5 comments about Life & Games of Mikhail Tal.

1. 6 stars! This book, along with My 60 Memorable Games was the best book I have ever read. Mikhail Tal explains his ways from a junior player to a GM and even WCH!



2. Mikhail Tal's autobiography is unique among chess literature. It combines Tal's self-effacing humorous style with his analysis of the games that made him one of the greatest combinational players of all time. He discusses his meteoric rise to attain the world championship and without any complaint, discusses how he lost it in the shortest period of time of any world champion. But most of all, are his games, his daring sacrifices, and his ability to pull wins from thin air (hence the nickname "the Wizard of Riga"). One thing a chess reader should not do is attempt to analyze Tal's games with a chess engine like Fritz, for Tal made many mistakes. His brilliance lies in the fact that his chess ideas were so complicated and beautiful that they overwhelmed opponents whose minds could not operate at pentium processor speed. Probably players in the intermediate to advanced range will find the book most enjoyable. However, the beginner will derive great benefit just from getting to know Tal. In any event, this book is a must have for any chess library.



3. 
   Doesn't get much better than this regarding chess books. Agree with a previous writer that Tal ranks near the top in terms of chess players -- along with Fischer, Capablanca, Alekhine, Morphy, and Kasparov. Tal was known as the king or master of the sacrifice.



4. This is simply the best chess book I have ever seen! Learn from Mikhail Tal's games,from his beautiful,strong and humorous language! According to me,he tells how exactly chess should be played. This book is about 400 pages and includes 100 Tal games,beginning from his youth , all the way to and beyond his winning the world championship. As he says: "Chess fans are surely more happy to see grandmasters risk,rather than just push wood."



5. This is simply one of the best chess books I have ever read. Not only does the reader learn a number of valuable things from Tal's games or positions from those games (each of which is annotated by Tal himself), but we also learn about the man behind these great games. Part chess book, part autobiography, "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" is one of the most immersing, engrossing, and fascinating books available on any game.
   
   Mikhail Tal was a Russian chess player who, for a very short time, was the World Champion. He is famous for his brilliant attacks, but in this book, I found much more. He wasn't just an aggressive player; he loved to attack, but he didn't do just that. Instead, he tells you something about every part of the game, attacking, and defending, and much more, all while making the reading experience enjoyable, which is a great achievement in itself.
   
   The book is written like an interview. A journalist and a chess player converse about the latter's career and games. The chess player - Tal himself - vividly describes his life in the chess world to the journalist. Although you may not think the life of Tal is very interesting, I assure you that you are wrong - it's fascinating! He tells wonderful stories and describes many great games, almost as if you were at his house, asking him him about chess while he tells you about his life experiences. A wonderful book, as it blends wonderful chess lessons with great stories into one wonderful volume that every chess player should have in his/her library.

5 comments about Master Pieces: The Curator's Game.

1. Pick up this book for fifteen seconds and you won't put it down. It immediately got me involved with its "curator's game" of showing small details of great art-and then challenging me to match the details to a famous artist and the complete painting. Where had I seen those haunting eyes before? What story is being told by the reflections in the small mirror? When you turn to the complete paintings in the back of the book, and see how the piece fits into the masterpiece, you learn a lesson that will stay with you for a long time. The lesson: Look carefully at all parts of a painting instead of just standing back and admiring the work as a whole. It's true that "God is in the details," so this book encourages you to relish and delight in those details.



2. This is a wonderful book for art buffs and and novices alike. As Hoving says in the introduction, it's based off of a game that curators often played together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each identification "challenge" comes with a brief biography of the artist and unusual fact/perspective on the piece or its depiction, and the book's unique format helps me remember (and want to share) everything I learn. It's great for dinner parties, long car-rides, or just curling up with on your own to sharpen your eye for art. It makes the perfect gift-- I'd recommend it to anyone!



3. Former curator of the MET introduces us to the "classic" curator game of showing small samples (pieces) from famous works of art and trying to determine the artist and name of the piece. The curator who won (the master of the days pieces) would get a free cup of coffe for the week. We only get the satisfaction of knowing our art. Along with the satisfaction though is the honing of your art identity skills and an overall increase in your awareness of art. From Giotto to Hockney the 'test' covers 57 masterpieces from 700 years of western art. The pictures are used more then once so you really need to know your art to get them all right. The end of the book has a quick bio and review of the masterpiece.
   
   My only complaint would be the book is a little small, Hoving talks about using the book to study the details of the pieces yet some of the pictures are only 2x3 inches, makes seeing the detail tough.
   
   Strongly recommended for anyone interested in western art. As this book assumes a basic knowledge of art, I would not recommend for an art novice looking for an intro to art.



