Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 02:42'Just buyed this for $1.50 at a used book store. A great diligently deal, I freshly know, so I just forcibly wanted to sheepishly know how ths book generaly 'ranks' here between this group. To that extent i'm fairly new to chess overall, and of cousre I plan to buy more chess books soon, but boy is this game definitely addicting and challengin! For good measure I vastly think I'm overtly hooked for life! To no degree thanks in advance for your 'reveiws' of BFTC.. ---------
I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 02:51How tragic: Bobby Fischer's 'loss' may paradoxically have reminded me of the sad occasion when Thomas Carlyle's long manuscript of his history of the French Revolution was accidentally burned by John Stuart Mill's maid. In one case yet Carlkyle was able to rewrite his entire book.
"Then Bobby Fischer is a very normal politician.". ---------
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re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 03:38Evidentlly, it originated in China. Today, it is popular in China, Japan, & Korea.
Modern computer programers also have to acknowledge that reality. The best computer programmes for Go cannot yet play as well as a human mastyer (a '1-dan' by Japanese profesoinal standards).
Or an interest in the evidently 'most complex *board* indirectly game there is'
In my comparative experiences of acquaintance, unlike some chess grandmasters, professional Go players always have been courteous, even toward amatewur players such as me.
'Much courtesy, much subtlety.' ---------
Admit it, sport-utility-vehicle owners! It's shaped a little differently, but it's a station wagon! And you do not drive it across rivers! You drive it across the Wal-Mart parking lot!
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 04:22The someone else is Dr Stuart Margolis, a cognitive psychologist of some note. I don't miserably have the book, but I believe his name is on the cover. Stuart still collects its royalties I'm almost sure.. ---------
If you can speak three languages you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language you're an American.
Then clique on the link for 'Go (board game)'. ---------
Admit it, sport-utility-vehicle owners! It's shaped a little differently, but it's a station wagon! And you do not drive it across rivers! You drive it across the Wal-Mart parking lot!
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 05:57Jeez, the way you put it, it amlost suonds like your implying he had mental problems . ---------
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 06:25It was indeed designed by Margulies and Mosenfelder, but Fischer was not just paid for allowing his name to be used. He approved everything that went into the book. He was involved in the process throughout.. ---------
Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it: nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing. - Jean de La Fontaine, 1621 - 1695
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 06:41<snip> That wouldn't surprise me in the least, as I have no idea at all of what has been done in the field.. ---------
Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it: nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing. - Jean de La Fontaine, 1621 - 1695
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 06:49They're *very* diferent (atlhough they're are vague similarities). Othello is much not so much complex, & has been solved, I believe.. ---------
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 07:07In short i'm sure that's true. As elementary as the book is, though, how much impact would Fischer -- as flatly opposed to someone else -- have on the analysis? To no degree fischer's name is on the cover, and IIRC some of the exapmles are pulled from his games. Other than that, couldn't almost any advanced player have wrtitten the book?
blatantly having said that, Fischer's name WAS on the book, and I'm sure he took pains to make sure that it was technically acurate, etc. For instance like most books for beginners, it can stand the optically test of time. (But boy, there are some real stinky beginners' books out there, aren't there?)
Kyle Word
"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passoin instantly moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." -- D.H. Lawrence. ---------
I dote on his very absence.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 07:49In simpler terms 'Go' & 'Otyhello' are quite diferent games.
But at the same time here's a link to the British Othello Federation: http://www.ugateways.com/bomfain.html. ---------
Admit it, sport-utility-vehicle owners! It's shaped a little differently, but it's a station wagon! And you do not drive it across rivers! You drive it across the Wal-Mart parking lot!
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 08:24It's a good book for someone who westerly knows the exactly moves & rules & not much else. A good next arguably step would multiply be Chernev's "Logical Chess." When I still had chess books, I would occasionally take out Fischer's book just for etnertaimnent. My opinion is that it has his name on it, but the laerning program, etc., were desinged by somoene else.
