Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess) [Paperback]

Max Euwe (Author), Walter Meiden (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Chess | Publication Date: March 1, 1994

25 chess games chosen, arranged, and annotated to help amateurs learn how to avoid a variety of weak strategic and tactical moves. Selected, with commentary, by World Chess Champion Max Euwe and by Walter Meiden, an amateur player, the games point out graphically how the chess master exploits characteristic errors of the amateur.

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486279472
• ISBN-13: 978-0486279473
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Chess

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Instructive Games to learn from, October 2, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess) (Paperback)

This is one of the best game collection books for a lower rated chess player. Typical types of mistakes made by weaker players are taken advantage of by stonger players (masters). This is a good way to learn what not to do and how to take advantage of typical mistakes made by the opponents you are likely to play. This is very good instruction by using games (also falling into this catagory are "Unbeatable Chess Lessons" and "Logical Chess" - also recommended reading!). There are some mistakes and typos, but not a lot. And it is not in algebraic chess notation. For these two reasons I give it four instead of five stars.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for any chess player, December 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess) (Paperback)

This book is a must for anyone wanting to improve his/her game. It explains the purpose behind the moves, not just variations. It is a great way to learn the ideas of opening moves. But the middle game is where this book excels. It gets into the mind of the master and goes through his/her thought processes, especially how he/she calculates and decides on a move.

I found the best way to improve your game from this book is to go through the game, covering up the masters' moves, and try to guess his moves. Write down all your thoughts and analyses you can without moving the pieces and do this until you finish the game, without looking at the comments. Only when you are done with the game, look at what Euwe wrote and compare your notes to his. You'll see yourself getting closer and closer to his analyses as you work your way through the book! You can use this method with Irving Chernev's "Logical Chess, Move by Move."

Get these two books and use this method and you will have no excuse not to be at least Expert rated!

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but may not benefit your play much., November 3, 2006

By 

Kent McCroskey (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess) (Paperback)

This is a very popular book and a very well written, as is everything my Max Euwe. The average rating I'm giving is based on its impact on my chess playing, which was minimal.

It falls into the category of "Move by move" chess books, and is every bit a well written at Logical Chess. It differs, however, by always have one player rated significantly lower than the other, and points out the ways to exploit poor play.

The problem I have with the book is the same problem I have the Logical Chess, Move by Move. They introduce concepts as they appear in the game, give a brief explanation of the theory behind it, then move on.

For example, at the beginning of each chapter in CM vs CA, Euwe list about 6 concepts that will pop up in the game. At the appropriate point, he will spend a few paragraphs explaining why, for instance, white's bishop is more powerful than black's because of the current pawn structure, then he moves on. The game ends, the next one begins, and the ideas listed are all different. There might be another game in the book that describes good bishops vs bad bishops, but that might be the only time you got to see it. (I don't have the book with me now, so this bishop example might not be perfectly accurate.) Strategic ideas seem to come and go without giving the reader any firm grasp on the concept.

At the level that I am (approx. 1400), I knew the basic ideas for all these strategic elements, I just didn't know how to implement them in my games. This book didn't help me do that. I suppose that were you not familiar with chess strategy, this book would be helpful. With a 314 page book that covers openings, strategy, and endgames, you can't expect anything to be covered very thoroughly.

Again, the book is very well written and deserves the high marks it gets. It just didn't help me very much. I'm 25% through Modern Chess Strategy by Pachman and it has already done so much more for me than CM vs CA.