4. Thomas Hoving was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a decade (1967-77). He presents the humble public with this shining book/game with obvious love and appreciation of its contents.
   
   He starts off by recounting how every week during the long coffee breaks at the MET, a select person would bring in photographs taken of certain details from various famous (and not-so famous) works of art. It was then the pleasure of the art buffs in the room to discern just where it was they'd seen those images. There were easy details, there were mind-bending details. They came to call this the "Curator's Game."
   
   Equally as entertaining are Hoving's assorted thoughts and interesting side-notes on the works. He never shies away from providing his own opinions. For instance the clue from a Renaissance piece on pg.28 reads that the artist's women "had a softness that his rival Michelangelo never achieved."
   
   The first half of the book has all of the details along with their respective clues. You'll find angels and men, dogs and instruments as it winds down to incredibly difficult background images. The second half houses all of the paintings from which the details were taken along with a brief description and examination of them. And don't fret, if you fear you won't be able to find them all, Mr. Hoving has been kind enough to provide us with an answer key.
   
   As has been written by others, this would make a wonderful gift. It also proved a great way to pass the time on a rainy day. Recommended for my part.



5. Stimulating book - took me back to days as an art student. Enjoyed very much.Purchased as a result of borrowing the book from the local library.
   Excellent.

5 comments about Total Sudoku.

1. If you like to sit and think for a long time this is the product for you. I really enjoy this book.... the only thing is the order. It jumbles around from easy to hard to medium ect. I would also like it more if it had more solution strategies. Overall this is a good first book of sudoku.



2. This is a fantastic book for sudoku starters everywhere. It has instructions that are really well written and a huge grid that is much easier to use and see than others. Another reviewer said that the levels are spread out, but that is so you can try different levels and work yourself up to levels. In a way it keeps you on a "roll." If you chose any sudoku book let this be the one.



3. This Sudoku book is both great and a major disappointment at the same time. The great part is that the puzzles are printed nice and big so that you have enough space in the number squares to write down the possibilities. And the paper is strong enough so that you don't make holes in the paper as you write and erase. I had other Sudoku books where I ended up making a copy of each page before working on it.
   
   The disappointment is that some puzzles are not properly formed, and have more than one solution.



4. I love this one! Each puzzle is big, big, big -- one puzzle per 8 X 10 page. Lots of room to solve in. The quality of the paper is great. And there are 16 by 16 grids in the back -- my favorites. Buy this one, not the so-called "jumbo" puzzles by the same author.



5. I enjoy using this book, paper is great, space is wonderful and the easy is not too easy! I do the puzzles everyday because it is a joy to work with!

No comments about Pokemon Battle Revolution: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides).

No comments about Brain Building Games: With Words and Numbers.

5 comments about Burning the Tables in Las Vegas: Keys to Success in Blackjack and in Life.

1. I am new to card counting and after reading this book - I feel like I have a whole new perspective on playing blackjack as a business. There is so much good information here. I would recommend this book a a must-read for anyone interested in counting as a business or just for fun!!



2. Ian Andersen is an entertaining writer as well as a longtime high-stakes professional blackjack player. With his latest offering, "Burning the Tables in Las Vegas," Andersen has attempted to update his classic from the '70s, "Turning the Tables on Las Vegas," and make it relevant to today's game. The results are mixed. "Burning" is a good read for sure, with many fascinating vignettes about life in the high-roller fast lane, as well as quite a bit of useful information for pros on how to survive and prosper in an age of high-tech casino surveillance. But, all that aside, it still left me wanting. Andersen may write about blackjack with the entertaining talent of, say, a Bryce Carlson, but he lacks the solid mathematical knowledge of a Carlson, or a Wong, or a Schlesinger to back it up. For example, with his so-called "Ultimate Gambit," he is all too happy in the name of camouflage to reduce his edge to not much more than half a percent, and then throw even more ev out the window with fairly large bets at craps and other negative-expectation games. His whole approach smacks of a certain lack of appreciation for the harsh realities of variance and standard deviation. Don't get me wrong, "Burning" is a very good book, and I think serious bj players will find it enjoyable and useful, but in the real world of professional play--high stakes or otherwise--it laces in a little too much fantasy with the facts to rate five stars.



3. There are simply no other players quite as experienced as Ian Andersen. Even if you are not interested in counting cards, his experiences make for great stories and wonderful anecdotes. If you are serious about card-counting, then this book will pay for itself with the Ultimate Gambit. This book is perfect for your first trip to a casino as well as the experienced card-counter.



4. What's new in this second edition of Burning the Tables in Las Vegas? Mostly Chapter 9 on Green Chip Play. If you have a copy already, it's probably not worth it to buy the new edition, but you might want to borrow a copy to read this short new chapter on low-roller betting. In a nutshell, Andersen tells you how to win with $25-$50 bets, but don't expect to make a living at it.

