2 comments about The Petroff Defence.

1. Uno de los mas actuales especialistas de esta apertura comenta detalladamente la partida rusa o petroff, para lo cual el material bibliografico es de los mejores como tambien de los mas actuales, se muestra graficos de posiciones criticas en un buen número y en formato algebraico con excelentes ejercicios para quien ama esta defensa encontrara en este libro un buen material para perfeccionarse.
   Ademas se encuentran partidas comentadas por Arthur Yusupov en las cuales se indican las ideas tanto para las blancas como para las negras.
   Buena suerte.



2. Don't waste your time or money. Very little information here. I like my books to have some text. If you just like to read lines then this is the book for you. I sold my copy at the local chess club. I usually like Olms books.

3 comments about Improve Your Endgame Play.

1. This book is better than Pandolfini's Endgame Course and Lev Alburt's endgame book. Other great endgame books are Endgame Strategy, and also Endgame Secrets by Chris Lutz. Flear's book presents practical endgame examples and is quite readable and fun. Includes exercises at the end of each chapter. This book is also better than Flear's other endgame books written after this one.



2. This is an ideal book for an introduction to endgames. I found it hit the perfect sweet spot for me in several ways. The right balance between problems and text, the progression from simple to a bit more complex, and explanations of general principles and some calculation. Often chess books just make me laugh, with their 500 page multi-volume sets and endless variations. I don't want to be Kasparov, and who's got that sort of time. I play because it's fun, and this was a good chess book. I learned a lot, improved as a player, and enjoyed myself doing it.



3. Flear does a good job with the right amount of text vs notation balance. Infact he never leaves you hanging, explaining, in detail, everything. He never assumes the reader will know the next move, yet never so simple that its boring. As a 1600 player I found this book to be exactly right for me, with some review and some new. I especially like the "TIPS" and Comments about Understanding the concepts of the endgame positions, rather than remembering the moves. This book covers most everything, more so than two other endgame books I've read. I've not read it all but it appears better than Padolfini's endgame course which is probably geared more towards a 1300-1400 player. I think I paid about $4 plus shipping for this book and based on dollar paid, very pleased.

5 comments about 107 Great Chess Battles, 1939-1945 (Dover Books on Chess).

1. Dover produces fine books. As for me I don't mind descriptive notation which turns off a lot of potential customers. But here they have the best efforts of a World Champion and it is in algebraic notation, and has clear diagrams. Some of the games fall short of top drawer play, hence I deducted 1 star, but otherwise this is excellent chess and fine commentary by Alekhine. There is also a tribute to his old Nemesis Capablanca. Altogether a must for any player's library



2. Overall good book, Alekhine gives his comments on these 107 games played during his time. He does a great job at revealing the players way of thinking and the hows and whys of each move. However, the title of this book is very misleading, potential buyers are led to beleive that Alekhine actually playes all 107 games. He only plays 30! If you want purely games of Alekhine, spend your money on something else



3. Though this book has a few chess gems to be enjoyed by everyone, this book isn't for the mere beginner. Sometimes it isn't even for the average player. Alekhine's annotations are thorough, for the most part, but are often tinged with either mocking condescension or complete blase. He tacitly assumes that certain tactical or strategic ideas are obvious, and therefore fails from time to time in teaching the reader anything. The games are often interesting, though, again, not for the player interested in only an occasional game. This is a relatively good book if you have enough experience and can study it deeply, but if you are looking for a book of instruction, look elsewhere.



4. What I love about this book is it shows Alekhine in a more modern era, how he analyzed more of the modern openings that were starting to emerge. His annotations are always great, and at this price, get it!



5. Unless you collect chess books, I don't feel that this book is a must. The book has two pros: price and nice collection of games (Most of the games in the book were NOT played by Alekhine).
   
   But in my view, it's biggest con is depthless and lip-deep analysis. Don't buy this book if you are looking to understand Alekhine's thought process or looking for some instructional material.
   
   Alekhine's sparse comments certainly help, but your should have a pretty good chess knowledge in order to get the most out of this book.

3 comments about How to Reassess Your Chess: A Complete Course to Chess Mastery.

1. Silman goes through many instructive examples which illustrate particular themes such as: good knight vs. bad bishop, isolated Q-pawn, space advantage, etc. Unlike other chess manuals such as My System by Nimzowitsch, Silman refrains from using lofty language. Instead, via simple and direct words, he conveys to the reader the essence of the position, and how to arrive at a proper evaluation. Definitely worthwhile reading for all chess lovers.



