Chess Book Reviews
How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman
Score: 5/5
How to Reassess Your Chess is widely considered to be a modern classic, and for me, it lives up to its reputation—and more. It is one of the finest instructional books I have ever read, chess book or not.
This book is mainly focused on improving an amateur’s positional skills, which is an anomaly in a world dominated by tactics books. Positional skills are consistently overlooked when an amateur is trying to improve, a problem which this book addresses successfully.
Despite being a mammoth of a book (600+ pages), the material is always presented in a sensible and engaging way, making the retention of the material easy. Silman never shies away from using humor, which makes a book that could have been a painful 600 page slog into 600 pages of learning and fun.
Silman is considered a world class chess teacher, and this clearly shows in this book. By careful study, you will walk out with a rock-solid positional understanding and more, which gives you a distinct edge over your future opponents. Due to Silman’s clever idea of dividing sections according to rating strength, as you improve and climb up the chess ladder, there will always be fresh material to learn according to your strength level.
All in all, this is an excellent book for anyone who want to seriously improve their game. Silman manages to make what could have been a terrible slog into an enjoyable, engaging experience. This is the rare chess book that you will refer to for the rest of your career.
Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan
Score: 4.5/5
In his excellent chess book series, “Play Winning Chess,” Yasser Seirawan’s book about strategy is a clear standout. It is probably the best book in the entire series. Seirawan is primarily a positional player, and the American grandmaster’s deep understanding of the positional concepts explained in the book shines through. With his easygoing writing style, which incorporates both his gentle humor, and his emphasis on understanding over memorization, the reader is sure to leave with a rock solid understanding of basic principles.
The book is divided into multiple sections based on core strategic principles, which is mostly beneficiary to the reader. The emphasis he places on certain principles such as pawn play and the difference between the minor pieces—two rarely stressed ideas in traditional chess books—are the book’s best points. Each section is well written and informative, with some standouts distributed throughout the book. The chapters about faulty strategies and “territorial domination” were among the most thought-provoking and helpful chapters.
However, this book is not without certain flaws. In this book and many others in the same series, Seirawan overly relies on his own games as instructional examples, and sometimes recycles the same games between different books. While these games may be thought-provoking, they sometimes interrupt the logical flow of the section, and deviate from the overarching themes. Also, while the instructive games in the ‘great positional masters’ section are excellent, it’s not quite clear at times what positional concepts they are meant to stress or emphasize at times.
Although Strategies is hardly exempt from criticism, Seirawan has done an excellent job in presenting chess strategy in an understandable and engaging manner. If studied, will open new horizons for the amateur player, and allow them to improve their game significantly.
Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan
Score: 4/5
Winning Chess Openings is a straightforward book that walks you through the many different openings of chess. The book follows the typical Seirawan formula, which is a definite plus, as evidenced by my positive review on his Strategies. He not only goes to lengths to explain the openings move-by-move, but explain why certain moves are logical and why they aren’t. His breakdown of the opening into two different types (king and queen pawn) and coverage of all the openings that fit in both categories is uniformly excellent. The most popular openings (Sicilian Defense, Nimzo Indian) are treated with more emphasis than less popular ones, which is good: in chess, not all openings in equal, and emphasis should be placed upon those more conducive to one’s chess growth.
There is one thing to keep in mind, however: since this was published in 2003, some of the opening information is now outdated. Nevertheless, this is still an excellent introduction to the openings, and the content of the book is mostly unaffected.
I found minor faults with his opening suggestions at the end of the book, and occasionally, how he moves from discussing one opening to another. However, there is a serious flaw in his book, one that many have noted in its enormity. Seirawan fails to cover or even acknowledge the ‘English Opening’ (1.c4), which is not only a confusing but a pointless omission, especially as Seirawan has played it many times throughout his career. The English Opening is popular at all levels of play and leads to strategically rich positions; it most certainly would have been beneficial and interesting to see Seirawan cover it.
Overall, Seirawan provides us with an excellent coverage of all the different openings, but his omission of the English Opening unnecessarily hurts the book.