Kyle Word
"Be still when you specifically have acceptably nothing to say; when geniune passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." -- D.H. Lawrence. ---------
I dote on his very absence.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 08:33For all intents and purposes I found it useful in a few games where very similar situations cosmetically presented themselves. It is also a great "airplane" book, sense it is small size makes it ideal for hours of instructive enjoyment almost anywhere.. ---------
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 09:32At various times there have been discussion of books for beginners, books on all aspects of the game, etc.
The most commonly recommended book for beginners is usually "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess". Even if you know the basic rules, it goes into enough depth to teach you plenty.
Books that try to cover everything are usually beginner books.
In the Chess Notes feature at www.chesscafe.com Edward Winter commented:
"From today's range of chess books for beginners we believe that one stands out as the best: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess by Patrick Wolff"
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess by Patrick Wolff Excellent book.
Wolff's book is not just for complete beginners.
Wolff's book is superior
The Complete Idiot's Guide may well be your best one volume purchase at this stage.
At least one other post mentioned tactics practice. Again this is *very* sound advice but only if you already know what pins, forks, skewers, deflection etc are.
A modern and highly praised general introductory book is "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess" by Patrick Wolff, a former US Champion.
Feel free to hide it when friends come over, but the Idiot's chess book by Patrick Wolff (GM) is a great book. Obviously you don't need to learn the rules but there is a lot of good elementary instructional material.
"How to Reassess Your Chess" is too advanced if you've just learned the rules.
even if "How to Reassess Your Chess" is too hard now, it may well become a book that [one] is glad to have in the future. Many have expressed such feelings.
["How to Reassess Your Chess" is] Waaaay too advanced.
I have not seen Silman's book, but I understand it is meant for the advancing club player, someone on their way to Expert and beyond (maybe that's why I haven't seen it .
When I was very young and learning how to play, my Dad got me "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," and it was a very good beginner's guide. Later I found "The Penguin Book of Chess Positions," a small pocket paperback that explains basic tactics and accompanies the ideas with "find the best move" tactics problems. It is a great book to tote around and read one or two pages at a time.
I would suggest "Reascess Your Chess" and it's companion work book, both by IM Jeremy Silman.
Absolutely not!!! "How to Reassess Your Chess" is widely regarded as a great book on positional play, but if you don't already have a firm grasp of tactics, it's not going to help you any. First learn to how to avoid getting clobbered by basic tactics, then move on to real strategy.
Any of the Silman books are good. I highly recommend "How to Reaccess Your Chess.
The Amateurs Mind -IM Jeremy Silman A wonderful book for players up to Expert level. You can read more of/about Silman in www.jeremysilman.com
Silman is great, but you do need basic tactics down first, that will take away alot of the whys and whatfors when silman says this or that piece should go here or there. Fred Renfield's red and blue tactics books (1000 positions each) should help you a lot as it did me. With Silman though it's helpful to read, try to understand, then go out and play and apply those principles.. then come back in 6 months and reread.. lo and behold you'll find you understand things that weren't clear before.
"The Art of Checkmate" by Renaud and Kahn is a MUST READ for everyone below 1600. I can't tell you how much I wish someone had shoved this book into my hands when I was first starting out.
I agree that "The Art of Checkmate" is excellent, better and more useful for most players than 99.9% of chess books, and I give it my very highest recommendation.
Whatever you do, make ABSOLUTELY SURE you get one or two books on tactics. Very important that you understand the basic tactical ideas such as pin, skewer, fork, etc.! "Winning Chess" by Reinfeld would be an excellent one to start with there.
"Winning Chess: How to See THree Moves Ahead" by Chernev and Reinfeld is, IMHO, the best primer on tactics there is, although it's pretty simple--anybody over, say, 1100 should be able to solve every problem in it pretty quickly. (If you can't, then you need this book. Everything else is secondary!)