2. Can't praise this book too highly. Silman shows that each chess position can be analyzed to reveal imbalances which form the basis for planning how to proceed. While many chess books have dealt with the chess theory, Silman has a genius for identifying when the theory applies to a particular position. Planning your next move is demystified. For each type of imbalance, the reader is shown what must be done to take advantage of that type of position. This book is a model of instructional writing. The book contains useful problems after each section, each problem with a clearly explained answer. The author incorporates grandmaster games and games of more humble origins. His experience in teaching chess has allowed him to explain abstract chess theory in the clearest terms. For once the claims on the cover of a chess book are more than justified. You can't read this book and not improve your chess. It is suitable for any player beyond beginner level who wants to be a strong player.



3. This was the third chess book I purchased in my hopes tofind a book that you could read like a book, instead ofreference. There are of course many books out there that do just this. SILMAN IS A TERRIFIC AUTHOR! I can read this book on and off, improving my chess with whatever amount of time I choose to spend on it. He also mixes in humor and a real zest for attack and foiling your opponent. Purchase other books for reference, but pick this one for improving your attack skills and "thinking on the fly".

1 comments about Football and Chess: Tactics Strategy Beauty.

1. Fans of England's Premier League and the royal game will enjoy Wells' free ranging ideas and observations. Who could have guessed soccer and chess share so much ground? OK, few readers will play better soccer or chess after reading 'Football & Chess'. But I suspect most (like me) will put the book down with a greater appreciation for two of their favorite sports.

5 comments about POWER MATES : Essential Checkmating Strategies and Techniques.

1. I have over 15 chess books and I can truly say that this is the only one that is the most FUN! I approached the 70 games in this book by studying one game per day over & over (what's 2 months! ). Through reading this book, I really got a much better concept of one of my martial arts concepts: use the flow. I really wasn't looking for that at all, but by the time I got to the third game "the flow" of how to reach checkmate just hit me like that big ocean wave sweeping away John Ritter at the moment he shouted, "THAT'S IT! " in the movie "Skindeep". I had a lot of knowlege from other books that started out with diagrams of a game already in progress as the author's way of teaching a point, but this book excellently shows you various methods of how to arrive at the points to which many of my favorite chess authors delineate. You really have to be aware of a very good "unspoken" point that this book brings out: since it's typical for so many of us sub-grandmasters to struggle with winning an endgame (many times to no avail without having read Lev Alburt's "Just the Facts") then you can use the various techniques mentioned in "Power Mates" to (attempt to) checkmate the opponent in under 30 moves; ideally entirely avoiding the endgame. Pinning was a very often-mentioned technique (go, get this book to find out others). Yes, it's a good book for begginers who already know how to play chess, but please don't go in to any tournaments until you have thoroughly covered Jeremy Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess". And one more point: Next time you play chess, remember to have fun! Laugh, even, for crying out loud!



2. Pandolfini manages to squeeze only 70 mating problems into a book of over 300 pages. He does this by giving a lightly annotated score of each of the games in which the mating positions arose (or could have arisen). If you're looking for a game collection, you can find much better analysis in other books (E.g. Bronsteins "200 Open Games" and Euwe's "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur"). If you're looking for instruction on how to achieve checkmate, Renaud & Kahn's "Art of the Checkmate" or Koltanowski & Finkelstein's "Checkmate!" will serve you better. If you're looking for mating problems, Fred Reinfeld got 300 problems into only 111 pages in "How to Force Checkmate." 300 problems into 119 pages in "Win at Chess," and a whopping 1001 problems into 224 pages in "1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate."



3. I enjoy playing through short games, and games that end in checkmate. That is the kind of games this book has, with the added bonus that the author pauses to give the reader a chance to figure out how the checkmate is accomplished. I keep hoping there will be a "More Power Mates " soon!



4. If you got this book you fell into Fool's Mate! Basically this book is 300 pages and only has 70 puzzles ;)... So tell me if you think that is a bit cheesy :)... He fills in spaces with some bad annotations. I find it funny for a no talent bum like him to annotate games. Like what did Pandolfini ever do, I never see his games in databases. I search for openings and I can't recall seeing any of his games ever. Yet this no talent bum writes book after book. Charges I hear 200 dollars an hour to be a chess coach. You can learn more about mating from Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess to be honest. Basically this book is an essential checkmate of your wallet. It is priced to make people who are cheap to consider buying this book. Basically its 70 game collection trying to pass itself off as a book on mating. So it is up to you what you decide to do with your well earned or ill gotten cash. Basically I have about 100 chess books, so you decide who you listen to. Really matters not to me, what you end up doing. Waste your time on this book, ......



5. I think that the negative reviews here are based on the assumption that Pandolfini tried to write a different kind of
   book but somehow failed. It's not a book of "checkmate puzzles"
   (although there are 70 of these)but, as its subtitle says, of elementary checkmating strategies. Its purpose is to show how a game develops from the opening to the point where one side is able to force mate. The 70 short games with light notes are not intended for the advanced player, but for those under USCF 1400 or so. For this purpose, it's an excellent book. Sure, more advanced players should look elsewhere, but so what?

