It's Your Move Improvers [Paperback]

Chris Ward (Author)

Book Description

Series: Everyman Chess | Publication Date: January 1, 2002

This is a highly original and instructive self-test book. The puzzles are aimed at the improving club player or promising junior.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In this highly original and instructive test yourself book, grandmaster Chris Ward invites readers to solve a selection of carefully chosen puzzles. In this, the second book in the 'It's Your Move' series, the positions are aimed at club players who are looking to hone their skills in order to climb further up the chess ladder. The reader is given a choice of five plausible plans for each position and has to decide which is the most likely to succeed. The answers then identify the most promising plan and explain why the other choices are less attractive. (5 3/4 x 8 1/4, 144 pages, diagrams)

About the Author

Chris Ward is a highly successful coach and former British champion His previous books for Everyman include Improve Your Opening Play, The Genius of Paul Morphy and the best-selling first edition of It's Your Move. Chris Ward is a leading member of the younger generation of English grandmasters. He is a former British Champion and a highly successful trainer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857442784
• ISBN-13: 978-1857442786
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good Self Test on planning and strategy, July 9, 2002

By 

Igor Khmelnitsky (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's Your Move Improvers (Paperback)

I find this book to be a fresh, appealing and useful tool for low rated player (U1600 USCF), who wants to do self test. I had recommended this book to many of my students and have it on my recommended list on my web site.

There are 5 separate tests. Each consist of 10 questions / diagrams. 5 fictional characters offer their ideas and recommendations. One of them offers the best recommendation and you are awarded 10 points if you were in agreement with him(her). However often other characters offer valid points, so you may get partial credit if you were going in the right direction, but "got lost in the fog."

Primarily, planning and strategic ideas are tested in this book. From my coaching experience, learning strategy is much more difficult than tactics. Tactics, primarily, requires knowledge of few typical tricks (double attack, deflection etc...) and ability to identify them in your game and do accurate calculation. Strategy, on the other hand, requires knowledge of HUGE number of typical ideas, ability to identify them, properly evaluate, formulate plan, find moves candidates and, finally, make move.

The book is very basic and fun to read, yet majority of positions are important and I wouldn't hesitate using them with my students. Another advantage is - you don't need a chess board while working on the questions. However, if it is not terribly inconvenient, I recommend always using one, to resemble real game.

This is how I would recommend using the book - use clock and limit yourself to 10-15 minutes per diagram. Evaluate position and answer questions BEFORE reading recommendations of the fictional characters. When finished your thinking, read what they say and find the best match. If you can't complete the test in one sitting, make sure you check the answers for the completed questions while your ideas are still fresh in your memory. Finally, if a particular position interesting and especially if you totally missed it, set it up against Fritz (or another chess playing monster) and practice a few times.

This book is a good read, but will not be a classic. I feel that themes can be better selected and some of the explanations a bit too shallow, thus I give this book 4 stars.

Good luck,
Copyrighted by me!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, March 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: It's Your Move Improvers (Paperback)

I just finished this book; spending four weekends solving the puzzles. I would categorize this book as enjoyable, but not overly difficult (On last check I'm 1800 USCF). I scored 100 on three of the tests, a 92, and a 73(Avg score of 93). Each of the five tests have 10 questions with five choices (a-e).

What I enjoyed about solving the puzzles was not only finding the right answer (always a plus!) but finding out what was wrong with the other suggestions. Sometimes the suggestions were tactically flawed, or the assesment of the position was incorrect, or just flat out bizarre!

So, while only getting 50 puzzle questions may be of some concern, you could view it as an additional 200 puzzles because you have to refute the other four poor suggestions! However, as I mentioned before finding the refutation was usually not to difficult - but worth the effort in concrete analysis and visualization practice.

The puzzle selection is fairly balanced with selections from the opening, middlegame, and endings (quite a few King and pawn endings).

On the downside, the book is expensive, but I am a sucker for chess books. However, overall I think that the value was solid. I would agree with the other reviewers that the book is best used by B and C rated players (although they may do just as well or better than I did).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, April 1, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: It's Your Move Improvers (Paperback)

Best book on strategy, bar none!!!

5 ten-problem quizzes. Only 50 problems. Seems like a rip-off for the money, right?

No! I just wish it were longer!

You see the puzzle, and then you get some ideas from 5 different patzers. (This is similar to Silman's "Amateur's Mind" and Euwe's "Chess Master v. Chess Amateur", which use patzer games for analysis of positions and instruction of principles.) The subjects range from spotting weaknesses in a complex position to finding the winning ideas in a simple endgame. These are not Mate-in-x or tactical combination puzzles (although there are tactics in some that you have to spot) but they all have clear solutions once you understand them.

What makes this book fun is debunking the bad ideas. I often cannot figure out the problem, but I always feel superior to at least one or two of Ward's colorful characters! And since that's the level of competition I play against, this book is perfect for me! I feel as if this book actually makes me a better player. (That's hard to prove, but I definitely view my own games more circumspectly now.) I am reading it cover to cover!

USCF 1200-1500 rating. If you're only 1200, you might not get ANY of these puzzles, but you will still understand the solutions and learn a tremendous amount.

Avoid the older blue-cover "It's Your Move" by the same author. It's not bad, but it's too hard (and at that level, Silman is better). The "Improvers" version is much easier.
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I've noticed that Amazon thinks these are different editions of the same book. No. The blue book "It's Your Move" and the red book "It's Your Move: Improvers" are completely different books. (And now there is an even more advanced book, yellow I think, which I have not looked at.)

The blue book is a two-star effort. It is basically 50 annotated games, with only one move of annotation for each game. As a positional chess quiz book, there are much better choices: e.g. by Kosten, Bellini, or Evans.

The problem with the blue book is stated in its introduction: The author does not want to waste his time explaining why the bad moves are bad. I ask, "Why not?" That would have made this book useful, especially if these games were club (rather than master) level.

How did one author compose two books of nearly identical look and feel but polar opposites in quality? It's a mystery.