Chess Books

This book is great for everyone from the beginner to the expert. It shows basic things like how the pieces move, and it gives the reader some advanced movements too. The photos in the book are also quite helpful. I'd recommend this for anyone who wanted to either learn how to play or improve their game.

This is an excellent book to start with for the beginners.To study the games You do not need a chess board or chessmen to follow. the games are presented in a contineous flow of diagrams move after move to study .The language is free flowing,clear,and attractive(interesting) .I gave this book away to my sister for her use and she spoiled it.Now I imported a book from abebooks(UK)for more serious study.You can learn a lot from it.One particular set of advise for all playersIn the beginning stage of training or study is the paragraph on page 111- "what does he threaten?"When it is your turn to move ...(before)moving a piece to a particular square you must look before where you leaps, try to discover the plan of your opponent.There is an example of this principle by an illustrated chess game with move by move comment There are many valuable advise and examples given for new comers and beginners.This is one of my extremely valuable asset and also for other chess book collectors' libray.I love this book very much.

First published in 1978. The 1978 world chess championship in the Philippines was the most riotous of modern times. Pitting the Soviet defector Korchnoi against the golden boy of the Soviet establishment - Karpov - the players were not just content to hammer each other over the chess board; they also enlisted such weird assistants as the parapsychologist Dr Vladimir Zukhar and orange-robed gurus from the Ananda Marga sect. The cast list was completed by President Marcos, his shoe-collecting First Lady Imelda and a gaggle of shady characters from the KGB. Grandmaster Ray Keene was Korchnoi's chief second during this wild chess extravaganza and this book tells the inside story of one of the most exotic chess competitions ever staged.

Raymond Keene is a British Chess Champion, and the first British Player to achieve a FIDE (World Chess Federation) Grandmaster norm. He was awarded the OBE for services to chess in 1985. He is Chess Correspondent of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Spectator, and The International Herald Tribune. He is a prolific author of chess books, several of which are classics of the genre. He has organised three World Chess Championships.

Patrick Wolff has provided a personal an comprehensive view of the World Championship match between Kasparov and Vishy Anand. His position as one of Vishy Anand's seconds allows him to provide inside information on the interesting event of a championship chess match.

Wolff provides a background of the match, including how it was planned, including political and financial issues which arose before the match. He gives a biography of each player including an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses (as many as a World Champion and challenger would have) as players, illustrating these with an annotated game by each.

One of the most interesting parts for me was his description of Anand's preparation for the match. From the selection of his team of master players to help him to the sessions of training, study, and analysis the team did, it was a very in depth look at how world-class players prepare for such an event. Wolff talked not only about the science of chess, but the psychology behind playing in a chess match against the champ and how this affected selection of openings and variations.

Then we move onto the match itself. After a brief but good introduction to the game--which included how Anand was feeling or what the general match strategy was, Wolff presents some of the most detailed analysis I have seen. Sometimes, the variations and analysis for a single move will cover a page or more. In a couple games, Wolff does not give much analysis, noting that some of the analysis is not "public domain" yet as they have not been played in a game and it was privileged information from Anand's preparation for the match. Nonetheless, the amount and depth of analysis is incredible. That being said, some of this is not for the beginning player. As an intermediate player, I still find much of it over my head. However, Wolff provides enough "text" (actually, he provides plenty) to keep me informed at the level I can understand until my own knowledge of the game increases and I can fully appreciate his detailed analysis.

Some people may be put off by this much analysis, but it helped me to appreciate the depth of understanding these two players possess. And for strong players (stronger than myself), I can imagine that this depth would be inspiring in their own efforts to understand chess.

For experienced and advanced players, enjoy and learn from the analysis! I would not recommend this as an instructional book for beginners, but it was not meant to be such. Instead, this is a very detailed and comprehensive look at this World Championship match.

