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Fw: "Nabokov's Theme", Chess Life, March 2004, P. 25
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----- Original Message -----
From: David Haan
It so happens that in the latest New In Chess (2004 No. 2), Hans Ree's review of "Bobby Fischer Goes to War," Edmonds and Eldinow, includes a word on descriptive notation:
"These game descriptions are not the best past of the book and might as well have been left out. Just one example: about the fifth game, after having compared Fischer's pawn structure with British and French infantry manoeuvres during the Napoleonic wars, they write: 'On move twenty-six, Fischer attacked Spassky's queen with his knight. The Russian had several safe and honourable retreats. He chose none of them. Instead -- disastrously -- he withdrew his queen a single square. It was a catastrophic error. Fischer whipped off a pawn with his bishop -- and the game was simultaneously over.'
"It is difficult to think of anyone who might profit from such descriptions. In fact, describing a chess game with a minimum of technical language is an almost impossible task. But it can be done. Nabokov did it in _The Defence_, and I recently found another example on the Internet."
Also found on the Internet, an article on Nabokov's problems (in Italian; #4 is the one referred to in Chess Life):
http://www.italiascacchistica.com/a_nabokov.htm
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