Publisher: Batsford Chess Author: GM Andrew Soltis 384 pages ★★★★☆ An all too familiar problem facing chess players is the question of what to study. Most of us have jobs, families or other commitments leaving us precious little time for studying […]
Book review: What it takes to become a Grandmaster – Andrew Soltis
Publisher: Batsford Chess Author: GM Andrew Soltis 318 pages ★★★★½ GM Andrew Soltis returns with a sequel to his popular book “What it takes to become a Chess Master”. Whereas “Chess Master” talked about the new skills you need to move […]
Book Review: Bronstein: Move by Move
Publisher: Everyman Chess Author: FM Steve Giddins 288 pages ★★★★☆ The great thing about game collections – as opposed to opening/endgame books – is you get to see the game as a complete entity, including how the phases transition to one […]
Book Review: The Caro-Kann (Opening Repertoire)
Publisher: Everyman Chess Author: WGM Jovanka Houska 480 pages ★★★★½ The Caro-Kann is a funny opening – it looks completely unambitious (would you open 1.c3?) yet it was a favourite of World Champions Capablanca, Botvinnik, Petrosian and Karpov. Of course, these […]
Ivanchuk: Move by move
Publisher: Everyman Chess Author: Junior Tay 512 pages ★ ★ ★ ★★ The title should give you a good idea of what to expect from this book; the chess genius Vassily Ivanchuk is the subject of the […]
The Chess Tactics Detection Workbook
Publisher: Everyman Chess 330 pages ★ ★ ★ ★☆ Chess improvers often find themselves looking to absorb new knowledge about the game in an effort to get better results when they might benefit more from becoming more skilful, especially […]
The Classical French – Move by Move
Publisher: Everyman Chess £19.99/$29.95 464 pages ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ Prior to reading “The Classical French – move by move” my experience with opening books was less than pleasant. The books were […]
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played – Chernev
Publisher: Batsford £15.99/$23.95 312 pages ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ First published in 1965, Irving Chernev’s book has become a classic in the field of annotated games. Now Batsford bring us an […]
Book Review: Yusupov’s Chess Course
Artur Yusupov’s series of 9 chess course books won the FIDE Trainer Awards’ Boleslavsky Award in 2009 ahead of Kasparov, Dvoretsky and Grivas for the most instructive books of the year and rightly so. Everyone is aware of the fantastic […]