One of the things that makes chess so appealing is that there always seems to be something new to discover.  The excitement of discovering a new idea or different way of viewing the position draws many of us back.

I have been playing for many years and still find new vistas in the game from which to draw energy.  One such vista presented itself through Build Up Your Chess with Artur Yusupov 2: Beyond the Basics, by Artur Yusupov.

Not an "improvement" book in the older sense of strategy or tactics, Build Up Your Chess takes aim at specific topics which could fall into the categories the older books used.  Chapters titled "Combinations involving the back rank", "Double attacks" or "The pin and the discovered attack" could be found in most any tactic manual, while "The Center" or "Zugzwang" would appear in strategy books.

It would, however, be the exception to find all of these chapters in one older book.  This is an exciting trend as it involves different aspects of the game together, helping the reader comprehend more completely.  This is a large step forward for the average player.

What made Build Up Your Chess more exciting is the way in which GM Yusupov shares his depth of understanding with the reader.  Where it might have been standard practice to reuse the common terms for defining the chapters, Yusupov has gone an extra step.

Showing a more subtle depth of understanding, Yusupov shares his own comprehension by including chapters on "Decoying," "Priorities when calculating variations," "Evaluating the position" and "Exchanging."  Each of us knows that we have been presented with situations where questions of these factors arose in our own games.

These are not new factors in chess, nor even new names for them, but they affect our understanding at a different level than the more common factors appearing in older books.  This takes the reader to a higher level of appreciation and works to pull the different "bits" of chess knowledge together.

The chapter "Candidate Moves" takes the work of GM Kotov and builds upon it.  This could be a point of some controversy as GM Kotov's groundbreaking work has been questioned by some authorities and has received much scorn.

Each of the chapters has an explanation of the concept involved, an example section and finally some exercises/solutions for the reader.  This may seem like a book of chess problems, but instead is aimed at reinforcing the material.  This does a fine job of clarifying the ideas and giving the reader a chance to understand the practice of those ideas.

This is a very good book.  I would recommend it to any player below master level aspiring to a higher level, as well as to any master looking to remain current with chess thinking.
 

From the Publisher's website:

Artur Yusupov was ranked No. 3 in the world from 1986 to 1992, just behind the legendary Karpov and Kasparov.  He has won everything there is to win in chess except for the World Championship.

In recent years he has mainly worked as a chess trainer with players ranging from current World Champion Vishy Anand and many other top grandmasters, to talented juniors and local amateurs in Germany.

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