Puzzles Books

Should allow most beginners to understand important aspects of applied probability.

Mike Orkin's book explains the real odds for all the common casino games, and in the process, shows you it is generally better to leave your money in your own pocket, and just watch. Games covered include roulette, craps, Keno, slots machines, sports betting, blackjack, lotteries and horse races. A great chapter on the Prisoner's Dilemma is included, and covers thecomplex issue of when it is best to be a snicth, and when it is best to be quiet.

Casino math for the non-mathematician. If you really want to understand the math, it will take some effort to follow if you haven't dealt with probability and statistics in a while or ever. However, I am so tired of people presenting schemes on how to win at craps, roulette, etc: Martingale, anti-Martingale, D'Alembert, contra-D'Alembert, ad nauseam. No matter how you weight a negative expected return, the sum of the series is still expected to be negative. The risk to people who use these schemes unwittingly to gain a series of small "wins" is the guarantee of a single huge loss somewhere in the future - the longer you put it off, the larger it will be. If you didn't understand what you just read and want to, this book is for you. The writing is brisk, bordering on entertaining (if you're into this sort of thing) and not nearly as dull as you'd expect. The previous reviewer covered which games were presented so I won't repeat. Like Stanford Wong, this author's math is accurate - unlike many, many other authors.

If you decide to do any gambling, even a few bucks on your state lottery, consider the price of this book as your first bet. Orkin presents the real odds of most popular gambling games, at least one 'sure fire system' (yes there is such a thing, but you need deep pockets and have to be satisified with a pretty low rate of return), and the effects of the 'house edge'in an entertaining manner and with just a minimum of math. In fact, skipping the math in the book does nothing to reduce the book's usefulness nor your reading enjoyment.

Read this if you think gambling is a solution to money problems. In fact, after going through this highly readable and entertaining book you may be tempted to skip the lottery tickets and put the money in casino stock instead!

As a big fan of details and facts, Winter is always for me. He`s the best chess historian by far, and this may be his best book to date. Even if you`re not a serious Capablanca fan, this book will keep you entertained with those little special events that make life so interesting (like including a section of an article by Sergei Prokofiev about his playing in a simul against Capbablanca). I also didn`t know until reading the Capablanca writings from articles included in this book that the World Champion really did have a nice sense of humour. Engrossing, filled with facts, all attributions in order... but by no means is it dry. Quite the contrary, this will also touch on your emotions.

Certainly one of the best books I`ve ever seen.

This book is basically a biography via the subject's own writings and papers. Winter does, in fact, include plenty of his own (excellent) prose, but the meat of the book is Capablanca's own writing, much of it new to me, and I've read quite a bit on Capa through the years.

Especially interesting are Capa's thoughts on contemporary players and his early game annotations when he was writing for various chess magazines early in his career. For example, he annotated every game of the epic Lasker-Schlechter match, and they are all included here.

Although Capa is infamous for writing less than virtually any other World Champion, he still penned quite a number of articles, all of them of interest, and all, or nearly all, of which are collected here.

Winter is known for being a stickler about documentation, so you will not find a lot of unfounded gossip or apochryphal stories or legend here. This is a refreshing dfference from the large majority of chess biographies, including other books on Capa. Capablanca's career is full of enough true mindboggling stories to need to make anything up.

This book is a splendid achievement by Winter, and I had a difficult time putting it down. I plan on going back to it again and again as a reference, and, of course, to play over the games which Capablanca had annotated.

Winter has researched an enormous amount of material on Capablanca, and documented his sources thoroughly. He has a commendable distaste for unsubstantiated anecdotes. It includes both significant biographical material as well as many fine games not usually found in the main game collections (which are highly recommended by the way), and often with Capa's own notes.

Winter has also unearthed some very interesting game annotations by Capa, including the Lasker-Schlechter match, a famous Spielmann loss to Tarrasch, a Janowski brilliancy, etc. There are also fascinating reports by Capa on tournaments such as his greatest victory, New York 1927, and the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, 1939, where Capa made the best score on top board.

