Games Books

This is a very useful book. For one, Banzhaf traces the "hero's" progress consecutively from one tarot card to the next and frames his hero's progress according to an understood direction of enlightenment. Each card is viewed as evolutionary stages that may potentially yield insight into our current spiritual, material or social placement and well-being. What I find insightful and comprehensive about Banzhaf's schema is that Banzhaf explains the "hero's" path through the use of many different religions, myths and motifs, which serve to encompass a broad perspective on what enlightenment means. This is no small feat, since the Waite deck, which Banzhaf prominently displays (as on the front cover), is very Judea-Christian. This broadening of the hero's journey, to encompass a universal experience, manages to make the heroes journey a universal journey on becoming oneself; and it therefore functions well in a number of spiritual and religious frameworks.

Banzhaf-as is characteristic of him-uses brilliantly practical language. His layout is intelligent and well presented. Each tarot card is summarized in a chart, which appears at the end of each essay, and which has the following layout: Title: Keywords for (the tarot card's name goes here); Categories: Archetype, Task, Goal, Risk, and Feeling in life. As you can see, Banzhaf's focus is always lucid and balanced.

I do wish, however, that Banzhaf had extended his approach to encompass the minor arcana, too. In the minor arcana there is also a feeling of progression, which is not quite so clean and neat as in the major arcana. The minor arcana exposes the many side paths and loopholes, which the hero will meet and be challenged with. One can say, that they express the minute details of the hero's' experience, which I feel could have been quite innovatively placed in this hero's journey. However, my comment is not a criticism. Rather, it is a suggestion, which any tarot reader can meditate on. Since, Banzhaf's has the gift of lucidity and practical focus, I just wish that he had considered a broader and more complex schema.

Overall, I think this book is a well-written addition to any tarot card reader's library, and I do not think that it is too difficult for a beginner. In fact, this book has the uncanny ability to grow with you as you progress in your tarot card understanding, which mimics the "hero's" own growth. Of course, this is whole point. You will come to understand that you are the hero, and that both your paths are alike.

I'm by no means a Tarot, psychology or any other sort of scholar. What I am is a person who has been deeply fascinated by the place of enlightment found at the intersection of Tarot, psychology, and mythology. I itch to relate the Hero myth to Jung, Jung to Tarot, Tarot to the Hero Myth.

This book satisfactorily scratched all those itches, and more. It is a pleasure to read visually and in terms of the thought it provokes. I don't believe anyone could walk away from reading this book without having been enriched in many ways. Its diversity in the cultural, mythological, philosophical, and artistic traditions upon which it draws is enormous. This book could make a fine basis for teaching a university course in a number of disciplines.

I will leave you, gentle Amazon reader, to the wisdom of other reviewers, but I urge your consideration of this book. I believe you will not be sorry.

Enjoy.

If you know something about the Tarot cards, you may find TAROT AND THE JOURNEY OF THE HERO by Hajo Banzhaf contains familiar material as he agrees with much of what has been written elsewhere by Joseph Campbell and other experts. However, Banzhaf is extremely articulate, his writing clearly stated and beautifully illustrated, and his exploration of the links between the arcane language of the ancients and modern Jungian psychology rich and comprehensive.

If you are not familiar with the Tarot cards, Banzhaf's book is a good place to begin, especially if you have an interest Western literature, music, and/or the visual arts -- including Medieval and Renaissance paintings, German philosophy, and films by the Fargo Brothers such as "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Banzhaf is a very educated man who has studied religious and/or mythological tales and/or classical stories and appears to have an in-depth knowledge of the religious and/or philosophical nature of humans. He not only interprets key myths and tales, he explains the content of artworks from ancient India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Italy, and Medieval Europe used to illustrate his text.

Banzhaf uses the Waite and Marseilles decks to illustrate each of the Major Arcana. Although he appreciates much of the content of the Waite deck, he challenges some of the changes Waite made relative to older decks. Banzhaf eschews discussion of the Minor Arcana suggesting these cards are more recent and may be nothing more than playing cards or cards for fortune telling. On the other hand, he views the 22 cards of Major Arcana (the Fool and his 21 stations) as the organizing principle for the classic tale of the hero -- whether Moses or Parzifal, Galahad or Ra, Gilgamesh or Jesus -- and the core story of every human life.

