Under the Radar Chess Book: "Russian Chess"

After reading just a chapter from this book, I just had to write something about the book. Yes, it is just six games  in the whole book but judgeing from the first game, the book is a keeper.

What makes it special? It is another "every-move-annotated-book" but I think is stands head and shoulders above both "Logical Chess" and "Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking" (both are fine books!).

Pandolfini tries to annotate the games both on a, if you like, micro- and macro-level perspective. Me, being a simpleton, was lured into a more active type of reading by the questions ("Will Nbd7 work?") in the text. I think it was less "Learning by nodding" while reading this book. Also, Mr Pandolfini  has a few interesting quotes here and there in the text which adds a little enjoyment to the reading experience and perhaps some additional views on what is going on in the game under discussion.

The macro level annotations is perhaps less instructive but that is perhaps due to the fact that no single game is a pure application of a single strategic approach, say "Colour Play". It is of cours much more concrete to analyze if a single move (i.e. micro level) is safe or not.


The book is a few years old (1987) and I am rather surprised that the book hasn't received more attention.

All-in-all, One enthusiastic rant over an under the radar chess book

Move First, Think Later

Willy Hendrik's book "Move First, Think Later" arrived in my mailbox a few days ago. I have not been able to read much out of it but the first impression is that the book has been worth waiting for. You can read a few sample pages at the New in Chess Web site.

The first few pages is loaded with controversial stuff and it makes a lot of sense. After reading just a few ages, I dare to suggest that those few pages alone makes the book worth buying. Hey, Reading 20+ pages is probably well above the average of pages read from any chess book bought. Don't stare at me, Opening Monographs!

This book will problaly be an inspiration for many posts to come.

Book Review: "The Slav: Move by Move"

Chess books on openings have been around for a while but they all look more or less the same. Very little thought have been invested in improving the layout or the usefulness of the opening books. There are a few gems out there but they tend to be opening books of a more general nature.

The development of endgame books took a gigantic leap some years ago when Silman's excellent "Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master" was released. Silman's daring approach to present the material by "need-to-know basis" by rating class was indeed a success. Finally a book on "The putting of Chess", as Purdy phrased it, that would guide the improving chess player to better results.

So, Will the Move by Move Series by Everymanchess have the same impact on Opening studies as Silman's book had on studies of endgames? Not quite, but I think the series has potential to stay head and neck well above the rest of the books in the genre. The perfect opening book in my world would be a blend of Everymann's "Move-by-move approach" and the structure often used by Chess Stars Publishing which is a little along the lines of Silman's "by rating approach". The Chess Stars Publishing books start off with a few pages on each topic called "Quick Repertoire" which is more or less to get started (and for many improving players all you need!) and the add two more layers of knowledge called "Step by Step" and "Complete Games".

How about this specific book: "The Slav: Move by Move" by Cyrus Lakdawala? In short, a good book! I like the Questions and stuff to make you read actively. I like somewhat chatty and easy going prose in the book. It might be a good thing to read a few sample pages before you decide to buy the book. The slightly unorthodox tone in the book is most likely not for everyman.

The Only Opening Book You Will Ever Need?

"Chess Openings for Kids" by John Watson and Graham Burgess

Too many opening books on the book shelves? Still wondering what you would like to play? Well known chess authors John Watson and Graham Burgess might have written the perfect introduction to 50 well known openings and at the same time the only opening book most of us will ever need!

Burgess' "The Mammoth Book of Chess" is a wonderful book. Perhaps the most useful section of that book is the personal and opinionated short introductions to a great number of openings. In "Chess Openings for Kids" Burgess and opening expert John Watson takes it one step further by focusing on fewer openings and adding a little more depth.

After reading through all of the introductions to the 50 mighty opening systems if feel that I want to try them all at once. To be able to provide both enthusiasm, inspiration and basic knowledge is a praise worthy effort.

Highly recommended as a first book on openings and maybe as the book that will replace all the unread opening books in your chess library.

Great Stuff!

Check it out: 100 Chess Book reviews, part I

Book Review: 1000 Checkmate Combinations

You have heard it. You have said it. You have ignored it. Tactics-Tactics-Tactics is the bread and butter for improving chess players. Still, it is hard to follow this fine piece of practical advice. Too many chores and privileges compete for our attention and use up our Time Budget.

