Customer Reviews

Dynamics of Chess Strategy

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

 

 

This book is, for me, easy to read without using a chessboard. It is primarily about chess openings and mainly covers the Ruy Lopez, Grunfeld, and Scheveningen Sicilian. Many other chess openings are covered more briefly.

The author's approach to studying these openings is represented in the somewhat misleading title of the book. He will present a series of moves that lead to a typical position in these openings, then demonstrate the correct continuation using strategies and tactics dictated by the position.

Among the many less covered openings, he discusses a white square strategy against the Sicilian Sveshnilkov. There he spends several pages showing game positions where that strategy is successful and not so successful. Jansa believes in his white square strategy, so in the not so successful tries, he demonstrates logical ways White should have continued in order to maintain an edge.

This is the only book I've found that gives me a good feel for the 6.Be2 Sicilian Scheveningen (which was the main reason I purchased it). I also have Emm's book 'Play the Najdorf Scheveningen style' which discusses these lines as well, but that book was a bit challenging for me when it came to the 6.Be2 Scheveningen section. Jansa's approach is less about memorization and much more on strategies, common themes, and ideas.

Jansa equates some positions from the CaroKann and Scandanavian to demonstrate how the reader can often think out of the box (of their particular opening), and come up with good moves in positions they may not be that familiar with.

In much of the book, Jansa will present a series of moves leading to a diagrammed position, and ask the reader to come up with the correct followup. Most the time he will do this after a description of some of the ideas in that particular opening. These are mostly not tactical 'White to move and win' questions though, and often lead to only small advantages or even equality. The solutions are often a combination of strategical and tactical ideas which he explains after the question is posed.

This is a great book on strategical thinking in the opening and middlegame for experienced chess players and perhaps even the not so experienced. I had no idea of the content based on the title, if I had known, I would have purchased it as soon as it came out. I discovered the book while perusing the chesspublishing.com forums, someone there mentioned it as a good source of information on how to play the Scheveningen.

Occasionally, one finds a book where the author really pours his heart and soul into it. This is such a book. The author's love of the game and the desire to pass that desire on to the reader is apparent with every turn of the page. With that said, the author attempts to personalize his instruction and you really do feel like you're getting a one on one lesson with the author (a fairly strong GM from the Czech Republic).

In particular, the real strength of this book is in positional evaluation. The author uses a small number of openings (with an 80 page treatise on the Ruy Lopez) to illustrate the critical points of evaluation. This is something that is overlooked by many books. Often in chess books, every move has a list of alternate continuations with some minor comment at the end that really doesn't provide any significant insight into the position. This book really helps you understand the strategical pivot points in the game and forces the reader to be better disciplined in the evaluation of the position (strategic and tactical). I believe this skill alone will help anyone improve at least a one level. But more importantly, will help the reader to transfer the same kind of analysis process into their own games.

I gave this book only four stars for one simple reason. The author does not take great enough care in referencing the critical positions (relative to the analysis). Although this is bothersome, it doesn't happen frequently enough to really deter significantly from the book. The book is 100 percent readable without a chess board (although the author encourages you to set up a board to evaluate the critical positions).

This is an advanced book. It is, for the most part, way beyond my abilities. I have been working through the Scheveningen section (40 pages or so) very very slowly. There is gold in them thar hills, but it takes a bit of serious digging for a weak player.

The other reviewers have described the contents very well, so I won't dwell on that.

It is a very personalized, impassioned challenge to the reader to dig deep and learn. In particular there are very profound studies on the Spanish, the Grunfeld, and the Scheveningen Sicilian. It's hard to describe how engaging the author is. He is demanding, playful, encouraging, aggravating, tormenting. He is like an old uncle who can tell you wonderful secrets but makes you work to extract each morsel.

This book would be excellent for an advanced student to go over with a coach. In fact, it is essentially a series of lessons with a GM.

The translation is a little awkward and stiff, but still entirely readable.

I wish there were other authors who could take this approach with more accessible material.

One of the few chess books that do not leave you hanging with statements like: and white (black) is better -without explaining why.