Here is my second review of a book to add to The Bookshelf!
The Book is called Better Chess and was written by William Hartson who was an English chess player that played competitively between 1962 to 1987. He was given the title of International Master in 1972 and reached a peak Elo rating of 2515 during his career.
I was given this book when I was younger and really enjoyed it but lost the book along the way and had not remembered the title or author in order to track down another copy. I only recently found it again and scooped it up quickly for only $10 online. The only way I could find the book was by remembering the content of the book. The book is separated into 75 short lessons that occur every 2 pages. This is one of the strongest features of the book as you can choose to read one lesson or more making it an easy book to pick up and read.
The two page lesson format works really well in the book as the first page of each lesson explains the idea and strategy using only text which makes it really easy to understand. The second page gives an example that includes a diagram and algebraic notation of the ideas suggested the page before. I really like that the book is organised this way as I don’t need to have a chess board with me to understand the strategies being suggested. For some of the examples I was able to simply follow the variations in my head but for others the variations were more in depth and the use of a board would be required.
The book is also separated into Basic, Advanced and Mastery sections (25 lessons in each section).
This is a good way to show the progression of ideas in the book and works well to show how the knowledge learnt in the first lessons are required to better understand the more advanced lessons.
The book is appropriate for tournament players looking to improve their game. The lessons may not be that helpful for very strong players but I think the examples are good and even if you understand the ideas in the lessons it is so easy to read and a simple way to revise key ideas that you may already know.
I give this book 4 stars!
Keep posted for more reviews!
The Bookshelf – Better Chess Read More »