The chapters on his World Championship negotiations and matches with both Lasker and Alekhine make fascinating reading.

There also clear B&W photos of Capa at all stages of life.

BRILLIANT. WELL WORTH THE MONEY. IT HAS HELPED ME TO IMPROVE MY CHESS ENORMOUSLY.

This was a gift to one of my little cousins who is seven or eight and learning to read on his own. This is a fun filled book that even had me interested! I liked the fact that it was a big book so the words were easier for him to follow.

Thanks!

We just gave this book to my son for his 4th birthday. He was so excited. The book plays four different stories, and alerts him as to when to turn the pages. He went straight to bed so he could listen to it, and we didn't hear a peep out of him. He actually asked us to leave his room so he could listen to his book. He really loves this book, and it's a great value.

My son really enjoys listening to this CD. The voices are the same ones you hear on the show and the signal for turning the page is fairly clear. There are 4 stories in this book....they may not be the most interesting stories to me, but he seems to enjoy them. It's a great activity for him to do quietly on his own without my help.

My 4yr old son loves this book so much he took a nap with it! The character voices are the actual ones from the TV show. This was my son's first read-along book and he was able to follow along with the narration. I think this will help him with his reading. And, this book is a great deal because there are four stories in one book. I wish there were other Bob the Builder 4-in-1 story collections.

I reccomend this book for anybody who even has a "sleight" interest in card tricks. It's clever tricks and invisible sleights will allow you to amaze anybody, including other magicians. This excellent book brought me from a cub scout magician to a serious and amazing amateur. Please don't buy it so that magicians like me can still amaze guys like you.

Teaches alsome tricks for any level of skill. A must for any learning wizard

This is another great book by Jean Hugard densely packed with card tricks and other sleights - over 120 in all. Some things to consider: (1) these are not simple tricks, and will require significant practice to master (i.e., they are not self-working card tricks); (2) the text is sometimes difficult to follow and may require multiple readings. Otherwise, this is a very valuable resource for the serious card manipulator.

If I could take lessons from one card magician living or dead, I'd probably pick Jean Hugard. Although he wrote decades ago, his ideas are so timelessly fresh that the serious student of card magic will rejoice when reading this book--it's equally as good as "Card Manipulations." Like its predecessor, it has sleights, tricks, and flourishes that cover the gamut from intermediate to truly advanced. I wouldn't, however, recommend the two Card Manipulation books as first choices--"Expert Card Technique" is a more comprehensive source for sleights and "Encyclopedia of Card Tricks" describes all manner of tricks. But if you want all of Hugard's major works--and you will--you'll spring for the reasonably priced "Card Manipulation" books. They are that good.

....Buy this one! There are other good gaming authors, (Frank Scoblette, Gayle Mitchell, R.D. Elison and Avery Cardoza are some that come immediately to my mind).....but no one is as clear, and as understandable, in explaining the basics of ALL casino games, than John Gollehen! It is explained on the cover
of one of his books, (I believe an early edition of this one,
"Casino Games"), that Mr. Gollehon has a background of being
an engineer, and a teacher. It shows. Perhaps this is what
gives him the edge on explaining the intricate rules of the various games, (especially craps), to the novice.

I have discovered that, for better or worse, I myself have a
very hard head. This means that it's hard for things to get
into my head, for me to understand things. But once they are
understood, they stay with me forever -- and I can explain
them, with a good rate of success, to others. I found the
complexities of baccarat kind of difficult to understand,
(I know, I know....it's the simplest game in the world to
undertand....but not for me)....not, that is, until I read
what Mr. Gollehon had to say...and then, wow! -- I understood it!
(I'm still a bit in the woods with craps....I guess I have to read the chapter on that a bit more carefully)

Interspersed with understandable rules for each major game are
anecdotes of Mr. Gollehon's adventures in gambling, and the
various people he has met. Also included is good money-manage-ment advice.

