A guide to chess improvement

During the past years, I have sporadically read Dan Heisman's old Novice nook articles. And they are really great. When I realized that Dan had put together the best of Novice Nook in a book called A guide to chess improvement, I felt I had to read it. This review is based on a post on my previous blog on chess.com. And I thought it was a good article to include here.

What can you expect from this book?

This book is really good, but it also hurts to read. Because reading the book made me realize that I have some fundamental issues that I need to iron out in order to become a better player. According to Dan, there are three skills that must be mastered before going for more advanced studies.

Play slowly enough to identify and properly evaluate candidate moves.
Ensure that the selected move is safe, which means checking for your opponent's tactics.
Develop the pieces to squares where they have activity and can do something constructive.

Why is this important? The simple reason is that if you (like me) make unsafe moves that lose material or allow your opponent to checkmate you, nothing else matters. You can play like a grandmaster for 25 moves, but if your 26th move is unsafe and hangs a queen, you will still lose the game. Or, as Dan puts it:

All the chess knowledge in the world won't help you if, each time you move, you don't take your time and use the information that is applicable to your current position.

This has been my problem. I have spent countless hours doing tactics and developing my knowledge of openings, positional play and endgames. But I don't have the results to show for it. The explanation is as clear as day: I play too quickly, and make unsafe moves. More often than not, these moves lead to bad or simply lost positions. This means that my studies do not produce the results that I expect them to. I have known for some time that I often lose due to unsafe moves, but I have not really embraced the fact. Instead, I have focused on other parts of the game and tried to boost ego and tell myself that "I played quite well apart from that one stupid blunder". And from this, I have concluded that there is not really anything wrong with my chess. I just make the occasional bad move. Right?

After reading Dan's book, I see this in a new light. I realize that I make a lot of the basic mistakes that Dan comes back to again and again. I do not play slow enough, I do not play safely, and I often place my pieces passively. As long as I keep making these basic mistakes, my chess performance will not increase, regardless of how much opening theory or endgame knowledge I gain.

The book is divided into nine different sections: General improvement, thought process, time management, skills and psychology, tactics and safety, openings, endgame and technique, strategy and positional play, and a collection of shorter lesson material. Each section is divided into between 2 and 8 chapters

Since most of the content is available through Dan's webpage, you can check it out and see if you like his writing. That's what I did, and I felt that this was a book I needed on my shelf. I have read the book several times, and I come back to it again and again, hence the multiple book marks.

Who should read this book?

This is a book that should be interesting for a wide audience. It mainly targets beginners and club players, but should also be interesting for chess coaches and parents of budding chess masters. The book provides excellent tips for chess training, recommended books and which order to read them and a lot more. If you are a patzer like me, I urge you to read this book!

About this book

Author:	Dan Heisman
Title:	A guide to chess improvement
Type of book:	Chess improvement
Level:	Beginner/Intermediate

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