CompleteMartialArts.com - Complete Book of Chess Strategy: Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z
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List Price: $18.95
Our Price: $12.89
Your Save: $ 6.06 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Siles Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.12
EAN: 9781890085018
ISBN: 1890085014
Label: Siles Press
Manufacturer: Siles Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 360
Publication Date: 1998-07
Publisher: Siles Press
Studio: Siles Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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An easy-to-understand guide to chess strategy -- conceptual planning -- has always been the amateur's dream. This book makes that dream a reality. This comprehensive guide in dictionary form, the first of its kind, makes all aspects of chess strategy quick, easy, and painlessly accessible to players of all degrees of strength. Each strategic concept is listed alphabetically and followed by a clear, easy-to-absorb explanation accompanied by examples of how this strategy is used in practice. Such great World Champions as Steinitz, Capablanca, Petrosian, Fischer, and Karpov have used these strategies in virtually all of their games. Now you can arm yourself with their weapons. As you incorporate these weapons into your own play, they will enrich your appreciation of the game and lead you to one beautiful victory after another.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Chess Book, one of the Better Ones
Comment: This was a excellent book on chess. One of the best. It dealt with most of the basic chess tactics. It covered each topic quickly enough to be interesting but not so deep that it was over my head. A great chess book. It dealt with pawn movement, opening moves, end game tactics, especially rook development, and middle game skills. It was the best book so far that I have read from the author.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excelent
Comment: This book is ease to read and understand you dont even need a chessboard to read it.
Excelent book
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beginner's delight, club player's fright
Comment: Every review you see on this book will read the same: TONS of topics, LITTLE explanation. That is the intent of the book. Now the only question is whether or not this approach to chess authorship is appropriate.
The book is divided into four different sections: opening, middlegame, endgame, and "practical matters" (encompassing psychology, tournament play, and all the stuff that doesn't need a diagram). At the end of each section is a little quiz on the material covered previously, generally true/false. Sounds easy, and it is pretty easy.
The section on the openings gives a smorgasbord of most every conceivable opening. It covers everything from the heavily theorized openings like the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian to the less-known openings, like the Polish (1.d4 b5) and the Albin Counter Gambit. It is never in-depth on these openings (one to three pages tops) but it gives you a real vague, general summary. What use it that? Well, if you're looking to pick out a reperotoire, like many beginning players, you're in luck. You can find an opening that caters to almost any player, check the main line and see if you like it. Even a higher-rated player could use that if they wanted a new opening or two.
The middlegame section covers motifs like "blockade", "open files", and "superior minor pieces". Things that every chess player has ingrained in them. If you've never heard the terms before, they will be useful. If you know all the terms, they can still be a great refresher course for you. How many times do we read a book on the King's Indian or the Ruy, replete with blockade ideas, yet don't always remember the little intracacies? Often enough to warrant a review.
The endgame section is weak, as it would have to be (you can't really have a treatise on the many endgames included in the space provided) and doesn't really do anything for the book. The section on practical matters is pretty cool, though, and can be inspiring for someone who wants to get a routine in order for tournaments (or answer questions about things like the staredown).
Like the title of this review suggests, the club player likely will not gain rating points from this book. A lot of people won't, even beginners. However, the book plays a VERY important role in augmenting other knowledge, making networks of association, and just being an all-around good review book. It's a fun read for the bathtub, airplane, or between rounds. If you're a beginner: go for it.
So to answer the question posed at the top: if you're over 1600 and doing a little chessic soul-searching: put it in the cart. Otherwise, perhaps you would be better served by another title.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More of a reference book than a deep strategy book
Comment: If you looking for a lot of strategies defined and briefly covered then this is the perfect book. If you are looking for a book on detailed strategies, opening traps or tactics on a deep level then this is not the right book. It simply doesn't get into anything very deeply (though it covers a lot of different strategies briefly). For what it is (more of reference book) this is a good book (you just need to understand what it is!).
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good reference book.
Comment: This book is the best one of the market in its field, although I question the accuracy of the openings section, obviously lots of options are missed out on (I noticed the Portugese variation of the Scandinavian was a big hole) and it would be too difficult to cover such options. I would've preferred if he got rid of the openings section altogether and put a bit more information on the helpful middlegame and endgame sections. Nevertheless, the book is a helpful addition to any player's library who is rated under FIDE 2000.
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