Mr. Gollehon has written other books, going into single games with more detail, or giving further advice on all games. These are good....but often contain material which first appeared in
"Casino Games". But this book, "Casino Games", in whatever edition, is Mr. Gollehon's first, and I think the best book. If you can't get this book, do buy one of Mr. Gollehon's other books...a comprehensive book on all the games, which repeats the material in this book. (Do NOT buy his: "Gambler's Playbook", which is full of superfluous material, for information. It's a fun book....but not too instructional.)

"Casino Games" though, is a true classic. If you want to learn how to play, and the basic rules, of the most popular casino games, this volume is all you need. It deserves all of its many printings! If there were a Pulitzer, or a Nobel Prize for gambling books, Mr. Gollehon's "Casino Games", in each edition, would win hands down!

I bought this book as a novice gambler to get a better explanation of casino games and some strategies. The book is great! Gollehon discusses the major casino games by first explaining how the game is played and what actions the player needs to take. Then he discusses the proper strategies to use and the right bets to make. He also tells you what bets not to make.

I especially liked the sections on blackjack, roulette and craps. Easy to read and understand, nice diagrams, and nice discussions on strategy. The only downside to the book was that I wished the section on video poker were more in depth and detailed. He refers you to another text in this case.

Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone going to a casino.

I went to Vegas in August '05. I had a GREAT time but soon realized how woefuly uninformed I was about how to play the games. I prefer table games to machines but the only games I am vaguely familiar with are blackjack and roulette.
This book is a must for anyone who wants a fighting chance at the tables. The strategies for blackjack are worth the price of the book alone. The chapter on craps, which is one of the most fun games in a casino, are also very worthwhile.
My only wish about future editions is that Mr. Gollehon will give his opinion of some of the newer games out there like 3-Card Poker and Caribbean Stud.

I always wanted to know about every game in the casino, but did not want to learn by losing my money. this book got me started and made the gambling reaxing because I had a concept of what was going on.

Botvinnik came, saw, and conquered at this 1941 meet of the top Grandmasters in the USSR. At this time the old champions, Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine were on their way out, and this outstanding tournament triumph by Botvinnik demonstrated without a shadow of doubt that a mighty new force was on the rise. In the tournament Botvinnik dominated Keres, Smyslov, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky and Lilienthal. He then set about extracting the ultimate secrets from every game by dint of the most precise analysis. Experts regard this as perhaps the best tournament book ever written. In conjunction with Harry Golombek's book on the 1948 match tournament World Championship (also available from Hardinge Simpole) it provides the perfect introduction to the amazing reign of the great Botvinnik

Former World Chess Champion and Mastermind M.M. Botvinnik analyses the games at the 1941 ussr absolute championship with great attention to detail. At this tournament, where all the great Russian playes of the time met head to head, Botvinnik triumphed - thus creating the start of his amazing reign. In this volume, Botvinnik extracts the secrets of each game, whilst objectively analysing his own. This edition published by Hardinge and Simpole.

This pretentiously-named Absolute Championship was organized for political reasons. Lilienthal and Bondarevsky had tied for first in the USSR championship, and were to play off, while Botvinnik was only in the top six. But he was able to persuade the authorities that neither of the winners had a hope of challenging Alekhine for the world title, so asked for a match-tournament of the top six, which coincidentally was enough to include him!

However, in this tournament Botvinnik showed his amazing capacity to learn from his defeats. Of course he is famous for putting this capacity to such good use in later return matches for the world championship. He won this tournament by a huge margin, and won all his individual matches.

In my view, Botvinnik was the strongest player in the world after this tournament. The 1946 Groningen super-tourney and especially the 1948 World Championship match-tourney merely ratified what most of the chess world already knew--he was the best. Later on in his reign as world champ, he was, as he said, just first among equals, but before he won the title, he was a long way ahead of everyone.

