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Understanding Chess Move by Move

Understanding Chess Move by Move

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great for opening study and opening strategies
Review: This book has got very good analysis on key opening systems. It describes the major themes and strategies of key openings for white and black. It covers the whole array of openings such as the indian defences such as KID, Benoni, Queens Gambit Declined, Semi-Slav, Budapest gambit. This is one of my better books that describes in detail the strategies behind each move. Very easy to follow and understand for a Class C and above player. It also covers the e4 openings such as popular lines in the sicilian and the ruy lopez and scotch game. If you have Alex Yermolinskys the road to chess improvement, this book is similar with detailed analysis behind each move in words instead of displaying tons of computer analysis. When you finish reading this book your middle game play will improve as well as your understanding the themes and strategies in the key opening systems. After reading this great book I would like to look at other Nunn books as he is a great teacher.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: well.... it's a mighty good classic
Review: this book is an intermediate that did not do anything to my rating. However, it taught me how a lot of grandmasters and masters play to gain material advantage. But............ WARNING! If you are a beginner rated 1000 or lower DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! It will be hard and will waster your time. For advanced beginners and above, this book is a masterpiece. There are hardly any errors if it even has one. This book is a great book by Master John Nunn. I also recommend 300 CHESS GAMES by Siegbert Tarrasch in addition to this book. This book is mighty good and will hopefully improve your rating. My rating only went up 50 points. But yours might increase more! My chess strength improved alot more than my rating. Get this book if you know what's right!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like having a GRANDMASTER BY YOUR SIDE
Review: This book is certain to improve your understanding of chess. It has 30 sensational games, with each move explained by Grandmaster "Doccy" Nunn, who in my book is the greatest living chess author. There is so much instruction I found myself returning to the same games two or even three times.
The games are grouped by theme, for example:
1 Opening Themes
2 Middlegame Themes
with subthemes for Attacking Play, Defensive Play, Positional Play
3 Endgame Themes
On many pages there are two diagrams; useful if you don't have a set handy. Because the explanation is mainly words rather than variations, this is a book you can (just about) read in bed! Wholeheartedly recommended to anyone interested in the whole range of chess themes.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 3 1/2 stars. ??
Review: This book is excellent, but I did give it a lower score than it deserves for this reason.

1. I have studied chess for only 3 years, and my only
exposure has been to the greats like
Paul Morphy aka "greatest coffee house playa"
Jose Capablanca aka "the chess machine"
Mikhail Tal aka "the magician from riga"
etc.
so i really wanted a book that would open my eyes to the present day stars like Karpov (I know he is on the decline!)
Anand, kramnik, kasparov, and Shirov.( I know i left out a few!)
But to my horror only fans of kasparov will be happy with 4 games, karpov 3 one is a loss though, anand 1! kramnik 2 one is against anand! and shirov gets 2 but one is loss.

when i saw this i could not help but be dissapointed, the majority of players are not household names! sure they are better than i will ever be, but i just cannot believe Nunn could not annotate some brilliant chess struggles.

all the games have a lesson or two, so nunn felt obliged to get games that best suited the lesson 'ala" The most instructive games of chess ever played. so Nunn actually ripped off two books from chernev!!! (2 for one is not bad)
there is alot to learn from in this book, it can seem very simple at times, but when he gives you those variations!!
after the initial shock i can honestly say i do not regret the purchase, I only regret that now i have to look for something else to find out about my fav playas.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good and Bad Points
Review: This book is not advertized for advanced players. It seems very good for advanced players. But for an intermediate player like myself I has some issues with the book.
It tends to go way into to much detail and it is easy to get lost. It doesn't consentrate on solid rules and ideas that I want. I enjoyed by Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors book much more because I didn't get lost and it gets right to the point of the matter. Yes, I am just a kid writing this, but I do think of myself as a very good player for a kid and can beat adults at the local chess club more often than not!
If you are an advanced tournament player I think this book is great. If you are not super advanced then consider the Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors book first, even if you are an adult person.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A little harder than I thought
Review: This book is really good. The binding is great too. It sure has a lot of verbal explainations but a lot of very deep variations too because sometimes there isn't any other way to explain a position. At my level, it's a little hard to see these variations without a board, and moving the pieces all the time and then moving them back is a little annoying. Basically what I'm trying to say is this book is for a little advanced players.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but needs somthing more...
Review: This book of games is good, and is an excellent companion to Watson's "Modern Chess Strategy", but I think it could have been more interesting. How? Maybe some very old games where Nunn could demonstrate the more dogmatic approach in the past by masters, and how a Shirov might play an Alekhine game. There's someting unambitious about this book, but it is very good, especially for budding players.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Modern chess explained by a top Grandmaster
Review: This is an instructive games collection written to explain the major chess themes from a modern perspective. Nunn writes that chess knowledge and understanding have progressed greatly since the 1950's (when Euwe's instructional books were the standard), but the chess textbooks haven't changed much and don't reflect the much more dynamic play of modern games.