This book teaches you about how computer "scientists" have tried to make a program that can beat the world's best chess player. It talks about programs from the '50s to '90s with moves and diagrams about the games. It has pictures of the authors of the programs such as Robert Hyatt programmer of Cray Blitz or Dave Kittinger author of WChess. It is highly detailed and shows you how a computer chess program plays. If you get this book be prepared for a real lesson on computer chess. You'd be surprised how chess programs have gone from losing to a complete beginner to beating a world champion!

This book is just another typically fine book from Shamkovich and Schiller.They give a great account of what Kasparov tries to get in the opening and how he goes about them.The introduction is also great...the authors tell you how to develop an opening repertoire and what Kasparov does when his preparation goes awry.A great buy.

Gambit - the british publishing house led by GM's Nunn and Chandler and FM Burgess - nowadays has the best catalog of chess books. Janigawa's new work is a fine additon to Gambit's catalog: a deep and well researched book. 11 chapters analyze all you need to know to play fianchetto lines against both KID and Grunfeld, while a index of variations at the end of the book will be a practical way to easily find the specific line you're lookin' for. Though verbal explanations are good and numerous this is - as all the rest of Gambit opening guides - a book addressed to Masters and stronger players, too.

This is my favorite book on the King's Indian Defence. First, there is a tremedous introduction by Yuri Averbakh himself, where he annotates some seminal games in the variation, and explains how the final move order was achieved. Second, the Averbakh is a great variation (Bg5 on the 6th move, delaying Nf3). Third, you will get to use it a lot, as many black players play the King's Indian. Fourth, the book is brilliantly done, with tons of analysis and commentary, involving all major lines you will see (each chapter, which discusses a line, as a hlepful conclusion at the end). Fifth, at 128 pages, the book is not overwhelming, but it is just the right size. Just a great book, I have been very happy with it.

I don't know how long I have had this book now, but I would say it has been AT LEAST a month ... I purchased very shortly after it became available. (The release date was like June of this year, but they may have come out with it a little early.)

First you should know I am a LIFE-Master at chess, for many years now I have made my living by teaching chess on the Internet, building chess web pages, and writing about the game. (You will find a deeply annotated game in this line on my web site.)

The next thing I should tell you is that if you are a beginner or have played chess less than 1-2 years, DON'T buy this book!

But let's say you are not a beginner, and you feel experienced enough to tackle a book of this kind. There are still a lot of things you should know.

First off, the King's Indian Defense is an EXTEMELY complicated and difficult opening. I played my first chess tournaments in the 1960's but did not begin playing frequently until the very early `70's. I purchased the giant book on the K.I.D. (the hard-back one by Barden, Hartston, & Keene); and I began to study. I memorized literally hundreds of the lines in the book. But when I played this difficult opening in tournaments, I usually lost, and often lost badly. (Eventually I abandoned the opening entirely - or at least gave it up for over 20 years.) And I have heard of similar experiences by other players who went on to become experts or even masters at chess. AFTER I broke Master, I bought a few books on this opening and began studying again. And although I did better than before, my experiences with this opening were less than perfect. (I relate this just so you will understand what a difficult opening the "King's Indian Defense" really is.)

This is not to say that the King's Indian is unplayable ... far from it!! Geller, Boleslavsky, Bronstein - and many other Soviet players of that generation mapped this dynamic opening out. ("Before E. Geller, we did not understand the King's Indian." - Mikhail Botvinnik.) And of course Bobby Fischer used the K.I.D. so much ... it was really his "meat and potatoes." And Garry Kasparov has also used the King's Indian quite a bit ... and won many beautiful and brilliant games with it. (Many modern GM's use this opening today.)

The next thing you will want to know is that this is a high-quality book, by a publisher (Batsford), which has a lot of experience publishing chess books. Nice and sturdy flex-cover, a good job of translation, good editing, a good font, excellent diagrams, pages with little bleed-through, a very solid job of organizing, etc.