Banzhaf lays out the cards of the Major Aracana sequentially and divides the layout into two major paths -- the path of the daytime sun (active) and the path of the nighttime moon (passive). He suggests that each soul must follow this path to reach paradise, heaven or the spritual world however it is defined. The daytime path has to do with becoming EGO, the worldly individual. The nighttime path is more difficlut and many become snared like the hanged man, slowly twisting in the wind. The nightime path involves the spiritual life where the gate is narrow and the way is hard.

This is a beautiful book, and although I bought the paperback, I plan to purchase the hardcover since I will be referring to the book again..and again. As Banzhaf says, "If we look to the path as a spiral, that gradually leads us to what is Highest, then each turn on this spriral corresponds to one hero's journey. Seen in this manner, as long as we are traveling, we will return to all twenty-one stations over and over, yet--at least we hope--this will always be on a somewhat higher level. At the uppermost point of the path, but really only there, does this last card mean the unity of all things."

An entirely unique approach to the Major Arcana, returning us to A Sacred Process available in the Deep Minds of us all.

Fine illustrations. A brilliant mind. One can only marvel that the book is so cheap.

If you're looking for a book to help you with "readings," this is not the book for you. If you're looking for a book sharing deep insights into Tarot (the reading of which itself is a species of Initiation), this IS the book for you.

I've been a student of the Tarot off and on for 40+ years - and canNOT express what a delight it was to find this book.

An excellent book, worth the price for the artwork alone. Banzhaf offers an insightful look at relating Jungian psychology and the Tarot. His take on the Fool's Journey goes deeper than most. One thing that I liked was that he talked about the journey in middle age as well as the coming of age journey. One thing I didn't like was the fact that he focused only on heterosexual development and in fact commented that only those who had a sexual relationship with a person of the opposite sex could develop.

I just finished this book. I have 3 little kids, so it took me about 2 years. This is a fun tactics book. As other reviews have said before, the problems are arranged by themes, and they are *hard*. Some problems go as deep as 6 moves. Others are just brilliancies that some of us will never think of.

To me, the biggest value of this book is that it makes you work under time pressure. Like in a tournament game, you don't have infinite time to find the winning combination. You must learn to manage your time. You can't just sit on a given position and keep going through it in your head endlessly. You must work out all variations and replies fairly quickly and make a move.

The positions in this book are all taken from real games. Sometimes the losing side doesn't choose the best reply, and hence that's why he/she loses. I have wasted a lot of time on some problems because I didn't see a forced win only to find out that the defending side didn't chose the optimal move.

One example is problem 398. 1...Rxe1 is not forced, the king can just move to f8 and give up the rook. A losing proposition, but it sure beats getting mated on the next move! Problem 402's solution is also not optimal play. 1.Nxd7 Qxd7 2.Bxe4 is better (Fritz8) than the given line. There are a few of these.

I would advise you to only purchase this book if you are going to devote the time to go through it right. Use a board, a chess clock and be honest with yourself. Once you think you have the winning combination, write all the moves down, make your first move, and hit the clock. If you followed the main line, and went wrong on a 3rd or 4th move inside the combination don't give yourself full credit.

Will this book make you a better player? I guess as much as any other tactics book that you really work on. There is nothing special on this book that will suddenly transform you.

This book is instructive and fun. I really enjoyed it. I will go through it again in a few months.

I just finished the final test in this book this week after going thru it off and on for nearly ten years (??). When I began the book I was a rank beginner rated under 1000 USCF and when I finished I'm now a mid-1500 player. This book has some fantastic problems...I mean some of them are just art incarnate. That was probably the thing I enjoyed most about this book ; the fact that some of these moves were possible and actually won! My final score was woefully pathetic partly due to the fact that this was one of my first tactics books. And also because I used up enormous amounts of time trying to figure out every line I could with every problem. The time factor in this book will really help tournament players since it adds a pressure element that one would have in an actual game. But it also forces you to either abandon a problem you stubbornly want to solve or burn points using extra time and then possibly not solve it anyway. I would recommend this book to anyone who really wants to elevate his or her tactical ability but be sure to have a solid grounding in basic tactics first. A good workup to this book would be when you were very easily solving problems from a book like Chess Tactics for Students which I found very helpful recently.

Since this book is in the form of 56 tests, to be taken seriously, as if one were playing a tournament game, I have one obvious complaint. Namely, why tell the reader what the theme is?

