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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you aren't a Grandmaster, this great book will help you, February 9, 2007
This review is from: Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve (Chess Exams) (Paperback)
I hesitated for months before buying this book. You shouldn't.
You should know that this is not a training manual or a tactics book. Its goal is to identify where your game is weak. If you are not already a Grandmaster, then it's certain that some areas of your game are weak. But which, and how weak are they? If club players, amateurs, even experts can focus their training on their weak spots, they will improve much more rapidly than if they get better in some area where they are already strong.
This book does a fantastic job of analyzing your game. Here is my experience. I don't get to play much in tournaments; my rating is in the high 1600's but my last major tournament I had a performance rating of 1820, and in club play that's about how I am doing. What should I work on to go farther?
I have done the first 40 problems in this book and scored them. Each has been given to a lot of players with a wide variety of ratings. By averaging how I performed on each of the problems, the author has assigned me an overall rating and a "rating" for how strong or weak I am in each of a dozen aspects of chess.
First, the overall estimate of my playing strength is right around 1800 -- consistent with my US Open performance and club play. But the breakdown -- wow! I rate a pathetic 1000 on pure calculating ability, and not much better on sacrifices. By contrast, the book rates me at 2400 on standard positions (like how to win a Bishop ending with only one pawn), reflecting the work I've done on such positions, and grasp of strategy and defense are both almost as high.
Interestingly, it rates my openings as the strongest phase of the game and endings as the weakest. Until the last US Open I thought the reverse was true, but in that tournament I consistently got strong middlegame positions against players rated up to 2100, only to collapse in the ending. The book accurately captures this relative weakness.
So my new training strategy is clear, and I bet it will work. For the next several months, I will be focusing on complex endings and doing intense practice in calculating them out to completion. That should address both of my weakest areas in one shot.
As part of my profession I have extensive training in developing tests to measure aspects of mental functioning. I am very impressed with this book, and would consider it a remarkable achievement for a psychology graduate student's dissertation.
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Increase your assessment ability, February 15, 2006
This review is from: Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve (Chess Exams) (Paperback)
"Chess Exam and Training Guide" intends to provide the reader with both a numerical rating of playing strength and also suggestions as to which areas to work on for improvement. Khmelnitsky identifies thirteen areas as follows: Overall, Attack, Counterattack, Defense, Opening, Middlegame, Endgame, Tactics, Strategy, Calculation, Standard Positions, Recognizing Threats, and Sacrifice. The book attempts to compute the reader's strength through a series of 100 positions, each of which is accompanied by a few multiple choice questions. In creating the book, each of these positions were presented to a number of chess players with strengths across the entire spectrum of ratings. A rating is computed based on how the reader's answers to the questions compare to those of the sample group.
The questions range from asking for a concrete analysis of the position (white stands better) to asking for the best move given a few different options. The positions are drawn from both real game positions and composed studies. There is no grouping by theme of the positions - a tactical middlegame struggle can be followed by a king and pawn endgame study. In this way each position is more like a real game situation - no one is going to prompt you to trap your opponent's queen or to mate in five while you're at the board in a tournament. On the page following the position and questions comes a detailed analysis of each of the possible answers by Khmelnitsky. The final 70 or so pages are devoted to helping one compute the final rating and also to giving guidance as to how to improve in each of the thirteen areas. This includes both practical advice and book recommendations for further study.
It doesn't take an alert reader to pick up on a few grammar mistakes in the explanations of the positions. The mistakes are just the kind normally made by a native Eastern European when speaking English - often times an article like "the" will be forgotten. Normally I would criticize this but in this case it adds some authenticity to the idea of having a Russian chess coach sitting with you at the chessboard, explaining the intricacies of the position to you.
Personally, I enjoyed the positions and explanations greatly and would have liked to see more than just the 100 provided. I found that my ability to make a concrete assessment of a given position increased as I worked through this book, and I believe my over the board play has improved accordingly.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I felt I was working one-on-one with the private coach, December 22, 2004
This review is from: Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve (Chess Exams) (Paperback)
I bought this book after reading two very positive reviews in ChessToday newspaper. I also checked sample pages and feedback on ChessExam website and Amazon (just click on the cover shot).
The book produced an honest evaluation of my skills and I enjoyed it tremendously. Now, being a 1300 rated player (Class C), I knew I would have difficulties with many of the problems, but those that I missed I had no problem undestanding the explanation, which is brief, direct to the point and has minimal variations.
When I saw my final results - wow! Overall rating of 1345, that is only 25 points off my OTB rating. My Standard Endgames rating was only 1024. While tactical rating was 1487. I sort of felt this way about my skills, but seeing it as a number was rather dramatic. Of course, the reports with tips and training suggestions were very helpful. I went straight to the one that covers Standard Endgames and got the suggestions on what to do next. So I am using books by Averbach and Alburt and applying some of the recommended training techniques..
Overall, I would agree with some of the readers - this book will not stroke your ego, but will give you an honest assessment and clear recommendations. Children rated under 1100 and adults who don't know much beyond the rules of the game should postpone getting this book. They should focus on books like "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" by Snyder. Everyone else will get their money worth 100x and enjoy their time spent.
One more thing, after every 10 positions-set there is a rating scale and "Take a Break" chess puzzle which is very entertaining.
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