Chess Books

This book is laugh-out-loud-hilarious. The first time I read this story, I was giggling so hard that I could barely speak. A very cute story for young and old alike.

This rhythmic story to keeps cleverness of monkeys while "love conquers all". King Gorilla discovers a keg of vinegar water. He challenges anyone who can drink this new kind of water..can marry King Gorilla's beautiful daughter. (Catchy) All fail but the clever monkey(s). In the end she only marries for love.
A must-do story for you teller of tales!

This is awesome and fun reading; it's not a chess instructional book per se. It's not about laying out a course of study or recommending this tactics book or that endgame text. What we have is a collection of questions asked over the years by chessplayers seeking advice and tips and maybe just some encouragement. I believe that I've thought about these same questions myself more than once. You may have seen these questions in Chess Life or at ChessCafe.com but it still makes for thoughtful reading - unless you're now a bona fide master!

I'm a mediocre chessplayer who's bounced around with an over-the-board USCF "A" class rating for years. I'll play avidly for a year and then nothing for a year. Then the chess bug strikes again. So I've done alot of reading about tactics, middlegame strategy, openings, endgames, etc. And frankly, I'm not as convinced as I once was that learning (memorizing?) another opening variation is where it's at for me. What I'm looking for is a way to enjoy this game without frustration or obsession with a rating. I think if you read Q&A you might not get better but I think you'll enjoy the game more. A few years ago when I was in high school, I would've responded, "If I get better, then I'll enjoy it." Now, after dozens of books, hundreds of hours studying, and hundreds of games played, I realize that maybe enjoying chess is far more important than a number that only another chess geek would appreciate. Call it sour grapes or wising up to play for fun but I think Pandolfini is right.

A great gift for younger gamers, older gamers, casual fans, and chess aficionados.

I'm not a master, I'm not a tournament monster, and I like to read lots and lots of chess books as well as play. Before reading "Q & A Way in Chess" there were many questions I had about coaches, internet play, books to read, and mostly the general community of chess with special regard to adult players (18-???) who start playing after they have left 5th grade. There are so many opinions out there about "if you're old (meaning over 8) and start to play will you be doomed to be horrible", "if I play speed chess will I be crippled in my long games", and "who's opinion should I trust when it's just me in contest?". It's strange, but there are no real games or tactics in this volumne ... but after reading it I started beating players I was previously not able to victor. There's a calming when reading this book. I'm not alone. Others have asked the same questions. Masters are NOT machines and hard work is just that ... hard.

I'm so happy that this book exists and it's currently being recommended to others in the hopes that they see light. I was also enriched by some of the more hidden conversation that was placed in the book. There were paragraphs here and there that seemed to be general statements but if reviewed did offer me some great enlightenment. Many of those are absolute favorite gems of mine and before I join a serious match or read anything on chess I read these insights of Bruce's and seem to get more from my play.

As I have stated, I am no master and for a tome that does not offer "training" in the traditional sense I have started winning over players above me. There is no one place these gems are kept in this book, they are all over scattered cover to cover. You can expect to see basic questions and questions that seem "stupid" from the inquirer. There are levels of conversation that even my children understand.

Excellent book, search for the gems!

great for kids it doesnt do much but its better thn lots of books like. I also recommend CA-ART program its awesome

this book is rumored to increase your rating by 200 points. my chess coach says that this is true and has tried it on people. get this book if u want a rating jump.

Gambit strikes again: here it is one more opening book you - >2000 chess player - can't live without. The book presents 288 pages, divided along 11 chapters, an introduction and an index of variations. The first chapter is a strategic introduction highlighting 8 situations who are peculiar to this defence: it will be very useful to the lower rated players. Respect to the typical Gambit presentation, the introduction is the novelty here, it says that this British publishing house intends to gain the attention of lower rated players usually attracted by the more simple frame presented by Everyman books: as a fact the detailed explanation part isn't confined to the introduction, but all along the book you'll find words explaining what's goin' on.
The two finnish authors talk about the state of the art in all the main variation not forgetting the so-called Nimzo-Indian Hybrid who is actually very popular among White players desiring to avoid main theoretical lines, you'll find 40 pages about it.
As usual with Gambit opening books, we have plenty of stuff, tons of games and analysis. You won't find complete games, of course: this is the gambit style who allows their authors filling books with a lot of strictly opening theory, you can find complete games anywhere.
Overall this is a great book and it will be the starting point for every chess player interested into the QID for many years to come, a rare accomplishment in the era of huge databases.

