Bite-Sized Review: The Beautiful Games

Football and Chess: Tactics, Strategy, Beauty

by Adam Wells

(Hardidge Simpole, 2008)

169 pages

Soccer writers who explain the game using analogy have a good track record. First there was journalist Franklin Foer's analogy between the politics and cultures of various regions and their soccer-playing histories. Then there was the soccer journalist Simon Kuper and sports ecomonist Stefan Syzmanski's theses on the various ways the beautiful game can be related to the dismal science. And now there's Adam Wells's 169-page exploration of the similarities between chess and soccer. Fortunately, like the well-considered analogies described above, Wells is able to pull off the analogy between chess and soccer because he's able to convincingly make the case that the two games have a lot in common and that the fan of one game should appreciate the nuances of the other.

Obviously, Wells's book will probably be most enjoyed by those with a pre-existing appreciation for both chess and soccer. Nevertheless, because Wells's analysis of the numerous chess examples in his book are pretty skimpy and often lack a thorough examination from beginning to end, strictly soccer partisans will probably enjoy this book more than the close-minded chess player.

In his explanation of mobility, for example, Wells does well breaking down how Manchester United under Alex Ferguson has played a fluid and mobile game due to the many passing options available to its players once they gain possession of the ball. Wells's analogy between the mobility of Manchester United and the chess great Siegbert Tarrasch breaks down, though, when his analysis of an 1894 chess match between Tarrasch and Carl Schlecter consists of a snapshot diagram of the game, a quick appraisal of how Tarrasch's pieces are more mobile than Schlecter's, and then a quick conclusion that it is Tarrasch's mobility that allows him to win the match easily.

Despite the skimping on the chess--or maybe because of it--Wells's book is a good read for the soccer tactician within all of us, especially the first 100 pages in which Wells breaks down how eighteen technical aspects apply to both soccer and chess. And though his analysis of the chess side of these technical aspects is somewhat lacking, his explanations of the soccer-side of the analogy are sometimes revelatory, especially when he cites real-life examples from the Barclay's Premier League or the World Cup.

- John C.L. Morgan