Book Review: Weapons of Chess

Book Review: Weapons of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini.

I recently bought and read my first chess book. After an in-depth search of available books -- me sitting cross-legged at the local Border’s flipping pages of all the chess books-- I think I found exactly what I was looking for.

Top Reasons for choosing this book:
1. Every picture of a board has the letters and numbers printed alongside the board. I was more than surprised by the fact that most of the books at the store didn’t have the letters for algebraic notation printed! I don’t have the squares memorized that well. I need the letters/numbers printed! I was quite surprised by this. This book doesn’t have a picture of a chessboard even once where I would have to think to find f7.
2. The name: Bruce Pandolfini. This is going to sound lame, but I recognized the name from the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer”.
3. I was looking for a book that would help me with positional chess and understanding terms I read in the chess forum all the time. I wanted it easy to read and not full of notation.

With chapter titles such as: Backward Pawn, Fixed Pawns, Minority Attack, Good Knight, Two Bishops, and Fianchetto; its easy to understand what this book is about. I would have taken a lot more out of what I read in the Chess forum over the past year, if I had already read this book. All those terms that left me scratching me head, are explained in plain English. Fianchetto? So that’s what that means.

This book is written in plain English. There is not a lot of algebraic notation to follow. It is very clearly written. Reading it is almost as if you had a chance to sit down with a great chess mind and quiz them on any subject.

A great deal of this book is dedicated to pawn movements and pawn arrangements. This helped me a great deal. I know I’ve been a pawn-pusher for quite awhile. Now that I know more, I will definitely be putting more thought into when to move my pawns.

This book says it is for beginning to intermediate players. I would estimate that people with an RHP rating of 1200 – 1500 would take the most from this book. This book will not teach you how the pieces move, or how to checkmate somebody. I must admit proudly that a great deal of the information is stuff that I figured out for myself over the past year playing and using “analyze board” and battling to a average 1450 rating. This book will make my move decisions much easier now; because decisions that I agonized over for minutes (sometimes days) I will be able to more comfortably think “yeah that’s the right move”.

I guess it is obvious, but; I would recommend this book.

Tim

Good informative review. We need more like them. There's too much garbage out there for the club player to waste his money.

Originally posted by buddy2
Good informative review. We need more like them. There's too much garbage out there for the club player to waste his money.

Thanks buddy2...
Just to add a couple of specific things I learned...

1. "If you want to develop your bishop on the flank -- which entails moving the kinght-pawn on that side -- try not to move the center-pawn on the same side too early. If you hold back the center-pawn, the third square on the bishop-file will have at least some pawn protection" This is seemingly a mistake I have made many times.

2. That bishops are generally better defenders, because they can move away and still keep the square under "observation". This is also almost obvious, but I can't remember the number of times my defence has crumbled due to the attacking of my knight (being used as a defender)..

thanks for the review...i have been looking to purchase a decent chess book and this seems to be to be a good buy. thanks

fred

I've got the book too and it's great, Pandolfini verbalizes A LOT of basic guidelines and principles to follow, and they are well articulated and easy to understand. If I were to have only one book on chess, this would be it.

I'm not sure what everyone sees in this book. I owned it, and threw it away. I'm not that strong a player, but even to me this book seemed overly simplistic. Pandolfini targets rank novices with his books. Don't take it the wrong way, I like his style and have benefitted from some of his books (Endgame Course, The Winning Way, More Chessercizes: Checkmate), but I found this book to be of no value. Along the same lines, but better in my opinion was Silman's Complete Book of Chess Strategy...for what it's worth.

BLR

Originally posted by BLReid
Pandolfini targets rank novices with his books. but I found this book to be of no value.

Well, I don't think this book is for "Rank Novices".
It doesn't teach you the basics "How the horsey moves, What is castling, How to checkmate, En passant. All things a "novice" would need to know before reading this book.

Also I see you are on the upper end of people that I said would get the most from his book. (1200 -1500) Your rating appears to hover above the 1500 mark nowadays....

As I said before a LOT of the stuff in there are things that I figured out instinctively (with a lot of time spent on analyze board) while working up to a 1450+ average...but having somebody spell it out for you in PLAIN english, definitely has helped me put together the pieces of the instinctual puzzle together...

Note, this is the first/only chess book I have ever read. Maybe that has something to do with why I got a lot from it.

2nd Note, I have now gone 12-0-1 since I read this book and have gained a new high rating and a new "biggest win on RHP" 🙂 Maybe I should read more. Any recommendations for a "tactics" book. Similar in style to the book I reviewed above...