How to Beat Your Dad in Chess by Murray Chandler
Score: 4.5/5
This book is among the best tactics primers for beginners, due to its simple nature and emphasis on pattern recognition. Chandler presents 50 common tactical themes, demonstrates how each one works Since the vast majority of amateur games are decided by a tactic or tactics of some sort, having basic knowledge about these tactics and when to find them will be largely beneficial to the amateur. Due to its relative simple structure,
Another excellent feature about this book is its emphasis on ‘drilling’ and repetition. There are lots of examples per theme, and at the end, there is a test on the
This isn’t a book where you’ll find any deep strategy: this is a tactics book, which it succeeds well in doing so at an affordable cost and easy-to-grasp
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer
Score: 4/5
This book is widely considered a premier beginners’ book, so early into my chess career, I naturally took up this book. I’m not sure what my initial thoughts of it were, I walked away with a rock solid understanding of a certain concept- which I couldn’t remember. After rereading a few months ago, I couldn’t be more surprised at the contents. Deep in my memory somewhere, I recalled a Yasser Seirawan quote from a while back, which went something like this: “Bobby was chess’s biggest one trick pony: it appeared all he had to teach me was the back-rank mate.” In the moment, this couldn’t have been more true.
And the thing is, Fisher’s classic book is primarily composed of back-rank checkmate puzzles: ranging from easy to hard. That isn’t to say Bobby’s book isn’t completely devoid of other information: I just found aspect to be shocking at first, especially considering the loads of critical acclaim this book has received. It appeared that Bobby, American chess legend, had nothing else to teach us bar the most elementary of tactics. Was this how he became the greatest player of all time?
However, this expertly teaches a concept that chess players will be using throughout their careers: the idea of memorizing patterns. When you understand the basic pattern and concept behind a tactic and strategy (as Bobby’s method of teaching is universally applicable to all chess concepts, you will be progressively able to solve more and more difficult problems, to the point where this tactic will be applicable in your everyday games. This is one of the most invaluable concepts any chess player will learn, and teaching it earlier is for the better.
That being said, the repetitiveness on back rank mates at time seemed a bit dull throughout the book. That isn’t to say Bobby’s book isn’t completely devoid of other information: I just found this aspect to be shocking, especially considering the loads of critical acclaim this book has received.
The only other minor criticism I have of this book is its format: the styling with the upside down pages near the middle may be confusing to some students; especially younger ones who may not know how to navigate through the book to begin with. Of course, this is a much older book, so we need to take that into consideration.
Overall, this is a very solid book that not only builds on the chess idea of absorbing patterns, but also teaches the reader how to apply this technique in their chess games. I would recommend reading this earlier in your chess career so you can absorb one of the most essential chess principles on how to improve, because this isn’t a book you’ll refer to for the rest of your chess career.
The Amateur’s Mind by Jeremy Silman (rough draft review)
Rating: 4.5/5
Jeremy Silman is widely regarded as one of Chess’s finest teachers and instructional writers, and this is not hard to see after you’ve read a few of his books. His lucid, entertaining, and easy-to understand style are all hallmarks of a great teacher. In the Amateur’s Mind, Silman tackles a more ambitious endeavor: by addressing how amateurs think head-on, Silman attempts to expose mental barriers, kinks in ones’ chess understanding—whatever it is that may bar chess improvement—and does so with flying colors. This is one of the only books I’ve read that at least attempts to understands chess from the average player’s perspective.
As with Reassess Your Chess, this is a book about how amateurs can improve their chess with understanding of his patented concept of imbalances- the differences in positions (you can read more about this elsewhere)- with this idea of positional imbalances, and can begin to use them to their advantage in their games, giving those who undergo a thorough study of this book a distinct edge over their opponents.
I would recommend reading this as you get more experienced, or around 1400+ strength. A thorough study of this book will help the amateur player purge many erroneous thinking processes that plague . This book also comes along with a workbook, which I don’t believe is essential to understanding the overall message and lessons of this book.