Why say it is "double attack," or "discovered attack," or "discovered check," or "pin," or "diversion," or "decoy," or "interference," or "defence-elimination," or "square vacation," or "line-opening," or "utilization of open files," or "diagonal-opening," or "utilization of open diagonals," or "smothered mate," or "blocking," or "x-ray" or "overloading," or "back rank weakness," or "weakness of the second rank," or "zwischenzug," or "passed pawns," or "simplifying combinations," or "stalemating combinations," or "geometrical motifs," or "attack on the king side castled position," or "attack on the king caught in the center," or "destructive combinations?"

These are great themes to test us on, but in a real game, we don't know that there is a theme, let alone which theme!

How good should one be at chess to profit from this book? I think you need to be at least a C-player (1400 USCF) to get the full benefit. And I've seen Masters go through it too! It's good practice for a big range of chess players. It definitely helped me.

Wow. I'm impressed. You can learn a lot of chess with this book, and if you honestly grade and time yourself, you'll get a realistic picture of where you stand.

These puzzles are not easy. They take about 5 minutes each, and you'll have to put in that much time if you want your rating to be indicated accurately. This is NOT for tactics training, even though you will learn from it. You need to be VERY GOOD at tactics before you attempt these; otherwise, you'll get NOTHING correct. You'd be wise to go through Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book at least once before tackling these.

If you're 1500, you could start this book, but don't rush through it. Do one 8-problem test per week and monitor your progress through the year. (There are 56 tests.)

Each test is prefaced with the sort of tactics you will be looking for, and some of the puzzles are very similar within a test. This is intentional. The authors want you to LEARN, but without making things too obvious.

I have noticed minor typos in the answers, but no actual errors, which is quite rare for a puzzle book. The font, diagram size, printing, and layout are all excellent. The original games are named in the answers, rather than in the problems, to avoid distraction. Remember: These tests are timed!

Highly recommended. But if you're below 1500 USCF, caveat emptor! You don't want to ruin the future value of this book by cheating and looking at all the answers now!

This is the first book in the "Test your Chess IQ" series. That in no way means that this book is easy. If you aren't at least about 1500 or so, this book will be way too much for you. Make sure that you read Seiriwan's Winning Chess Tactics and work through both of Reinfeld's 1001 books before tackling this one.

The book consists of dozens of 8-problem tests, spanned across two pages each with the solutions on the next page(to discourage cheating, which I like). The book covers a wide number of themes, and in many cases progresses in difficulty as you work through a motif. For example the first test in Double Attack will be fairly easy, but the next test will take considerably more work.

The author provides a table in the back for you to record your progress. I immediately copied this(so as to have a 'clean copy' incase I want to go through this again, and I'm sure I will). In the beginning of the book the author provides instructions on how to score your answers, and approximately what rating they correspond to.

The best way to go through these puzzles is to do one a week, making sure to use all or most of the time given to solve the puzzles(remember, you have to find all the reasonable defenses for the losing side, not just the first move or one particular winning line).

Don't be discouraged if you struggle with it in the very beginning. You'll be amazed by how quickly you begin to see things and your percentage scores will rise. A nice thing about this book is that most of the problems were taken from real games, proof that these sort of combinations DO happen and you need to be able to see them when they do.

The book is thin but large enough that it folds open easily and is written in descriptive notation. Almost all of the analysis I've done on problems has been accurate(only his move is best), except for one problem where my move was a little better according to Fritz.

All in all this is an outstanding and challenging introduction to advanced tactics. Go through the books I mentioned above first, but make sure that this book is in your hands afterwards.

Great. Clancy's three best books in one. Impossible to put down as you never know what is going to happen next.

This book has three excellent titles in one. A must buy and a great price too.

This product contains three of the most action packed novels by Tom Clancy: Patriot Games, a book about Irish terrorists bent on killing Jack Ryan, which is far superior to the movie; Clear and Present Danger, which is deeper than the movie, but slower moving, and The Sum of All Fears, which is destined to the theater, has a plot of peace in the Middle East and an excellent ending. Well worth the price.

For sentimental reasons only, I view 'Hunt For Red October' as Clancy's best book, but these 3 cannot be far behind, especially 'Clear & Present Danger' and 'The Sum Of All Fears'. Absolutely riviting novels that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Clancy truly has his finger squarely on the pulse of what is going on in the world -- or what COULD go on.

'Patriot Games' is a phenomenal story of revenge from an IRA Terrorist who's plot to assassinate Charles & Di is thwarted by Jack Ryan, who is completely unaware of the horrific consequences of his actions. GREAT read.

