Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for beginners or as a refresher for all.
Review: ... There were many concepts in this book that were not new to me. Regardless, Pandolfini introduces them as though they are all new. He did state, in the introduction, that this book can be read from beginning to end, or used as a reference. I read it from cover to cover and must admit: this book gives you the book-knowledge behind what intermediate players have already learned from experience.Now that I know the "WHY" behind it all, I can push for the positions I feel like playing and/or avoid unfavorable ones. Before this book, positions just kind of happened after the opening. NOW I CREATE THE POSITIONS I WANT. And, this book taught me that it all results from pawn structure. If you want to learn how your pawns form the foundation for your game's positional play, then this book is for you. I give it four stars, a B+. ...
Rating: 
Summary: The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom
Review: ... There were many concepts in this book that were not new to me. Regardless, Pandolfini introduces them as though they are all new. He did state, in the introduction, that this book can be read from beginning to end, or used as a reference. I read it from cover to cover and must admit: this book gives you the book-knowledge behind what intermediate players have already learned from experience. Now that I know the "WHY" behind it all, I can push for the positions I feel like playing and/or avoid unfavorable ones. Before this book, positions just kind of happened after the opening. NOW I CREATE THE POSITIONS I WANT. And, this book taught me that it all results from pawn structure. If you want to learn how your pawns form the foundation for your game's positional play, then this book is for you. I give it four stars, a B+. ...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginners or as a refresher for all.
Review: Great book, one of the easiest to read and follow of this type.
For the beginner, helps to learn the basic winning combinations /principles. Serves as refresher course for non-beginners, sometimes we forget the basics!
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of money
Review: I can not imagine that this book will help anyone very much, and it is boring too.
Rating:
Summary: Discussion of pawn structures excellent.
Review: I got this book as part of a bundle of books I purchased. I didn't think much of it. However, I would read it every once in a while when I didn't have a board handy or wanted some "light" reading. Many of the concepts were not new to me (USCF Rating ~1700). However, I found his discussion of different elements of pawn structure to be very informative. Particularly, his detailed discussion of isolated d-pawns, backwards pawns, doubled pawns, and pawn majorities were pretty good I think. I play many openings which garner the isolated d-pawn (both with and against it) and my study of this topic in this book really helped my play in these positions. He breaks down the isolated d-pawn into strengths, weaknesses, and what to do when you have it and when you are playing against it. These sections I think are the best in the book. The strength of this book is its simplicity. I think it is important to know the ideas (which you can gain from this book) and to see many concrete examples from master play (which you should find in other books). If you have many books on pawn structure, you may not want this book. I found the other sections to be not as helpful, because other books I had did a sufficient job in teaching me these concepts. However, I think this is a good book for general positional ideas, particularly in the realm of pawn structures, which is an important one in chess. I recommend this book for players under 1500. Players over 1500 may have much of this knowledge and I would recommend Silman's The Amateur's Mind to those.
Rating:
Summary: Discussion of pawn structures excellent.
Review: I got this book as part of a bundle of books I purchased. I didn't think much of it. However, I would read it every once in a while when I didn't have a board handy or wanted some "light" reading. Many of the concepts were not new to me (USCF Rating ~1700). However, I found his discussion of different elements of pawn structure to be very informative. Particularly, his detailed discussion of isolated d-pawns, backwards pawns, doubled pawns, and pawn majorities were pretty good I think. I play many openings which garner the isolated d-pawn (both with and against it) and my study of this topic in this book really helped my play in these positions. He breaks down the isolated d-pawn into strengths, weaknesses, and what to do when you have it and when you are playing against it. These sections I think are the best in the book. The strength of this book is its simplicity. I think it is important to know the ideas (which you can gain from this book) and to see many concrete examples from master play (which you should find in other books). If you have many books on pawn structure, you may not want this book. I found the other sections to be not as helpful, because other books I had did a sufficient job in teaching me these concepts. However, I think this is a good book for general positional ideas, particularly in the realm of pawn structures, which is an important one in chess. I recommend this book for players under 1500. Players over 1500 may have much of this knowledge and I would recommend Silman's The Amateur's Mind to those.
Rating:
Summary: You can read this book any where, No Board needed.
Review: I love this book. I take it with me to tournaments and read through it as a warm up for my games. It does not require to much intense thinking, but serves as a great reminder of Important principles. It is perfect for any one rated under 1600. I belive the principles in this book are so important that you can't go over them to thourghly, but they are not so advanced as to require indepth deep analyisis. In my most recent tournament I used concepts that I had just reviewed in the book to win two games that I would probably had drawn (first game) or lost. (second game) These aren't new concepts but because they are presented in such an easily digestible manner they are ingrained quickly and easily. I like to read this while I try to relax between rounds. You can put it down when ever you want and come back to it even after a long time and you'll remember exactly what was going on in the book. Unlike many other books i I don't have to read through the entire chapter to keep from loosing the train of thought. this book won't make you an expert but if you wan't to gain an under standing of the vitals of chess with out wasting hours crouched over your chess board Pick up a copy.
Rating:
Summary: Very important reading to improve your game
Review: I'm one of those people whose rating is under 1600 (as written above), and this book certainly is great for me. At the end of each chapter Pandolfini writes a very nice and informative summary that truly helps. The principles he outlines, as I can perceive, come across as though you are truly getting expert teaching that you should take to heart. I absolutely loved one of the lessons in an end game on how to make a pawn (3 pawns vs. 3 pawns)breakthrough and become a queen (it requires 2 pawn sacrifices); Principles about how to try and manipulate your pawns when you have a good or bad bishop; and of course more. This book has me wanting to now purchase books on end game lessons. Learning the "tricks" and proper methods is so much fun to learn.
Rating:
Summary: Very important reading to improve your game
Review: I'm one of those people whose rating is under 1600 (as written above), and this book certainly is great for me. At the end of each chapter Pandolfini writes a very nice and informative summary that truly helps. The principles he outlines, as I can perceive, come across as though you are truly getting expert teaching that you should take to heart. I absolutely loved one of the lessons in an end game on how to make a pawn (3 pawns vs. 3 pawns)breakthrough and become a queen (it requires 2 pawn sacrifices); Principles about how to try and manipulate your pawns when you have a good or bad bishop; and of course more. This book has me wanting to now purchase books on end game lessons. Learning the "tricks" and proper methods is so much fun to learn.
Rating:
Summary: A chess book you can actually read
Review: It seems like you either love this book or you hate it. Positional chess is hard to explain and hard to learn, but this book does the best job I've seen of explaining positional concepts to relatively new players. If you already understand pawn structures, then don't buy it, but if you've heard that doubled pawns are bad but don't really know why, then this book is for you. Pandolfini's idea of using no chess notation is very interesting. I know I lose interest when all I see is columns of notation, and it's nice to have a book that does not require you to have a board in front of you. The wordiness of "move the king's pawn to the third square" gets old after many repetitions, but I still think it's a good idea for the intended audience -- someone who knows the moves and wants to learn more.
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