Patzer's review

During the past two years, I’ve been working on improving my strategic/positional play. In this process, I have read a number of books, and two books that have long been on my reading list are the strategy books by Johan Hellsten. So when the Swedish chess federation requested reviewers for two of these books, I didn’t hesitate. I am happy that I was given the opportunity to review these books, and hope this review can be of help to you as a reader. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from these books? Johan Hellsten has created a name for himself as one of the leading experts of chess strategy in modern times. His series of strategy books ( Mastering Opening Strategy , Mastering Chess Strategy and Mastering Endgame Strategy ) have received glowing reviews from many parts of the chess world. So it feels good to finally dig into these nuggets. His endgame book is still in my boo...

Pawns are the soul of chess. Who said that? I can't remember, but it was probably someone famous. Regardless of who said it first, many people agree that this is true. But few people seem to be capable of explaining why this is the case. Enter the niche category of pawn structure chess books. These books are really not a category of its own, but rather a specific type of strategy book. I first heard about the book when Neal Bruce presented his Pawn book championship  about a year ago. Since Neal named this book the best of the bunch, I just had to buy it. It has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time, and finally I've taken the time to read it. What did I think? Well, it's got a little golden star, so that's a hint it's a good book. Read my review to see why I decided to give it my stamp of approval. 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 a...

Some books "fly under the radar" and do not get the same attention as the evergreen classics. But sometimes, there is gold in old mines. And I found a little golden nugget while shopping for used books. A book written for amateurs, by (arguably) the best amateur of all time; former world champion Max Euwe. Sounds promising, right? 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 my previous review of Chess Fundamentals , said that few world champions have written books for beginners and intermediate players. Capablanca is, of course, one exception. And another is Max Euwe. Euwe is not the most well-known world champion. He was in his prime in the 1930s and 1940s, most notably in 1935 when he dethroned none other than the great Alexander Alekhine. Although many have suggested that Alekhine only lost because of heavy use of alcohol, beating him is no small feat (rega...

What if you could get chess lessons from a former world champion? Would you say yes? This is a question that Kostya Kavutskiy asked in a recent video . I decided to accept that offer, and during the past few weeks, I've spent some quality time with the third world champion, José Capablanca. In his 100 year old book, he outlines some of the most important principles of chess. If you haven't already read this book, maybe you should? Hopefully, this review will help to decide if this book is 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? Several world champions (most of them?) have written books for advanced players. Capablanca is one of the few who have written chess books for beginners and intermediate players. And his book Chess Fundamentals  is a classic introductory book. Many people have recommended it, and I've had it on my reading list for a long time...

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...

Some books are worth waiting for, and this one is exceptional in terms of waiting. When I ordered the book, it took over 6 months before it was delivered. When I finally got around to reading it, I realized that I should probably read more basic books on chess strategy in order to get more context on this one. So I put it away for a while. The result is that it has taken almost two years from when I ordered the book until this review was done. Is it worth the wait? Read on to find out. 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 How to study chess on your own , Davorin Kuljasevic recommends that you should "dynamize" your tactical training. Dynamic chess strategy  is a good book to get you started on that track. And it is also one of the books that Kuljasevic references repeatedly throughout his book. But what exactly does it mean? Well, that's one of the ma...

What is the best chess book? I see this question asked all the time. I always respond with a question: What is your level? If you are a beginner or lower-level patzer and you're looking for a strategy book, I think this review gives you one possible answer to the question. And to top it off, it's a very small and convenient book. But don't be fooled by the title; chess is never simple. Or is it? 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? For those of you who are active on chess Twitter, you will probably have read about Neal Bruce's various book championships. One of these is the basic chess strategy book championship which was won by Winning Chess Strategies . This is my 3 year, master basic strategy curriculum. 1 stack per year. 😁 All but the puzzle books are really annotated game books. 👍 IMO, Stay away from My System and Pawn Power in Chess. 🤮 pic...

Chess strategy is one of the most elusive and difficult parts of chess. Compared to the direct and transparent world of chess tactics, strategy can be confusing and opaque. At the patzer level, tactical strikes that gain material or lead to checkmate can be obvious (provided that one understands the tactic). However, in many cases, strong players claim that a move is obvious although it doesn't result in material gain or even a semblance of an attack. We, the patzers of the world, scratch our heads and wonder how on earth anyone can find such moves obvious. How can we take steps towards this deeper level of chess understanding? Picking up a basic strategy book is a good first step. And that's what I did here. 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? As a part of my ambition to deepen my understanding of chess strategy, I took on a mission of reading (and rev...

A Soviet classic - that's what it says on the front cover. And for good reason, I think. At the beginning of this year, I decided I would invest some time studying strategy books. I already had a number of them in my collection, and then I stumbled upon a thread in the facebook group ”chess book collectors”. The post contained some controversial claims about the book Question of modern chess theory , which was unfamiliar to me at the time. The post and the ensuing discussions piqued my interest, and I decided to check it out. After some research, I realized that this was a stepping stone for many other books, so I put it at the top of my reading list. I read it during the summer, but haven't got around to writing a review before now. So I actually had to read it again. Anywho, I am finally ready to share my thoughts with the world. Hope you enjoy it. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! Wha...

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...

Have you ever found yourself unable to find a move in the middlegame? Of course you have. We all have. About ten years ago, this was a recurring problem for me, which led to a lot of frustration. My conclusion was that I needed to learn how understand middlegames. So what better way than to read a book with the title Understanding Chess Middlegames ? Sound like the perfect remedy, right? Ok, let's find out. 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 first read this book when I was just starting to study chess seriously. I bought it after reading a recommendation in an online forum. I would say this was ten years ago, but the book came out 2011, so it couldn't have been before that. Anyhow, my playing strength was probably around 1200 (I was unrated at the time) and I was having trouble choosing moves in non-tactical positions. Basically, I was playing without ...