   Andersen spends about half the book talking about the mechanics of blackjack, and only the first few pages cover the basics. The rest is strategy and tactics, and he brings Stanford Wong along to add his expertise. The other half of the book covers topics that are not specific to blackjack, but are just as important: history, psychology, money management, risk management, health, demeanor. It is difficult to say exactly how much of a professional gambler's success is due to playing well and how much is due to people skills, being alert, reading a room, and staying healthy.

   This is an up-to-date book that takes into account the way casinos operate today, not twenty years ago. Andersen adds a lot of what should be common sense to the nuts and bolts of playing winning blackjack. You probably don't need someone to tell you not to piss off the dealer (or even shoot them a disgusted look when you're losing), but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Especially by a proven winner.




5. HE'S A GREAT PLAYER AND A GREAT WRITER! HE'S TRULY A WORLD CLASS PLAYER. A GREAT BOOK TO READ AND TO OWN!

2 comments about Teaching Children to Ride: A Handbook for Instructors.

1. Very complete book, not only gives pointers about safety and teaching but is full of ideas of games to make learning easy for kids!



2. I was hoping there would be more games and ideas than there were but overall it is an ok book.

5 comments about Chess Opening Essentials: The Complete 1.e4 (Chess Opening Essentials).

1. Chess Opening Essentials is a real winner and it is easy to see why it was voted Best Chess Book of the Year by the Italian Chess Federation.
   
   The book is beautifully produced, with a very pleasant looking easy-to-read layout and graphics; the dual-colour printing makes it much easier to find information that I am searching for and further enhances the look of the book.
   
   I have purchased many opening books in the past and I have found most of them to be disappointing and incomplete. I have had to use them together - selecting the best aspects of each one and ignoring their frequent weaknesses; a little like piling up slices of Swiss cheese - the slice on top covering the holes in the slice below. At last, in one volume I have found all the information and advice that I have been looking for.
   
   The book has a lot of text that explains the concepts and ideas behind the openings in easy-to-understand language. Not just in the introductory passages before each opening, but also for the moves that follow. So often with these sort of books I find myself wondering why such and such a move is good or bad, and I end up more confused at the end than I was when I started. The authors of this book explain everything very clearly step by step, and I really felt I was learning something
   
   I particularly appreciated the realistic assessment of lines that may not be played regularly at the very highest levels, but that are highly effective and dangerous against the sort of players that most of us encounter in club tournaments. Particularly useful are the conclusions at the end of each entry, which gave me a clear idea of what to expect in the middle and endgame phases of the game. There are also several example games at the end of each section which I also liked for the same reason
   
   In my opinion a book like Chess Opening Essentials is long overdue and it comes highly-recommended.
   
   Hamish Stuart
   



2. Before reading the works of Watson's opening manuals (Vol 1 and 2)one must read this work only you have to wait and see for its completion with closed games in a later volume.This book is easily explained and contains all the openings popular in open or semiopen games.But with less variations like MCO or NCO and still exellent study materials incorporated in one volume.For club players with ELO ratings of about 1500-1800 or more this is indespensible in the sense that you can have a very good idea about all the king pawn openings.What are their meanings etc.I love this book.



3. This book is great. There are plenty of diagrams, the layout is pleasing, and there are supplementary games to futher enhance your understanding of what "flavour" the opening might provide. Also, and you might think this is trivial, but it even has little arrows and colour emphasizing key squares, providing an effective visual of where to put your pieces, strategical aims, etc. Although this book deals with openings relating to 1.e4 and is best suited for class A players and below, it truly is an outstanding book. Keep in mind though that the analysis is brief, it's just a quick reference guide, or "refresher" for strong players, and a great learning tool for beginners/novices. Highly recommended.



4. Chess Opening Essentials: The Complete 1.e4 )
   Finally: the book I've been waiting for! A modern replacement for Reuben Fine's and I.A. Horowitz's books on openings pitched to the Beginner / Intermediate improving player as well as a manual for the improving Club / Tournament player. Not as complicated as BCO or MCO or NCO nor as the rich opening material in Fritz, ChessBase or Bookup (now ChessOpeningsWizard) nor as other net resources -- from which a diligent and very sophisticated surfer might assemble much of the material in the book.
   I emphatically agree with the positive reviews of others;and in this case the publisher's hype seems extraordinarily (and refreshingly) accurate.
   
   It is volume 1: The Complete 1.e4, which I hope means that it will soon be followed by 1: The Complete 1.d4 (and perhaps at least one more "The Complete 1. something in addition" volume. Not as theoretical / philosophical (and purposefully 'incomplete') as John Watson's two wonderful "Mastering . . ." volumes.
   Not as nearly uselessly elementary as Alberston's "51 Openings".
   