5 comments about Kramnik: My Life & games.

1. Kramnik has defeated Kasparov in their 16-game match a few months ago.

   I thought that this simple fact would enlighten potential purchasers.




2. If you would like to see a book of some of the games of a great player, you may be interested in this book. But a few words of warning first.

   #1.) This book came out BEFORE Kramnik won the chess World Championship, so already it is a little dated.

   #2.) This is some of the dryest text you may ever see in your life. (Few, if any good stories.) In fact, if you suffer from insomnia, this may be a good book for you. I also get the impression that Kramnik either accepted factually that he was very talented, or he is one of the most conceited individuals on the face of the earth.

   #3.) Many of the Soviet books are "ghost-written" by other chess players - trainers, analysts and such. I get the impression that this is what happened here. (A few of the errors in analysis are too basic to have been perpetrated by Kramnik. Indeed, I. Damsky is probably responsible for the majority of this book.)

   Having given the above harsh criticisms, you may get the idea that I hate this book. This is simply not the case. I am a Master who makes a great part of his living from teaching chess. I consider it my responsibility to give as an honest review of every chess book as I possibly can. I also feel it my duty to reflect what many of my students and contacts on the Internet have told me about this book.

   If you are looking for a book with some of the best annotations by a top player available, this would be a good book for you to choose. (Many of the annotations are gleaned from magazines where Kramnik had a direct hand in reviewing the games.)

   What this book lacks in great stories, and perhaps quality, it makes up for in quantity. You get almost 200 deeply annotated games by the current World Champion. You will get one of the most COMPLETE chess educations available in one book by carefully studying ALL of these games. (And I estimate it would take the average player nearly two years to do this!)

   Warning: Most of these games are highly technical. Many of my students decribed them as "dry and boring." (In the style of Capablanca and Karpov.) The average player may not have the skill to appreciate just how hard it is to play like this. Careful study of these games will definitely improve your chess.

   ....




3. This book is entitle "My Life And Games"

   I think everyone who buys this book has to understand the title its not just a book of openings. This book the world champion is telling you more about himself. If you dont like the book its kinda of your own fault. Kramnik is very straight forward about his book. The 80 games that are listed in the book are much more simplier to read than any of kaasparov's books of openings. this is because the moves are listed up and down and are better spaced out! Chess books can be boring but if you want to learn how to play chess read and look at his GAMES. I THINK your wasting your time reading the othr books. If you wanna learn how to play chess you should only get books by kramnik and fischer. It's because the moves are easier to read because its spaced out better and easier on the "eyes"
   Kramnik went 80 games without a loss. kasparov has never acomplished that goal ever.

   When Kramnik defends his world title next january. If he beats or ties kasparov to retain his title. I think he will make a brand new book of openings. This man beat the most powerful computer ever made "Deep Fritz7". It is better than deep blue by 2 times. Deep blue beat kasparov. The people who true want to understand how to play chess openings. I STRESS you only get KRAMNIK or BOBBY FISCHER'S book. The other books are JUNK AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO READ!!!




4. This book is a fantastic book and for once i have to disagree with Goldsby about a book . This book is divided into 2 parts,the first by damsky and the second by kramnik. The first part i admit doesnt have much anotations, but has alot of games. The second part is by kramnik, it has his best games FULLY! analysed. It is a phenomanal book and even the young 13 year old GM who drew to kasparov rated this book as one of his favourites. If your looking for a games collection book this is for you. However you must understand if you are looking for an agrresive repetoir as white i recommend shirovs book fire on baard as that deals more with e4 then nf3/d4 or c4. However as black the two books are much the same both players play the botvinnik, the meran and sveshnikov (which is in fashioin currently, most probably due to kramniks addtions to the opening.) DO not make a mistake andnot buy this book as i almost did, or you'll be jeoulous of the next person who does!



5. I have a lot of game-collections/biography chess books in my library, considering the best ones Life & Games of Mikhail Tal and I Play Against Pieces by Svetozar Gligoric but, belive it or not, this Kramnik one is the worst I have encountered with. Every game is tipically anotated as quick fix for some second rate chess magazine, without any wish for explaining itself or its background to the reader. And authors own biography is just short of unexistent, although it is known that he had a rich life chesswise, before going on top (working in famous Botvinnik chess school, playing junior games against famous oponents of today etc.) Its a shame, and I hope that updated version would be much frendlier and filled with important games played in last five years, and with extended biography.

No comments about Complete Chess Strategy: First Principles of the Middle Game.

3 comments about Chess Software Sourcebook.

1. I bought this book a little while ago and was really surprised at how good it was. I already owned some of the programs Dr. Pawlak reviews in the book, but really wasn't using them as well as I could. The book really helped me understand what my programs could do. I have been analyzing some of my games using his approach, and it works.