This is an excellent opening book that provides a very good balance between variations and verbal explanations. Most importantly: The authors do not shy away from making clear judgements about the different lines - which one is good or bad, which one drawish, etc. This exercise is in fact the only justification for producing an opening book in the age of the databases.

"The Bloss book provides a standard method for determining the approximate United States Chess Federation rating of a person who solves the Mate-Rater problems...a good system...I would not hesitate to buy the book..." --Personal Computing

"Rate Your Own Chess" is a unique and timely addition to the chess canon. Chess enthusiasts of all levels can test their skill without undergoing extensive play against officially rated experts. This newly revised edition incorporates computer-chess as well as descriptive notation throughout for universal application.

The problem-oriented format itself will broaden your repertoire and hone your abilities, as dozens of USCF-rated players who tested the system discovered. You will proceed from relatively easy one-step-to-mate problems to two- and three-move-to-mate stumpers, checking your improvement periodically on the rating tables.

Over 85 illustrations provide the visually and psychologically important over-the-board perspective of actual competition.

This very practical companion for those idle times waiting in line or on a long airline flight. A must for any serious match playing chess player.

It contains a graduated set of mate -- rating problems (ranging from mates in three and up) that range in difficulty from moderate to very difficult -- to be solved in under two minutes. There are warm-up problems leading up to the actual "Mate-raters." These are non-trivial problems taken from actual match play with solutions given in the back of the book.

Scores conform to the FIDE scoring system and range from 1600 FIDE points (a class "D" Player) up to 2300 ("Master") depending on how quickly the problems are solved. Various tactics and strategies are grouped in an effort to stress given themes or weakness.

It contains 85 problems with 65 mate-raters. It is one of my most prized possessions.The diagrams are clear easy to analyze three-dimensional pictorials. A valuable contribution to any chess library. Five Stars

After only a few reading, my 3yrs old daughter fills in the sentences as I read the glibe and rhytmic text. The synopsis says "sure to be embraced by boys"; do not let this misguide you from purchasing a fun and mischievous book.

After only a few reading, my 3yrs old daughter fills in the sentences as I read the glibe and rhytmic text. The synopsis says "sure to be embraced by boys"; do not let this misguide you from purchasing a fun and mischievious book.

This is a rare and special book, along with Gligoric's book on the Nimzo-Indian. It has its own unique organization, emphasizing common positions, and it has tremendous internal cross-references. It is not biased toward white or black, but is a comprehensive study of all major lines resulting after 4. e3. It is a rare breed of chess book, one that should be found and treasured. It is much more than a mere openings book. It is a classic.

This book covers the 4. e3 variations of the Nimzo Indian. The Nimzo Indian is the only opening that I play with Black AND white. This book gives me all I need to play this line for both sides. You see IM Pleister tells the STORY of this variation. He has no axe to grind. He just lays it all out. Recent game references abound, the typeface is good, Diagrams are good - though as always I could stand more of them. There are lots of complete games -- old ones new ones and the classics. The games are situated with the lines they refer to not in a group at the back. Overall, I prefer the way ICE has done it. An excellent book.

I've either read or browsed all of Pandofini's books and I feel this is his best work. Using the format of move-by-move analysis of six games by rising Russian masters, he illustrates all of the basic strategic motifs, the "meat and potatoes" of the game for a beginning or intermediate player. At the time I read it as a newbie I did not have any strategy classics such as Nimzovich's "My System"; I learned many of the same concepts from this book and a few others. In addition to it's instructional value, "Russian Chess" is quite entertaining to read. For chess history buffs he includes pertinent quotes from the greats in between moves, revealing both their thoughts and general philosophy of play. The book is quite humorous in places as well. All in all, a very practical addition to any library.

This is a veritable textbook on how to conduct a complete game. It emphasizes the game as a WHOLE, not just opening, middle, and end parts. Six games are given with EACH move given commentary and/or analysis. Questions are given to the reader at key points during each game to stress certain points. GrandMaster and past World Champion anecdotes are also given to help accentuate these points. This book is a joy to read. It may be a little too simple for B-class and above players, but "you can always learn something from anyone"(Robert J. Fischer). Highly recommended for beginners to 1600s.

