Building Up Your Chess: The Art of Accurate Evaluation and Other Winning Techniques [Paperback]

Lev Alburt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2002

A new, more logical method of evaluating your game position in chess.

Building Up Your Chess makes use of colorful graphs and a new, more logical method of expressing the evaluation of a chess position to teach the critical skill of assessing how you stand. Lev Alburt's unique experience as both a top-level champion and a world-renowned teacher allow him to explain in a clear, logical way how to master chess. He maximizes the results of your reading time. More than 400 chess diagrams make reading easy. More than 400 chess diagrams

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

International Grandmaster Lev Alburt, three-time U.S. champion and former European champion, is one of the most sought-after chess teachers in the world. He lives in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Chess Information & Research Institute (April 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188932308X
• ISBN-13: 978-1889323084
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,352,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So, why should you buy this book....?, November 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Up Your Chess: The Art of Accurate Evaluation and Other Winning Techniques (Paperback)

GM Lev Alburt wants to introduce you to a system of assessing a given position, quantifing this assessment and plotting these values on a graph. This in itself is nothing new, so to make it a book, Mr. Alburt introduces his own invention: A "system of predicted results", which is basically the claim that a pattern exists for all chess positions, and if you can learn to recognize this pattern, you should be on your way to mastery.
"The ability to judge a position accurately is at the heart of good chess", as it says on the back cover. Problem is, the book doesn't teach you to do that. It assumes you are able to identify the relative strength (good or bad and how much so) of a given move and the resulting position - which Mr. Alburt then teaches you to evaulate numerically (a half-point advantage, say). For this reason alone, the back cover's "Whether you are a beginner or a master" should qualify as false declaration!
It is certainly not for beginners.
One cannot escape the feeling that this book was published more for the benefit of the bank accounts of the author and the editor than for any budding chess master.
Supporting this view is the downright silly placement on p.37 of a half-page ad(!) for the US Chess Federation, urging you to sign up a member.
A biography of Mr. Alburt is on p.199 and the editor, Mr.Lawrence, is presented on p.297. Why?
To round things off, an ad for Mr. Alburt's services as a tutor has been placed on p.347.
Together with Mr. Alburt's constant references to other works written by himself and the not so subtle pitching of Mr.Lawrence's marketing and publishing firm, leaves you wondering what this book is actually meant to be.
A book very smartly packaged and promoted but also a book very unable to live up to it's own hype.
I recommend you don't buy this book to avoid feeling cheated.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stay away!, April 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Up Your Chess: The Art of Accurate Evaluation and Other Winning Techniques (Paperback)

This book sure looks flashy, and boy, there are a lot of pretty graphs and colors. However, this is nothing in here that is revolutionary. In fact, the only worthwhile part comes at the beginning of the book and that is nothing more than a rehash of Silman and Kotov.

I enjoyed a couple of Alburt's earlier books (like Just the Facts!) but this book is a real downer. Not worth [money], let alone [money]!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Struggling chess player, December 7, 2007

By 

John Hazlett "jphturtle" (Clinton AR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Building Up Your Chess: The Art of Accurate Evaluation and Other Winning Techniques (Paperback)

If I followed what was stated in the movie "Bambi" I wouldn't say anything at all. However, this book really is far short of expectations. I bought this book in the hopes of finding something that teaches how to evaluate positions, to help with formulating a plan. Maybe this book might be O.K. for computer programmers or something, but it's pretty much worthless for chessplayers trying to learn to play better chess.