Customer Reviews

Comprehensive Chess Course, Vol. 2: From Beginner to Tournament Player in 12 Lessons

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book looks very impressive when you see it in bookstore - it is big. But I learned my lesson as big doesn't mean it is great. When I got into the material I suddenly discovered that there was an extreme lack of organization. Daa, the book didn't explain what the objective of the game was at the very beginning. It seemed like a person from another country wrote this book with a lack of command of the English Language, then flip flopped around. Well, in looking at this book further and looking at some of the other reviews, I suddenly realized that this book was written as if it was for teachers who didn't know much about chess to introduce them to a classroom. Now this may not sound too bad. However, the problem with is is that it takes things so slowly and out of the order that an experienced chess teacher would use that you have the MOST POORLY WRITTEN BEGINNER'S BOOK ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. How do I know this? Well, I made an issue of going out and getting several other books that were popular (yes, you might argue 'not every other one' but at least I got what is considered best by popularity to compare). So I got 'Starting Chess', 'Chess For Juniors', 'Chess For Dummies' and 'Idiots Guide to Chess'. Here is what I found - CHESS FOR JUNIORS was the most simple and most easy book of them all to understand though it may not have had as many pages a child of say eight could read it and fully understand it. I ranked this as best. I personally recommend this book as best for even an adult. Now adults would probably benefit most by either getting 'Chess For Juniors' or 'Idiots Guide to Chess'. The Idiots Guide is well organized and though not as easy to understand as 'Chess For Juniors' it does a good job. The 'Chess for Dummy's' book is not very well organized or written, but better for an adult than the Comprehensive Chess Courese. As a second best book for Children, but not so easy for Children themselves to Learn from (a parent should help) I suggest 'Starting Chess'. I spent some good time looking over these books and hope this review will be helpful for someone looking for a beginning book.

...Amazon's current online presentation makes individual volumes hard to locate, even though indeed they are all listed and sold here. It doesn't help that the book titles do not necessarily contain the series volume number. Nor the fact that volumes I and II are listed by Amazon as merely different editions of the same book, and so are given identical online customer reviews :]! But of course these two are entirely different.

So, as a search aid I list the entire seven below.

Actually learning chess from books all from one series will economise on money and time spent. For instance over at the archives of the book review section of www.chesscafe.com, Taylor Kingston's review of number 7 (_Just the Facts_) says, "You should note that you will not find the basic mates in the book. No K+Q versus K, etc. You have to go to the first volume in the Comprehensive Chess Series for that."

A couple other quotes from Kingston: "At any rate, Just the Facts! is splendid in its simplicity and instructional value." and "For bringing clear and simple endgame instruction to the masses, however, Just the Facts! is terrific."

l Comprehensive Chess Course Volume I: Learn Chess in 12 Lessons by Lev Alburt & Roman Pelts

2 Comprehensive Chess Course Volume II: From Beginner to Tournament Player in 12 Lessons by Lev Alburt & Roman Pelts

3 Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player by Sam Palatnik & Lev Alburt

4 The King in Jeopardy by Lev Alburt & Sam Palatnik

5 Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player by Lev Alburt

6 Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions and Ideas by Lev Alburt

7 Just the Facts!: Winning Endgame Knowledge by Lev Alburt, Nikolai Krogius, Nikolay Krogius

Amazon's book description of 7 says, "Just the Facts! is the seventh and final volume of the best-selling Comprehensive Chess Course,...". So, apparently Lev has now completed this very popular series!

I bought the first and second volumes of Lev Alburt's chess course. The first one, I ended up teaching my little brother, and he learned how to play chess up to the intermediate level. Oddly, I had learned most of volume I throughout playing 20 years of chess. At 34, I managed to buy volume II, and it took me a little over a month to complete the volume II. It taught me endgame knowledge I was not incorporating into my play. Something extremely important! It also taught me what I need to know to get to my desired 1800 strength. I now play with great insight into the endgame and know that opening is minor to the class player. I discover tactics work better. GM Alburt also autographed my first copy, as I remember. :) Plainly put, I do not see how anyone anywhere cannot reach at least a 1500 USCF playing strength if they truly live and study Alburt's two volumes of the Comprehensive Chess Course. And, if someone truly mastered all the materials in volumes I and II - incorporating them all into their play (including all the ideas in the 100 annotated games) - there would be no surprise if they reached an 1800 A-Class strength. I have noticed a difference in my chess already by 100 points, and I was rated in the 1400s. Now, my chess has climbed into the 1500s, and continues to grow! It would be in the 1600s if I played all my games at my full strength. Thank you Lev Alburt for such an outstanding set of books! I just recently purchased Tactics for the Tournament player - the third book which takes you beyond A&B class player. 1800 here I come! Bucky Adams

I would like to begin by saying that about one year ago I didn't even know what chess was, and I now find myself with the rank of chess expert thanks to this excellent series.