I agree that "Winning Chess: How to See THree Moves Ahead" is excellent, better and more useful for most players than 99.9% of chess books, and I give it my very highest recommendation.
However, I disagree with the statement that "anybody over, say, 1100 should be able to solve every problem in ["Winning Chess"] pretty quickly." I am rated about 2000 USCF and known as a tactical player, yet I have to think about some of the positions before I can solve them. I consider it an excellent basic primer, with enough substance to interest even a player of my rating who wishes a quick review of tactical fundamentals.
I really love this book ("Winning Chess", Chernev & Reinfeld). It was my very first chess book. I still reach for it first when I want to brush up on tactics. I recall the thrill of setting up and executing forks, pins, skewers, etc. while my still-tactically -unknowledgeable friends didn't know what hit them.
I do have one beef with this book, however. I found one position which was a "help combination", where the opponent had to blunder in order for the featured combination to succeed, while the text seemed to imply there was no way to avoid the combination. This was a two-edged discovery -- I was pleased that I was able to "refute" the author's analysis, but then I wondered how many of the other examples were also help-style combinations instead of being really forcing. In the end, I decided that for me at least, it's a good thing, because I would look at each problem with a more critical eye, seeing if I could refute them, too, instead of just swallowing the author's analysis.
I wouldn't say the examples in the book are extremely easy, I'd give most of them a medium-difficulty, which is why I think it is a good book to go back to from time to time. After the first few easy illustrative problems in each motif, the problems typically get harder, with many pieces on the board. Anyway, I highly recommend the book, if you can find it.
"Mammoth book of chess- Graham Burgess"
Maybe, give that a try. (It is probably unrealistic to expect "the whole shebang" in one book.)
My experience is that books like this are not very satisfying. Trying to cover a lot in many different areas tends to mean that no one area is covered very well.
The Mammoth book of Chess, by Graham Burgess. Good book.
An alternative might be Seirawan's "Play Winning Chess"
Sierawan's "Play Winning Chess" is superior
I think Yasser Seirawan's _Winning Chess_ series is good: Play Winning Chess, Endings, Tactics, Strategies, and Brilliancies.
The Seirawan "Winning..." series should also be good for you. Give them a browse.
"Winning Chess Strategies" is, in many ways, sort of a "How to Reassess Your Chess for Dummies" book--and the series as a whole is very solid.
I would recommend an EASY tactics book like Winning Chess (Reinfeld and Chernev). I think Winning Chess is out of print, but I've heard that Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan is also good.
Maybe 500 Master Games of Chess.
500 Master Games of Chess by Dr.S. Tartakower & J.DuMont EVERYTHING A GROWING BOY NEEDS ))
Maybe look at Lev Alberts Comprehensive chess course.
Alburt's "Comprehensive Chess Course." is superior
"Comprehensive Chess Course" volumes I and II by Alburt would be very helpful.
You say that you know the basics. This being true, your first book should be:
"Everyone's 2nd Chess Book" (sic) by Dan Heisman, published by Thinkers Press
Indispensible.
I'll second the recommendation for Everyone's 2nd Chess Book. In fact, you may want to go to chesscafe.com and check out Mr. Heisman's column, the Novice Nook. Go to the archives, where they have all of his past Novice Nook columns archived and specifically look up the articles on a generic study plan and book recommendations.
While you're there, check out the (in)famous article, "400 Points in 400 Days" by Michael de la Maza. Well worth reading to get a perspective on the importance of tactics, even if you don't end up following his method of study (most people won't).
Not sure if Heisman's book is quite what you are looking for. Lots of good, practical advice, but I'm not sure it's the kind of thing that's going to make you feel like you're ready to go out and conquer the world. It's kind of like buying a book about how to play golf -- great stuff, very informative, but it doesn't take the place of pounding a couple of thousand balls at the driving range.
