CATALOG CHESS MISTAKES

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Underrated Chess Books-EVER!
Review: "Chess is a game of bad moves." If there is such a thing as "a dirty little secret of chess" (for lack of a better phrase), this is one of them! Believe it or not, a lot of people do not believe this statement! Just like the author says, a lot of people believe they win because of their superior intellect, cunning, "attacking genius", defensive maneuvering,etc. Give me a break!

GM Soltis will go down in chess history as a man who gave vital ingredients of chess mastery to the public in book form. The 'Mistake-Inaccuracy Factor' in this great game is one of the most downplayed aspects of chess. It can prevent many players from mastering a critical skill to become a good player-the ability to fully exploit your opponents mistakes and to recognize when you are about to make one yourself.

Soltis goes through the typical mistakes made by players. Some of them are tactical mistakes, positional mistakes, underestimating threats, and many more. He also recommends going through a good number of your own games to see what mistakes you frequently make. This will probably do more for your game than learning that new wrinkle in a certain opening you want to play.

If I had a dollar for every game I should have lost and wound up winning and every game I had a won position and wound up botching -I could retire! Most of the time, you're doing your best not to screw up anything while going towards the goal of winning.

The next time you go to a chess tournament and see a guy holding court and showing how he saw everything from A to Z, its probably an ego trip. That same guy, when he loses will whine, " If I didn't hang my rook he would have been toast!" or " I didn't see that he had all that coming from that one move -the lucky patzer!". He doesn't realize, or doesn't wan't to realize, that 99.9999% of all chess games EVER PLAYED were won or lost due to a tactical, positional, or attitude mistake made by the opponent.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Underrated Chess Books-EVER!
Review: "Chess is a game of bad moves." If there is such a thing as "a dirty little secret of chess" (for lack of a better phrase), this is one of them! Believe it or not, a lot of people do not believe this statement! Just like the author says, a lot of people believe they win because of their superior intellect, cunning, "attacking genius", defensive maneuvering,etc. Give me a break!

GM Soltis will go down in chess history as a man who gave vital ingredients of chess mastery to the public in book form. The 'Mistake-Inaccuracy Factor' in this great game is one of the most downplayed aspects of chess. It can prevent many players from mastering a critical skill to become a good player-the ability to fully exploit your opponents mistakes and to recognize when you are about to make one yourself.

Soltis goes through the typical mistakes made by players. Some of them are tactical mistakes, positional mistakes, underestimating threats, and many more. He also recommends going through a good number of your own games to see what mistakes you frequently make. This will probably do more for your game than learning that new wrinkle in a certain opening you want to play.

If I had a dollar for every game I should have lost and wound up winning and every game I had a won position and wound up botching -I could retire! Most of the time, you're doing your best not to screw up anything while going towards the goal of winning.

The next time you go to a chess tournament and see a guy holding court and showing how he saw everything from A to Z, its probably an ego trip. That same guy, when he loses will whine, " If I didn't hang my rook he would have been toast!" or " I didn't see that he had all that coming from that one move -the lucky patzer!". He doesn't realize, or doesn't wan't to realize, that 99.9999% of all chess games EVER PLAYED were won or lost due to a tactical, positional, or attitude mistake made by the opponent.