those who say that not all of his opening pamphlets are poor. His "Winning with Bird's Opening" (might have the title a little off) by Chess Digest once helped me to my best-ever correspondence tournament years ago. Here's a question: what kind of money is in this kind of writing? I wonder how much Soltis would get for a typical Chess Digest pamphlet, for example, or how much is a typical royalty on a moderately successful book. Does anyone have a guess? |
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Apr-22-09
 | | HeMateMe: I think he's written over 100 books. Okay, they aren't all gems, but his history of the US Championship, and his history of Soviet chess get pretty high marks by reviewers. He has a 9-5 job now, as a reporter for the New York newspaper "The Post". It's kind of funny to see a chess author byline in a story about a business merger or a murder. You might expect to read "...and the clearly inferior tender offer to the shareholders was clearly a poisoned pawn, designed to lull the opposition into a state of content...." But his reporting is straight forward, of course. On Sunday he has a chess column that is pretty good. If you have any comments or column suggestions, you can probably reach him at the post. |
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| May-28-09 | | talisman: happy birthday andy...we need a picture. |
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| Jul-26-09 | | Jim Bartle: Soltis is writing entertainment gossip and scandal now? http://www.nypost.com/seven/0721200... |
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Jul-26-09
| | HeMateMe: He's been a reporter at the Post for many years now. It was at the Post offices he played a game against Deep Junior, a weaker version of the configuraton that Karpov played. Soltis won that one. The Post isn't exactly a high brow newspaper. A book was published with their best headlines over the years. One favorite, that appeared years ago had to do with a dead woman found in a mob joint: "Headless body found in topless bar!"
You get the idea. |
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| Aug-02-09 | | Everett: I've found Soltis' book "Rethinking the Chess Pieces" to be helpful to my game. Just the chapter on exchange sacrifices, and the explication of why they often work (or not!) has helped me see things with a bit more depth at the board. |
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| Dec-04-09 | | Caissanist: In case <retireborn> is still reading this--Soltis' NY Post stories all include his email address. |
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| Jan-14-10 | | I play the Fred: Enjoyed Los Voraces, 2019 quite a bit - and I wonder who each of the chess characters is based on? <Grushevsky> - Obviously Kasparov
<Klushkov> - Sort of a mash-up of Ivanchuk, Gelfand, and Fischer, with a bizarre tactical style I can't compare with that of any GM except maybe Morozevich or Shirov.
<Qi> - Kind of Anand, only not so likable
<Bohigian> - Tall, stiff, and dignified like Smyslov
<Gabor> - Obviously Korchnoi, only fatter
<van Siclen> - I guess Jan Timman, only more of a drunk
<Royce-Smith> - No idea
<Krimsditch> - Seems to have Yasser Seirawan's hair circa 1979, but otherwise I don't know
<Vilkovic, Karlsen, Bastrikova, Popov, Eichler, and Boriescu> - all of them seem to be pure creation, not related to any famous GMs at all
<Boyd Blair> - Ray Keene |
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Jan-15-10
| | HeMateMe: Does soltis have a novel out, with fictional chess characters? Should Nabakov feel threatened? |
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| Apr-14-10 | | wordfunph: "The great moves of the 19th century occurred on the board. Many of the great moves of the 20th century appeared only in annotations. What will the 21st century bring?" GM Andy Soltis (source: The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess) |
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| May-28-10 | | wordfunph: to my favorite chessbook author GM Andy Soltis...happy 63rd birthday! more chess books to write.. |
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| May-29-10 | | belgradegambit: As I have commented previously, CG has to make a better effort to collect the early Soltis Dragon games. As his variation is one of the most theoretically important it would be nice to present his original games. |
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| May-29-10 | | wordfunph: <I play the Fred>, i reposted your Los Voraces review in <ChessBookForum>. Thank you.. |
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May-29-10
 | | Domdaniel: "I would reach the tabia soon after 9.Bc4, the move recommended in most books of that day, and then 9...Bd7. This gave me a new lease on the Dragon Variation. But the lease expired when fashion changed once again. More and more of my opponents preferred 9.0-0-0!?. I didn't like the positions that came out of that. And, when I couldn't find another move order to reach the tabia, I had to give up on the Dragon. It was sad to see it go." - Andrew Soltis, Studying Chess Made Easy, 2010.
Excellent book, btw, despite the naff title. |
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| May-29-10 | | wordfunph: confusing with Reuben Fine's 1972 classic Chess The Easy Way.. :) |
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| May-29-10 | | I play the Fred: <<I play the Fred>, i reposted your Los Voraces review in <ChessBookForum>. Thank you..> Thanks! I wish I knew that was coming, though - I would have written something more substantial. |
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| May-29-10 | | wordfunph: <I play the Fred> hope you visit <ChessBookForum> more often and share your thoughts on books you read...see you there! ChessBookForum chessforum |
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| May-30-10 | | Vollmer: What's this , no pic of Mr. Soltis ? <headshake> |
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| Jan-20-11 | | wordfunph: i read somewhere..
GM Andrew Soltis was once asked by his wife Marcy with simple and obvious question, "When you play blindfold, do you see colors?" What Marcy was asking was what kind of pieces he sees in mental analysis just like, "Are the black ones really black?". GM Soltis replied: "I have no idea." |
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Jan-20-11
 | | perfidious: <wordfunph> Those times I've played blindfold, I never gave it any thought, but there was always a vague
distinction between the White and Black pieces. Visualisation is a funny thing. |
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| Jan-20-11 | | Shams: I bet if Marcy Soltis asked, say, Koltanowski, she'd get a different answer. My sense is that playing blindfold chess is like having perfect pitch in music-- you're either born with the gift or you learn how to fake it. |
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| Jan-30-11 | | wordfunph: According to GM Andrew Soltis book Grandmaster Secrets: Endings, the estimated odds of your: Ever Going Bald (if male) = 1 in 2.5
Ever Dying of a Heart Attack = 1 in 5
Ever Playing R+B+K vs. R+K = 1 in 40
Being Robbed This Year = 1 in 500
Playing Out K+B+N vs. K This Year = 1 in 3,000
Being Diagnosed with Lung Cancer This Year = 1 in 7,500 Playing Q+N+P+K vs.Q+K = 1 in 8,000
Being murdered This Year = 1 in 12,000 |
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