This tournament book is also a good example of why he got so far ahead--his deep and objective analysis of his own and opponents' games.

the ussr absolute championship 1941 was one of the strongest chess tournaments ever held-botvinnik smyslov and keres were in it for a start and the players all met each other 4 times so it became a titanic struggle.botvinnik wrote the notes to this book-having won the event-and they are truly magnificent.his analysis is amazingly deep and authoritative as befits a future world champion. it was also a great dry run for botvinnik for his assault on the world championship in 1948.

the notation is descriptive but the book is well printed and very well stocked with exceptionally clear diagrams. everyone interested in the ussr, in the history of chess and in some really great games by top players annotated by a supreme expert will want to own this book.no chess library worth the name is complete without it.

This book teaches you tactics as well as combinations. It manages to teach you in a way that will keep your attention. It gives you plenty of puzzles to practice your newly learned skills and improve your ability to read the board.

Are you studying tactics till they come out of your ears, but you're still a patzer? That is probably because you do not know what the signs of "there might be a winning tactic here!" are in a real game, when, unlike in books, you don't know in advance that there *is* a tactic. Or else you are so excited once you actually *do* notice a tactic in a real game (once in a blue moon) that you play it instantly, without taking into account all of the opponent's defensive resources, or without noticing your "brilliant queen sacrifice" is just exchanging queens into a lost pawn ending, or that you had a better tactic that would win the game outright, not just gain a pawn.

The author of this book understands your pain. First, as one expects in competent books, the author gives only examples from real master games, and each of his "tests" is arranged by difficulty. That each "test" is six positions with the solutions on the other side of the page is a nice feature that saves you from going to the back of the book all the time, and also allows for many puzzles per page--there are over 30 tests, not counting the "practice" ones, or about 220+ positions all told, very good for a 130-page book. A praiseworthy feature is that there are many *drawing* combinations (usually by stalemate)--a common way to save the draw in amateur games, that is usually neglected in such books.

Second, after a few "practice" tests where the *general* theme is given ("target king" or "dealing with defenders", but NOT "knight fork" or "skewer with the bishop"), he gives the tests with *no* instructions--just like you'll see them on the board. This is very important--you don't get someone to whisper to you, "look for a knight fork NOW!" in a real game.

Third--and this is what really sets this book apart from others--the solutions do not merely give you the wining line. A typical solution tells you:

(a) the important points about the starting / ending positions. This divides into both tactical issues (did you notice the black queen is loose? That the back rank is undefended? That a piece is overloaded?) and to no-less important "strategic" ones: did you notice you are a rook down, so a tactic that wins a bishop is pointless? Did you notice your opponents is about to queen a pawn or mate you on the back rank, so "regular" strong moves on your part will not do?

(b) all the possible tactics available, and, especially, why you should always look for a better tactic: yes, you get partial credit for noting you can win the rook, but did you notice you could give mate--or did you stop thinking the moment you found a good move? This is especially important since very often if you find *one* tactic, even if it doesn't win, it means there are others available that *do* win, since tactics are generally based on some weakness in the enemy position, and there's often more than one way to exploit it, some better than others.

(c) being throughout: yes, you gain partial credit for finding the right move by "feel" and noting your bishop sacrifices forces the king to go on a walk. But can you actually calculate the king hunt to mate? If not, how do you know the king will not escape, leaving you a piece down?

To sum up, the book teaches you to be throrough in evaluating the position, both before and after the tactic itself. It improves your ability to spot the possibilty of tactics, to look for different tactics, to note opponents' counterchances, and to evaluate what the tactics are worth. This book isn't a "database dump" like so many other tactical training books; you really learn real-world tactics from it.

Thought provoking puzzles with explanations. An excellent book for the Intermediate to Advanced Player.

Great for introducing and reviewing tactical chess, this book provides numerous practical examples. The author outlines the themes and motifs of the standard tactical tricks that every player must be aware of if he intends to improve. I appreciated the author's combination of explanations and testing. I think that any player wishing to review their tactical abilities should consider this book.

