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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Speaking of books, what book has made the most profound impression on you recently? - and reason why? My answer (of all the books I'm currently reading) is: Secrets of Chess Transformations by Drazen Marovic. Why? Because by reading it I feel that it is slowly opening my eyes to greater board vision and giving me more to think about during play.
Speaking of Nunn, his 'Secrets of Practical Chess' was the most recent (or at least last) non-opening theory/explanation book to have any sort of impression on me, although I've looked at only the first edition. Like many books, its advice often matched and consciously summed up what I had to learn by hard experience or my own independent thinking. 'The Method in Chess' by Dorfman (once recommended by Spraggett) I found myself repelled by at times due to certain dogmatic assertions the author made. One would never play one of my favourite (albeit controversial) Nimzo-Indian variations as Black because it would lead to a position described by Dorfman as always favourable to have the B pair in.
Sadly, as someone who has made it past 2300 before, there seem few books, other than on openings, that seem to offer me substantial truly new food for thought. At that rating, that's also when most chess teachers/coaches have to let their students go on their own way, it seems, though I've never paid for such a chess guru, as I am one of the older generation.
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Monday, 5th March, 2012, 09:32 AM.
Reason: Spelling
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
I picked up the book on the San Luis 2005 tournament recently and I think that book is definitely a classic. Other than that, all the Kasparov books are excellent. Although the English translations are horrendously bad in some places, it doesn't impact the chess content.
I can't think of any books on general strategy that I would recommend. In fact I think reading too many chess books harmed my chess development when I was learning by causing me to be too dogmatic instead of trying to find the truth about positions for myself.
I have Aagaard's Excelling at Positional Chess, Excelling at Combinational Play and Excelling at Chess Calculation. All are excellent, even though I disagree with some of his analysis and evaluations, especially in the first-named book. I should buy his Excelling at Technical Chess but I don't think I have ever seen it at Strategy Games.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
I also agree about the Aagaard series of books and am reading two of them currently, but I think they are definitely geared to 2000+. The puzzles in the combinational book build incredibly in strength and are geared for maximum brain workout. (I would think too challenging for under 2000). Have any readers under 2000 had a look at them and what do you think?
100 Soviet Chess Miniatures by Clarke. An excellent book that I used to teach my best students for many years. I just saw a review by IM Bryan Smith on www.chess.com and he praised the book as well. One problem is the book is in the old descriptive notation and desperately deserves to be upgraded to algebraic. For those interested in my Toronto days I used to haunt the old used bookstores and picked up my first copy for $2 albeit battered and hard used although all moves and notes were there.
100 Soviet Chess Miniatures by Clarke. An excellent book that I used to teach my best students for many years. I just saw a review by IM Bryan Smith on www.chess.com and he praised the book as well. One problem is the book is in the old descriptive notation and desperately deserves to be upgraded to algebraic. For those interested in my Toronto days I used to haunt the old used bookstores and picked up my first copy for $2 albeit battered and hard used although all moves and notes were there.
A while ago I thought that book might be good material to be a part of a small library set aside for teaching novices, since practical tactics and even a possible (simple/crude!?) opening repertoire could be demonstrated with the book.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
100 Soviet Chess Miniatures by Clarke....One problem is the book is in the old descriptive notation and desperately deserves to be upgraded to algebraic.
Make a digital version yourself.
Create a new database file,
copy and paste the games from your biggest dB into the new one,
manually key in the ones in the book that aren't in your biggest dB.
You can do all that in under an hour while watching TV.
Then you can print excerpts and computer check variations as much as you like.
A while ago I thought that book might be good material to be a part of a small library set aside for teaching novices, since practical tactics and even a possible (simple/crude!?) opening repertoire could be demonstrated with the book.
The (novice-suitable!?) opening repertoire (with examples, including from the Soviet miniatures book) that I had been thinking of demonstrating myself, to an Ottawa RA Fieldhouse Bar & Grill waitress (a novice), who had some interest in chess lessons (but then later dropped the thought), involved the following simple repertoire, with 2 options available with each colour:
White:
1.e4 with Italian Game or 1...e5 2.Nf3 intending 3.Nc3, plus Closed Sicilian (treatments against other 1.e4 defences could be added later)
AND
King's Indian Attack vs. just about anything
vs.1.d4 (or common flank opening moves):
King's Indian Defence
AND
Classical Dutch (i.e. with ...e6 and ...d6 included)
(Normally I would have no interest in starting to try to give lessons myself at the moment, but the waitress would have been convenient to meet, plus being an adult, not to mention a possible addition to the relatively sparse Canadian female competitive player population. :) )
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Tuesday, 16th April, 2013, 03:05 PM.
Reason: Spacing
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
There will probably be one ending up on www.chessgames.com.
I have a teaching book that never got published with mostly miniatures in it (though very few Canadian) which is being published game by game in Bob Armstrong's Canadian Chess newsletter (comes out every two weeks).
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