Name: Logical Chess, Move by Move
ISBN: 9780713484649

What Hacker News says

msluyterJun 2015

Well, wrt chess, we can have dueling GM quote battles over this point:

From "Andrei Istratescu's top 10 reasons for stagnation:"

1) Too much play Playing chess - practice - is very important for improvement. When you play chess (over the board, at tournaments), you put into practice what you have learned, you use your brain to think chess, you are in the testing environment, you test your accumulated knowledge and skill against another person. However, too much play and too little study holds you back. You can repeat the same mistakes over and over. You will tend to follow your own old patterns and not have time to develop a different, correct thinking process, and to learn proper strategy and new ideas. In this case, you should take a long break from playing and concentrate only on study for several months. You will make a significant improvement.

In my experience, the first chess book I read (Logical Chess, Move by Move) probably bumped my rating by 400 points. Then, more specialized openings and tactics books another couple hundred. After that, simply playing got me mostly nowhere.

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jmulhoJun 2015

Take a beginner player who has been playing at the local chess club once a week (two hours) for 12 weeks. This player enjoys the game and wants to be better. He plays anyone who will give him a game. He occasionally wins against other beginners. He loses to the stronger players when he gets a chance to play them. This player has 24 hours available to work on chess over the next 12 weeks. What is the best way for this player to improve? Suppose the options are, 1) continue attending chess club for the next 12 weeks, or 2) stay at home and study two hours a week for the next 12 weeks. The study material is Logical Chess Move By Move by Irving Chernev (mentioned above by msluyter). The book covers 33 master-level games in two categories: kingside attack, and queen's pawn opening. Chernev, a Grandmaster, explains the reasoning behind every move in all 33 games. When the player shows up at chess club on week 25, will he be better off having chosen option 1 or option 2?

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tzsSep 2014

I have several in-progress.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling [5] (Kindle edition)

2012-06 issue of "Analog Science Fiction and Fact". I'm so far behind the current issue because I switched to an electronic subscription when a few years ago. At the time, it was only available from Barnes & Noble. The Nook app on iPad was pretty terrible, and I don't like reading on iPad in bed, so I fell behind. When it became available for Kindle [6], I switched my subscription to that, and converted my Nook issues with Calibre, and am now working my way through the backlog at a casual pace.

"Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernev [1].

"Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals" by Artur Yusupov [2].

"Understanding Copyright Law" by Marshall A. Leaffer [3] (Kindle edition).

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond [4] (Kindle edition, via Kindle Owner's Lending Library)

I've also been re-reading "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories" by Arthur Conan Doyle [7] (Kindle). Generally what has been happening is that a PBS station here has been showing the 1984 British "Sherlock Holmes" TV series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes [8]. I'll watch that, and then often will re-read the corresponding Doyle story.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Explained-Algebraic-Edit...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Build-Up-Your-Chess-Fundamentals/dp/19...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Copyright-Law-Marshall-L...

[4] http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies-ebook...

[5] http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Half-Blood-Prince-Book-eb...

[6] http://www.amazon.com/Analog-Science-Fiction-and-Fact/dp/B00...

[7] http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Complete-Stories-Volum...

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1984_TV_series...

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