The following are, in my opinion, modern chess book classics:
Endgame
Silman’s Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master
Middlegame
Chess Strategy for Club Players
Tactics
Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna
General / Training
Pump Up Your Rating
The Bishop and Open Diagonals: In order to obtain its full working force, a Bishop must be provided with open diagonals; here its long-range power can be put to good effect. The following game shows how the opening of an attacking diagonal can lead to an immediate decision.
The following is the first lesson from General Treatise on Chess by Roberto Grau (from now on referred to as GTC).
Material Vs. Time
Piece value is based on what the pieces are doing and not because the piece is on the board.
The following example shows how an advantage in time can be superior to a material advantage.
Schories vs. Spielmann Schevenningen 1905
Black to move after move 12.
White is threatening to win a pawn after 13.Bxe4. Spielmann reasons that White’s lack of queenside development (the knight and bishop are still on the back rank) and a possible opening of the –file are worth more than a pawn, so he played 12…f5!. 13.exf6 e.p Qxf6 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15.Qxe4 Bb3! a magnificent maneuver. Spielmann takes away the c2 retreat from the Queen, and plans to gain time with Rac8. Notice how Black has all of his minor pieces in the game, and he will economically bring the rook into play. White on the other hand, has a knight on f3 which cannot move because of the threats against f2. 16. c4? A mistake. If you are behind in development you should avoid advancing pawns, because this leads to an additional loss of time. 16.Be3 was undoubtedly better. 16…Qd6 17.Nbd2 When you are behind in development you are at a much greater risk of being attacked. Because of this it is always prudent to simplify the position. Simplification favors the defender. For this reason 17.Qd5+ returning the material and leading to an inferior endgame is White’s best chance. 17…Rae8 18.Qb1. White has to continue relinquishing squares in order to maintain his material advantage. The situation is now becoming critical.
White to move after move 18.
18… Nd4! Spielmann has managed to combine his space advantage with the weakness on f2. White cannot play 19.Nxd4 Qxd4 20.Nxb3 because of the pretty combination 20…Qxf2+ 21.Rxf2 Re1++. If 20.Nf3 Qxc4 with a clear advantage for White.
19. Ne4 Nxf3 20. fxg3 Qg6+ 21.Kh1 Rxf3A simple and definite maneuver that not only recovers the pawn for Black but also leads to a victory. If 22.Nxc5 Bc2 23.Qa2 Rxf2!, with an inevitable mate coming, and if 24.Rg1 Re1, etc.
22. Re1 Rxf2 23. Bg5 Qh5 24. Nf6+ gxf6 25.Rxe8 Kf7 0-1.
Recently a Spanish language set of four chess books by the name of el Tratado General de Ajedrez by Argentinian Chess Master Roberto Grau was recommended to me. The book has been called the Bible of Latin American Chess, and it is highly regarded among Latin American chess players.
Grau’s work which is composed of 4 volumes, is now out of print and was never translated to any other language. The 4 volumes cover the following themes:
1. Fundamentals
2. Tactics
3. Pawn Structures
4. Advanced Strategy
Luckily I read spanish, so I will be using the books as part of my chess study, and I plan on translating and posting about it in future entries.
1. In the endgame the King is a fighting piece and it should be centralized and used actively.
2. Material advantage wins in the endgame. Hold on to your material!
3. Be wary of sacrificing pawns for development. Only in rook and pawn endgames is an active piece worth material.
4. Try to gain tempi whenever possible, but without giving up material.
5. The fewer the pieces, the more important the pawns. The closer into the endgame, the more powerful pawns become.
6. Have a flexible and sound pawn structure. Avoid doubled, isolated and backward pawns.
7. Passed pawns must be pushed!
8. An outside passed pawn is an advantage in King and pawn endgames and it is usually a decisive advantage.
9. Rooks belong behind passed pawns.
10. In open positions the two bishops are murder. In almost all positions the two bishops give a tangible advantage.
11. In open or semi-open positions a bishop is usually superior to a knight.
12. The knight is superior to the bishop in blocked positions or when the bishop is hemmed in by pawns on the same color squares as the bishop.
Attribution: Edmar Mednis’ Rate Your Endgame Play
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I have an extensive chess library, and one of the main problems that I have, is that I move from book to book never finishing any I ever start. So I have decided that I will stick to the following books which are in the 1500-1600 USCF range, and I will not read any that are not on this list.
The following books are the ones I will use to get me past the Class C category.
Strategy
New Ideas in Chess
Reassess your Chess Workbook
Tactics
Art of Attack
Endgame
Essential Chess Endings
Games Collection
Capablanca Move by Move
Alekhine’s Best Games
Online
ChessTempo
Chess.com
One of the best ways of improving your game, is to review your chess games afterwards. You can then use your game as a springboard to additional learning by identifying your weaknesses and any missing concepts that caused you the game. One of the problems I have encountered, is that I haphazardly go over the game, and I always tend to run through it quickly and let my chess engine do most of the work. The problem with this approach is that most of the learning comes from when you ponder over the chess game and come up with questions about moves and ideas that you had at the most critical moments.
I have created a chess game review checklist that breaks down the analysis of the game and gives you ideas of what to look for while you are reviewing and annotating it.
I have broken down the review process into three distinct phases:
Please feel free to give me any feedback, and I will consider updating the checklist to include your advice.
If you follow this blog, you probably noticed that I haven’t posted in 6 months. The reason has been that I have been very unhappy with my progress, and I decided that I would not post until I felt that I had “improved”. I have tried new chess training methods as well as committed to older training methods, and I feel that in the past few weeks I have started to make some progress again.
I have a couple of ideas that I want to write about in the coming weeks, and a tournament in July that should measure the level of improvement that I have attained.
The road to chess improvement is a long and winding one, but with these 10 tips will help you survive the journey and increase your chess level.
1. Eliminate blunders.
2. Become proficient at finding offensive and defensive tactics.
3. Stop playing “hope chess“. Analyze at least 4 ply deep, and make sure that your move improves your position and does not lead to #1 & 2 above.
4. Be aware of your opponents tactical and positional threats.
5. Become proficient in basic endgames (king and pawn and rook endgames in particular).
6. Learn the basic positional themes.
7. Work on improving your thought process.
8. Create a basic opening repertoire that fits your style of play, and does not rely on too much theory.
9. Play stronger opponents and review your games afterwards.
10. Play over annotated master games.
What chess improvement tips would you like to add?
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