'Clear & Present Danger' is a VERY complicated story of the war on drugs and a few people in high places making some pretty rash decisions that creates a completely incredible situation and Clancy ties it all together in one of his all-time best stories. Highly recommended.

'The Sum Of All Fears' is another Clancy rocket-of-a-novel with many plots and sub-plots, all of which are tied neatly together in the end revolving around a few middle-eastern bad guys who get their dirty fingers on an actual Israeli atomic bomb, converting it into a thermo-nuclear device, and their plans of actually using it on American soil. A true Clancy masterpiece.

All three of these books are worth buying, but if you can manage to grab this particular book with ALL of them, do NOT hesitate, just DO IT! Any Clancy fan worth his/her salt cannot call their collection complete without this. Just hours and hours of absolute thrilling reading.

There certainly seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to how they throw together Tom Clancy novels together in these collections. Here we have the 3rd, 5th and 6th of Clancy's novels, which are the 2nd, 4th and 5th of the Jack Ryan novels (except that while "Patriot Games" was written 2nd it actually takes place before the "1st" Jack Ryan novel, "The Hunt for Red October"--are you taking notes?). However, the two common denominators are that of the first six Clancy novels these three are the three better ones and that all three books have been turned into films.

"Patriot Games" explains why the English keep calling Ryan "Sir John" in "The Hunt for Red October." I always fancied that Clancy had written this novel first (or, at least had the idea for the story first), but that having Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth be characters in a fictional novel was frowned upon; however, I consider the relationship between the Ryans and the Royals to be one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. Certainly "Patriot Games" shows a great leap forward in Clancy's writing style. The novel literally begins with a bang as Ryan thwarts an attack by a I.R.A. splinter group. What happens afterwards brings him into the fold of the C.I.A. The ending of the novel, decidedly different from that of the film version, refutes the idea that Clancy is a reactionary conservative.

"Clear and Present Danger" presents a scenario that remains one of the most attractive as a real world solution to a continuing problem, namely the use of the U.S. military to put the Columbian drug cartels out of business. The problem, of course, is that the President decides to make this a covert mission, which provides ample opportunity for things to go too far. This is the novel that introduces Ding Chavez to John Clark, and Clark to Ryan for that matter. In terms of the characters in the Jack Ryan novels, "Clear and Present Danger" is the one that probably has the most resonance with the rest of the series. Much is made of the way Clancy incorporates cutting edge technology into his narratives, but his strength has always been his characters. There is no better example of this aspect than in the beginning of "Clear and Present Danger," when Clancy introduces us to the character of Red Wegener with such wonderful detail that we are surprised to discover he ends up being a minor character in the novel.

"The Sum of All Fears" is one of Clancy's novels where you certainly hope that he is not prescient. Middle Eastern terrorists get a hold of a nuclear weapon and decide to detonate it at the Super Bowl. However, this is not a simple act of terrorism but part of a larger game that seeks to have the United States and the Soviet Union skip over a return to the Cold War and go right for a nuclear exchange. Meanwhile, Jack Ryan is caught in the switches as a new president comes into office and his National Security Advisor wants our hero's head on a platter. When the bomb detonates events escelate beyond the speed of those on both sides to process the information and make decisions than hurtle the world towards oblivion.

As always, you are urged to read all of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels in order even though what we have here qualifies as the essence of the first part of the Jack Ryan saga. After this point, following an interlude with the first John Clark novel, we move from Jack Ryan the CIA years to Jack Ryan the White House years. Although his recent novels have seen like they were written by rote, these three novels will more than evidence why Clancy has a devote following who love to consume his massive tomes as soon as they come out in hardback.

This book isn't just about making bows. It has a great section on making bow strings from primative materials or modern ones. Includes design of stings, types, features. Great to learn to make a string for that bow you just made.

This book is written by several experts and is essentially a compilation of individual articles, each of which is outstanding in the detail of the direction given. However, for a person seeking to make a particular bow, all 3 books of the series are needed and there is not an orderly progression. Just count on buying all three, reading them all, making decisions based on what you've learned, and then picking chapters to help you as you go along.

Great book this has all of the details of making a good bow and more. I am very pleased with its content and recomend all three volumes.

This volume is very explicative and not lost any details of his points. All the volumes makes a great help, and even a single powerfull source of information, to anyone who want to make the finest traditional bows, i recomend !

