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Summary: Experts agree - don't read "My System" - read this instead!
Review: Ask any professional player which book you should read first to learn chess strategy, and they will recommend this book.Ask "Why not Nimzovich's 'My System'?" and they will tell you that this book covers the same material much more clearly, and adds modern information not available in "My System." Are their other books you should read after this one? Sure! But not UNTIL YOU'VE READ THIS ONE FIRST! As a player who has played in the World Open and won money in the U.S. Open and the New York Open and as a player who has read dozens and dozens of chess books, I can tell you this is one of only about 5 chess books that can be considered "essential."
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Summary: Greatest Chess Book Ever Written
Review: I've read over 200 books on chess and my rating was stuck at around 1700. I read this book three times in six months and my rating soared to a current 2420. Everyone at the chess club now calls me the "Chess Machine". Since reading Silman's work I have quit my job at a major accounting firm and now can make a decent living on prize money alone. Local masters say I am now ready for international tournaments. Get this book!
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Summary: Essential Step in all Chess Progress
Review: Simply, No other author in chess books does quite what J. Silman does in his book!! After slogging through the tons of available books, eventually you come upon this jewel of chess literature. Or you can stop slogging. Mr. Silman building on his insights as related in the Amateur's Mind, rebuilds chess from a game of endless calculation, or reactionary candidate moves, to one of of actually being able to analyze and see any position in light of its true themes. Finally a book that teaches the player to think, not react. The only real weakness is it is not complete enough, something he works on remedying in his Workbook. After this book a chess enthusiast is more able to move to more esoteric texts, with better understanding. Rather than spending years memorizing apocrypha to get to the same point. A great book for any player from Starting Player to Master level. If you are a Master you are probably familiar with all the other literature anyway.
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Summary: Should be in every chess player's library
Review: After studying this book I saw a noticeable difference in my game, and so did other people I play on a regular basis. So I recommend this book to any beginner or intermediate player that wants to improve his/her game.
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Summary: Good Start but could be better
Review: How to Reassess your Chess by Jeremy Silman is not comprehensive enough to claim that it is a "Complete Chess-Mastery Course", but it still is an informative book that deserves to be read. After a skimpy chapter on endgames -- put in perhaps as a pretext for the the title -- the book moves on to planning. Planning is a subject that is rarely confronted in chess books, and Reassess your Chess provides a good start, teaching you the basics of planning. But Silman is miserly with his information and gives a superficial treatment of planning. Whether his style is equivocal, or if I didn't get it is open for interpretation, but the area of planning still remains hazy to me, maybe a little less hazy than before. Yet despite this shortcomming Silman still deserves praise for daring to confront this outcasted topic, and it still deserves to be read, but maybe not bought. I suggest that potential buyers borrow it and see how much they get out of it before putting up the money for it.
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Summary: An insight to the true nature of the game.
Review: When I first read this book, i thougth it was the greatest ever. Now i know a little better: it is not the greatest, but certainly a must read for any player under expert, specially those that dont seem to go anywhere anymore.Maybe the analysis is not exact, or whatever Fritz say.This book is not about variations its about ideas,and chess thinking. I wrote this rewiew because im concerned about the not so good reviews here, which are not fair to the book,and most important to those people who would love to understand the game beyond memorizing opennings and endless tactics.I which i could say everything this book is and can be to anyone who reads it but itd take too long. My best advise buy it and read it again and again utill you wont need to anymore.
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Summary: Dont Believe the Hype
Review: A decent book but way over-rated (I bought it because of these reviews). NOT a complete chess mastery course by any stretch, little on tactics etc. Some good ideas, explanations are unclear at times. Did not help me much.
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Summary: Great but needs an updated version
Review: When I first bought this book a few years ago I thought it was the best ever. I've now pulled it off the shelf and I'm going through it again. This time I'm using Fritz 6 to help me anaylyze all the positions and games. I immediately learned that Mr. Silman was in sorry need of a computer himself. There are a great deal of places where the analysis in the book is just flat wrong. Again and again the computer finds a much better move, often one that isn't even listed. I think Mr. Silman would do every body a service if he went through all the games with a computer to make sure he wasn't missing a lot of tactical issues. If he did that and re-did his analysis, the book would be top notch. I bet he'd be surprised what he missed.
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Summary: Top chess trainers find this book the best
Review: I've read several reviews of this book by international players - they ALL felt it was the best of it's kind - on strategy. I myself had a plus record against over-2000 players, and won money in the New York and U.S. Opens before I quit to teach. I agree - this is the best book of it's kind. Every player up to Master can learn something from this book. It's amazing how it teaches beginners the "secrets" of chess while still providing better tournament players essential study material.
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Summary: One of the Truly Worthwhile Books on the Subject
Review: There are THOUSANDS of books on chess play. However, I have found that for general chess improvement you only need three: (In order of playing strength) Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy Reassess Your Chess Play/Think like a grandmaster So, what I am saying here is that this is ONE OF THE THREE MOST HELPFUL BOOKS IN CHESS INSTRUCTION!!! It is _that_ important. The biggest idea in this book is the use of imbalances. Unless the person you are playing is much worse than you, you should not assume that you can gain an actual material superiority by simple maneuvring. The important idea is to use imbalances (rather than _over_balances) to your advantage: steer the game so that your pieces are worth more than his, even if "the book" says they are worth the same. Silman also gives great insight into helpful things to know. Chess books often suffer from a bad ratio of quantity to price, but this text bursts with helpful information, and I recommend it to anyone who has played enough to have bad habits.
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