<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Very hard to understand
Review: I am a beginner at chess and have been looking for a chess coach. This book got my eye by the title. But I found this book to be very difficult to understand and confusing. This book is too hard for a fifth grader unless they already understand the basic ideas of chess.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the average kid
Review: I found this book a very thorough guide to chess strategies. In each chapter, Sunil selects a game that pertains to a certain theme and gives a thorough analysis. The best part is that his analysis is not limited to that theme. Sunil takes a step further and manages to incorporate also opening, strategic and tactical themes. Then, at the end of each chapter, there are supplemental games for a reader to go through. Practically every well-known strategy lessons, guidelines, and advice are in this book. Sunil indeed delivers the best chess lessons. His approach to teaching chess is excellent. In my opinion, this is how all chess books should be written. The book is not for a beginner though so please take a note of that. Yet, I do believe that the sooner a beginner will read this book the better off he or she will be.
Rating: 
Summary: Really Great Book - Excellent for intermediate players!
Review: I own a chess library of close to 100 titles. If I was only allowed to keep 10, this book would be one of them! This book is extremely easy to read and follow: there are no typos and the socratic teaching style is fun and entertaining. It covers the subjects of strategic planning and methods of conducting the attack. The method is to carefully disect a number of master games and examine the motives behind the moves. The difference is that this book does so using lots of words! (not endless variations and nonsensical symbols like some other books do). As a result, the reader will actually feel as though they can start understanding how a master formulates a plan during an actual game. This book is probably best suited for players rated between 1200 - 1700 USCF. It would ideally be read after reading a more basic book on chess such as "Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernev, or "Play Winning Chess" or "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan. By reading one or two of these other books first, it would assure the maximum learning value by reinforcing and then expanding on what is taught in these other, more elementary texts
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring lecture.
Review: I was reading/studying this book with a pleasure. Sort of like Pandolfini's solitary games in Chess Life (if one knows this magazine)- author asks: what if/what is next/what is your best move and why? - but with juicy comments, some interesting stories and spark of humor. Book is designed for at least 30/30 min games, not for a blitz. There are plenty of chessboard drawings, study them on the bus, you will be just fine. You will not see endgame tutoring, learn it from some other sources.
Rating:
Summary: Recommendable to advancing beginners
Review: It's a shame that some of the young readers do not enjoy this book. I think so because my nine-year old son has benefited so much from reading it and I consider the author is successful in educating essential chess principles.
I bought this book for my son along with GM Chandler's "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess", when he finished learning how to move pieces and began to play more tactically. I thought Chandler's is a great read to begin with, but contrary to my expectation, my son was riveted more to this one. He read the book for six months, made it half-tattered and has become the strongest player in his grade at school. He now beats unguarded adult players such as his class teacher and me.
This is a small book so it doesn't teach all you need to know to gain chess mastery. But it seems to me that everything in this book is absolutely necessary to become a strong player. I highly recommend this book to any advancing beginners, not just for kids.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to understand for a kid
Review: The dialog concept used in the games is interesting. The problem is that often the book didn't answer the questions that I had about certain moves and positions in the games. The book is just ok in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Very hard to understand
Review: This is a very nice book. Its easy to read and follow even without a board. I would suggest that you read this book as a second book after a basics primer.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, easy read for early intermediate players
Review: What a great teacher Sunil Weeramantry is! In this book he goes through 10 entire games- one per chapter. Using a breezy, entertaining and verbose (for a chess book) Socratic dialog between himself and unnamed "students", Weeramantry walks through the major themes and strategies of his chosen games. Often, his very realistic "students", get answers wrong, and the author carefully steers their thinking to more promising ideas. With this, he guides his reader toward discovering various chess concepts for themselves. Happily, if you find yourself stumped, the answers are right there. Many of the games are contemporary (of 80's and 90's vintage), engaging, and tactically juicy. About half are taken from Weeramantry's own, sometimes flawed, play. (But that's the point.) The themes covered include all aspects of the game from the earliest moves onward. Each themed chapter can be read in about an hour, which makes this book a much swifter read than the average chess book. At the end of each chapter are a half dozen or so supplimentary games that follow similar ideas. If you're rated 1000-1500, ten hours with this book should improve your game immensely. While very rich in ideas, it could easily be read by a bright and experienced 10-15 year old. Indeed, I suspect that many of Weeramantry's hypothetical interlocutors are inspired by real students- most of whom are bright youngsters themselves. I found this book as useful and fun as the more well known "Logical Chess: Move by Move"- which I would recommend as a prelude to this book.
<< 1 >>
| 
