 As for the games, they reveal Kashdan to be a player with an attractive positional style, excellent endgame technique and an eye for a combination as and when needs be (as his beautiful win versus Stahlberg at Hamburg 1930 makes plain).
Reviewed by P.P.O. Kane
Isaac Kashdan, American Chess Grandmaster A Career Summary with 757 Games
by Peter P. Lahde McFarland
2009, ISBN: 9780786432967
This brobdingnagian book, measuring about 18cm by 26cm and bound in sturdy green cloth, is a fitting monument to Isaac Kashdan (1905-1985), one of the greats of American chess.
The first part of the book gives a detailed outline of Kashdan's career, and it is clear that he was at his very peak during the 1930s. Between 1931 and 1933 he met Alekhine seven times in serious competition, this at a time when the then world champion was virtually irresistible. Kashdan, for the most part, resisted; he lost only once, at Pasadena 1932, the rest of the games being drawn. That the United States came first at the Olympiads held at Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933 and Stockholm 1937 is due in no small measure to Kashdan. His percentage scores for these three events look mightily impressive even now; respectively he scored 70.6 %, 71.4% and 87.5% (!).
After retiring from active play, Kashdan continued to be involved in chess. He directed the Piatigorsky Cup tournaments held in 1963 and 1966, and he edited the two very fine books dedicated to these events. Later, he ran the Lone Pine tournaments from 1971 to 1981, and he found time in between all this to write a regular chess column, as well as reporting on the Spassky-Fischer match in 1972.
As for the games, they reveal Kashdan to be a player with an attractive positional style, excellent endgame technique and an eye for a combination as and when needs be (as his beautiful win versus Stahlberg at Hamburg 1930 makes plain). A fair number of the games are annotated by Kashdan, and one can learn much from his pragmatic and methodical approach to the game.
There are, to my mind, errors in the scores of two of the games:
Flohr's queen is en prise in the final position of game 219, because he actually played 32 Qd7, rather than 32 Nf5 as given.
Game 246 is a Kashdan-Marshall game that I wasn't able to locate in any online database. However, it asks you to believe that Marshall would place a rook en prise (29 Ra8) and that Kashdan would decline to take it. My suggestion is that 29.Rac5 was played, instead of 29.Rcc5 as given.
Finally, a significant error in annotation: in game 200, the note to Black s 68th move should actually follow Black s 70th move. It makes no sense otherwise! Quite a significant game, this one (versus Alekhine at Bled 1931); and Kashdan should definitely have won it.
But do not let these three nitpicking excursions lead you to doubt the stature of the author s achievement. In such a vast undertaking, some few errors will naturally creep in. My main impulse is simply to admire. What a wonderful book! Thank you, Mr. Lahde.
About the reviewer: P.P.O. Kane lives and works in Manchester, England. He welcomes responses to his reviews and you can reach him at ludic@europe.com
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