This book is mostly aimed at advanced club players (ELO 1800+ / maybe more regarding USCF) who already have a good grasp of the main endgame techniques & strategies (e.g. read first a primer like James Howell's "Essential Chess Endings: The Tournament Player's Guide"). It can be used both as a training/test tool and for enhancing your endgame knowledge.
It works by giving you first a set of exercises and then explaining what's going on. Hence, this is a real fun & practical way to work on your endgames. The ideas will get stuck to you head..
But let me say once more that imo you need to be already acquainted with basic endgames and also have a good sense of tactics & calculation.

This book, translated from the original German, is a collection of endgame exercises and their solutions. Assembled by a distinguished chess coach, they are intended to serve as the basis for classroom use or for self-study. I will mainly address its use in the latter capacity.

The main exercises are arranged into 15 chapters, according to the material distribution (e.g., king + rook vs. king + pawns). There is a 16th chapter with miscellaneous exercises, and a final chapter with advice for coaches. Within each of the main chapters there are typically 17 or so exercises. The first several will encompass the most fundamental endgame ideas (such as opposition, critical squares, the Lucena position, typical tactics, etc.), then the rest develop the material more deeply. The problems can be extremely tricky - the solution might involve a stunning tactical resource a dozen of moves deep. There are some amazing subtleties, even with very reduced material.

The solutions take the form of written exposition, accompanied by the main line and important variations. The explanations underscore important themes, describe critical features of the position, and anticipate reasonable questions. Excellent!

I think any experienced and serious chess amateur would benefit from working through this book. I believe very strongly in the effectiveness of its active-learning approach. A player is much more likely to gain and retain the knowledge by struggling through the positions him/herself, and having immediate feedback (i.e., the solutions that follow) to correct and reinforce the lesson. My suggestion would be to set up the exercise positions on a tournament board, and then write out all the key variations without moving any of the pieces - and only then checking the answer at the end of the chapter.

For those who might not be ready for this level of work, I suggest Pandolfini's Endgame Course, which is of a similar format, but at a more elementary level (be sure to download the corrections from the internet!). Another approach would be to study the lovely endgame book by James Howell, and then use this book as your "final exam."

The production quality is excellent, as we can always expect from Gambit Publications. I did not find any typos or errors in the analysis. The translation is smooth and idiomatic. The end of the book contains an index of players and composers as well as a bibliography.

Receommended with great enthusiasm.

Chess endings are deceptively difficult: it can take more than a year simply to learn to play the major four- and five-piece endings competently.

The problem with many endgame treatises--including great contemporary books like _Fundamental Chess Endings_ and (to a lesser extent) _Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual_--is that a fair portion of the material covered is frankly too darn hard even for ambitious young players. Rosen has put a lot of thought into organizing the material so that the young player has a reasonable chance of solving (or at least understanding) each exercise. The ideal reader is probably ELO 1000-1600, though most players with ELO above 2000 would also benefit.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough to chess instructors: 16 well-organized lessons in one book!

Chess Endgame Training allows anyone that has preferred to avoid the subject of chess endings to approach it. Rosen's objectives; a manageable amount of training material and a didactic coverage that summarizes endgame proeasy-to-difficult positions; are achieved in Chess Endgame Training. A brief introduction to an endgame theme is followed by relevant examples, including many classical and recent positions with instructional as well as practical value. The format and contents are straight to the point, with no aesthetic dissertations to fog the mind. The positions presented are both relevant and clearly explained. This is a true time-saver that provides substantial examples in an engaging try-it-yourself format.

I thought that a comprehensive book explaining all basic stuff in a lively way would be an impossible task. But Mr. Eade has really made it!

Firstly, I love the 3-D diagrams, the layout of book is more visual as in usual chess books and I must admit it really works! There are first of all all the elementary stuff, rules etc but after that you get ao overview of opening principles, not forgetting the hypermodern approach. There's a section describing openings and their general ideas, there's a section for tactics and strategy.

