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Chess Self-Improvement (Assess and Improve Your Chess Strength) Reviewed by Michael Jeffreys
While I don’t normally start out a review talking about a book’s cover, this book has got to have one of the most unique cover pictures in chess history: a chess piece (the king) literally bench pressing 405 pounds! And judging from his majesty’s bulging chest and biceps, he has been at it a while. Apparently GM Zenon Franco from Paraguay (who taught super-GM Paco Vellejo from 1995-1999 according to the book’s back cover blurb) wanted to emphasize that getting good at chess takes work, i.e, no pain, no gain! I will let GM Franco tell you his idea behind the book in his own words (from the book’s Forward):
All in all the book contains 50 games, with just about all the major openings represented at least once. The earliest game is a Lasker Ruy Lopez from St Petersburg 1901, and the most recent is a Kramnik Queen’s Indian Defense from Wijk aan Zee 2004. Franco’s basic format is known as solitary chess, a/k/a “guess the move.” This is where after being shown the first 10 moves or so, you cover up the page with a piece of paper and try to guess the next move played. While usually you are only asked to guess the winner’s moves, the “twist” here is that Franco has you guessing moves by both sides. Here is a sample (Game 14):
Short, Nigel D (2615) - Timman, Jan (2590) 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Qd2 Bd7 9.Rb1 Bc6 10.Bd3 Nd7 11.0–0
11…Your turn
11…c4 1 point. This is a useful move. Black makes it before White plays 12.Re1 and can thus retreat the bishop to f1, from where, after g3, it can be placed on h3, making Black’s break…f6 more difficult. 12.Be2 h6 This move is also a standard idea, preventing the leap Ng5, which has ideas of f4, and/or Nh3-f4-h5. Your turn. Choose between:
13.Nh4
13.h4 1 point. A committal move. It is important not to forget that the white king is on this flank, and that an eventual point of contact is offered on g5. Worse is 13.Nh4? (this loses 2 points) for there follows the obvious 13…g5! – an advance welcomed by Black – and it is necessary to go back to f3. With the same idea in mind, the best move is 13.g3! (3 points) to open the path for the f-pawn, and play Nh4, preparing g2 as a subsequent retreat, as Timman points out. 13…0–0–0 14.Bd1
Your turn. Choose between:
14…f5
14…f5!? An error of calculation. Short’s suggestion was the typical manoeuvre of placing the king on a better location with …Kb8-a8 after, for instance, 14…Rdf8 15.Qf4 Kb8 (he also remarks that 15…Qxc3? doesn’t work because of 16.Rb4, with the idea of Bb2, and the queen falls). This option gets 2 points. More ambitious, and even stronger, is Timman’s suggestion 14…Nf5!, with the idea of exploiting the point of contact offered on g5 by …Rdg8, followed by …Qd8 and at the right moment, …g5 (4 points). 15.Your turn
15 exf6 1 point. Of course, White cannot let Black make progress unhindered on the kingside. Any other move loses 2 points. 15… Your turn. Choose between:
15…Nxf6 Solution Below
15…Nxf6? Black concedes control of the e5-sqaure because of an error in his analysis. If you also chose this move, you lose 2 points. 15…gxf6! (2 points) is necessary, although White’s position is still somewhat better after 16.Re1 Nf8 17.Qf4 Nf5 18.g4 (or 18.h5 Qc7 19.Nh2, etc.) and here instead of 18…Rg8 19.Kf1 Nd6 20.Qxf6 Ne4 21.Rxe4! dxe4 22.Ne5, which favors White, it seems better to defend all the weaknesses with 18…Ng6 19.Qh2 Ng7 20.h5 Nf8, reaching a reasonable position. 16 Qe1 Ne4
17.Rb4 Rhf8 18.Ne5 Qc7 19.Bg4 Rf6 20.f3 Nd6 21.Bh3 Bd7 22.Rf2 Nc6 23.Rb1 Nf7 24.Nxd7 Qxd7 25.Bf4 g5 26.Re2 Re8 27.Bh2 gxh4 28.Qxh4 Ng5 29.Bg4 Qg7 30.Rbe1 b6 31.Qh5 Qd7 32.f4 Ne4 33.Rxe4 dxe4 34.d5 Nd8 35.Qe5 Rf5 36.dxe6 Qd2 37.Qxe4 Rd5 38.e7+ Kc7 39.f5+ 1–0 All 50 games in the book follow the above format of asking you to guess moves for both sides every couple of moves. Sometimes you get a choice of 3 or 4 moves and some times you are asked to guess the next moved played without being given any choices. Occasionally, he even asks you to guess the moves of side lines; variations that weren’t even played in the game! To be honest, I found myself not enjoying these games as much as I thought I would. I think the reason is because the notes have sort of a “clinical” feel to them. The games have no introduction or background information, but rather the author just launches into the moves straightaway, and then around move 10 or so you are asked to find the best move. Personally, I prefer how NM Bruce Pandolfini and GM Daniel King, both well known chess columnists who have for years utilized this “find the move” idea, provide you with some background information about the players and the tournament the game was played in. While they don’t go into as much depth as Franco does, what they do is give you a reason to care about the game. Here Franco fails to do this and as a result the games are less interesting than they could have been. I should also mention that I was surprised not to find a single game by GM Vallejo Pons. Since Franco was his trainer for five years, you’d expect him to include several of his former student’s games. Certainly Franco’s notes to these games would have made for fascinating reading as he could have given us “behind the scenes” commentary as to what it was like to train the young prodigy. My other problem has to do with the way the points are awarded. Sometimes, you can actually guess the move the GM made and still lose points! Now, of course, if they made a blunder and you choose the same move, naturally you should lose points, but if the move is playable, but just not best, I think losing points for it is a bit harsh. The Bottom Line Chess Self-Improvement is more of a workbook than your typical chess book because it asks the reader to stop at several points throughout each of the 50 games presented and guess the move played not just by the winning side, but by both sides. Personally, I found the notes to be on the dry side and the point system to be a bit unrealistic. When I tried to put my finger on exactly why I was not very enthusiastic about this book, I realized it was because I found going through the games more work than fun. But perhaps I am just getting lazy in my old age. I mean, if you are rated over 2000 Elo, don’t require a lot of color in your notes, and don’t mind putting in some work, than this book may just appeal to you. However, to my way of thinking, there are so many other instructive chess books that have come out over the last few years, such as Nunn’s Understanding Chess Move by Move, which are simply a joy to go through, that I prefer to spend my limited study time on them. On a scale of 1-10, Chess Self-Improvement gets a 7.5
From the Publisher's website: Download a PDF file with a sample from the book. Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world's top grandmasters, whom he taught from 1995 to 1999.
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