If someone need to know all regarding archery and bow-making has to buy all these 3 volumes. Here you can find a huge quantity of informations and suggestions regarding it.
The books are also improved with a lot of imagines.
Andreas from Italy

Summer 2000 Collectors's Value Guide for Ty Beanie Babies is great. Packed with lots of useful information, colorful pictures of all, and places to record your collections. Includes new Beanie Kids too!

Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)

as a 'novice' beanie collector, this book has been the MOST helpful in learning to recognize all the beanies/teenies/et al; don't waste your money on any others, as I have... the pics alone are great; i would be totally lost without this guide!

Ty Beanie Babies Summer 2000 Collecor's Guide is a great way to inventory your collection whether you collect Beanie Babies, Buddies, Teenie Beanies, or *New* Beanie Kids. This book details with a picture of each baby and value by version tags. It also has a guide to distinguish which "hang tag" or "tush tag" you have. Whether you have a large collection or just getting started, I highly recommend this book for you.

Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)

As a member of the student team who needed to produce video game in rather short amount of time, I have found this book extremely helpful. I did like one-sheet summary that allowed us to summarize everything. The content was very helpful. Thank you.

I am a Multimedia student in Community College.

This book has given me a ton of good ideas on how to create a top-notch game!

I reccomend it to anybody (Like Me.) who wants to design a hit videogame!

this book is chock-full of incredibly useful information about writing and game design. many of the classic traps in this area of game development can be avoided by following flint and john's advice here. everything is outlined in a very clean and (not surprisingly) fun and witty read.

as a game developer for 10 years now, i found information in this book that i'll be using in the future and i can't recommend this book enough. these guys get it, and so should you.

This book, is a no nonsense guide to the video game industry and more specifically to game design. It gives relevant realistic experience written in an upbeat humorous and succinct style.

There aren't any cons to it that I can think of.

When I read The Ultimate Guide to Videogame Writing and Design I was expecting quite a lot from a title like that. As a well read veteran game designer with over 34 million units sold to date, as well as game design professor at USC, I thought I had seen every element and angle in game development. Not only that, at USC we have developed a pretty robust curriculum on how to build great narrative into a solid game. To my amazement, my high expectations were not only met, but exceeded by a wide margin with this book! Ultimate Guide is extremely well thought out and presented in a no nonsense manner, with many excellent examples, points, and tips on not only writing, but also how to survive and prosper in the game industry. I guess it comes as no surprise since this book is practically a FedEx straight from the front lines, as these authors are still writing top games, and have written a number of "Story of the Year" games over the last five years. These guys have written for both film and interactive, and they know how to bring solid storytelling craft into the game space. I recommend this book to all my students as well as colleagues as a must read. You will not find a more straight forward and to the point book packed with real world examples anywhere. This is more than a "how to" book, but also a "how come" as it focuses down precisely on the challenges and pitfalls of game design and writing today from a variety of angles. I guarantee it will provide insights and value to both new and veteran game writers, as well as designers who are looking to bridge the gap between solid storytelling and great gameplay. I wish I'd had this book when I was starting out! But I'm sure glad I have it now!

I really enjoyed this accesory. All the charachters are fleshed out and belivable. Its added a lot to my planescape campaign.

In this book you can see people in Sigil that think in very strange forms. people that think in your factions and they living for something.

What I like about this book is that it is all Char development. Every NPC in the book is linked to every other NPC in the book. I think its useful for DM cause it gives 40+ NPC of all lvl that the PC can more realisticly meet. Cause com on how many Faction high ups will give the pcs at low lvl the time of day? Where this book gives you the common fock who really keep the city of door interesting and on its feet.

This book is alot of fun to read! Instead of just giving game information on the NPCs (Non-Player characters), the reader is also given an idea of each character's believable personality and story. These guys aren't cardboard cut-outs. Before long, the reader starts to feel like they're actual people who live next-door!

The best part is that each characters' story is connected to each other in some sort of indirect network.

TSR did a good job in making a living, breathing book. Not only is this a game reference book, but a well-crafted story book too!

This book also has strong connections to FACTION WAR and IN THE CAGE: A GUIDE TO SIGIL. It also has some connections to the other Planescape products.