There are many different online tools available for tactics training. Is there really need for yet another book with tactics and combinations? Well, that is of course to some extent a question of personal taste. Personally, I enjoy carrying around a book in my backpack in order to be able to feed my brain a healthy dose of exercise whenever I get a break. For this very purpose I thing "1000 Checkmate Combinations" is an excellent alternative. The author himself stresses that the problems should be solved without a chess board and that it might be good practice to settle for just a few combinations per day.

The only thing I can hold against the book is that it is too old or, if you like half full glasses, too good! How is that? Well, almost all of the problems have been used in other books. A well read chess enthusiast might find it a bit annoying to see the same classic problems yet again but on the other hand to repeat what you have already learned is not necessarily a bad thing.

In all: A fine book.

The Curse of Memorizing?

Some Chess Trainers have a sweet tooth for memorizing games while other view it as a total waste of time. Some argue that the number of games memorized is a good substitut measure for playing strength.

When reading Frisco Del Rosario's excellent book "A First Book on Morphy", I decided to give memorizing a try. What could be a better party trick than replaying a Morphy game from memory?

It was a somewhat strange experience. Memorizing the moves was somewhat easier than I first expected. However, The move order was more or less forgotten in a day or two.

I gave it another try but this time I spent more energy on the "whys" of each move and that was the magic trick! Yeah, the game still didn't get stored properly in my gold fish memory but I was convinced that I got a somewhat deeper understanding of the game itself. My conclusion is that trying to memorize canonical chess games is indeed a nice way to spice up your DIY chess training. I honestly thing that trying the mixture of "whys" and pretending to memorize the moves did give me a deeper understanding of the game studied.

Del Rosario has another book out and it looks very promising. The introduction in "Capablanca: A Primer of Checkmate" should be required reading for all DIY chess improvers. I will get summarize my full impressions of the book as soon as I have worked myself through the text.

This time I will do it more carefully. The clear annotations in the Morphy book ofter lured me into the lazy "Learning by nodding mode". This time I will replay the games from the book in Old Fashioned "Guess the Move Style" before enjoying the notes.

Next Book to be Reviewed

This book looks really interesting and I will "soon" publish a review. It might be as interesting as Soltis recent book on chess training.

Review of "Starting Out: Open Games"

The Starting Out series by Everyman Chess is an obvious starting point for any flirt with a new opening. The series also contains titles on other topics than specific openings. One such example is Starting Out: Open Games by Glen Flear.

I have been brooding on this review for some time basically to figure out what I think about the book. The good thing with the book is the way GM Flear in a inspiring way presents the fine material. The downside is that it is unclear who will really benefit from reading the book.

"FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings" by Paul Van Der Sterren is in my opinion and excellent choice for a first introduction to opening theory. The book contains a few pieces of advice on almost all reasonable openings and the presentation is very readable. GM Flear's book "Starting Out: Open Games" is just as well written but more focused as it only deals with non-Ruy Lopez (non-spanish) double king pawn openings. A more narrow focus allows for a slightly deeper coverage of the openings discussed which of course can be a good think.

If I were to buy a single chess book (scary thought!) and the final choice was between "FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings" and "Starting Out: Open Games", then I would pick "FCO" for the wider coverage. However, for someone who whole heartily thinks that e5 is the proper way to defend to 1. e4, choosing GM Flear's book might be better. GM Flear is himself a devoted "e4 e5 player" and I think anyone planning to follow in his path will benefit from reading the book.

Ergo: The book is well written in all its parts but the parts doesn't somehow add up to an excellent book. As black, the book will help you improving your non-spanish double king's pawn defense. As white, I think it is a better strategy just to play through a lot of mastergames and then to find a slightly more specialized book on the openings you like to play.

Review of "Bobby Fischer for Beginners"

My biggest hang-ups with chess books would be bad titles and misleading target audiences. Two flaws that often goes hand in hand. "Fischer for Beginners" does not fall into any of these traps or does it? Well, if you want to help a beginning player you have to adjust. The book presents a few very nice Fischer games plus Fischer's shortest recorded loss but the annotations should have been more geared towards the intended audience. I think the annotations should have approached advanced chess terms a bit more carefully in order to help the intended reader.

