Win at Chess: A Comprehensive Guide to Winning Chess for the Intermediate Player [Paperback]

Ron Curry (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0938650645 | ISBN-13: 978-0938650645 | Publication Date: June 1995

One of the best basic books on chess which has been plublished-3rd printing. This book is geered toward the intermediate player. An intermeditate chessplayer needs information and guidance that is reliable, practical, clear, and well-organized. The comprehensive, Master-proven principles and techniques in this book will improve your chess games and help you progress toward chess mastery.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ron Curry was honored by the United State Chess Federation with the prestigious Meritorious Service Award for his teaching efforts. An expert player for many years, Curry's students have provided many testimonials as to his prowess.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Thinkers' Press (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938650645
• ISBN-13: 978-0938650645
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,325,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Work; Practical Advice, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Win at Chess: A Comprehensive Guide to Winning Chess for the Intermediate Player (Paperback)

This a practical, workmanlike text that does nothing fancy or "innovative," yet I think it is likely to be of far more use to the improving player than more advanced or specialized works. The author covers all the usual suspects: tactics, strategy, repertoires, endgames, etc.... Excellent review material for the more knowledgeable and good intro for the less-experienced. After you read the fancy opening books, endgame texts, strategy guides, relax and study what you already "know."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good advice, but not enough real help., July 27, 2003

By 

C. Dunn "independent thinker" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Win at Chess: A Comprehensive Guide to Winning Chess for the Intermediate Player (Paperback)

The purpose of this book is similar to that of 'Mastering Chess' (in 21 days, by Kopec et al.) with a similar audience and similar deficiencies. I think it's best for players from 1300 to 1500 USCF, and it might be a fair review up to 1700.

First, I like the notation in this book. Basically, it's Algebraic Notation (eg Nf3), as opposed to the older Descriptive Notation (KN-B3), but Curry adds the original position when he refers to prior moves. "White just played Q/d1-b3." He uses the slash (/) when he refers to the position of a piece, and I find that helpful.

Curry's section on openings is weak. He lists the first 6-10 standard book moves for several dozen openings, but he does not describe their themes and goals (with a few exceptions). I don't see any value in this. However, he makes up for this by supplying a simple opening system for White, the "Curry Opening". It's similar to the Torre Attack and has much in common with both the Colle and London Systems. He does a much better job of describing the goals of this system than Seirawan does for the Barcza Opening in 'Winning Chess Openings'. And he includes 10 (unannotated) games to show typical play. It's a practical approach.

While his middlegame advice is hardly more than review and summary, his sections on the endgame are very useful. He explains some common endings. He demonstrates endgame tactics to watch for. And he provides four examples of typical endgames from actual games. Short but sweet. You will learn something here, but you will wish for more.

The best part of the book, and the only reason I'm recommending it at all, is the series of "Cover-Up" games. In these you cover up the moves and try to play one side of the board. In particular, I like the ones in the section on Attacking the King. In fact, I like that whole section, and I highly recommend studying the game fragments there closely.

Unfortunately, most of these "Cover-Up" games only assign points for good moves, rather than explaining bad ones or commenting on plans. There are only about half a dozen games with actual comments, so it is not a great value for the money.

The main problem with this book, as with 'Mastering Chess', is that the advice will not stick with anyone who does not already understand it. And there is a lot of it. The book is dense with wise verbiage and short on evidence. I don't think that's the way to teach.

The sections on tactics and combinations are even weaker than in Mastering Chess as the number of exercises is much smaller. And this leads to the main reason why I hesitate to recommend this book at any price: Curry puts way too much emphasis on the openings and fails to stress the importance of learning tactics. He mentions tactical study several times, but he never explains that you simply will not improve without speeding up your tactical pattern recognition. Most chapters have a few exercises at the end--too few. Curry gives the impression that you can learn chess by reading words on a page, and that's simply not so.

If you enjoy what Curry calls "Solitaire chess" (ie guessing the moves for one side of the board and being graded) but would like some explanation for the moves, I suggest you take a look at the 'How Good Is Your Chess' books (one by King, one by Barden). Those are bargain values, and I think your chess would improve measurably.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Opening, February 16, 2009

By 

Woodpusher (N. Huntingdon, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Win at Chess: A Comprehensive Guide to Winning Chess for the Intermediate Player (Paperback)

This opening is easy to learn and use. It fits well into the repertoire of a D4 player, especially one who uses the Colle, London, or similar openings. It adds one more dimension to what you would already be familiar with. I am 1500 and have beaten 1850s with it (club games at 5 minutes), so I know it can be effective, as most players have not played against it. I like it especially when black plays Knight to C6, blocking his C pawn - this cuts down his chances of a queenside pawn storm against white. I almost always get good games with this opening. The plans and goals of this opening are easy to follow into the middle game, which is a real plus for players of my rating. I think it's a super opening for club level players.
The rest of the book is just fair, but I would still buy the book.