|
|||||||||
I am
not suggesting anything especially deep in the psyche of chessplayers, just
what I know from personal experience. So, when a book comes along that aims
to help us get out the door as fast as possible we all sit up and take
notice. So it was when I spotted the title How to Win at Chess QUICKLY!
by Simon Williams. The author was a second hook for me to take a look at this book. Williams is an English GM who has authored a number of books in the past couple of years, How to Win at Chess QUICKLY! is the most recent to come across my desk. I have seen a number of books with similar titles over the years, yet this one immediately struck me as being different. In the introduction Mr. Williams opines that many players would love to finish their games as fast as possible and wonder how some players are able to do it? Are they lucky? Extra booked up? Or is it a stylistic consideration? Well, a certain degree of “yes” might go to all of those possibilities, but as Mr. Williams explains it still takes some cooperative mistakes by the opponent to win in under 25 moves. From this the author lists types of mistakes that can be made which will bring a swift end to the game. Thus starts the book. Fifty games are sewed into nine chapters. Eight of the chapters delve into the types of mistakes that can be the cause of a quick result; the 9th chapter “Super h-pawns” is a look at just trying to run up the board once the opponent castles. The games are annotated in a fashion that works well to find where a mistake is made, possibly how it is diagnosed and the play that follows to take advantage. There is a good dose of the standard motifs such as, “The Exposed King”, “Punishing the Pawn-grabbers” and “Exploiting an Advantage in Development” as well as some fresh ideas on the subject like “Play with Purpose!” or “Missing the Danger”. Game 38 in the chapter “Missing the Danger” is a fine example of how the book works. It is a game in which the author was on the Black side of a Sicilian defense. At move 12 Williams gives his opponent’s move an exclamation mark, explains how he considered his response forced and then gives White's move 13 a doubtful symbol (?!). This is explained in simple terms, that the player of White made an aggressive appearing move, failed to notice the danger to himself as he was focused on getting at the black king, and missed an excellent opportunity. On top of that the move made by White helped Black, indirectly, to initiate play that eventually won the game. Such things occur and to have an inside view into them, literally from a player's thoughts as the game was happening, is very valuable. This is the sort of thing that comes through from this book. There are points about his writing style I like, such as a frankness and direct quality to his lines. Mr. Williams playing style is very aggressive and this does show normally in his writing, but with the focus of this book it is magnified a bit. His notes are clear and not difficult to follow, but the I got the feeling that I could “read the script” as it were. An example of what I mean comes from games 41 and 46. Game 41 is between GM McShane and GM Cheprianov, a Sicilian defense with 2.d3. Mr. Williams explains that this avoids theory, retains certain ideas, and how after dinner he, McShane and GM Stuart Conquest had discussed the merits of 2.d3 or 2.Be2. Ok, I can relate to all that.
As I said
I had read books previously that possessed similar titles or intentions, so
I read this with a wary eye. I found the book easy to work with, very
informative and a good tool to use for players looking to understand the
pieces of knowledge used to win chess games. I would recommend this book to
players under 2300.
From the Publisher's website: Simon Williams is a Grandmaster who is acclaimed for his dynamic and spontaneous attacking style. He is also an experienced author, whose previous books have received great praise.
|
Chessville
The
Advertise to Single insert:
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
