Customer Reviews

The Middlegame, Book 2: Dynamic & Subjective Features (Algebraic Edition) (Bk. 2)

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

 

 

I just finished both volumes and feel I know chess a lot better.
I am currently rated 1800 and it took me over 2 years of off again on again study to complete both books. Sometimes I would play over the games twice but the time is worth it if you want to improve at chess. There are other great books on chess like My System by Nimzovitch or Chess Strategy by Pachman, but both are turgid and boring going compared to this modern classic. It covers the entire sweep of chess history and discusses most middlegame concepts like the minority attack or asymetric pawn structures or development vrs material advantage or the art of defense. I can go on and on. I would say you cannot go wrong with these 2 books. Also if you have chessbase the Ossimitz chess site has a good download site where you can download this whole book in chessbase format. Stydying chess could not get any easier.

The last guy to review this book down below apparently meant to give it 5 stars, but instead gave it zero. Oops!

This book, along with Book 1 on Static Features, was a very big reason why I made it up to a USCF Expert rating.

Buy these two books. Study them. Watch your rating climb!

I cannot find enough praise for this, the second of two books by Max Euwe on the middlegame. This, as well as the first, are MUST HAVE books for any serious student of the game. Training by a world champion, are you kidding me? Where else can you get lessons from a world champion for such a small price?? Like I said about the first book of this series, the ideas you will learn from this book are the marrow of chess. It will teach you proper chess thinking, thinking that will spill over into the other stages of the game. You will develop a much better understanding of the opening and what you are trying to accomplish, rather than just trying to play back long variations that you've toiled over but only slightly grasp. If I could only own five chess books for the rest of my life, this and it's complimentary title would have their rightful place.

Euwe's books are all classics. I've snapped most of the Euwe books that I could lay my hands on. This one has a fairly comprehensive list of positional ideas, and does a pretty good job covering them. Attack, initiative, defense (yes, defense), Nimzo's prohylaxis and blockade, simplification (for attack, defense, combinative liquidation). The games are as always, engaging. I think it is an essential book in any serious chess player's shelf. At a practical level, it might be immensely useful due to its balanced coverage of ideas. I don't know why it is not nearly as popular.

There are a few chess books that deserve the title: "classic." Bobby Fisher's "My 60-Memorable Games," Alexander Alekhine's "Greatest Games" (both volumes), and so on. Euwe here in this book, which is the second volume of a series, deserves the same kind of praise. His writing is so revealing, so crystal clear, as to be worthy of high praise by the chess player who just wants to improve his or her game. Read it, spend the time on it, play through the games, but don't leave it on the shelf to age.