I have many chess books. But the best (and cheapest) is Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. A programmed learning approach, it teaches checkmates. Only checkmates. For openings, I only learned 'the chief openings' in chapter 4 of Fred Reinfeld's 'Chess in a Nutshell'.
Until recently, other media didn't impress me. I bought chess mentor, but the lesson series are often too long for me to see, and I usually thought my attacks were better. I then bought The Pro Chess Video Chess Mentor DVD, with (GM) Yasser Seirawan. It was a little, ... a little, ... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Uh! What? Oh.
Recently, my copy of (GM) Maurice Ashley's 'Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess' Arrived. This is a multimedia program, published by Simon and Shuster, and out of print. Still, it is readily available through hundreds of 'Remainder Houses' on the internet. Mine took 2 and 1/2 MONTHS to arrive. But this is the real deal boys and girls. Soon after I started the challenges Mr. Ashley was evaluating my efforts with 'Wow, that's a really bad move' , and proceeded to tell me why. That got my attention, and has held it since.
Check out the 'weak squares' lessons under strategies, guys. I would pay $200, any day, for those lessons.
So, what are your favorite chess tutorials?
Originally posted by Chuck SmartI notice the USCF store still has some of these. Go to http://www.shopuschess.org and search for Ashley. Click on the link
'Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess' ... out of print.
Here is the result of your search (sort by score):
01: USCF Web Store - USCF Web Store - Software
then scroll down to about the middle of the page.
🙂
Originally posted by mwmillerThanks. I really saved money by buying it from a closeout-remainder guy at Unbeatable Deals. I think about $7. But as I say, it took 2 and 1/2 Months to arrive. If I had know how good it was, I would have paid any price to get it overnight.
I just checked and you can get it on eBay or half.com also. Maybe save some money as well...
regards, Marc
NOTE! Not compatible with Windows 2000 or XP. However, it might work on XP if you use the compatibility wizard. I'm gonna go try it in a minute.
Chuck
Chuck
Originally posted by pdevisserThanks for the tip. I have ordered the book from Amazon.com and it should arrive shortly. Any paticular areas of the book that are "the crux" i.e. the main take-home lesson?
One book that I have found invaluable has been `The Inner Game of Chess: How to Calculate and Win` by Andrew Soltis. The style is such that most players would gain insight into their game. Soltis challenges many of Kotov's assertions in `Think Like a Grandmaster`.
Originally posted by Chuck SmartI can't really say that about this book. Each chapter seems to focus on one aspect of calculating... I got a great deal of use from the 8th and 9th chapters (Oversights and Rechecking, respectively), but that was mainly do to problems with my own game... One exercise that he suggests is to visual an entire game in your head... something much easier said then done! Each of the other chapters has important insights, most of which we could say to already know... but with the examples he provides, it helps in visualizing them. One suggestion would be to read the book with a set nearby and instead of just reading thru the moves leading to a position, to actually play them out... I found it helped in my visualization...
Thanks for the tip. I have ordered the book from Amazon.com and it should arrive shortly. Any paticular areas of the book that are "the crux" i.e. the main take-home lesson?