   I am not expert enough to evaluate its shortcomings . . .
   The one shortfall (which the book shares with many other chess materials) is lack of a bibliography (or reference to anything outside (or even inside) itself. One would have to know already where to find many of the important variations and 'subvariations' mentioned in the text (for example, the Berlin Defense (p.73) is not referenced in the `Contents' as it is a 'subvariation of the Ruy Lopez). The sole index is of player's last names (not actually of `games' as the Contents lists it). But these are faults variously common to chess books in general and do not make me hesitate at all in recommending it. It is unique for our time and needs.



5. This NIC publication is the best attempt I have yet seen to mix lots of variations with opening ideas. In my view, it does pass for an encyclopedia.
   
   I would only recommend this book to players ~1500 and under however, as there just isn't enough depth for players beyond this level. That said, it is the ONLY "encyclopedia-style" opening book I would ever recommend to my students. The others are too dense and lack explanatory material to justify the variations. I'm a strong Class A player, and I do not own any encyclopedias (MCO, ECO, NCO, etc.), rather I buy specialized opening books and subscribe to ChessPub to learn openings.
   
   For beginners, this is the choice. I would have been a lot better off if I started my career back in 1996 with this book instead of other encyclopedias.
   
   Why four stars and not five as the other reviewers have given it? Because this could have been a truly GREAT book, useful for players up to 2200+. The authors/editors were so close! If only they would have included more supplementary games to illuminate critical variations, and ANNOTATED the supplementary games with words at critical junctures of the game (from a planning standpoint), so that the reader could understand the flow of the opening through the middlegame and to the endgame...If they do this for a second edition, the book would be worth almost any price.
   
   Of course, this would have increased the book in size from 358 pages to 500+ pages, but they really would have succeeded in writing the greatest (reference) opening book ever. The quality of its competitors is such that for the majority of players, it may STILL be the best anyway.

1 comments about Random Kinds Of Factness: 1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything.

1. Yes, you can do all these things and more with the book Random Kinds of Factness!
   
   At 215 pages, this amusing soft cover book provides fascinating trivia tidbits on subjects like Animals, The Body, Food & Drink, History, Men & Women, Plants, Holidays, Science, Sports, Transportation and much more.
   
   Here is a sampling of some of the fascinating tidbits found in Random Kinds of Factness:
   
   * Professional clowns register their faces with a face registry so that no two clown faces are exactly the same.
   * Undereducated presidents are not a new phenomenon. Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and Zachary Taylor never even graduated from elementary school.
   * Pigs kill more people than sharks every year.
   * The Incas all had the same blood type (O+).
   * Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde during a six-day cocaine binge.
   * Before she was a master chef, Julia child was a spy. She served in India and China during WW II.
   * The term "freelancing" dates from the twelfth century when knights who lost their employment with royal houses offered themselves as mercenaries.
   * Switzerland didn't allow women to vote until 1971.
   * More people are injured each year on merry-go-rounds than on roller coasters.
   * A simple, everyday yard mushroom can release more than one hundred million spores in an hour.
   
   My husband and I spent several evenings reading this book cover to cover. It was a lot of fun to discover amazing trivia and share them with each other-often to much gasping and laughter. Despite the unattractive cover and one tidbit that was repeated ("Walt Disney's hobby was orchestrating model train wrecks"-pages 38 & 213), Random Kinds of Factness is a delightful trivia book that is both educational and entertaining.

5 comments about The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (Third Edition).

1. This dictionary is excellent to read and has definations that the smaller version does not have.



2. Do NOT get this book -- which contains only the THIRD EDITION of the allowable Scrabble words. If you want the FOURTH EDITION, which is current up through its publication in late 2005, use this number to search Amazon's catalog: 0877796343 which will take you to the Fourth Edition, Large Print. For some reason, you can't find it by using words like "Scrabble Large Print" to find that edition -- you have to use the ISBN number.
   
   Using the older edition might be okay if Amazon starts selling it at a discount; it's certainly good enough for friendly family games (in most families!) but won't get you where you need to go if you are playing competitively, and need the most current list of new coinages, acceptable 2-letter words, and q-words.



3. And she doesn't dare part with this to anyone. This is something she truly appreciates. The one thing that surprised her is that since it's in large print, the book is larger than the smaller print pocket version. She keeps it at home for safekeeping and enjoys it very much.



4. A wonderful tool for the scrabble players. Easy to use and handy to have



5. I received the book in a reasonable amount of time. The book was supposed to be used, but the only thing that looked used was a dogeared corner on the last page and cover which I was able to straighten out.