Monday, June 29, 2015

World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book by Dan Heisman




    I think he got the idea from Max Euwe's Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur, but that's OK because I Heisman has improved on the concept and you actually can learn from the games of amateurs. According to the publisher's description, Heisman "gives a blow-by-blow account and patiently dissects the players’ thinking process, offering tips for improving clock management and making better decisions at the board. Because the advantage can swing wildly back and forth, amateur games can be entertaining as well as instructive. Heisman gives a choice selection of cases of chess suicide, for the purpose of suggesting what the victim could have done to prevent disaster."
    Looking at this book, I find Heisman's comments on 30 amateur games very instructive and he covers stuff amateurs are likely to play. Openings like what he calls the High School Variation of the Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2. Bc4). The games are heavily annotated and grouped by theme...things like moving too fast, moving too slowly, endgame mishaps and there's advice on general principles, analysis, evaluation, etc. Probably best for players in the 1000 and up to Expert (2000) range.  For a ton of FREE material be sure and check out his Home Page!

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