Mastering Chess Theory: Concise Instruction to Grandmaster's Strategies Paperback – 18 April 2012

In contrast to many chess books, this book adopts an all most total verbal approach to describing chess theory, with virtually no chess diagrams or variations being used. The book covers all aspects of a game of chess i.e. Opening, middle game, and ending, and then in the Appendix a terminology, the rules of chess, and two complete games by the author are annotated.Having read the book from cover to cover, i simply don't understand how this book will ever help you to master chess theory. Many of the examples in the book really do require examples from actual play and having read it, and i don't feel as if my chess has improved at all. Although the bibliography is much longer, for most of the book it relies on four key references these being: Think Like a Grandmaster by Kotov, My system by Nimzovitch, The Middle-Game in Chess by Znosko-Borowsky, and A Primer in Chess by Capablanca. And then in the chapter on endings it makes extensive reference to A Guide to Chess Endings by Euwe. This strikes me as quite limited, and i would query whether it is possible to do justice to chess theory without considering further works, those by Dvoretsky spring to mind as well as other modern chess authors such as Rowson and Aagaard.In conclusion I simply don't believe that this approach to learning chess theory can possibly be successful. And i would suggest that any curious reader go out and read the 5 books that this book makes extensive reference to. You would then get everything in this book, plus numerous examples to help with learning.