Customer Reviews

Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

i bought this book 3 months ago and have enjoyed it very much. some readers have brought up how it uses old openings, but i think that is beyond the point. this book will teach you how to look for the better moves, and explains to you why certain moves are weak. I play alot of games at yahoo and i cannot tell you how many times i see alot of positions that my competitors use as examples on this book! i went from being 20 games below the .500 mark to 15 games above!! from a 1200 rating to 1490!! i know its only yahoo, but hey its a start!! i do occasinally run into guys who are into the latest openings, and they do give me a scare in the begining, but after a while i do give a good fight, and have been pretty succesfull lately. this is the perfect "first book of chess" or if you only wanted one book this would be it.

This book is well structured and well done for players with few experience and theory. The first half of the book is so elementary that it is near childlike analysis. But as the reader go along the analysis get deeper and more detailed. It is constructed with richly analysed games.

I learned how to play chess from this book some 20 years ago, and there are very few better books I would recommend to a beginner. Max Euwe has an amazing gift for clarifying tactical and strategic ideas in chess; he was the world champion from 1935 to 1937. Every game is explained move-by-move,and the reader is gently guided through the whole game. If you are new to chess, or if you are an amateur eager to improve your game, this book is a must.

It is a very well explained book. It is a compilation of games. The games are easy to understand. They are not grandmaster games. Are amateur games that show typical errors in strategy. All the moves are explained in a very logical way: opening, strategy, etc. I read this book over and over. I strongly recommend it to club players of all strenghts. It is a very good book, easy to read and easy to understand. Lots of useful comments.

I think this book is one of the best books for beginner to novice players, or with a rating up to 1600-1700. This book is NOT kid friendly though. I use the games in it to teach classes, but I would never recommend a child buys it. It is great for adults, however keep in mind it uses the old fashion descriptive notation. I wish there were more books out like this. Most books show games between two grandmasters, but it is very useful to watch the way a Master beats a weak player. A 1600 player will learn how a Master easily disposes of 1600 players.

The book "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur" is one of the best books I have read on the subject of learning to play chess. The senior author, Max Euwe, was not only a World Champion but was also a scholar and prolific author. He writes very well and with great authority. He, and his coauthor, Walter Meiden show the reader step-by-step the many mistakes amateur players make and the way master players recognize and respond to those mistakes. The book begins with analyses of games in which the amateur player is very weak, moves through games with stronger amateurs, and ends with games against expert or near expert players. Throughout the book the authors show the reader how the amateurs' mistakes were exploited by the master player. This is a very instructive book.

I rate this book " Chess Master v/s Chess Ameture" as 5 stars because it is excellent book for developing logical and strategic thinking for the beginners. Though the opening mistakes by ameture shown are not very common and the other book by the same authors "The Road to Chess Mastery" (TRtCM) is more realistic. I found the games on French Defence very good for myself. The other book TRtCM does not cover the French Defence and is slightly heavy to understand and analyze for beginners. So if you are a beginner or a lower middle level player who wants to develop a clear cut thinking in chess strategy without devoting much time and energy, this book is for you. After studying it, you may go to TRtCM.
I have studied this book and it has worked well for me.

Pros:
1. Very clear thinking and explanations.
2. French Defence (4 games) very useful
3. Full Games
4. Good for learning opening and middle game strategy
5. Introductory portions are well written
6. The writer is an authority and so you will like the confidence with which he instructs you. Wonderful annotations.
7. Very good treatment of Marshal Variation of Queen's gambit declined which is still played by many. I benefitted by the games of this variation in real tourneys.

Cons:
1. Not very realistic mistakes (silly sometimes) by the ameture.
2. Does not cover many variations commonly played nowadays in tournaments
3. Some printing mistakes (2-3 only).
4. Needs a board to understand the games fully.