First saw the book back in 1979. Bought the book in (May) 1981 and studied the program. Bought a TRS-80 Model 1 (second hand) in 1982. With the computer was the SARGON program. I played a few games on level 1 and it won. I thought I knew the program, but it still beat me. I took the program apart line by line using the book and started to win. I got up to level 4, of the 6 levels, and I would beat it more time than it beat me. (A game would take 2 or 3 days.) The book is the heart and soul to the program. It IS the program.

My first chess program was Sargon, running on Apple Computer. It was very impressive and beat me easily. My next two Sargon programs (II and III) were for Commodore 64. I guessed even my Fidelity Chess Computer ran on one of these versions of Sargon. I was always curious about the internal working mechanism of these programs. I tried to study the machine codes (6502 and 6510) of Sargon and Sargon III, but gave up about 10% into the process. I found this book from my school library, but at that time my programming experience was weak and had no tools to test the program in the book. Later, on the job, I found some discarded Z80 motherboards, and I was back to study this Sargon program. It is a very good way to understand how the internal program works. Now I have studied two more programs GNU Chess 5.00 and Phalanx, Sargon was still a "good-date" to remember. Sargon was written for micro-machine when memory was at the premium; therefore the code was in machine code. It took lots of efforts to go through it but it is worth it. With high-speed CPUs and plenty of memory newer computers provided, most programs are now in C or higher-level languages. These higher-level languages help a lot to speed through the programs. I have a copy of Sargon book. It is one of the historical documents of chess playing programs in particular and of artificial intelligence in general.
One more point, Sargon was the first program written for microcomputer to compete with other more dedicated and/or specialized chess engines, and Sargon had won some honorable prizes. If you can afford one for your chess program library, keep one.

This is a great work on the Scandinavian Defence with 3... Qd6. This is an excellent opening to play, as you have a good chance of knowing it much better than white. The book is light on instruction, heavy on variations. But there is a nice history section and good sumamries of chapters to let you know the overview of what's going on. The format of the book is quite a bit like the Blackmar-Diemer Keybook II by Sawyer, with 40 base games, filled with hundreds of game fragments. There is an excellent index and bibliography. Plus, the book has the excellent Russell Enterprises production values. I have used this book a lot and really like it.

This is one of the better opening books I've seen, and I've seen a lot. Regarding the Qd6 Scandinavian, Melts argues it is an offbeat but viable line that offers black many opportunities for reaching reasonable middlegames with counterplay.

As another reviewer noted, the book is heavy on theory. Melts provides comprehensive coverage of the Qd6 Scandinavian via 40 stem games with hundreds of other games and lines included. While most books that use the "model game" format (as opposed to the "tree of variations" format) fail to include many reasonable moves, Melts' comprehensive work does not suffer from this problem. The games and variations have minimal text commentary (though there are some Informator symbols in the lines). Normally this would be a problem for most players, myself included (USCF 1500s), but Melts finishes each game with a brief summary of the merits of the main variations demonstrated in each game, such as which lines are dubious, risky, solid, or offer the best chances for counterplay. For these reasons the book is excellent as a reference (since so many moves are included) and for picking a repertoire using the Qd6 Scandinavian, but there is little if any material on how to play the resulting middlegame positions. The book also has a well-organized index of variations that makes it very easy to find the lines you are interested in (i.e. after a game), though as always one must look out for transpositions. If you are serious about playing the Qd6 Scandinavian, you simply must have this book.

I should also note that this book works well with Andrew Martin's Chessbase DVD "The Scandinavian the Easy Way". Martin does a good job of picking out lines for a black repertoire using the Qd6 Scandinavian, and the Melts book is the perfect reference for looking up the "book" continuation when your opponent deviates from Martin's lines or for supplementing Martin's material.

If you are considering playing the Qd6 Scandinavian as part (or all) of your black repertoire against 1.e4, I would recommend getting Martin's DVD to see if you like the opening, then follow up by getting this book.

Plusses:
- Well organized
- Excellent reference w/ comprehensive theoretical coverage

Minuses:
- Minimal content on the resulting middlegames.

Despite being light on explanations, I still think the book deserves five stars.