Customer Reviews

Chessdon

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

 

 

Skip the games and you will likely read the 370 page book from start to finish. I played chess in NYC tournaments in the early sixties and Chessdon brought back many nice memories. Definitely five stars. I especially enjoyed the many inside stories concerning world champions Bobby Fischer, Kasparov and Karpov.

A very enjoyable personal narrative of aspects of the national and international chess scene. If you are interested in instruction, get Silman and Watson.

Very well written. I learned a great deal about the world of chess. Reads like a novel. I felt I got a good insight into the players. Reading about the behind the scenes goings-on during the Spassky/Fischer match, the deep Blue /Kasparov match and other world class battles was highly interesting. Grandmaster Schwartzman's game reviews was first class.

The best that can be said about this book is that it is a personal effort by someone who has strong opinions about chess. Unfortunately, there are too many places where the author's version differs from the historical accounts. There are also very few good games, a definite minus for a book about chess. All in all, it is one I would rather have skipped.

I immediately put down Robb's biography of Victor Hugo to do some serious browsing. I enjoyed that too. The subheadings, lively anecdotal style, index are all helpful for browsing. Since I started to learn chess only a few months ago (at age 69), I assumed I would be able to make no sense at all of the various chess games, but GM Schwartzman's chatty analyses and inclusion of the notation letters/numbers along the edges of the diagrams mean that I cannot only enjoy the chat and but see that with a little effort I'll be able to get beyond it into the details of the games (a little, anyway). I liked reading the accounts of people such as Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Carol Jarecki, Florencio Camponmanes, Frank Camaratta, etc., whose names are familiar to me from internet browsing and/or chess fame. The Acronym appendix is welcome too--now I know what the "A" in LMA stands for!

I'm really angry at the glowing reviews this book has drawn, quoted at Schultz's web site and on the book's back cover. I've wasted my money on it on the strength of them. I'm begging you, don't make the same mistake. The book is self-published: let this garbage stand as testament to one man's vanity.

Pulling no punches, CHESSDON reveals everything from KGB involvement with chess to anecdotes guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes. Chess personalities, ranging from Bobby Fischer to Judit Polgar, are all present and accounted for. Do you know who won the first Earth vs. Outer Space chess game? All this and more. I've read thousands of books--including hundreds of chess books--Don's book is the best book about chess that I've ever read.

The one- and five-star reviews are both excessive. I am acquainted with most of the people in the book (one reason I don't plan to review it under my own name as I have quite enough enemies), and while Schultz is sloppy on details, the characterizations are generally on target.

Easy and a joy to read. Everything you always wanted to know about the famous chessplayers in the world of chess.

This is a book that I would suggest putting down in favor of television. As Truman Capote once said "That's not writing, it's just typing".

International Master Jeremy Silman calls this "one of the worst chess books I've ever seen". Save your money and save your brain by avoiding all exposure to this book. Instead spend your money on "Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953" or "Pawn Structure Chess" or even "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess". But don't waste your hard earned cash on this waste of paper and ink.