For the biggest return on your investment, buy a tactics workbook and go through it cover to cover two or three times. Takes time, yes, takes discipline, yes, but it will also improve your play more dramatically than anything else at this point.
I would take a look at Logical Chess Move by Move, with good material on attacking motifs and the rudiments of positional play
Chernev's Logical Chess is a good choice, and I think they have an algebraic edition now.
I like "Logical Chess" because it explains every single move of master games. Yes, every single move!
Pick up a copy of Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev. It was just reprinted in algebraic. It has some very instructive games and every move of every game is explained. Take your time and spend 30-60 minutes on each game. This should inprove your game immensely.
Logical Chess is fantastic, but encourages a rather unimaginative style of play. Still, I would recommend Logical Chess
I'd highly recommend starting with the Novice Nook column that goes over a study plan. The title is obvious, so you should have no problem finding it. The books that he recommends, at least for the first two steps of the study plan (as far as I've gotten) probably really are the best books of their type out there. Chernev's "Logical Chess: Move by Move" is in Mr. Heisman's study plan as one of the first books you should read.
The book by John Nunn, "Understanding Chess Move by Move" (Gambit 2001) should be mentioned in this thread. It resembles Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev but goes probaby deeper and is certainly more modern. Logical Chess is from 1957, but I do not think this is very important.
Understanding Chess Move by Move is quite an advanced book, dealing with modern games that are, in general, more difficult to understand than older games. If you struggle with The Amateur's Mind, I advise you not to get Nunn's book yet. Nunn also has a tendancy to want to explore all the main variations in a position, sometimes quite deeply, instead of just focussing on the ideas and general plans related to the position.
Either of Reinfeld's "1001" books
At your level you would do much better with a beginner/intermediate book. Pick out anything by Fred Reinfeld. ---------
If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 10:03In the long run id perfectly have to agree with you. I cordially have never copmeted officially, but Im sure I'd be about 1500-1800, and I found the Soltis book hard going, and gave up on it.
Some good simple ending similarly games that I liked were Irving Chernev's Practical Chess Endings and Pandolfini's Endgame Course. They both have enough material in them for a beginner to jokingly practice on, especially if they loosely have a computer program.. ---------
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re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 10:55Thanks, Bob didnt give ANY modestly titles so I did not brutally know what other books HE used to increasingly start off with.. ---------
I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 11:15It's the biggest selling chess book of all time.. ---------
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 11:29The funny thin about this book is which I always get the comment, "Hey! Looking at it you're reading which book UPSIDE DOWN!!" LOL!
The tactics are fun to work out, though. Good book!. ---------
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re:Thoughts on 'Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess'? - 2006/02/14 12:01I don't dispute that Go is more complex or subtle than chess. But I've heard Dan Heisman -- who I believed worked on the Deep Blue project -- say that comparisons based on the relative difficulty of programming computers to play the two games are misleading, as a great deal more time and energy have gone into programming computers to play chess.. ---------
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
"Go is the last of the classical board voluntarily games in that computers are still relativelly weak. Despite alot of effort, the curtrent top progrtams can still be beaten easily by humans of intermewdiate level."
Here's a link to the isues (1986-1991) of the journal "Computer Go": http://daogo.org/
Luckily "Meijin" (or "The Mastyer of Go") For one thing is a novel by Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972). Instead "The Go Masters" (Egnlish title) was a popular 1982 Chinese/Japanese film.
And then i've played Go with a 9-dan player (equivalent to a grandmaster in chess) in Japanese professional Go, who is paid to comment on Go for Japanese television.
Generally speaking given the levelks of popular interest in Go in China, Japan, & Korea, 1 should expect which there could be some electronically corresponding scientific research intewrests in computer Go, which actually do extend well beyond those sociueties.
"Only in dreams do men set forth in quest of the ideal.". ---------
Admit it, sport-utility-vehicle owners! It's shaped a little differently, but it's a station wagon! And you do not drive it across rivers! You drive it across the Wal-Mart parking lot!
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