Modern Chess Strategy [Abridged] [Paperback]

Ludek Pachman (Author), Allen S. Russell (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Dover Chess | Publication Date: June 1, 1971

Modern classic offers thorough, systematic analysis of the use of the queen, active king, exchanges, seven different uses of pawns, minority attack, dynamic elements, much more. Analyses of 129 great games featuring Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Bronstein, Smyslov, Spassky, other masters. Indexes of games and openings. 298 diagrams.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Czech (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; Abridged edition (June 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486202909
• ISBN-13: 978-0486202907
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Chess

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best One-volume strategy book, August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Chess Strategy (Paperback)

This is the best one-volume strategy book on the market for all players below the USCF 2000 (Expert) level rating.

It contains virtually all of the information contained in other classic, highly-recommended texts such as ; My System (Nimzovich), Chess Praxis (Nimzovich), The Game of Chess (Tarrasch), and The Middlegame (Books 1 & 2 by Euwe).

The major difference between Pachman's book and the others is that it is the most modern, concise, and highly readable. Some of the other titles are quite verbose and occaisionally stray from the main lesson being presented.

In short, this book contains nearly everything an aspiring chessplayer needs to know about strategy to become a strong player.

Another bonus, as with all books from Dover, is the price tag. Dollar for Dollar, you would be hard-pressed to find a better value anywhere!

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In my view, better than My System, July 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Chess Strategy (Paperback)

Do you want to improve your chess. Are you rated under 2000? Then this is a good place to start. This is much easier reading than the often verbose and self-serving My System. Pachman's writing is clear and insightful. Buy this book and play through every few years. You will almost certainly gain new insights into chess with every reading. This book should be on every aspiring chess player's shelf alongside Larry Evan's New Ideas in Chess, Hans Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess, David Bronstein's Zurich 1953, Bobby Fischer's My Sixty Memorable Games, Mikhail Botvinnik's 100 Selected Games, Mikhail Tal's Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, Alexander Alekhine's Best Games and Richard Reti's Masters of the Chessboard. That is some pretty lofty company, but Modern Chess Strategy is worthy of it. Oh, and you can't beat the price.

42 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Introduction, June 12, 2001

By 

A. Ali "Harkonnen" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Modern Chess Strategy (Paperback)

This book is an abridgement of Pachman's three-volume "Complete Chess Strategy", which ranks as one of the classic works on strategic and positional chess (Another such work would be Euwe and Kramer's "The Middlegame", in two volumes.). Unfortunately the abridgement doesn't capture the rich and full flavor of the original. Many of the classic examples have had to be omitted for reasons of space. A player of class C strength might learn something from this abridgement, but for stronger players I would recommend the original three volumes. It's a fact of life that the general level of chess strength and erudition has risen markedly during the last several years; the level of knowledge that once would have sufficed to maintain B strength is, alas, inadequate.

Many of the topics discussed in Pachman now have specialist texts addressing them. For example, for isolated pawns, see Baburin's "Winning Pawn Structures"; for the major pieces see Damsky's "The Heavy Pieces in Action". There are numerous other examples. Pachman can be usefully employed as an introduction to these more specialised books.

Whether a player works with the abridgement or the original, I recommend he also have available Watson's "Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy", which lends perspective on the contemporary state of understanding of strategic and positional chess.