Amazing miniatures

A while back, I almost completely lost my motivation for chess. I felt uninspired and uninterested. Nothing seemed to be fun anymore. But one day I looked at my book shelf and picked up a little book and started to flip through it. I went through a game. Wow! I went through another. Wow again! This book is nice! So since that day, the book has been on my bedside table, and I have (mostly) gone through one game per day before going to sleep. The book I am talking about is Instructive Chess Miniatures. Let me tell you why I like this book.

If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details.
Become a Patron!

What can you expect from this book?

I have written about miniature games before. In my review of Catastrophes and Tactics, I mentioned that the definition of a miniature can vary. In Ataman's book, the games last 25 moves at most.

So what's the point? Why study miniatures? First of all (and obviously), they are quite short. This means that you can play through a game quite quickly. This also means that you can use the games for visualization training, aiming to keep all the moves in your head. Secondly, master games often consist of a lot of subtle maneouvering, which can make them quite difficult to follow for patzers like us. However, in minitatures, the ideas and plans (strategic and tactical) are carried out in full, which allows us to see the logic behind the moves more clearly.

Ataman sums this up quite well in the foreword:

These short games usually come to an end with a spectacular combination or an admirable deep idea. This makes miniatures really amazing and memorable!

Instructive Chess Miniatures is a simple book in terms of structure. There is a short (!) foreword of just half a page, and then the games are presented. The book contains 57 games in total, of which 4 are presented as "supplementary games". The remaining 53 games make up the main body of the book.

Each game is presented in full. The games are clearly presented with detailed annotations and several (usually 3-5) diagrams. The games are presented over roughly 120 pages. This means that each game is given about two pages on average. The supplementary games are, however, not annotated at all.

If you are curious about the layout and level of detail, you can find an excerpt of the book on the publisher's webpage. The excerpt also contains a table of contents which lists all the featured games.

As indicated in the introduction of this review, I have read read this book in bed before going to sleep. As you probably understand, this means that I haven't used a board to play through the moves. In some cases I have turned to my phone for assistance, but for the most part, I have played through the games in my head - of course with the help of the diagrams in the book. I think this is a perfect book for the purpose of visualization training. The combination of few moves and many diagrams means that you have to keep just 5-10 moves in your head.

The selling point of the book is the game selection and annotations. The book is a nice sample of games that really illustrate the beauty of chess. There are quite a few classics such as Anderssen's "evergreen game" and Morphy's "opera game". But there are also several lesser known and more recent examples. The games usually end with a beautiful combination or the execution of a deep strategic plan.

For me, personally, this book was very inspiring and rekindled my love for the game. It reminded me why I was drawn to the game in the first place. Each game has left me with the feeling of amazement and awe. I have repeatedly found myself just saying "wow" and going back and reviewing the game again to really take in all the awesomeness.

Who should read this book?

In the foreword, the author writes that the book is suitable as an introduction for younger players. I don't think age is the deciding factor. Rather, I think the book is good for developing players (patzers) of all ages. It can be used for beginners, in order to illustrate various points; both opening ideas as well as tactics and strategy. As suggested above, it is also a perfect book for visualization training. And it can of course also be read purely for enjoyment - if you just want to look at some beautiful games. Probably, your playing strength is somewhere below 1800 Elo. If this sounds like you, I suggest you read this book.

About this book

Author:	Alper Efe Ataman
Title:	Instructive chess miniatures
Type of book:	Game collection
Level:	Beginner, Intermediate

Comments

Popular reviews

Not only for kids

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...

Chaos on the board

Have you ever felt tired of chess? Maybe you’ve been uninspired or perhaps you think it’s too much work. To paraphrase a famous movie: All work and no play makes you a dull person. If that is the case, I may have a cure. You need a fun chess book. Something that will rekindle your joy for the game and inspire you to play creatively. I give you Tiger’s Chaos Theory ! This book found me at a time when I needed it the most. My inspiration and motivation to study chess was way down. And like a bolt from the blue, the Swedish Chess Federation approached me and wanted me to review this book. And the kind people at Quality Chess agreed to send me a review copy. An offer I couldn't refuse. So after this happy turn of events, I have a new review for you. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Grandmaster Tiger Hillarp Persson, a multi-time Swedish chess champion, has al...

Learn chess tactics

Where should you turn for tactics training? This is a frequently occuring question, not only from beginners, but also from intermediate players. Which books are suitable for your specific level, and which ones should you get? In this review, I take on a book that I suggest you do get - at least if you're at or near the beginning of your chess development. This was actually my first tactics book back in the day, and I recently reread it in order to give a proper review. I remember that I liked it the first time around and that my tactical skills improved. Although rereading it didn't contribute all that much to my learning, I still have a good impression of it. Please read on for more details. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Learn Chess Tactics is written by the one and only John Nunn, and (as the name implies) it is a tactics book. I would go as f...

Reassess your chess

Some books don't really need an introduction. And this is one of them. But a blog post needs one, so here we are, in the middle of an introduction. How to reassess your chess was one of the first books in my collection. I first read it around 2014, and decided to reread it this year. And now I am finally ready share my thoughts on it with you. I hope you enjoy my review! If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? In the beginning of my chess studies, I read The Amateur's Mind and saw a tremendous increase of my chess understanding. My playing strength increased dramatically and I felt more confident than ever. I also enjoyed Silman's writing style, so I felt that it was a good idea to take a deeper look at what he had to offer. Considering the amount of praise that can be found (basically everywhere) of How to reassess your chess , I felt that this was a no...

Stop and reassess!

In my very first post on this blog, I reviewed The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman. That was my first step to understand chess strategy. And I actually bought another one of Silman's book at the same time, but for some reason, it took me more than ten years to read. I finally decided to go through it and now I am ready to share my thoughts with you. (It feels like I've written this before.) If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Before writing this review, I had a few candidates. I am always reading several books in parallel, and I have a number that I'm about to finish. So I asked the Twitter community for input on which book they would like me to review as number 50. And this came out on top. So far I have reviewed 49 books on #patzersreview . Which one should be number 50? My candidates are: - Silman: Reassess your chess workbook - Nunn: Solving in...

Patzer's review

Search This Blog