Survey

If you have read any training material by Alburt, Pandolfini or Silman, please list the author, approximate from-to rating and how much effort you actually put into studying the material.

0

Originally posted by masscat
If you have read any training material by Alburt, Pandolfini or Silman, please list the author, approximate from-to rating and how much effort you actually put into studying the material.

When I first started I read Alburts Tactis for the Tourney Player (or something like that). I was rated somewhere in the 1300's USCF. With that book alone I acheived 1600. This was also my very first venture in tactics so im sure there are many other books that could have worked just the same or better.

Books I've read by them are:

Pandolfini's endgame course
Silman's complete book of strategy
Silman's Reassess your chess workbook
Silman's The amateurs mind

Books I'm currently reading

Silman's Complete endgame course (the only book thus far I'm using a board to go over with.)
Pandolfini's Weapons of Chess

For being a poor person I spend alot on chess books. To see how they've helped me just look at my profile graph.

I read Silman, "Reassess Your Chess" and the (workbook)

Around the same period my rating went from 1600-1800 but I didn't really study the book in depth.

I am quite lazy and play most of my games here as though they were blitz.

Pandolfini's endgame course but I knew 90% of the content and put little effort in. It's currently a bathroom reader. Effort = little

Silman's complete book of strategy -- A worthless book. Don't buy or read unless you're new to chess and don't know what a minority attack is. Exanples are not nearly as useful as Silman's other books.

Silman's Reassess your Chess = A+ I put tons of work in with this and it took me from a 1200 to a 1600 (it's hard to say exactly as I got to 1400 quickly and quit chess for 5 years, when I came back I climbed to 1650 and have stayed there). The thing that makes Silman a great writer is the ease of understanding the ideas and excellently chosen examples without an overwhelming number of sidelines.

Silman's The amateurs mind - Very similar to Reassess your chess in the ideas presented. I suggest reading one or the other. I put less work in here as I didn't see anything new.