I'm just overwhelmed of this superb book. James Eade explains some fundamental pawn structures which are typical for specific openings - that's something most beginner books don't do. There's some nice guide for essential endgame stuff, this book is simply the best beginner book availible I think players up to 1800 can benefit most of this book.

I'm about a USCF 1600 (Class B player) and I'm improving from this book because it is suitable for me.

This is why l like this James Eade chess book.
1. This book relies on the chess diagrams, not the chess notation, so learning from this book is easier because it's less confusing. Easy to follow diagrams!
2. I love the spiral form because the book holds flat by itself on a table! It is much better than paper back and hard back form!
3. There are 3D diagrams on key positions on almost every page, so I can easily follow through learning new strategy.
4. This book covers all aspects of the game clearly, TACTICS such as the fork, deflection, pin, overloading, discovery etc, endgame such as opposition, triangulation, basic king pawn endgames, queen vs rook endgame etc. , MIDDLEGAME/ STRATEGY such as making a luft, bad bishop, good bishop, how to make use of your rooks, knights, outposts, pawn islands, pawn chains etc. OPENING it shows you different kinds of opening such as the Silican, Ruy Lopez, French Defense, Queen Pawn opening, how to play the opening such as development, timing, etc.) so I can improve my all around game!

This is why I don't like this book.
1. There are no chess excercises/problems to test your knowledge in the book. This is key to improve and I hope James Eade can add chess excercises/problems to another edition of this book if he writes another edition of this book.
2. There are no 'winning game pointers', such in the other book, The Idiot's Guide for Chess. (Patrick Pointer's) I hope James Eade can add 'winning game pointers' in an another edition if he writes one.


Overall, This book is good.
Why?
1. It has helped me gain about 100 points, (1500 to 1600) in about 4 months.

"The Chess Players Bible" -James Eade

Author James Eade seems to be distancing himself from his earlier standard, "Chess For Dummies" and I'm very pleased to see him introduce another beginner's chess book. This one is better by far.

This is a different format from the majority of chess books, for a couple of different reasons. (1) It is spiral bound, so that once you fold the book open, it stays open, and will fold flat for easy study. (2) It is ILLUSTRATED throughout with clear, concise images of the chess board and piece positions, and in COLOR too!

The coverage of OPENINGS is excellent, from the Romantic Openings to the Queeen's Pawn games, etc This is really great material, in its presentation, for easy assimilation by beginners. Because of the novelty of the splendid illustrations, this book receives a special recommendation.

TACTICS: Eade gives good, basic coverage of tactics, and I believe his illustrations help clarify these for beginners.

***About the Author: James Eade***

James Eade is a very STAND UP guy, taking on the entire chess establishment in the USA with charges that the U.S. Chess Federation was being mismanaged and driven to bankruptcy (which it was at the time!). Notwithstanding, EADE was one of three individuals to bail out the USCF when, near financial ruin, USCF could not afford to send a chess team to the OLYMPIADS. EADE is a strong advocate for chess in the Olympics. By any standard, this is a STAND UP guy.

***The Price***

The price is fair, and not excessive, because AMAZON reduces the full retail to $14.95. Even the full retail price of $21.95 is not necessarily excessive, because spiral-bound books are more expensive to produce. In my opinion, most beginner books priced over $20.00, are a rip-off, but that is for 2 specific reasons. Paperbound books are not that expensive to make, so that $21.95 is a "padded" price for a plain paperback. That is not the case here. The second reason a $20.00 book is a rip-off generally, is that paperbacks that are EXCELLENT beginning instruction have been around for years, and often sell for around $9.95, so that many new books are merely endless and mindless REPETITIONS of the same teachings that have been around for over a hundred years.

