Chess - The Scotsman 24/09/2012

How does White win?

ONE of the more enjoyable books to be published recently is Walter Browne’s The Stress of Chess: My Life, Career and 101 Best Games, the remarkable memoirs of the Australian-born six-time US Champion who grew up in New York in the 1960s and befriended Bobby Fischer, while also mastering poker, backgammon and Scrabble.

With 432 pages and many wonderful game annotations and anecdotes from “Mr Six-Time”, this book is destined to become a hit.

Walter is a remarkable character with a story to tell. He reveals that his great great-grandfather was Sir Charles Russell, the Lord Chief Justice in Gladstone’s government 1896-1900, who was similarly skilled at chess and cards.

By 14, his parents “were so concerned about my obsession for chess they sent me to see a ‘shrink’,” he writes. That lasted six sessions, until his parents realised the psychiatrist spent most of the time being paid for free chess lessons!

There’s also the tale of compulsive gamer Walter playing chess and poker for two and a half days straight, until he blundered away his queen in a crucial tournament game to sleep deprivation; and then there’s the time he played chess with Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. All of this could only have happened to Walter Shawn Browne.

And from the book, in what looks like a transplant from the Romantic Chess era of the 18th and 19th century, how often at the top level have you seen a player not even getting the chance to move his rooks or knights? And if 14...Ne7 15 Nf5! Qxd1+ 16 Rxd1 f6 17 Nfd6+ Kd7 18 Nf7+ Ke8 19 Nxh8 and capturing the rook allows checkmate on c7.

W Browne - M Quinteros

Wijk aan Zee, 1974

Sicilian Defence, Moscow variation

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Bd7 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 5 c4 Qg4 6 0–0 Qxe4 7 d4 cxd4 8 Re1 Qc6 9 Nxd4 Qxc4 10 Na3 Qc8 11 Bf4 Qd7 12 Nab5 e5 13 Bxe5 dxe5 14 Rxe5+ Be7 15 Rd5! Qc8 16 Nf5 Kf8 17 Nxe7 Kxe7 18 Re5+ 1–0