Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Inner Game of Chess : How to Calculate and Win by Andrew Soltis ISBN: 0-8129-2291-3 Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games Pub. Date: 01 November, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.22 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Tells "What" Calculation Is, Rather Than "How" To Calculate
Comment: I am only a 1900-level player, so I can hardly be said to have an expert opinion, but I feel that this book is strong on "what" calculation is and weak on "how" to calculate. Of course, one looks at the board, gets ideas, selects candidate moves,and evaluates possible positions. And Soltis provides plenty of examples yet having studied the book, I can't honestly say I'm doing anything better. Not his fault, I know, still I wish these GM authors would remember that although THEY can look at a board and unconsciously, automatically, find a plan and possible move sequences, weaker players need more protection in the clinches. They need sometimes to work backwards: visualize the desired position first. Sometimes they need examples that explain WHY the author chose certain candidate moves, move orders, and so on. This book's intention are great, the introduction fantastic, the remaining chapters leave a great deal to be desired. Everyone else seems to find this a great help, but I actually feel my already shaky ability decreased after reading it. GMs should coach ordinary mortals first.
Rating: 5
Summary: A veritable labor of love.
Comment: I am assuming that Soltis worked extreamly hard on this book and that he profoundly enjoyed the work.It definitely shows.This potential classic has expanded my chess awareness exponentally.In my opinion that is the real path to chess improvement.A predominant theme in his book is that chess is a game of calculation and evaluation.He also accentuates the need to develope visualization ability to enhance the above mentioned.Essentially he describes the whole process as the inner or mental game of chess.Naturally he goes into detail about trees of variations involved with caculation along with typical mistakes in calculation. Different nanes are provided for errors of different types.In addition one also learns to distinguish between errors in calculation and evaluation.Soltis tries to dispell our sterotypic notion of positional strategic and tactical attacking player by claiming that positional and strategic players can be very precise caculators of tactics. He also espouses a notion that great attacking players can be intuiative.What an revelation. He also seems to imply the need for a universal chess vocabulary to create for less confusion of chess terminology.This can help us understand the mental process of other chess players and our own with a great deal more clarity.Maybe that just his dream. I would recomend this book to anyone who was really interested in expanding their understanding of what the game of chess is really all about. This book might even become a period piece.
Rating: 3
Summary: Okay book on thinking process, but not much advice.
Comment: This book started strong. GM Soltis started out by describing when calculation is used and when it is not, and in general what the meaning of calculation was. He finished the chapter with an exercise in visualization which I really thought was a great start to a book which would help me calculate better.
As the book went along, he discussed different parts of the calculation process, such as ideas, force, counting out, errors, and practical calculating. He used pretty good examples to illustrate his points. At times, he had exercises which helped train tactics and visualization (but not many). He did a fairly good job and "describing" different steps in the calculation process.
However, as I went through the book, I found that he didn't really give too much advice as to how to train one's calculation skills other than to describe different mistakes in calculating and some concepts which masters use in calculation. I didn't feel it had many recommendations on how to improve this aspect. In the summary, he finishes by saying that different methods of calculating work well and that we all have to develop our own way! How do I do this? Why did I even read this book? These were questions that the book did not answer.
However, despite my criticism, I think it is a decent book. I think by assessing the concepts he presented and comparing it to my own play and thought processes, I thought perhaps I could glean some advice from the book. Also, in this particular case I visualized many of the positions without using a board, so I felt I improved my visualization skills. However, these benefits don't have too much to do with this book in particular, but instead my method of studying the book.
In any case, if you want to learn a little about typical calculation errors and different methods of calculation, this book may be okay for you. However, if you want to improve your own calculating and visualization skills, you might be better off studying tactical problems and analyzing your games and assessing your own particular style of calculating. That's what GM Soltis says on the last page anyway!
 |
Title: Pawn Structure Chess by Andrew Soltis ISBN: 0812925297 Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games Pub. Date: 14 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: Art of Attack: Rev. Algebraic Ed. by Vladimir Vukovic ISBN: 1857444000 Publisher: Everyman Chess Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Best Lessons of a Chess Coach by Sunil Weeramantry, Edward V. Eusebi ISBN: 0812922654 Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games Pub. Date: 08 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess-Mastery Course by Jeremy Silman ISBN: 1890085006 Publisher: Siles Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate by Fred Reinfeld ISBN: 0879801107 Publisher: Wilshire Book Co Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