However, I am recommending Eade's "Chess-Player's Bible" as a fine book, if you are waiting for the next edition. The reason you should wait is that there are some obvious PROOFREADING errors that require correction; for example, this crazy mix up on the endgame study from page 190 where White is supposed to promote the rearward pawn to a Queen:

White K at f4, white pawns at f3 & f2
Black K at f6, WHITE TO MOVE:

1.Ke4 Ke6
2.f4 Kg6??? (only if Black's K moves 2 squares at a time!?)
3.f5 Kf7
4.Ke5 Ke7
5.f6+ Kf7
6.Ke6??? (violates the Rule that says KINGS must stay one square apart. Here, the White K moves right next to Black K, an obvious ILLEGAL move!)
continuing, Black King plays 6. ...Kf8

I don't know the solution to the problem, but the 2 major errors here indicate that the proofreader did not do his work. Please do not mistake the criticism here, because the book is still worth having. Even some of the great classics of chess literature, such as REUBEN FINE's books, contain errors.


The ILLUSTRATIONS are a superb feature, far exceeding most paperbacks, and Eade may be setting a new standard. This book is highly recommended. ---Bruce R. Bain, President, Denver Chess Club

A very informative book on how to play chess and well illustrated. Two Thumbs Up!

This is a very difficult book. It is probably too hard for C players and perhaps B players. My main gripe is that moves selected or predicted by the reader which turn out to be the same moves played by the GM during the game often get 0 credit because they aren't the absolute best move (usually the best moves are determined years later by further GM analysis or Fritz). Selecting the move played by the GM deserves some credit unless it's an absolute blunder (which is highly unlikely). The production values of the book are excellent and the teaching value is exemplary. A secondary gripe is the scoring system. What, for example, does "good level" or "not bad at all" mean? It would have been preferable to use a scoring system similar to Khmelinitsky's (Chess Exam) where he uses USCF categories and percentages. That, of course, would have reqired some actual norming.

One of the best ways to improve at chess is to study master games, using a guess-the-next-move approach. This forces the reader to participate actively in the game, thus blazing new neural pathways, rather than just "reading and nodding" (as GM Nigel Davies would say). On other pages I have recommended "Solitaire Chess" by Bruce Pandolfini, "Multiple Choice Chess I and II" by Graeme Buckley, and "Test Your Chess" by Daniel King, written just for this type of training. This new title by Zenon Franco justly takes its place alongside them.

Unlike the other books identified above, Franco's does not ask the reader to take the role of one player (Black or White) at the start of each game; he also does not ask the reader to guess each move. Instead, the reader is quizzed on the dozen or two critical moments for either player during the game. Sometimes the reader is given move choices to select from, other times not. Point scores are won or lost along the way, and there is a table for interpreting final score at the end of the game.

I am sympathetic to the reviewer who thought that the scoring system is ungenerous, and that the test is too difficult. Indeed, I agree that the book is extraordinarily challenging, and may be of little use to players at USCF level C (B?) and below. And yes, the scoring system is not normalized against the results of rated players. Still, I found the book to be so rewarding, enjoyable and beneficial that to me these objections are outweighed.

The games are mostly from recent decades, and feature mostly recognizable super-GMs. Talk about tough love: Franco unreservedly shoves the reader into the pitiless jungle of modern dynamic chess. Some of the correct answers will depend on the reader selecting the right line of analysis (let's say) 18 ply deep. Or finding a move that eluded a world championship contender at classical time controls. Or making a leap of intuitive judgment worthy of Tal.

If you are up to the challenge, working conscientiously through this book will help you reach your next level of chess achievement. If you are not ready for it yet, start with Pandolfini, Buckley and King (in that order!); also - play a lot of slow games against strong competition. With each of these books I recommend setting aside a fair amount of time, writing out variations on a notepad, and doing all of the analysis without moving the pieces. It may help to have a game clock ticking in the background just to simulate the tournament conditions.

The physical and visual qualities of this book are outstanding, as usual from this publisher.

