Patzer's review

Fifty years have passed since the famous match that made Bobby Fischer the World Champion. Many books have been written about Firscher in general, and this match in particular. And recently, a new book was published in which one of the match organizers tells the inside story of the match and what happened behind the scenes, before, during and after the match. I was very excited to read this book, and I am ready to 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? As mentioned above, The Match of All Time  is a book about the World championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972. The match was played in Reykjavik, Iceland between July 11 and August 31. So this week, 50 years ago, Bobby Fischer became the 11th world chess champion. The Match of All Time  is written by Gudmundur Thorarinsson, who was the chairman of the Icelan...

Every chess player will sooner or later get into a grappling match with a tactics book. But which book is the best? While there is no clear and objective answer to this question, there are a few books that have a very good reputation. One of those books is 1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations by Fred Reinfeld. So the question is whether this book deserves a place among the "best" tactics books ever. In this review, I give my personal opinion on the matter. 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? 1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations  - or simply "Sacs n Combos" - is one of the many chess books written by Fred Reinfeld. As mentioned in a previous review of Reinfeld's  Attack and Counterattack in Chess  (in case you didn't already know), Fred Reinfeld was an incredibly prolific writer during the 50s and 60s. Sacs n Combos...

In my previous review I mentioned how I would like to see an improved version of The Improving Chess Thinker , and that a book had recently come out that seemed to be perfectly in line with my ideas. A few months later, I have bought the book, worked through the exercises and read the prose. And finally, I am ready to give my complete review of the new book Think like a Super-GM . And I can tell you, I was not disappointed by this book. Read on to find out why you should probably get the book too. 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 the title indicates, Think like a Super-GM is a book about thinking in chess. At its core, it is a puzzle book. But it is more than that. In the chapters surrounding the puzzles, the book digs into the challenges of thinking in chess and how the thinking process differs between players of different levels. The first chapter ...

How should you think during a chess game? This is a critical question. Chess is a thinking game, and therefore, improving your game means improving your thinking. That should be a fairly uncontroversial statement. So if you want to improve your game through better thinking, a book on the subject should be exactly what you're looking for. I wish I could say that this book is the answer to all your questions, but unfortunately, that is not the case. In this review, I will tell you what I like and what I don't like about The Improving Chess Thinker  by Dan Heisman. 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 Improving Chess Thinker  is a book that aspires to teach you how to think about chess. The basic idea of the book is to record players at various levels as they "think out loud" about the position they are analyzing. In the first chapter of the bo...

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...

If you had actual lessons with a grandmaster, would you be brave enough to publish the transcripts? Well, someone did. And that someone wrote about it in book form — three books, to be precise. In this review, I present my thoughts on the first book in the book series Lessons with a Grandmaster . 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? Lessons with a GM  is written in collaboration between Boris Gulko and Joel Sneed. Gulko is a grandmaster who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s. According to Wikipedia, he is the only player to win the Soviet as well as US Chess championships. Sneed is a professor of psychology at Queens College in New York as well as an amateur player.  In essence, this book is a game collection. There are 25 games in the book, all played by Gulko. There are some real heavyweights among his opponents, such as Kasparov, Karpov,...

What is it that separates a grandmaster from an amateur player? This is a topic of several books, and it is also a question that I've asked myself. I have long been curious about what we can learn from grandmasters and what a patzer like me can implement in my own games in order to take at least a small step towards becoming a competent chess player. And the book under review here is one that promises to do just that.  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 versus Amateur  is a book that I've had in my collection for several years. I bought it back in 2015 and started reading it immediately. For some reason, I only read the first two chapters and then I put the book away. I don't remember why. During my vacation this summer, I decided to pick it up again, and now I've finally read the entire thing. The premise of the book is to discuss what...