The Life and Games of Carlos Torre

En gledelig utvidet og modernisert utgave av verket om den sagnomsuste meksikanske mesteren Carlos Torre, som hadde en kort og briljant karriere på 1920-tallet og siden levde ganske tilbaketrukket.

Fra Taylor Kingstons informative forord til denne utgaven:

Serving as the translator for Gabriel Velasco’s Vida y Partidas de Carlos Torre was my first big job in chess book writing and editing, and one of my most enjoyable. Besides the interesting work of turning Spanish into English, it introduced me to Carlos Torre as a chess player and as a person. It has been twenty-three years since the first edition of this book went to press. It was well received critically, and I felt proud of what Dr. Velasco and I had worked hard to produce. Still, over the years, as my skill and experience with chess databases and analytical software increased, I realized it could have been much better. Better for one in its technical aspects, especially game annotations and notation.

Also as I continued research into chess history (a lifelong interest), new things related to Torre would turn up, things that would have made worthwhile additions to the book. These kept accumulating in my files. But they just stayed there until I saw the film Torre x Torre, a documentary by Mexican film-makers, released in 2019. It inspired me to think seriously about a new edition. Dr. Velasco was unable to contribute further, and even went so far as to suggest that the new edition should be credited to me as sole author, but there is still enough of his original work here that I could not accept that.

Here is what has been added to this edition:

More accurate and more extensive annotations, computer-assisted. Every game has been examined under Stockfish 14, probably the best analytical engine available for home computers at this time. For the first edition we had only Fritz 4 and 5, which compare to Stockfish like a Model T Ford to a Ferrari, and many games were given no computer examination at all. Thus owners of the first edition will find most annotations here substantially different (and substantially better). However, many general assessments and heuristic notes proved valid and have been retained. Torre’s own annotations to several games have been unearthed and added.

These come from several sources: the American Chess Bulletin, his book of the 1926 Mexican Championship tournament, and his instructional booklet Development of Chess Ability. Preface to this Second Edition Torre2_final.indd 13 06/12/2022 18:19 14 The Life and Games of Carlos Torre ¦ Several games have been added. Some, frankly, are Torre losses, which are given in the interest of presenting a more complete, balanced picture of his play.

Innholdsfortegnelsen:

011 Preface to the First Edition (2000)

013 Preface to this Second Edition

017 Chapter I - Biographical Portrait of Carlos Torre

037 Chapter II - The Games Section

491 Chapter III - Interviews with Carlos Torre Repetto

499 Chapter IV - 64 Variaciones Sobre un Tema de Torre

507 Chapter V - Remembrances of Carlos Torre

515 Chapter VI - A Clash of Opposites

525 Chapter VII - The Development of Chess Ability

543 Chapter VIII - Others' Games from the 1926 Mexican Championship

561 Chapter IX - The Documentary Film Torre x Torre

569 Chapter X - A Final Assessment of Torre as a Chess Player