Patzer's review

How do I study chess in the most effective way? This is a question most chess players ask themselves at some point. Once in a while there comes a book that promises to deliver the definitive answer. And just a few months ago, such a book came out; How to study chess on your own . With such a title, this is a book that I just had to read. Should you read it too? In order to answer that, I think you should read this review and figure it out for yourself. 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? Like many other books, the first time I heard about How to study chess on your own  was on the perpetual chess podcast that featured an interview with author Davorin Kuljasevic . The interview made me curious about the book, so I decided to get it. How to study chess on your own  is a big book. It has 380 pages that spans 9 chapters (plus solutions), 71 annotated games ...

I was recently interviewed by Kevin Scull  for his podcast  Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement . When I got the request, I started thinking about what I have to contribute with in terms of improvement advice for chess players. I ended up creating a mindmap of it all, and thought I would share it with you along with an elaboration of what it means. Three questions for you In my opinion, there are three main questions that you need to ask yourself in order to find your  path to chess improvement: Why am I doing this? What will I focus on? How will I study? I have tried (and failed) myself, many times. And what I've realized is that you cannot copy other people's plans for improvement; you need to create a personalized plan that is adapted to your goals, your needs and your general life situation. Don't copy other people's improvement plans Start with WHY I've seen a lot of adult players describe their chess goals. Almost all of them are defined in...

“I had a fantastic position, but I couldn’t figure out what to do next!” Sound familiar? If so, then Fred Wilson’s Simple Attacking Plans was written for you. That is what is written on the back cover of this book, and that is basically what got me sold on it in the first place.  After having the book on my reading list for several years, I finally decided to read 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? When I first heard about this book (probably on The Perpetual Chess Podcast ), I was excited. I thought it would be exactly what I needed - a book that gives me a few simple recipes that I can follow in attacking. That was not the case. The book does  provide a few general tips, but they are not very detailed. Here is a (very brief) summary: Attack f2 or f7 Attack h2 or h7 With a king in the center, open and dominate the central files Point all of your piec...

Almost everyone has heard of Beth Harmon by now. The miniseries has been seen by millions of people around the world. But how many have read the book that the series is based on? Probably a lot fewer. Well, at least I am one of them. So I thought I'd share my impressions with 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? The Queen's Gambit  is a fictional story about Beth Harmon. Beth lost her parents as a small child, and was brought up in an orphanage. During her time there, she was taught how to play chess by the janitor. It soon became apparent that she had a tremendous talent, and her skills grew exponentially until she finally became a world class player. The character Beth Harmon seems to be loosely based on the life of Bobby Fischer. They both share the same extraordinary talent which they honed more or less on their own. They were both American players...

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...

If you can't learn something from a game, you're doing something wrong. These are the words of adult improver extraordinaire Neal Bruce in an interview on Chess Dojo . For most people, learning from games means studying master games. But what about games played by amateurs? This review covers a book that aims to extract important lessons from amateur games. 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 came across Dan Heisman's writing through his blog on chess.com. This must have been about 5 years ago. I was impressed by the large number of suggestions that are relevant for amateur players (patzers like us). And when I started to explore his bibliography, there was one book that quickly made it to my wishlist: The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book. (a.k.a the chess book with the longest title ever ). And after several years, I finally go...

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 sh...