Patzer's review

I have a new goal. I am going to become a Grandpatzer. You read that correctly; it's not a typo. As you probably know, Grandpatzer is not an official title, and the term is actually not very established at all. But there is a very entertaining and enlightening book by the title Secrets of a Grandpatzer by Kenneth Mark Colby. When I saw it, I fell for it directly and bought it without hesitation. If you are as enticed by this book as I was, please read on for my full review. What can you expect from this book? Kenneth Mark Colby (1920-2001) was a professor in psychiatry and an amateur chess player. In the introduction of the book, he describes how he 'floundered around' as a 1600-patzer for several years before deciding to do something about it. He did something about it, and achieved a 1800+ rating within a year. This book describes the his 'secret' method so that you and I can do the same. The book was first released in 1979. My copy is a reprint from 2011...

The term 'average chess player' comes up every now and again. But what does that even mean? I am sure that every person who has ever used that kind of term will have different interpretations of what it means. So I figured I would take a look at some statistics from the official FIDE rating list. The official rating lists can be downloaded from the FIDE website . One problem, however, is that there are almost 350,000 players on the rating list, which makes the files so big that they are rather difficult to handle. But with some spreadsheet magic, I was able to extract the information. The diagram below shows the rating distribution of all players on the official rating list. The diagram simply shows the number of players with a certain rating. I have used a quite wide range (100 points) for each category, so the numbers will indicate the number of players with a rating between the indicated number and 100 points higher. For instance, the number at the peak (rating = 1700) i...

Have you ever played Match the masters on Chessmaster? It is a training mode that requests you to guess the moves from various master games. I played this many years ago. And while cleaning up old stuff from the chess club storage, I came across a book that is based on the same idea. So I was of course intrigued to take a closer look. Why don't you join me in doing so? What can you expect from this book? How good is your chess? first came out in 1957. The version I have read is a reprint from 1976, but apparently nothing has been changed before the 'new' release. If you have ever played Match the masters on your computer, you will know exactly what this book is about. The obvious difference is of course that the book is not interactive. There are eight sections in the book: (I) Centre control, (II) Superior development, (III) Positional play, (IV) Attacking play, (V) The art of defence, (VI) Combinations, (VII) Constriction technique and (VIII) The ending. ...

One of the finest chess books ever written. Those are tall words from the back cover of this classic book. But The art of attack in chess is one of those books that keep popping up in lists of best chess books. It is highly regarded by many players and trainers, so the initial statement is probably not all wrong. This is a book that has been on my reading list for several years, but it has taken some time for me to actually pick it up. I've been curious about what the hype is all about, and now that I've finally found out for myself, I am ready to share that insight with you. So let's dive in! What can you expect from this book? Before we begin, let me just get one detail out of the way. One thing that struck me when I picked up the book is the title, which seems to be missing a "the". When reading about the book online, it is referred to both with and without "the". When I looked up the original book (this one is a revised edition, edited by Joh...

Chess calculation is a core skill in chess. Some say it's the most important skill, and that the ability to calculate deeply and accurately is the best predictor of playing strength. Thus, getting better at calculation should be a top priority for any improving player. So when I found the book Excelling at chess calculation , I felt that this should be a no-brainer. Let's take a look at this book! What can you expect from this book? Let me be upfront. When I was done reading this book, I was quite upset. The content does not fulfil the promise of the title - not even close. Upon writing this review, I went through the book again, just to check if I got a different impression. In one way, I didn't, but in another way I did. Let me explain. "A crucial guide to the skill of chess calculation. Ideal for both club and tournament players." That's what the back cover says, and I had heard people recommending the book. My expectations were high and I was e...

Chess is 99% tactics. This is a truism that is often repeated. I don't know if it's correct, or if it even makes sense to discuss the validity of the claim. But anyway you slice it, tactics are important. If you don't know your basic tactics, you'll get shredded on the board. A while back, I decided that I would brush up on my basic tactics. This was based partly on recommendations from various sources, and partly on inspiration from people within the Twitter chess community (shout out to all #chesspunks out there!). I don't think there is anything directly wrong with my tactical abilities, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ensure that I had a solid tactical Foundation before pursuing my more advanced studies. So I designed a training program for drilling basic tactics, drawing on a number of different books. Thus, I thought I would write another multi-book review, with focus on basic tactics books. In this review I take on the following titles: Chess ta...

You should not judge a book by its cover. I don’t think this has ever been more true about a chess book than in this case. Lev Alburt’s Chess training pocket book is an excellent book, but the cover is horrible. I first read about this book in a forum on chess.com, and one member described how he wrapped a piece of paper around the book so people on the bus wouldn’t think that he read a book about how to attract women through chess (however unrealistic that concept is). But don’t be put off by the artwork. Let’s take a look at the content instead. What can you expect from this book? According to the author, this tiny book (only 175 pages) contains the most important positions and ideas you need in order to improve as a player. The statement on the cover (”300 most important positions & ideas”) may be interpreted as an indication that the book contains all you need to know in order to become a strong player. Of course, this is not true. It is hard to disagree with the fact t...