If you like Planescape, you'll love "Faces". It's certainly my favourite PS release to date; the forty-plus characters described are all incredibly original, detailed and exciting; the artwork's fantastic; and -- the real reason I love this book to pieces -- each character's intricately linked to the others, creating a great web of intrigue and deceit. And that's _exactly_ how I see Sigil. Buy this book. You won't be disappointed.

Having read the classic manual Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis, I was very interested to see how this book would stack up. I learned a lot from Soltis, and I hoped to expand my understanding about how pawn structures affect plans and strategy. I was not disappointed. Marovic uses many, many complete game examples, but his annotations are so succinct and clear as to make the large number of games effortless to get through. One thing he does well which is VERY hard for most chess authors is present the model games in a sequence in which their respective lessons build upon one another to deeply reinforce the concepts he's trying (and succeeding) to instruct. The one caveat, if you want to call it that, is that I think this book will be most helpful for people with an intermediate knowledge of openings, as the pawn positions discussed tend to reoccur in specific openings with specific piece placements. However, this shouldn't be a problem as I believe the intended audience is above 1600 USCF anyway, and should thus know the difference between a QGA and a QGD.

This book uses complete games to examine pawn structures--their strengths and weaknesses. Marovic uses a conversational tone to explain important points and keeps analysis to the minimum needed to illustrate the explanation. In separate chapters he examines isolated pawns, passed pawns, doubled pawns, backward pawns and pawn-chains.
Marovic uses games from throughout the history of chess to illustrate his material and does a great job. I would recommend this book for players rated (USCF) from Class B and up, although rapidly advancing lower rated players would also benefit from reading the book as well.
The only thing that could make it better would be a few more diagrams.

I personnaly own half a dosen books wrote in croatian from Drazen Marović, and they are excellent. Unfortunately, he doesnt publish in Croatia any more, so this is the only way to read his fresh stuff. Games of high quality in this book are anotated in a way which can help to improve your understanding, not just about pawn play, but about overall strategic issues in midgame, and correspondance between pawns and pieces. Recomended.

Often overlooked is the importance of preparing long term planning for not just the endgame, but the use of pawn chains, and even what is considered a weakness, doubled pawns being used as a "battering ram!" and opening a file. These are very important aspects of chess and what has been called the "backbone" of chess is often forgotten in light of only tactics. True, tactics books, trap books and opening books have a very important place and all should be studied. But the "use of pawns" should not just be a chapter in a book, it should be a couple volumes of books! If you are a beginner, even an lower end intermediate player you will get more results in studying tactic and chess traps. But Once you reach a solid intermediate level then you should start thinking more about the finer points of play. Now, I like the overall approach of "Understanding Pawn Play in Chess" but I think a few words (to say the least) were lost in the translation (it seems clear to me that the author's first language was not english), which is why, though I feel this is a good book, some of the important ideas were lost the the translation, and can be a little confusing. Solitis's "Pawn Structure Chess" is a good alternative. I also like going over complete game books such as, "Understanding Chess" and "Unbeatable Chess Lessons and More Unbeaable Chess Lessons" as ways to gain an understanding of all aspects of the game, including the critical use of pawns.

Traditionally chess books are often grouped in the categories: opening, middle game and ending. Marovic's book "Understanding pawn play in chess" covers a very important topic in chess, which includes all the three phases of a game. It will help you little if you know the moves in the French opening, but you don't know how to handle the pawn chain from a French opening. Means how to attack the wedge and the base of the pawn chain. "Understanding pawn play in chess" will help you to do understand what to do with pawn chain. So if you want to extend your knowledge about pawn structures this is the book for you. The topics covered in this book are: isolated pawns, isolated pawn couples, hanging pawns, passed, doubled, backward, pawn chains and pawn islands.

One Minus with this book, is that the author and Gambitbooks could have used more diagrams for each game. You must always use the board when going through this book. With more diagrams describing the most interesting position for the pawn subject, the book would become more readable.

Well-covered by other reviewers, I feel compelled to add my vote for this rare, well-written chess book. I've played chess for years but just recently started getting serious about getting a decent rating. While Reuben Fine's book is often referenced as great for understanding openings, I found it to be impenetrable. Meanwhile Sam Collin's book has become my first go-to book for getting a basic understanding of what an opening is all about. His writing is crystal clear, and he gets you straight to what the opening is trying to accomplish. Other books, like Modern Chess Openings or Standard Chess Openings, can then be used to examine alternative variations, but speaking for myself, I really need to start from Collins to get the strategy behind the opening first. I find this book to be an essential reference for a beginning or intermediate player.

