Review by Brian Todd, instructor at Chess4Life

Silman's Complete Endgame Course: Beginner to Master by Jeremy Silman

Most chess players who have perused the huge variety of chess instruction manuals have come to the conclusion that the relevance and presentation of material is critical to their completion of any detailed study program.  Indeed, many volumes of "complete" endgame theory sits on the shelves of many a player, largely unused.

With his new publication International Master and renowned chess instructor Jeremy Silman has created a book for chess players who wants to improve their endgame play, but who find wading through encyclopedic tomes boring and downright painful.  Silman's method in this 500+ page book is to only give players the information they need to advance to the next level in their chess understanding.

While this philosophy shares much with the Lev Alburt methodology, Silman takes his work further by organizing the chapters into "what you personally need to know so your endgame IQ is equal to your playing strength".  Thus, the book is organized into rating classes and each chapter only includes the endgames that are most likely to arise in practical play.

Here you will find a treasure trove of endgame information clearly categorized and readily accessible.  You can jump right to your rating level or quickly move through the beginning chapters, filling in any holes you may have along the way, then take the end of chapter tests to see if you truly have mastered the material presented.

The final chapter in the book presents endgames solely for enjoyment and are not a part of the study program that Silman elucidated in the previous 430 pages.  The endgames are still categorized and are still very instructive.  My favorite comes from Smyslov-Guimard, Mar del Plata 1962.

(solution below)

Solution -- 1. cxb6!! Re1+; 2. Rxe1 Qxb5 3. bxa7 Qc6; 4. Rb1 Kh7; 5. Rb8.  1-0

Review by Brian Todd, instructor at Chess4Life

The Survival Guide to Competitive Chess by John Emms

John Emms, a leading British Grandmaster with more that 25 books to his credit, is the author of this very instructive collection of practical information for the competitive player.  Drawing on his own over-the-board experience, Emms covers such perennial issues as calculation, time trouble, and avoiding mistakes.

In the first chapter Emms offers the reader a simple method for avoiding blunders by starting at the very beginning of the calculation process.  The 'check every move' method is intended to make the player aware of every possibility so as not to miss any obvious moves by the opponent.  In fact, the first chapter begins with one of my favorite quotes, a quote by GM Larry Evans, "It is far more important not to do anything stupid than to create brilliant combinations."  Indeed, the CEM method will help eliminate simple blunders caused by oversights.  However, as with any rule in chess, Emms realizes that this method works better in some situations rather than others and goes into detail as to when the maxim should be applied.

While the chapter on calculation is the second longest in the book, Emms takes care to intersperse advice on over-the-board habits such as maintaining a poker face.  From page 44, "Chess is a game of information, and any information you are able to withhold from your opponent is useful...it's possible that your opponent will be come nervous, see ghosts that don't exist and with the pressure building make a mistake...".  Emms also quotes directly from the FIDE rulebook on the rules for offering a draw, the use of a mobile phone and much more.

In by far the largest chapter in the book, "Winning, Losing and Drawing", Emms focuses on battling last round nerves, converting winning positions, poor trades, grinding out endgame wins, dealing with bad positions and even proper etiquette.  This chapter includes a large number of games and it will pay to study it closely and even revisit it from time to time.

My favorite chapter in the book is on opening play and challenges the reader to take a hard look at his or her opening repertoire and examine its logical consistency and relation to the readers style of play.  Emms also provides several methods by which to test the strength and weaknesses of a repertoire by using computer analysis.

As a chess instructor, I have found this book to have a wealth of practical information for my students and also for myself.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who plays competitive chess on a regular basis.

Review by Brian Todd, instructor at Chess4Life

Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player by GM Lev Alburt and GM Sam Palatnik
 
Chess Strategy is book number five in Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course Series and is solely dedicated to teaching beginner and intermediate players the principles of correct middlegame play.  Alburt and Palatnik have organized the book into 12 chapters which are based on the elements of positional chess as formulated by the first world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz.  The author's reasoning is that by learning these positional elements players will be able to correctly evaluate a position and forumlate a correct strategic plan.

