Customer Reviews

10 Most Common Chess Mistakes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all I would most recomend this book for average chess players and players who are starting to learn chess, but who has not access to any experienced chess player to guide them through the exciting world of chess. A commom wisdom within chess is that when you have lost a game, you should analyse your game and try to find out what went wrong. Then you should try to learn from your experience. This is the best way to improve your game. This is also the idea behind this book, Larry Evans a GM from the US, has selected from a wide variety of different players, from amateurs to world-class players like Kasparov, Karpov, Anand and Fischer. Each page within this book gives examples of a position and the reader is given the task to pick between two moves, one which is right and one move which has actually occured during a game which is wrong. Reading through this book -I used a chess board in front of me , altough i must admit it was a bit boring to setup all the postions - was a fascinating journey to a lot of interesting positons. I am absolutely sure that I become a much better chess player by working through this book, some situations were familiar from my own games and I learnt what I did wrong, the book thought me a lot about opening, midddle game(especially) and when it comes to end game there is a lot of entertainment from examples from different positions. What I didn't like about the book was that Evans commentary sometimes were with a humiliating tone for some players involved. The fact is that we all make mistakes -as this book clearly demonstrates- but there should be no reason to be upset about it. Chess should after all be a friendly game which is fun. Right now I have started to repeat the book , this time without a board in front of me;).

I reject the oft implied notion that each chess book should be judged by how many Elo points you gain as a direct result of reading the book. Reading a chess book rarely increases one's Elo rating. In this regard most chess books are the same.

Yet chess books differ greatly in how enjoyable they are to read. This book by Larry Evans is more enjoyable than is the average chess book. I am glad I own this book.
The enjoyable-ness of this book comes in part from the ready access it gives to the two move choices presented to the reader. The two moves to choose from are presented immediately under the diagram. The reader's task is to determine which move is a big blunder. The explanation of both moves is presented in paragraph format at the bottom of the same page.

This avoids the under-criticized tedious hassle of having to flip thru pages in the back of the book. This is a handy book to keep by your throne at home.
However, it would have been better for the explanatory paragraphs to have been printed two pages ahead. That would have kept them nearby, and yet helped you avoid accidently reading the answer.

Evans' prose is usually pleasant to read, especially when he discusses diagrams from his own games (true feelings, less need for cliche as when discussing games he was not involved in).

My only criticizm of this book is that Evans rarely attempts any educationalor summary explanation beyond giving variations. The book is also a little pricey considering how few puzzles are in it.

I like this book. Despite the other reviewers' negativity, I have found it helpful. I am relatively new to chess, I know the basic rules and enjoy playing, but I haven't played any tournaments or been rated. This book is helping me to think out the positions and analyze them more seriously than I did before. If you are (relatively) new to chess, this is a good book. If you are an advanced player, this is not the one for you.

This book is quite handy for entertainment.

I like the way that the author (or publisher) has set out the pages which makes it easy to use.

There are a few mistakes, a funny one where Evans actually pointed out the position was wrong a few years ago but put the wrong position in his book, as pointed out by John Watson.

However, if you are looking for a serious study book, then this is probably not the book for you.

Three and a half stars would be more of an accurate appraisal. Not the best chess book I've read, but some good tactical themes. While studying this book for about month, I still couldn't figure out the best way to utilize the information other than take it for granted that when Larry Evans states "not to leave your King vulnerable"...not to leave your King vulnerable. The author's annotation is not very thorough, there was not enough detail explaining the why's behind the moves other than the simple good and bad moves. It is an ok book, but not a necessity to one's library. Why buy a book that's just ok when you have a choice of books that are much much better and at the same time, the same price?

Evan's book shows positions from actual games and asks the reader to pick from two choices. One choice was played in the game (and was incorrect) while the other is the move that should have been played. I considered it far more helpful to cover up the two moves and determine my move first and then read about the two selected moves. A fine book, my only complaints being I finished it in two days, and the fact that Evans seems to enjoy pointing out Reshevsky's errors in particular. The author obviously shows a touch of jealousy towards Reshevsky's superior talent.

Larry Evans' standing as a chess author has gone down sharply over the years and this book helps show why. It is insubstantial and has many silly errors (name spellings, wrong moves etc.). Not that Evans is alone in such superficiality. One of the greatest mysteries of chess is why such a cerebral game has been the subject of so many potboilers. Cardoza, the publisher of this book, specialises in them, unfortunately.

I like reading Larry Evans' columns in Chess Life, and I find him to be a bright and engaging individual, but the quality of his books has dramatically dropped off lately.

This book, although ambitious and seemingly quite helpful is really anything but. I picked it up at a local bookstore one day while I was waiting for my girlfriend who was shopping at a nearby outlet store. By the time I got home I wished that I had my 15 bucks back.

Basically the book is laid out across 10 chapters(hence the 10 most common mistakes), and Larry Evans presents a diagram and gives you two move choices. One is the correct move that wasn't played, and the other is the wrong move that was.

My big problems with this:
He gives the solutions right below the move choices and diagram. Good luck trying to keep yourself from peeking below.
Even if you try hard not to look down, you'll notice right away which choice - Move A or Move B - has more text next to it. 90% of the time the move with more text is the wrong move.
Ex: Solutions: (a) Qxb4? is bad in light of blah blah blah...insert 4 lines of variations
where as (b) Qc6 is a quiet move that helps the winning side.

Also, if you have the choice of whether to chose between
(a) A capturing move
or (b) A quiet move,
always pick (b).

The book isn't terrible to simply thumb through on a night when you're bored, but don't expect to much out of this one.