In order to improve in chess one must have a solid foundation. This is exactly what the whole Comprehensive Chess Course gives you. The concepts expounded in the series are the most important in chess. Any beginner regardless of age should begin their chess career with instruction from these books.

I began with CCCV1 and CCCV2. Study form these books lasted about a month and a half. I then simply went on to the next book in the series: Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player. It must be noted that I supplemented this book with alot of diagram trianing which I still continue. The perfecct follow up is King in Jeopardy. Here you will apply your tactical abilities and become a very dangerous attacker. Chess Stategy for the Tournament Player should take some more time to work through (I recommend a chapter every two and a half weeks and always review)and I found supplementing it with playing through GM games to be very fruitful. Just the Facts is the perfect endgame book and with carefull study will make you playsuperb endings. Going through this whole series along with practise from your own games should make you at least a class A player.

Good Luck!

I am both a history and chess person. And, I learned in school that using both chess and the making of jam has a lot to do with each other in the way Russia was run under communism. The Government supported chess and wanted every kid to learn (this was good!). But because they didn't have enough chess teachers to go around teaching every kid at every school they needed a simple way for teachers to teach the masses. The answer was a slow way to get teachers to read material and go through things step by step. So there was a method for teachers who knew little or nothing about chess.
Now if you introduced chess to every kid in the United States this way and then had the good teachers work with the ones that show talant then you would produce far more grandmasters than any other country by far. Russians didn't dominate the world by the quality of teaching, but by sheer numbers. Actually this is the communist way (which worked) to defeat Germany in World War Two. They sacrificed about 10 Russian Soldiers for every 1 German Soldier in mass assualts. They could afford the lives and the method to win was not because of superior strategy but because of sheer numbers they could afford to lose. Now look at Germany and look at Russia. Who really won WW2? Germany is rich and now Russia is a disaster because of their entire communist system. It will take them many more years to get out of their mess. Russian Grandmasters have moved from Russia to get away from their poverty.
This book takes the old outmoded way of teaching chess to the masses and trys to dump it on you, trying to tell you because Russian dominated the chess world this must be good.
Just ask Fischer, who may not really be a chess teacher, but he put communist Russia to shame.
The writers of this book were born and raised in communist Russian. Though good players they lack efficient teaching skills. Chess itself doesn't have anything to do with communism. But teaching methods do.

This book is a must for any aspiring player wanting to become better - and FAST! Lev Alburt takes you through the most important concepts of chess play, and in the process adds other concepts which no other book does.
For example the emphasis on mastering the colour of the squares, although this may sound unimportant, but believe me it really is the key to chess visualisation and mastery.

Each of the 12 lessons introduces a new theme, with each new lesson having a review on the previous and homework. Each lesson is also accompanied by a series of games, which familiarise the student with the theme, and how to apply it.

This book, after practically reading it, will surely make you a stronger player, at least a B class ( 1600 + )

Move on to "Tactics for the Tournament Player" to recieve more advanced material.

the title is for the guy who insulted russian chess teaching. this is a really good book. buy it.

This book is a good bridge between absolute beginner's and someone finding other chess books over their heads. It has hundreds of problems to solve and emphasizes practical endgames that any player will encounter regularly. It has helped me improve tactically and in my endgames. This improvement is slowly helping me understand how to plan in unclear positions. It has also helped in seeing opponents threats before it is too late.

If you find that most chess books are interesting to read but have not made much of a difference in your playing strength then you might try this one and go back to the others later.

The last section of the book is very inspiring on where to go to improve after you master the material in this book.

Enjoy!

This is a very good chess book, though I recommend working through Vol. 1 of the Comprehensive Chess Course and Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 1 (Fundamentals of the Game)first. Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 2 (Beyond the Basics)is an excellent compliment to this volume. The first two volumes of Comprehensive Chess Course are presented in a workbook format. There are excercises and fill-in-the-blank questions all the way through the first two volumes. The additional volumes in CCC are more of a textbook format, as are the books in the two-volume Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters set. If the pages in your copies of CCC Vols. 1 & 2 stay pretty and white, you are not studying them hard enough; they are meant to be written in and reviewed.

I loved this book. I recomend this book series to anyone that wants to improve or just for light entertainment. I am a very series chess player and have improved greatly with this book and the others in the series. GM Alburt teaches something, I don't think anyone has mastered to teach what the actual student really wants to learn.Alburt explains how to draw a completly hopeless game, Sac major pieces for mates in a couple or so. Just stuff ohter books fail to teach you. There is this one postion I loved. A mate in 3 for white. I figuired it out, The answer was sacking a queen for a pawn, the idea was, if the pawn didn't tkae, it would be forced mate in 1 or 2. If he took, samething. Just postions like that, make you aw and ew. And you will find out that when the Brain see's stuff like that, It will quickly be fasinatated by what it just saw and obsorb it automatically! This book and the the rest of the series has really really helped mee to impove my game *ALOT*