There are many different openings books which focus on different aspects of opening play. This book is like a survey of the territory and covers the most likely openings to come up and the many variations of each. What I most like about it is that it is logically organized, well-written and easy to follow. It includes commentary, but the commentary is not comprehensive. This good or bad depending upon what you are looking for in a book on openings. In short, the text gets to the point with respect to the major tactical advantages and disadvantages of particular openings. However, it doesn't cover any of them in great depth.

I like this book because it doesn't repeat a lot of the ground covered in other books. It is a small volume at less than 225 pages of many different openings and the MOST important points about each. This makes it a great reference book to get one started with a particular opening. However, you need something with more depth to go along with it.

I am sometimes "turned off" by chess books which are 1,000 pages with very little text or diagrams. This is a bias that I have and learning anything sometimes seems overwhelming. This book strikes a nice balance between text, diagrams and presenting a series of moves. It makes the content more digestible and because of how its organized, easy to learn.

As far as I am concerned, this is a MUST own book for a serious chess player and particulary for someone transitioning from the beginner to advanced beginner or early stages of intermediate play. It uses modern notation and it is extremely well thought out with respect to layout. Both the author and the editor did an excellent job!

This book WILL help you to improve your opening play. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any player and if you are turned off by poorly organized or cumbersome large volumes, you will like it even more.

If you have already read a comprehensive book to get your started on the basics of chess, you may well be interested in a variety of openings. You need to prepare an opening system to get get you going.
I have looked at all of the opening books out there (own over 500 chess books) and in my humble opinion (well maybe I am somewhat experienced as a chess teacher and tournament player) feel that there is no better book that covers the ideas behind the different openings. Certainly, this is not a reference book to look up all of the critical variations. But, if you are anyone ages 8 to 108 and want a "general assessment" of what you will get into with each opening this book is perfect.
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A neat aspect of this book is that is does an excellent job of explaining the ideas and has enough lines to make it a more than worthwhile purchase!

This book is very well organized. I am very pleased with it. By playing several of the openings in the book I have found myself (finally) able to defeat the computer at chess at levels where I couldn't do so before. I have also learned which openings are to be avoided as well, that way I don't have to spend time memorizing all of them. But it is still important to understand why some openings aren't good.

Note: This review first published in the Irish Chess Journal, August 2005

Following the success of his first book, An Attacking Repertoire for White, an extract of which was published in the last issue of the ICJ, former Irish Champion IM Sam Collins has written his second book, titled Understanding the Chess Openings.

I have to admit that I didn't quite know what to expect from this before I read it. It's not the kind of chess book that gets written any more, having been squeezed out of favour first by databases on dead trees - the likes of MCO and BCO, and later by their software counterparts. The proliferation of modern opening theory seemed to have killed the opening primer off. The thing is, even now, a database is not a friendly tool for the weak to average club player. A high success rate in a particular line against the Grünfeld in my million-move monster doesn't really tell me much. Even if the line hasn't been found wanting after some super-GM decided he'd really like his knight on h8 and won a game or two, statistics, and to some extent, raw game scores don't explain how the strategic complexities of the line work. As such, I'm rather pleased to see this book appear.

Sam has really tried to be comprehensive - he's got pages on such off-beat openings as the Grob (1 g4?! - the Basman in Sam's terminology), the Black Knight's tango (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 Nc6!?) and even a little sideline called the Sicilian. That's come at a price. There's only so much room, and devoting pages to the sidelines means that the well-trod paths get less attention than they might have. The Sicilian Dragon, for example, which Sam rightly describes as, "A truly critical test to the viability of 1 e4," receives a mere three pages, which seems almost criminal when compared with the half page of white paper under his assessment of Bird's Opening (1 f4).

That said, Sam seems to have mostly done his homework. The main line he gives for each line seems to be the critical test, especially for the slightly offbeat ones. Or, at least that's true for those parts of the book where my own theory goes as far as the book's (no, not just the copyright notice!). Particularly notable to me was the line he gave against the Blackmar-Diemar Gambit, which he seems to have a personal hatred for, 1 d4 d5 2 e4 de 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 f3 ef 5 Nxf3 Bg4 6 Bc4 e6 7 0-0 c6 "And, after ...Be7, ...Nbd7 and ...0-0, where did the pawn go?" This seems spot on and it illustrates the usefulness of the book for its target readership (I guess 1200 - 1900 at least, probably a little wider). Having played against the BDG just once so far in my competitive career (for lack of a better word!), I hadn't a clue what to play against it, but here is a line which will, should I meet it again, let me avoid all of the complicated mire that opening often drags the unwary into.