2. I bought this book because of glowing reviews. I have found this book to be useful and indeed I have bought software based on what I've read. At the same time I have to confess I think the book could be much better. What the author refrains from doing is critical and comparative analysis. To give one example, ChessBase7 and Chess Assistant 5.0 could be critically compared. To give another example, some of the shortcomings of Bookup 1.6.2 could be described. An author such as John Nunn would have combined both technical virtuosity and chess erudition to give a revealing analysis of the strengths and shortcomings of the chess software currently available.



3. The author of this book gives a good overview of the major chess programs. Not owning any chess software, I was a little confused as with some of his discriptions of the catagories of chess software. I did find that his summaries were otherwise clear and help significantly in choosing programs for myself (novice chess player). None of the descriptions were overly lengthy or technical and the tables were moderately helpful. As of this date, I believe this is your only choice for a comprehensive critical summary of chess software, so if this is what you are looking for, this book will start you in the right direction.

3 comments about Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius?.

1. The latest in the "Everyman Chess Puzzles" series, Can You Be A Tactical Chess Genius? by chess expert James Plaskett is an engaging book of chess puzzles written to twist the minds and imaginations of even the most experienced chess wizards. Here is a compelling quiz book that stretches tactical ability to earn points and gain a final score to compare against that of family and friends. There is even an "ask a grandmaster" option, but using it will cost points! A most enjoyable book for avid chess buffs, Can You Be A Tactical Chess Genius? would make a wonderful addition to any chess enthusiast's collection.



2. I have a mixed feelings about this book. Unfortunately, the negatives slightly outweigh positive. GM Plaskett put together a series of 12 tests, each with 15 diagrams. You get points based on accuracy and depth of your analysis. There is a "hint" feature which will cost you points.

   Suggested readers level -
   In my opinion players rated under 2000 should look for other books as majority of testing positions will be a frustrating experience. Don't get me wrong, even 1600 rated would benefit from working through author's answers to many "15 point" problems, however, the value of such a lesson is not that great.

   Quality of Positions and Annotations -
   VERY GOOD. Mainly, the positions were unfamiliar to me. Many from GM Plaskett's own games. Been a player or a witness, he has some additional angle to the annotations. This increases value of notes and also brings some fun.

   Scoring system -
   POOR - my biggest complain with this book - scoring is way too simplistic. In many cases I believe scores don't correspond to relative difficulties of positions. "Price" for hint is outrages, comparing to the actual help you get. For example for 15 point problem (T#3, P#15) - rook endgame - question ask how Black can use his pass pawn. Hint will cost you 6 points and you will find out that you should consider
   "advancing the pawn at all costs". I would expect this to be initial thought of anyone who read the question and studied the problem. So hint doesn't bring anything new to the table, yet takes away 40% of maximum points. Finally, when you do finish the test, study the solutions and get your overall score, what are you suppose to do with it? There is no relative strength table or anything else that would help you to measure your result.

   Accuracy of presentation -
   AVERAGE - I have only been through one test so far, but already I saw a diagram (T#1, P#9) with a "ghost" knight. I also run into the position (T#1, P#11) that specifically claimed to have only one solution - mate in 5 and asked you to find it. However, even without PC help, I found another solution (in his solution -play 3.Rf7+ and 4.Be5# or 4.Bc7#)

   Overall, good testing book for higher rated player 2000+. Especially, if he has several friends with similar ratings to compare results with. Lower rated players and beginners, consider something else, for example Emms' Ultimate Puzzle book or Hall's Combination Challenge.

   Good luck,
   Copyrighted by me!




3. I bought this book specifically to improve my middle-game play.
   I wanted to improve my tactical vision and better calculate tactics. My rating is USCF 2180.
   
   This book is excellent because
   1) there aren't any long unncessary write-ups like , "Here I played White ,etc,etc". Pure mental training
   2) Exercizes are gradual : simple at first, then not so simple and then really hard to see it all
   3) you can progress throught the book, divided in 12 chapters. see how you rate on chapter 1 ( scoring system provided ), and on chapter 7, and compare.
   
   Also, I like the fact that if there is a wrong move, or alternate variation, the author will explain why such move fails. Each exercize is reviewed by a strong GM with several variations detailed if needed.
   
   I did find some isolated cases where I went to the computer to check additional defensive moves not covered , or typo in diagram/solution. This covers less than 10% of the examples though.
   Finally, there are a lot of Plaskett own games which I didn't know about, or positions taken from interesting games played in opens. The selection is original but covers most tactical themes.
   This is a book for someone who knows about themes ( forks,double attack, Pawn destruction, quiet moves ) but wants to get closer to International master level.
   
   All in all, a book I recommend highly for anyone -with Elo/Rating > 1900- eager to improve in chess tactics.