Originally posted by wargamer661 customer review on amazon:
This book looks interesting, but I can't find any reviews. If you have this book what do you think about it? I'm hoping it has some practical, useful advice about OTB play!
http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Guide-Competitive-Chess-Improve/dp/1857444124
An introduction by Emms himself:
https://www.niggemann.com/e/listen/autoren/783.html
Originally posted by wargamer66I browsed through this book at a book store, and my impression is that the title is pretty misleading. I don't think the book has anything to do with "competitive chess" per-se (except that it has games in it from competitive chess events, but so does pretty much every other chess book in existence)... so it looked to me just like another generic chess book. I was not impressed.
This book looks interesting, but I can't find any reviews. If you have this book what do you think about it? I'm hoping it has some practical, useful advice about OTB play!
Just taking another look at it and iI think my previous post was a bit harsh. The book has some decent accessible reading about taking part in tournaments and chess in general and some interesting annotated games. I would recommend it if you're interested in putting the work in to go through the games. John Emms is a good author and he's done a good job.
Perhaps the problem here is that the "idea" of this book is a little stretched out. What I mean by that is the stuff about competitive chess could perhaps have fitted nicely into another book - maybe as a chapter or two. Having said that the book is padded out with quality annotations and sensible stuff on the rules.
To sum up then I think it is an enjoyable and easy to digest read about tournament play with some useful tips. It also has many well annotated games illustrating the main themes.
Curiously this book was advertised over a year ago but the publishers then held it back...when I saw it in a book shop in Paris a few weeks ago I thought I'd found one of the rare copies that did originally circulate...only to find on my return that it's now generally available.
Originally posted by wargamer66I'd recommend the book "Why you lose at Chess" By Tim Harding. It covers most basic problem areas in OTB. also the classic "The immortal Game" by David Shenk gave me a different perspective in OTB that isn't felt playing on-line.
Thanks for all the replies, sounds like the book is worth a shot.