The book's layout is very straightforward and direct, with each chapter containing a handful of simply annotated game segments and complete games along with many important rules of thumb.  For example, "in order to win, it is often necessary to create at least two weak points in the enemy camp", "the main occupation of any open file is the eventual occupation of the 7th or 8th rank", and my personal favorite, "he who is afraid of an isolated pawn should not play chess!", are maxims that are intended to help players with their middlegame planning and the decision making process.

Following each chapter are practice exercises as further study material.  See if you can figure out the correct continuation from Keres-Guti, Tel Aviv 1964.  As a hint, this exercise comes from the chapter entitled, "When a Complex of Squares is Weak."

While, to the more experienced player, some of the prose may seem overwrought with simplicity, the material contains many classical examples of strong positional play that should be a part of every players repository of knowledge. 

Review by Brian Todd, instructor at Chess4Life

Kramnik, My Life and Games by Vladimir Kramnik and Iakov Damsky.

Published in 2000, Soon-to-be world champion Vladimir Kramnik teamed up with chess author and radio personality, Iakov Damsky for an insightful journey through the rapid ascent of one of the chess world's greatest talents. In this collection of personal narrative and annotated games, Damsky limits himself to the biographical sections of the book and leaves the young chess prodigy to explain the psychological and technical aspects of the 179 annotated games included.

Kramnik speaks at length about his training habits, preparation against world class players such as Topalov, Adams, Anand and Kasparov, as well as his mindset before, during and after the major tournaments of his career.  There is also a wealth of information that the average player will find of very practical importance.  For instance, one of this author's favorite passages can be found on page 41, "Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess.  That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapid play in favor of serious chess.  Since, as Seneca used to say, he who is everywhere is nowhere."
 
Kramnik also talks about the life of a chess professional and the toll it's pressures can exact.  From page 11, "one needs to devote some 10 hours a day to chess and to everything connected with it...every month I have to look through some ten thousand games, so as not to miss any new ideas and trends."
 
For anyone interested in the life of a living chess legend, or even if you just want to play through the games at a leisure pace, Kramnik, My Life and Games is a great addition to any chess library.

Review by Brian Todd, instructor at Chess4Life

The Chess Training Pocket Book, written by three-time U.S. Champion and International Grandmaster Lev Alburt, is the perfect companion for the aspiring player. Extremely portable, this book can be taken anywhere and is filled with entertaining and valuable chess lessons for players at levels below master strength.

Alburt's main goal in this book, a side publication to his popular and informative Comprehensive Chess Course, is to give the student the 300 most critical positions necessary to become a strong tournament player. He has distilled these exercises from his decades of teaching experience in the Soviet Union and in the U.S., and has presented them in clear and concise fashion that will save the reader many hours of study.

Alburt believes strongly that in order to become a strong tournament player you must know only a limited number of essential positions and concepts. The example Alburt gives in the introduction to the book is that "in order to become a strong player, you do not need to know hundreds of King and Pawn endgame positions--but only 12 key positions." He also contends that in order to be a master, only 50 positions need to be mastered. By presenting only those positions which are most likely to arise in play, he believes that the student will achieve greater results in less time.

The introduction also gives a cogent and involved explanation of how to think about a position by finding the right balance between intuition, analysis and time management skills. Working hand-in-hand with this is the lack of thematic organization. When you study a position from the pages, the reader has no hint about whether a tactical motif or a positional decision lurks around the corner. In my opinion, this gives the student a more genuine learning experience and promotes the use of Alburt's thinking method.

I would like to close with one of my favorite positions from the book and conclude that Alburt has done an exemplary job at creating a pocket training manual that can be taken anywhere and used by many to improve their chess playing skills.

Diagram Alekhine-Friman, 1924