One other thing was striking about this experience. After working through each game I would go over it yet again with a strong computer engine. It's amazing how often a Grandmaster picks what the computer deems an inferior move - only for the human to be proved correct once the computer is "led by hand" through the critical line. This goes to show how computers are still rather primitive when it comes to positional and strategic judgments. The only reason they beat humans in practical matches is that human make tactical errors (well, computers also have huge opening books and perfect endgame tablebases...).

This is the greatest training book that I have seen, ever! It cannot simply be read, it must be studied. I suggest using the chess set you use in tournaments, a score sheet for you answers and some blank paper to cover the sections you have not gotten to yet.

I want to be very clear that I do not believe that this book should be used by beginners. If you have not progressed beyond the 1500 level it may be more frustration than it is worth.

Now, if you are an average to somewhat strong player, 1600 - 2000, and you are serious about competing then this book will be of great value to you. I have tried for the past year to use the solitaire chess method to study various books and it simply did not work because other books were not designed to be studied in this way. This book, however, stops you and asks you to choose from among various moves or simply what your next move might be, and grades you accordingly. This makes the possibility of accidentally seeing the next move much less likely. Another key feature is that Franco also asks questions concerning moves that were not in the main line. If Black played 18... Bxd4 but another possible move was 18... c5 Franco might ask what you would have played against that move. And if you are training leave the board as it is and imagine how it would look after the move in question and examine the possible variations without moving the pieces, just like you would have to do in a real game.

I also recommend preparing for each lesson by studying one or two games from the opening played in the game you are about to study. For instance, before I studied the first lesson I looked at the ECO code of the game and then found the game Lasker - Steinitz in the same variation in Kasparov's My Great Predecessors Vol I. The lesson was certainly more enjoyable because I felt confident that I new some of the ideas behind the opening, even though the games progressed in totally different manners.

Since I first wrote this review I have come across two other important techniques that can be incorporated into a study regimen with this book. This first is using ChessBase or another program to create easily reviewable flash cards of key positions that you mishandled or that struck you as a new strategic or tactical idea which you had never seen before. The second idea being to actually analyze your play as you would if it were your own OTB game in a tournament, looking at why your errors were wrong and why the correct move was better.

This book is designed to make training seriously and intensely very easy for you. It has an excellent table of contents and index of games and openings. It is a must for any serious student.

This book will make you better. Believe me! Buying this book will do for your chess what buying a set of weights will do for your figure. All you have to do (in both cases) is put in the effort, and I mean serious effort. This guy has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to make it easy for you to improve. This is a workout at the gym, with the best equipment, a personal trainer, no queues for the machines, and your favourite music playing. It's going to leave you breathless and quivering with exhaustion, dripping with sweat, but with rapidly strengthening muscles and no more weight problems. There are 50 games, which Franco has analysed thoroughly. He has then identified important points, every few moves, and presents you with questions. Sometimes, you have to choose between several moves (and justify your choice). Sometimes, it's just 'find the move', and there's no guidance. Often he'll deliberately include a move that is highly dubious, but appealing to a club-player. He's pretty vicious with the scoring! You can lose a lot of hard-earned points for carelessly picking a nice-looking move - but then, doing the same thing in a game could cost you one much more important point. The scoring structure for each game covers everything from duffer to grandmaster, and the point is to make you think. So you try, you think harder and harder in pursuit of those elusive points, and boy does it do you good! OK, it's very easy to blunder points away and end up in duffer category, but so so satisfying when you get the plan of the game correct and finish up with a master score. I'm not sure who would get grandmaster points, as sometimes even the actual moves, the ones the grandmasters played, are the very ones that lose you points! It's like being at the gym with about five weights on the machine, and there's about 30 weights altogether - you wonder just who on earth could possibly move all those weights... Unless you're into chess-boxing, it's probably never going to be you or me, but we can try for more of Franco's points!

In short, this is an outstanding book to stretch your abilities and asess your chess strength.