Tim

I have been looking for a good book on chess. Unfortunately, out here in the sticks we don't have a Borders or any other bookstore that doesn't specialize in outdoor activities, but obviously I have the internet and Amazon so I should be able to find this book. It sounds like just what I need. My rating is around 1000, a bit lower than your recommended 1200, but I think I can still benefit from it. Thanks.

Originally posted by tmetzler

Note, this is the first/only chess book I have ever read. Maybe that has something to do with why I got a lot from it.

2nd Note, I have now gone 12-0-1 since I read this book and have gained a new high rating and a new "biggest win on RHP" 🙂 Maybe I should read more. Any recommendations for a "tactics" book. Similar in style to the book I reviewed above...

Tim

Well, I am glad that you got more out of it than I did, I tried to make the point that I AM a fan of Pandolfini and what he offers the chess world. As for your questions on a tactics book, there are many. I prefer the 303 puzzle books by Fred Wilson and Bruce Alberston, mainly because the diagrams are large and clear. A good one to start with is 303 Tricky Chess Tactics because is gives a brief description of the operative tactics, then a series of puzzles sorted in progresive order of difficulty. All I can say about these books is that I play better when I amreviewing them regularly, and if I don't pick them up, my game drops off. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Good luck!

Oh, and a great little gem is How To Beat Your Dad at Chess by GM Murray Chandler. Don't let the title fool you, this book is loaded with very important attacking patterns.

tmetzler , you might consider checking out "Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess"...it's kind of like a Q&A with Pandolfini... if you see it in a store, take a look through it and see if you're comfortable with the material...

I have "Weapons of Chess" myself, and I liked that book a lot...

Other Pandolfini books I have are "The Winning Way" which concentrates on creating and exploiting opening traps, "The Chess Doctor", Chess Openings - Traps and Zaps" and "Chessercizes", tactical books.

I also have B P's "The ABCs of Chess" which is, I believe, a compilation of 50 of his articles originally published in Chess Life Magazine.

Something else you might want to consider is Yasser Seirawan's "Winning Chess" series... it's a series of 6 books: 1) Play Winning Chess 2) Winning Chess Endings 3) Winning Chess Tactics 4) Winning Chess Strategies 5) Wining Chess Brilliancies and 6) Winning Chess Openings.

The titles are self-explanatory, but Sierawan is an excellent teacher, and does an excellent job of explaining the logic behind making certain moves in certain circumstances (and also why certain other moves should NOT be played). An excellent series.

"Logical Chess Move By Move" by Irving Chernev, looks at (I think) 33 GM games, and explains, literally, EVERY move, and the reasoning behind it...

You might want to also check out "Win at Chess" by Ron Curry, who has won numerous teaching awards...That's a fun book to go through...

But you have to decide what looks good for your level of understanding. Good luck to you!
Other than that, practice your tactics.

How could anyone throw away a book?
Let alone a chess book?
Even if you didnt like that much, throwing a book into the trash is just wrong.

Thanks.

I just bought Weapons Of Chess again (lent it to a friend, never got it back)
I'm suprised that the book is considered for beginner to intermediate level players, I thought it had some great insights for someone like me, a USCF "A" rated player. (Maybe that's considered intermediate, I guess)

Originally posted by BLReid
I'm not sure what everyone sees in this book. I owned it, and threw it away. I'm not that strong a player, but even to me this book seemed overly simplistic. Pandolfini targets rank novices with his books. Don't take it the wrong way, I like his style and have benefitted from some of his books (Endgame Course, The Winning Way, More Chessercizes: Checkmate), b ...[text shortened]... er in my opinion was Silman's Complete Book of Chess Strategy...for what it's worth.

BLR

Bleh. I agree completly that Pandolfini targets the rank amatuer and it seems he has at least 1 new book/year, a veritable font of chess books, most of which don't impress me (but then, I don't know when to end my sentences).

Silman's Amatuers Mind is ok and convers these topics. Silman's Reacess your chess also covers these topics and is 10x better, Silman's Complete Book of Chess Strategy is a total waste of money. Not only is it an incomplete listing of terms/ideas, but there are no sample games/ miniatures to learn from, just some diagrams that give a very basic idea.

Well, I have to get on the bandwagon here. I recently read a rec for "Weapons of Chess" here at RHP, and promptly picked it up at my local library. What a gem! This is the book I've been looking for for a while -- a basic book on the fundamentals of strategy, clearly written and engaging. So many chess books, though "good," are a chore to plow through. Not this one. It's easy to read, very informative, and even fun. Three cheers for "Weapons of Chess"! And may I add three cheers for Bruce Pandolfini, who writes with such clarity, and whose books are actually enjoyable to read.