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Rating: 
Summary: Can Alburt & Lawrence plead temporary insanity?
Review: This would be a decent (but not great) book for 20 cents. I don't see how it's worth twenty dollars.It's full of large-print, pithy advice. Sometimes, the advice is quoted from a well-known master, and those few quotations are easily the best parts of the book. Normally, there are 2 of these per page, but sometimes (at chapter boundaries) none. The last several pages do not even have this much. Instead, they show diagrams of many different openings, with a brief comment. Typically, the diagrams show only a single move; sometimes 2 or 3. I have no idea how this could be valuable to anyone. I would say one star, but I save that for truly horrible books. This book exudes quality in its pages, its binding, its printing, etc. All the advice that I read (and you can read the whole thing standing at the bookstore) was sound, but none of it was supported by example. (Well, maybe a few rare examples.) It does not actually require any thinking by the reader. It is similar to some pretty pop philosophy gift-books I've seen in the bargain bins. I think the book would be most valuable for a chess coach to clip the pages and pin them to a bulletin board. It has absolutely no other value. The author and publisher are certifiably insane if they imagine someone could learn from this. Addendum:
I have learned that several quotations are wrongly attributed. This poor research turns a 2-star book into a 1-star book. Avoid.
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