The author, Svetozar Gligoric - who is getting older and is probably past 70 now - was once one of the best players in the World. (FIDE rated him as being in the top ten in the world in the late 50's and early 60's. `ChessMetrics' says he was in the `TOP 50' in the world from the late 1940's ... all the way until 1980!!! His peak seems to have been in '58 or '59 when he was ranked as # 6 in the world with a rating of 2682. ChessBase's player database says his best ELO was in January of 1976, {he was 52}; with an official rating of 2575.)

But don't let my discussion of this man's age throw you off. While his best playing days might be behind him, this guy has probably forgotten more about chess than most of us will ever know. He has faced such titans of chess as Botvinnik, Fischer AND Kasparov over the chessboard. He has won the Championship of his country - Yugoslavia - many times. He was an official Candidate for the World Championship numerous times as well. He was once the strongest player outside of the USSR and is also one of the pioneers of this opening. (I very fondly remember his "Game of the Month" in the `Chess Life' magazine. It was my favorite column for years!) He has written dozens of highly acclaimed chess books in Europe and is also a recognized and revered chess teacher.

So are we ready to talk about the specifics of this particular book now?

This book is ONLY about ONE opening, The King's Indian Defense. Further, it is ONLY about a sub-system of this opening known as "The Mar del Plata Variation." (Really none other than Fischer pioneered this system - he above anyone else is the player whose sparkling victories inspired others to play this line.) This line occurs after the following moves: 1.d4, Nc6; 2.c4, g6; 3.Nc3, Bg7; 4.e4, d6; 5.Nf3, 0-0; 6.Be2, e5!; 7.0-0, Nc6; 8.d5, Ne7. THIS is the Mar del Plata system ... and nothing else! (Black's position looks cramped, but he has many dynamic possibilities.) The very first game of the book on page # 12, is the contest: GM M. Najdorf - GM S. Gligoric; Mar del Plata, 1953.

This book is laid out in three main sections, a total of 14 chapters. There is a list of illustrative games, a historical introduction, the main part of the book, and a very good index of variations.

I have spent many hours with this book. I have looked at least 15 of the games; several I have analyzed in detail. In a few of these, I have checked every line and note with a strong chess computer program. (Fritz 8.0) I have found one or two (minor) errors ... and one line where it appears a move pair was left out. But overall the quality of this book is extremely high. Very good analysis and explanations as well. Some of the illustrative games are superb!

[Now in case you think I am blowing smoke: here are a few of the books I own on this line ... and I won't even mention much older books: and both by Nunn and Burgess; by GM J. Gallagher; by Colin McNab; by Margeir Petursson; by Graham Burgess; by GM A. Soltis; by IM John Watson; by M. Thomas; several INFORMANT monographs on this opening, etc. I also own all five of "The Encyclopedia's of Chess Openings," and many INFORMANTS to boot.] So when I say I have seen a few books on this opening, you should take my word on it.

This is a high-class book with fantastic analysis by a world-class expert on this line. My only really valid criticism of this book? Since the late 1980's or early `80's, the "Bayonet Variation," (9.b4!?) has dominated GM Praxis in this line. But this variation is the last chapter in the book, and the book is dominated by analysis of 9.Ne1. (The author has also chosen many of his own games, when a perusal of NIC Year-books would show other games are more important.)

Now let me give you some advice: If you are not a Master, you should get the following books: Nunn's Chess Openings; Modern Chess Opening's, 14th edition by Korn and de Firmian; and one other all-round book on the King's Indian. If you are a really serious competitor, you might need both of the books on this opening by Nunn and Burgess. If you are below 1500, you will probably need at least one good "How To Play" the King's Indian. I also recommend you take at least a few lessons from a teacher in your area to insure you understand the basic ideas of this line. (Barring this, find a player who is at least rated higher than you who might be willing to be your study partner.)

In closing, let me say this is a great book. My only regret was that it was not around when I first started playing this line! And if you are a postal player, this book is a MUST!!

hey this book is awesome i definitely recommend it to anyone who likes picture books and begginers reading books