Judging his choices for the mainstream openings is a bit harder for me, as my own repertoire choices tend to be a little offbeat. However, I do note a couple of places where Sam has ignored (or been unaware of) a significant main line. For instance, in the French Advance, he mentions 6 ...c4 in passing, but doesn't elaborate. By way of contrast, Gary Lane, in his book on that opening, devotes 40 pages - the longest chapter, to that line. In the Modern Benoni too, Sam gives the Taimanov as the critical line, which is fair enough, but then totally ignores John Watson's entirely critical 9...Qh4+.

Those criticisms are perhaps a little harsh and are certainly nowhere near as important as they might sound, as the intention of the coverage of each opening is more to give a flavour of how it works, combined with pointers in the right direction if you want to explore one further. Certainly, you'd be mad to try playing something like the Modern Benoni having read just two and a half pages on it. That said, the coverage of some openings is really excellent. The four and a bit pages on the Guioco Piano encapsulate the opening like nothing else I've read, including a page and a half on the Evan's Gambit (including a key novelty from Grischuck which I hadn't seen before), an odd but lively and useful possibility in a very normal opening which many readers mightn't otherwise have known existed.

Before I wrap up, a note on the structure of the book. Sam organises the openings into Open, Semi-Open, Queen's Gambit, Indian Defences and Flank Openings. At the start of some sections, and several openings, he discusses some themes common in the positions arising from the opening(s) in question. While I would have liked to see more of this sort of thing, what of it is present is well-written and useful, while his notes to the lines as they arrive expand very well on the themes and plans in the positions. The next time I'm looking for something different, I'll open Understanding the Chess Openings, because it is a source of information unlike anything else I have. I've read people criticising books of this sort on the grounds that any strong club player can explain most of this stuff to you, but that argument doesn't hold any weight with me. I don't have a tame IM at home waiting to explain what on earth is going on in the Semi-Slav! I have no reservations recommending it for average to above-average club players as a reference book you'll keep dipping into, and to weaker players as a good general opening guide.

As always Angus McBride's color plates are as lifelike as can be. Especially, plates A,E,F, & G. These elite series are more in depth than the usual armor, weapons, & uniforms. The text is more varied. From their origins in the eigth century to all their adventures from all compass points, we get little gems of information. A refreshingly wide range of sources are used. Norse sagas, English, Arab, Byzantine, Frankish, & Irish chronicles. Most areas are touched on to varying degrees. From their tactics, well known campaigns, & the Varangian guard to the less known "Jomsvikings." The latter being independent, strictly run mercenary companies.

Also, some interesting anecdotes: Did you know that dark hair was much more common among the Danes than the Swedes & Norwegians? That certainly would explain the physical appearance of the Normans on the Bayeux Tapestry. If it had a dozen more pages I would have given it five stars. For 63 pages it was well worth the price.

This is by far the best book on the Vikings from a military perspective, Osprey or otherwise. The text is concise and is both exciting and informative. The plates depict the Viking warriors as well as their enemies and their women with lifelike expressions and poses, and include several spirited battlescenes.

One of the best books I have seen on the Vikings. The Text does a brief but good & concise job about the history of the Norsemen. That & the illustrations of these barbarian slavers is 1st rate and worth the price alone.
Well done to all hands involved!

Like other books in the Osprey Elite series, this one held my interest throughout. Therefore I finished it very quickly. The illustrations help me visualize what real life Vikings must have looked like.

The description of the Viking rite of "carving-the-blood-eagle" was something that I had never read anywhere before. Imagine the terror of seeing these guys arriving from over the horizon ca. 950 A.D.

I have always been a big fan of the Osprey series books, and a fan of Angus MacBride's work.
This book is a good overview of the evolving nature of Viking warfare, from the first raids on the British isles, to the end of the Viking period.
Included is a useful collection of photos of Viking weapons, armour annd other artifacts. But for me, the star of the show was the colour plates, what amazing work! MacBride gives us a diversity of glimpses, such as Viking home-life, building a long ship, the aftermath of a raid, and a great sea-battle, and the end of the Norse adventure in North America.
This is a great book for anyone interested in the Viking period!