For example: I assume that a Chess Beginner has a rather limited knowledge about concepts such as "weak pawns". I think the annotations are missing the point (i.e. in this case helping beginners) when they state that there are weak pawns in a position without identifying the weak pawns or without explaining what makes them weak.

Furthermore, the author should perhaps have said more about the final position in some of the games presented. What made the player resign? For example in the game Byrne - Fischer (1963) the author suggests a continuation which according to other sources Fischer was hoping for but a continuation that is probably not the best.

The biographical part is nicely written but adds little to what can be read about Fischer online. The annotations could have been more tailored for the intended target audience. Overall the book is a bit half cooked.

Review of "Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov"

We have all got lost in the Great Unkown of the Middlegame. I very well known feeling to have survived the opening phase of the game just to realize that a murky, clueless middlegame is about to start. You might survive the opening thanks to basic principles and a few memorized opening lines but in order to do well in the middlegame you need to use the mythical concepts of The Grand Plan.

So, what is a plan? How deep is a plan? We have all heard mantras along the lines that “A bad plan is better than no plan at all”. How can a bad plan be a good thing? I think that Eisenhower can help us to put plans and planning into a context:

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable”

OK, the plan might turn out to be useless because the opponent did something clever that we totally overlooked but the act of planning will be very important because the planning relies on a careful evaluation of the position.

Will the book “Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov” help the improving player to learn how to make a plan? Only to some extent! I think the book does a great job presenting a scheme for evaluating a position and the book has several fine examples of evaluated positions. However, I am not convinced that the book does help to the reader to improve the planning process. The book is full of fine games which will be of interest to coaches in search of examples but with rather condensed annotations and the light annotations do not help the beginning player to use the evaluation of the position to form a plan of action.

The book does a good job presenting how to schematically evaluate a position, which of course is a very valuable lesson and an importat step towards a plan, but the book does not in detail help the reader to learn to transform the outcome of the evaluation process into a plan.

Review of "Studying Chess Made Easy"

After reading and rereading the book ”Studying Chess Made Easy”, I have reached the conclusion that there is perhaps only one thing not to like about the book: The Title

It is slightly misleading and somewhat unfair to the author, Andrew Soltis, who have done a fine effort trying to explain how to make studying chess more efficient.

Most chess books sold are too advanced or too specialized for the buyer. That is my honest belief and opinion. These days I need to have a quick look in my chess books data base to be able to figure out how many unread books on, say, Chess Openings I own. How about “Studying Chess Made Easy”? Who would benefit the most from reading the book?

Everybody interested in becoming a better chess player is familiar the ancient and well grounded pieces of advice: solve tactics problems, analyze your own games and study master games

Is there much more to be said? Is there enough to write a book about it? GM Soltis does indeed add a few extra layers of icing to the cake. The hands-on discussions (for example detailed advice on how to study master games) of aspects of chess training, the amusing anecdotes and the well chosen examples does make the book an enlightening reading experience even though a lot of the material is well known to anyone interested in chess improvement. The advanced beginner might find the examples to be a bit advanced but will gain time saving insights in how to make chess training efficient from the clear presentation of the training ideas.

The book can be read and enjoyed by a wide audience.

Edmar Mednis ”How to Play Good Opening Moves”

“Mindfulness” has been the buzzword for a while. I am not all sure what it is all about but my naïve recollection of the concept is a mixture of awareness and paying attention. So, what has Mindfulness to do with a dated chess book?

Mednis book starts from the very basic principles of opening play but what he does in this remarkable little book is that he manages to describe how the basic stuff works together.

This little book has better than any other text on opening play improved my understanding of the subtle interaction between the basic principles, a sort of opening awareness, if you like.

The big flaw is that the book suffers from a lot of typos which of course is annoying.

Early Morning Tactics Session

Yes, I am a Chess Tactics server Junkie! Skip the morning paper! I want tactics problems to my first cup of coffee.

However, life sometimes interferes with my morning ritual but I have found the perfect counter measure: “Practical Chess Exercises” by Ray Cheng

So, is it yet another collection of tactics problem? Not quite! This little darling is a collection of all sorts of problems: tactics, blunder alerts, positional…… you name it! The really neat thing is that you do not know what to look for! You really have to think about the position and find a good move. The problems are pretty advanced from time to time but the solutions are very clear and informative. A gem!