Studying Chess Made Easy

With the hundreds of books available on improving your chess rating, an overview by a good writer has been long overdue. Soltis is a great chess writer, and does an excellent job of outlining techniques to balance study, given the information overload on the topic. In extensive reviews, we've found 5 typos, which is unusual for Batsford, one of the finest chess publishers, most likely due to the rush to get this to press. We would have added a bibliography with a book of this title, there is none, and the "solutions" look like an afterthought-- they are 8 sentences on half of the last page!Contents include:1. Chess isn't school2. Cultivating your chess sense3. The biggest study myth4. The right way to study an opening5. Two and a half move chess6. Overcoming endgame phobia7. Learning to live with TMI8. How to learn more from a master gameTMI refers to Too Much Information, and the biggest myth is that you should "think like a grandmaster." Soltis convincingly argues that you ought to do a lot less thinking and a lot more pattern recognition (instinctive and intuitive) of good and bad moves!Improving your rating is not easy, and to be honest, this book isn't either. It is not just tips, but a good number of annotated games to illustrate key points, some of which require 5 or six travel sets or a good couple screens of computer analysis to work through. It is not nearly as difficult as an outstanding but very tough  Secrets of Creative Thinking: School of Future Champions 5 (Progress in Chess)  text, but isn't for beginners either, and makes numerous advanced and subtle points. If you are an advanced beginner or middle level club player, there are humorous anecdotes that tease you away from buying 50 pound opening encyclopedias and studying them extensively.The praise for the book includes the fact that it is "up to date with the most modern computer techniques." Well, it is up to date, for sure, especially in game examples and subtle tips, but there is not even a chapter on computer chess. There are several short sections on the topic, which are well written and give practical tips (Cyber Sparring, 4.5 pages, is the largest section), but no details on loading engines, comparing Hiarcs with Fritz, etc.Some of the best tips are secrets from the old Russian training schools. They include:1. Study alone, not with, or exclusively with, a teacher or trainer2. Practice numerous games against computers and slightly higher AND slightly lower rated players3. Don't go beyond having fun to the point of getting discouraged or overloaded4. Don't shy away from memorization5. Study a lot of endgames, not just for endgames, but to see the tactics at work6. Play a lot of brief, trick, puzzle and exercize games. A large number of new and unusual exercises are given in this category.7. Learn analysis, and try it before reading the analysis of others. (Soltis follows his own advice, giving 240+ diagrams, and asking you "what would you do here?" before continuing the analysis)If you are new to chess, ideas like correspondence chess, reading the Informant, playing black often, practicing "blind," and many other techniques are described. Even advanced players will likely find some novel techniques from the Russian school that they hadn't tried before.With the number of really BAD chess books published each year, this one stands out as much better than the rest. At 13 bucks or so, it will save you a hundred bucks on wasted money buying extensive opening libraries if you haven't done so yet, and that alone is worth the price! The author likes  Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained New Algebraic Edition , and quotes it as "the best book for a novice." I personally love books with good bibliographies for additional reading, and although there is NO bib here, Soltis does give tips throughout the text for suggested reading. These tips seem directed mostly at beginners. Beginners will profit from this book, but the analysis and examples are tough enough, and require enough work to follow, to benefit medium club level players as well.

Soltis offers different positions and offers different ways to study. The positions are interesting. Then Soltis discusses different ways to study the positions. The book is well the time and money.

Well first, lets get the obvious out of the way: chess isn't an easy game, and neither is the study of the royal game. Soltis even admits this in the text, eg: 'One of the most valuable skills that you can improve by playing a machine is the coordinating of your pieces. Learning to get your pieces to work together is VERY DIFFICULT' (emphasis mine) p.62. But marketing is marketing, and 'Studying Chess Made More Effective', though more accurate, probably wouldn't sell. So enough for my minor quibble. The real issue, of course, is whether Soltis delivers with this book. I would give that a qualified 'yes' answer. This is a pretty decent book, but it is not revolutionary in its content. Nor is it remarkable for thoroughness, organization, insightfulness etc. It is a series of, if you will, lectures on various topics on how to study chess, many if not all which can be found in other improvement texts. There are certainly some good points made, such as the centrality of pattern recognition in being able to find strong moves, and the need to learn by experience, playing many, many games and studying them. But you if you have been around for awhile, you probably already knew those things, right? One aspect that he brings up that I liked was the need for (most of the time) only having to calculate 2 1/2 moves ahead to be successful. Of course, seeing ALL of the key lines in that 2 1/2 moves takes years of practice, but it helps to know what to focus on. Overall, this is a helpful book, but as much as I like Soltis' work in general, I think there are better improvement books out there. For example, I would look at Yermolinsky's 'The Road To Chess Improvement', which is better overall, particularly for more advanced and/or motivated students. If you are a big Soltis fan, though, you will get much out of this book, at least if you are a relative beginner. More experienced players who have already worked through a couple of self-improvement books will not find a great deal new here, but there may be just enough for some to make it worthwhile.

Chess books tend to be general, as in the case of this book,or specialist,such as openings, end games etc. General chess books try too much, in some cases, which this book tries to address and it offers a different approach. You still get a lot of chess notation and diagrams but, overall, it is provides far more information and explanation about what individual moves do or seek to do in a given position. The scope of the book is not too broad nor so deep that someone like me - a fairly low ranking player cannot benefit enormously from it: higher ranking players might question the need for it, but it is the approach to chess study which is the point of this volume. To this end the book discusses intuition, memory, the use of computers and the study of an individual player to help fix ideas, theories etc into ones chess mind in order to play and play better. For what it's worth, I think that this book is, if not actually invaluable, absolutely worth the cover price.

Any chess book by Andrew Soltis is worth reading. He does have a knack of communicating ideas and useful tips on improvement. His book on pawn structure is said to be one of the best. I have five of his books to date and he is one of my favourite authors along with Chernev, Capablanca and Golombek .

A very good chess book. I've only read about 5% of it so far, but I'm in total agreement with the author (with what he has to say in the FORWARD). An honest, and straight forward approach. Very good. Thanks.

This is not the first book I have read written by Andrew Soltis. I like his easy, uncomplicated manner in which he explains in writing the sometimes very complex aspects of chess. Although I tend to borrow his books from the local library this is the first I have bought. I would recommend it to anyone who has a grasp of the rules of chess and are wanting to study the game further. I only wish there are more of his books written for Kindle.

This is a well thought out and excellent book but certainly for a graded player and not for the beginner for which I recommend other books. This would make a wonderful present for someone keen to progress to club level.