CompleteMartialArts.com - The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery
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List Price: $19.95
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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: 9781890085025
ISBN: 1890085022
Label: Siles Press
Manufacturer: Siles Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 443
Publication Date: 1999-07
Publisher: Siles Press
Studio: Siles Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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This book takes the student on a journey through his own mind and returns him to the chess board with a wealth of new-found knowledge and the promise of a significant gain in strength. Most amateurs possess erroneous thinking processes that remain with them throughout their chess lives. These flaws in their mental armour result in stinging defeats and painful reversals. Books can be bought and studied, lessons can be taken -- but in the end, these elusive problems always prove to be extremely difficult to eradicate. Seeking a solution to this dilemma, the author wrote down the thoughts of his students while they played actual games, analysed them, and catalogued the most common misconceptions that arose. This second edition greatly expands on the information contained in the popular first edition.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Amateurs' faulty reasoning and its remedies
Comment: This book reveals typical errors in the reasoning of chess players rated 1700 or less. The book focuses on various aspects of the middle game; e.g., using rooks, gaining space, etc.
Each chapter follows the same format: it begins with a set of guidelines on one aspect of the game (e.g., pawn structure); then a professional game exemplifying that aspect is analyzed; then the author has several amateurs play against him, each starting from the same position in the professional game. During each game, the amateur's reasoning is presented and the author analyzes the game. Each game ends with a set of tips based on the preceding game. The book ends with 26 annotated games between players whose ratings are those of the book's intended readers (1000-2000).
Amateurs typically make the following mistakes: (1) amateurs play without a plan (Silman's concept of "imbalances" (differences between the two sides' positions) is invaluable in forming such plans); (2) even if an amateur formulates a plan, either he doesn't follow it or he abandons it at the first setback (Silman makes useful remarks on avoiding intimidation and discouragement); (3) amateurs don't consider their opponent's plans or do so superficially; and (4) amateurs obsess about their opponent's king or their own king's safety.
Although amateurs concentrate on tactics (especially one- or two-move attacks), Silman incessantly urges amateurs to consider positional aspects. Unless you enjoy losing, you must learn both tactical and positional play.
I found this book very helpful. As a beginner, I recognized in my reasoning many of the errors that Silman highlights. Previously, once the opening phase ended, I was adrift -- but not now. Furthermore, before reading this book, I disdained positional play. However, once I began to apply Silman's suggestions, my play improved significantly (albeit after several bad losses initially) .
The book is suitable for beginners with 8 or more months experience. I recommend that every beginner buy this book and read it -- twice.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Learn the Reasons behind the Actions
Comment: This is a advanced chess book for the improving player. It is beyond tactics or tricks, but dives into the positional element of the game. It deals with imbalances, Knight verses Bishop endings. It has sections dealing with weak squares and where to attack the other party. This book allows the average chess player to see the board clearer. After reading the book one will have a better understanding of the development and future of the game. You learn to read the weaknesses of the pawn structure and the defense to choose the best game plan for victory. This book improved my ratings on Yahoo. I am up to 1551 with a strong win over a 1575.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This should be your first book in strategic play and planning
Comment: After giving "How to reassess your chess" such a bad review (one star) someone told me to take a look at Silman other book (Especially after he won the Chesscafe award for his latest book). And my opinion is that this is much better book for improvers. "The Amateur's Mind" is instructive (through the whole book) and gives a player (around 1500) a very good introduction in middle game strategic elements and planning.
I believe I have to look at "How to reassess your chess" again, but until then I would recommend "The Amateur's Mind" as one's first book (1500-1800) in strategy and planning and for instance "Strategic Play" (1900-->) by Mark Dvoretsky as a good second book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Common errors and misconceptions exposed!
Comment: In "The Amateur's Mind," a book by "How To Reassess Your Chess" author Jeremy Silman, Mr. Silman looks at many of the areas of a chess game and shows how to play them (or how not to play them). To emphasize his point, he shows games of himself vs. an amateur and shows the common errors and pitfalls the average amateur encounters in his play. If you learn from the mistakes, and follow Mr. Silman's example (he's always better than the amateur and does the "right thing"), you'll be a better player.
The book itself was helpful to me in that I, too, was an amateur (I didn't know my rating or anything like that, but I played at that level). Reading this book really helped me to think about how I played chess, and I think, certainly helped my play.
The problem with this book is that Mr. Silman is EXTREMELY critical. He always highlights the bad play of amateurs, and very, VERY little of the good. I was hoping for a more balanced outlook, but that's not what I found.
Still, the good outweighs the bad. After reading this book, I felt that I could feel what my opponents were thinking, and I knew how to respond. In fact, I'd call this book a chess-psychology book. Not only do we learn how the amateurs play, but we learn how they think (or at least how Mr. Silman's students think; I assume they represent the average amateur). Mr. Silman himself has written down what they verbally thought while playing some of these games, and often (with unnecessary harshness) points out if they're on the right mental track or not.
Included in the back are some exercises, which you should do after you've read all the chapters, understood them, and have absorbed the material from each. These exercises are good for testing what you've learned from this book.
This book, all in all, is very helpful, but not as much as Silman's masterpiece, "How to Reassess your Chess," but I think any chess player should have both: "Reassess" teaches YOU how to play a good game, and "Amateur's Mind" shows you how the opponent plays.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An OKAY book.
Comment: I was a 1900 rated (slow chess) player on ICC (Internet Chess Club, a very popular website that bunch of Grandmasters and International masters play on) when I picked this book up. (The Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Silman helped me go from 1300 to 1900, and I deeply appreciate that book.) The Strategy book already taught me positional chess, in a way, and through practice I was able to see weaknesses on the board and execute it better and better through process. But I was stuck on 1900 for like 4 months, and I didn't get better. So I thought maybe my thinking process was wrong. So I started reading this and found out lots of the stuff I already knew. But the best thing about this book is that it DEMONSTRATES to you how to make those imbalances he discussed in an actual game count. So I read it, not VERY detailed, but I read every single word, like reading a novel (in novel you just go through fast but you make sure you know what's going and that's what I did), and guess what, it got me from 1900 to 2100! I don't feel this book is advanced at all, since I'm a very postional-based type of player and not very tactical (maybe that's what keeping me from going higher in rating who knows).
Anyway, this is a very good book that teaches you the art of the game and how each piece should be used in a game. I liked it!
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