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C**D
Fantastic!
I have owned some great things in my life: a plasma screen TV, a BMW, automatic watches. These are the kinds of items that satisfy every time I use them because their craftsmanship and quality is so good. Without hyperbole, this book is just like that.The first thing you'll notice about this book is that attention has been paid to every detail. The book is big and heavy. The paper is good quality (I have read many chess books that seem like they are printed on newsprint). And space abounds to write in the margins if you're so inclined."So what?" you say, "I want to learn to be good at chess." My friends, apply this book's principles and your play will greatly improve. Mine did.I'd heard about Silman for years, but I always mentally shrugged and thought, "I'm happy Nimzowitsch's instruction, thank you very much." What a mistake! Silman gets it. This book helped me improve by leaps and bounds. Silman's ideas break down the game in a systematic way that makes it easier for you to formulate a plan and assess where the deficiencies in your game lie. I'm not just talking about the overall deficiencies in your game, though the book does richly address those areas, but also the deficiencies in any particular position in your games. REASSESS teaches you to look at what the board is telling you and to react accordingly to fundamental chess principles (i.e., imbalances).The instruction is terrific. And Silman's writing style is easy and entertaining, which will help you to enjoy and comprehend the information presented.Further, the book is written so that you will learn and remember the important points. REASSESS, unlike many chess books, doesn't merely present useful information, but it truly aims to help you absorb and retain what you read. For example, dear old Nimzowitsch presents great information. That information is given in the context of games and examples. So, if he talks about the importance of rooks on open files, for example, he shows what he means through an illustrative game, then moves on to the next topic. This is good, but I often find myself asking "what was the important point of those five pages of information?" Every chess book provides a lot context for the main point it's trying to make--the point that you must understand, remember and apply if it's to be of any use to you. If I study diligently, I underline the important points for later review. But as Ferris Bueller says of life, if you don't stop and look around [for the point of the lesson], you could miss it. Silman makes sure you won't miss it.REASSESS YOUR CHESS has clearly marked bullet points that give the themes and important points, which ensures that they don't get lost in the text. These bullet points are scattered throughout the chapters, but are also helpfully listed in summation at each chapter's end. This is tremendously useful, if you, like me, need to repeat information numerous times before it sinks in. This also saves me from sussing through and highlighting what I think is vitally important for later review. The author has done this work for me.As the final and crucial instruction point, Silman gives various exercises to try on your own to test what you have learned and identify what you need to work on. In the ANSWERS TO THE TEST section, Silman carefully annotates which move is correct and why. This is invaluable as it really makes sure that you have learned what has been taught. So often after reading chess material I think "got it," but in the game, I don't remember. These exercises safeguard against this kind of overconfident reading. This book's motto is "show me what you have learned, don't tell me."In conclusion, REASSESS (1) is asthetically pleasing, (2) is made of high quality materials, (3) is formatted with annotation in mind, (4) gives top notch instruction, (5) highlights and summarizes the salient points for you, and (6) gives exercises to train you to apply what you've learned. Wow! Silman has carefully and thoughtfully considered what will help you to best improve at chess. I cannot recommend it enough!
A**T
Exponential Improvement!
I have always enjoyed chess, but always played casually. I always intended to get better and study more to improve my game. Like many chess students with good intentions I found my chess library growing around me but my game staying stagnant. As the chess book pile grew so did my intentions. I would open a book and work through the lessons never quite understanding why none of it would stick. I found some improvement through Mr. Silmans 3rd edition works and began trying to use his "thinking techniques." As I practiced the lessons on imbalances my game moved from move by move chess into the realm of seeing the board more clearly and understanding what was going on in a position. Fast forward to this year... I was asked to help out with a National level High School chess program who had won a championship in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2007. It was time for me to get serious. I noticed at this time that Mr. Silman had released a 4th edition of his work and saw on the cover that it stated that it was completely rewritten. I purchased the book and decided this was the moment I was going to work as hard as ever learning the game.Too much intro and too little review, yes I know, I know... *Cough* ok so away we go...What an amazing book!! Never in all my studies has chess been so clearly presented in a way that any student could find joy and advancement. Mr. Silman has taken his old "techniques" and found a way, not only to teach them, but to stick them solidly in your brain. During my games I can actually hear comments made in this book. Lessons are open in such a wonderful way. This rework is not only an improvement on his old information it is a teacher with years and years of implementing his lessons and over time finding just the way to make a student retain them. Since my studies began this year, I have joined a chess club as an unrated amature and beaten some solid players. Part 4 of the book Psychological Meanderings is worth the cost of this book alone. The week I studied this section I went into chess club with the lessons on stepping beyond fear, mental breakdown, macho chess, etc, fresh on my mind and found myself across the board from a 1927 rated player. Suddenly Mr. Silman was in my head saying, "Rating nothing... This guy is rubbish... Just play the board..." So off we went... I sit here looking down at the score sheet with this unrated amature winning in 25 moves. To hear the 1927 look up red faced and say, "That... That was just too much pressure... I... I just messed up." and to smile up and say, "Not bad for a beginner, huh?" was awesome. Throughout the game Mr. Silman's lessons were always coming to my mind. My mind was working through comments like, "Look if I can stop that pawn I can make that Bishop useless," His Knight would love that square I better take it away now and that would be two very useless pieces," and my favorite, "Wow if I sack that exchange look what it does for my position and look how active my pieces become!"Some other important aspects of this book are the following... Current examples for every lesson from every rating category, examples have the opening sequence of moves listed up to the important lesson for the position so you can actually see how the players arrived to the moment you are learning from, at the end of every chapter is a set of tests similar to what the workbook was to 3rd edition with answers fully explained in the back of the book (almost like having an additional book within a book), many examples per lesson to help get the material to stick, a well thought out order to the delivery of material. So much more...I guess the best way to sum this book up is, to me, "this one is it," the chess book every learning chess student should own. Mr. Silman is a fabulous teacher with a wonderful delivery. Thank you, Mr. Silman for taking the time to give us this work. With every good review should come a section of things wrong with the book I suppose, but as I sit here I struggle to find them. It is what it claims to be and nothing more. You will not get an opening repetoire, an endgame diatribe, or a brilliant tactical guide, but what you will get is an understanding of what a position is calling for and where your plan should be centered toward, where the weaknesses are on both sides of the board, a thinking method to know what advantages and disadvantages matter at this very moment, and a clear picture to help you see through what Josh Waitzkin calls the "black and white jungle." Enjoy!