Nunn chose 30 key themes and found one modern grandmaster game to illustrate each theme. His annotations emphasize understanding and general principles, using verbal descriptions and evaluations whenever possible. But there is much deep analysis here, as many positions can only be understood in terms of concrete variations.

While Nunn's book may have some similarities with Reinfeld's Logical Chess, they are intended for different readers. Reinfeld's is appropriate for beginners and novices; Nunn's is intended for at least intermediate level players up to strong masters.

The sturdy binding and roomy layout with plenty of large diagrams make this book a pleasure to read. If you are an intermediate level player or stronger you should definitely study this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A beautiful work
Review: This is an outstanding addition to chess literature. The book provides extensive analyses of 30 instructive games, written in the impeccable English one may expect from Nunn. Nunn is chess' Hemingway - he writes simply, clearly and beautifully. Understanding chess is a worthy buy for the beginner and intermediate level player looking to improve his chess.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Instructive and Enjoyable
Review: This latest offering by Nunn is more accessible than his earlier "Secrets of Grandmaster Chess", though here too, top-flight games are being dissected. Thirty extensively annotated games are divided into three groups - opening, middlegame and endgame - depending on which phase they shed most light on. The bulk of the games - twenty-two - are devoted to middlegame themes.

Positional analysis and concrete tactical analysis are interwoven; often an accurate positional evaluation depends on a tactical finesse in a sub-line. In following Nunn's notes, we enter the subtle and complex mind of a modern GM. Earlier annotators writing similar books, such as Reinfeld and Chernev, would give sweeping general assessments based on superficial and static evaluations of a position and backed up by one or two unconvincing lines of play to corroborate them. Furthermore, Nunn strives for objectivity. Earlier annotators would give exclamation marks only to the winner and question marks only to the loser. Not only does Nunn point out the mistakes of the winners and the good moves of the losers but he makes clear the pyschological problems in coping with poor but tenable positions.

The games are taken from contemporary GM praxis, where both players are au fait with theory past and present. The games are not one-sided contests. Note particularly the four games devoted to defence. In each case we see a full-blooded fight between evenly matched opponents. These games receive minute analysis and not superficial and facetious comments.

New positional methods are discussed, such as for combating the isolated d-pawn (Kamsky-Karpov 1996), where instead of playing the N to d5 in front of the isolated d-pawn, Karpov plays it to f5. Another example is playing with or against the hedgehog (Karpov-Ribli 1986). Exceptions to the classical 'rules' occur often in the games; Nunn provides the raison d'etre. The rules are seen to be half-truths at best.

The book will likely appeal to players with ratings of at least 1600. Anyone who has been through such books as, say, "Logical Chess" and "The Most Instructive Games of Chess ever Played", both by Chernev. Class B players, who all too often have blinkered vision in that they concentrate exclusively on attack, or play on one part of the board, or one tactical theme, are likely to learn quite a bit as they see how the entire board has to be kept in mind, how attack has to be balanced with defence, and also how subtle and indirect methods can often be more effective than a crude and single-minded approach.


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