Patzer's review

Round 4, and I am paired up against an opponent I know next to nothing about. I checked his Lichess profile, and found just a few games. I saw that he had played the London system a few times, so that was my best guess as to what I could expect. The game was a bit dry. Both players made a few mistakes and failed to fully utilize each other's mistakes. After a few positional inaccuracies from my opponent, I had a chance to play for a win, but didn't manage to find the right continuation. The game ended in a draw. I gave the resulting position to an FM at my club, and asked his opinion about it. He said the pushing b4 was not necessarily the right plan. Rather, he suggested playing g5 and opening up the kingside. In his opinion, doubling on the g-file would be a good try for black. My opponent arrived at a similar conclusion after having fed the position toan engine and having it play the game out. The computer closed up the queenside and went for a kingside attack. Black w

One of the greates classics of chess literature. That's at least what it says on the cover. But let's not judge a book by the cover. Instead, we could listen to what others have said about this book. In his review of My system , John Watson writes: "We no longer consider many classics to be essential to a chess education, not since the Internet; but if there’s an exception, Nimzowitch’s work is it". These are big words from a big man. Watson is an authority of chess theory, so his evaluation should not be taken too lightly. Although My system has frequently been mentioned among the greatest books of all time, and has been recommended by many players , it has also been the subject of controversy. Of course, when the book was first published (almost 100 years ago), many ideas in the book challenged many of the established principles of chess theory at the time, and other authorities dismissed the ideas. But also to this day, many people are unimpressed with the b

Would you like to gain 400 rating points in 400 days? That is what Michael de la Maza did. And he wrote a book about his progress and the methods that got him there. Quite an appealing idea, and many players at the beginner and intermediate level will be enticed. I was. Are you? In 2001, Michael de la Maza wrote an article in Chess horizons called "400 points in 400 days" . In the article, he outlines the main components of his training program and gives a short account of his own progress. He managed to to get from about 1300 to 2000 in just two years, which is quite an accomplishment. His ideas were later elaborated upon and presented in the book  Rapid chess improvement. This book was published quite a few years ago, and can be difficult to find. But it has been republished in a new form, together with two other books in A chess course: from beginner to winner . If you decide you want to buy Rapid chess improvement , this three-in-one volume may be a good option.

Do you read children's books? If you're and adult, you will probably steer clear of any book that has the phrase "for kids" in it. Since it's for kids, and you're not a kid. Right? Well there are some exceptions, and this is one of them. Author Jeff Coakley has written a number of books "for kids": Winning chess strategy for kids , Winning chess exercises for kids and Winning chess puzzles for kids (vol 1 and 2). Although the titles suggest otherwise, these books are highly instructive and useful for players of all ages. In this review, I have chosen to focus on the first book in his series, Winning chess strategy for kids . What can you expect from this book? Immediately when seeing this book, you will realize that there is one major feature that is "for kids", and that is the artwork. Apart from that, there is no reason to assume that this book cannot be used for adult improvers. I used this book as a part of my tactics training p

Here is my first game from the Twitter chess tournament (I know, they come in the wrong order). Before the game, I had looked at my opponent's profile on Lichess, and saw that he liked to play the Spanish and Scotch. So I chose to give my Scotch repertoire a chance to come out and play. Up to move 10, I was still in preparation, and I got a really good game. After 13 moves, I had a completely winning position, and I felt it. I even thought to myself that this would be an easy win. But I guess this made me lazy, and I failed to consider my opponent's possibilities and counter threats. At move 20, I saw the opportunity (or so I thought) to win an exchange by pinning his queen to his rook. But the counter-pin Qg6 saves everything and throws away my entire advantage and gives it to black. After a few defensive moves, I killed the game with a horrible blunder. I was only looking at my own options, and failed to recognize my opponent's threats. That is not a good approach to ch

I know, I know. This match was a long time ago, and there has already been another world championship match - against that other guy that begins with "Car" (By the way, is that a prerequisite for the championship now?). Anyway, there isn't a book out on the latest match yet. And, even if there was, this one is really (!) good. So if you're into this kind of book, go read it. What can you expect from this book? This book is not just a game collection. It is a book about the match in its entirety. It begins with an introduction that sets the scene for the match. There is a presentation of each player and their respective road to the match, as well as the venue. The book is also full of behind the scenes footage and a other goodies. I would imagine that the book could even be interesting for non-chessplayers. Each game is of course presented in its entirety along with first class annotations by the authors. Alburt is a renowned chess writer and grandmaster, and C

For a few weeks now, I have been a part of a tournament within the Twitter chess community. The tournament is hosted by fellow blogger Say Chess , and resistance is quite tough. I came into this round with two losses, and felt good about finally scoring a point. The game was quite one-sided, but I realize that my board vision needs some work. I missed a free pawn and misevaluated the position a few times. Apart from that, I felt quite good about the game. Click through the moves below for more detailed comments.