Improve Your Chess Now

This is one of the more respected self-improvement books out there. It is a seriously written work. No 'chess made easy' type of hype here: this is for those serious about their chess, who are willing to put real time and effort into their games. The central part of the book to me is his attempt to improve upon Kotov's fabled 'tree of analysis' in "Think Like A Grandmaster". Kotov's approach, as you may well know is as controversial as it is famous, with most GM's that I have seen comment on it saying that it is too rigid an approach to be consistently applied in over the board play. Tisdall tries to give a more realistic, flexible and workable approach to analyzing positions, combining Kotov's concrete approach w/ e.g., verbal assessments of what is going on. He recommends techniques to improve the clarity and depth of your calculations as well. Other topics covered are playing bad positions, pattern recognition/training, assessing the values of the pieces in various types of positions, and a section devoted to various nuggets of chess wisdom. The last sections, on mating patterns and tactical themes are probably not really necessary, as many, many fine works already exist for these topics. But that is a quibble, as the meat of the book is of real value to the developing player, who needs to graduate from hit or miss groping for moves to a more advanced method of analysis. As has been said by prominent chess instructors, the most important element of one's chess strength is the quality of their analysis, and this is a fine book for advancing in that critical skill. Highly recommended.

Good guy and good writing. But only for very advanced players. As surely title shows. It is not easy to follow the sequences although this is main theme. Not clear tree form but loosley written. Nevertheless interesting blindfold comments. Not read whole thing yet.Very very bad is enclosing. After one hours pages are flying in the room.And as I have bought it via Amazone international transfer probably US.I am sitting in Germany. The fee with approx 10 $ is very high.So costly product.Frank

Why you might consider buying this book:1) It dispels the myth that you should calcuate in chess like a computer (tree of analysis). Clearly, as humans, we possess an evaluative ability that allows us to make decisions based on nonlinear thinking. The key point in this book is that we shouldn't overly-complicate on our analysis and instead should gauge our choice of moves based on "main lines" that are in accordance with our plan and with the immediate threats imposed by our opponents. All in all, not one of the best chapters in the book, but certainly a valuable lesson.2) The book provides a great deal of instruction on chess thinking. The author provides rationale for the assessment of positions and plods through important themes in chess. Although this is found in many books, Tisdall seems to know what it's like to be a learning chess player and focuses on the central questions students stumble across (and answers them!).3) Tisdall provides a great number of references and gives you his opinion on why they're valuable (or in some cases, not so valuable). In a sea of chess books, this is important.4) This is not a book on openings with endless variations and sub-variations. I think chess writers finally have figured out that few people improve by reading detailed books on a single opening. This book is not comprehensive in its instruction (for example, it is just over 200 pages), but working through the examples is very instructive for each phase.What didn't quite work in the book ...1) The method of stepping stones isn't very well thought out (or explained). It would have made a great deal of difference for the author to reference this technique much more often in his book. He has some limited explanation of visualization versus tactical sequences but it really isn't clear what he's recommending (of the two or if both, when to apply one and not the other). After done reading the book, you may disagree with me and wish to give the book a five (like many other reviewers), but I'd love to hear this subject better explained. The book is very readable without a chess board. There were a few examples where I needed to actually see the board to work through sub-variations. But that is a limit of my own ability.2. The reference to Shogi just didn't quite work for me. I don't play the game and the limited explanations could just as easily be integrated into the text without any outside reference to the game. Andy Soltis does the same and although his books are almost all first rate for instructional value, I have the same problem.In conclusion, this is a relatively inexpensive book with a great deal of good instruction that would benefit almost any player. The newer chess player might need to leave some of the sub-variations for a second reading or perhaps when they've improved a bit. But often Tisdall will point out mate in one penalties!I recommend this book for anyone wishing to sit down and take some lessons from a grandmaster who is explaining the game as if he were there.

The noted author International Master Jeremy Silman calls Grandmaster Jon Tisdall a more "human" Chess master than the stars such as Morozevich, Kramnik and Leko who seemingly don't have to work as hard. One does indeed get that feeling from reading "Improve Your Chess Now" in that it details what the ordinary joe can do to improve, with much work, their Chess abilities. Tisdall has put a lot of work into the production of his book almost to the point that we can say it was a labour of love. It is filled with insightful observations and numerous tips on how to get better. Particularly interesting are his theories on blindfold Chess and to what extent it can help improve one's game (read the book to find out!). Unfortunately, your average Chess player may not be able to adequately utilise the material in the book but for those more advanced players who can, it will become an indispensible manual for how to play Chess and still be human.

I'm a little over half-way through this book, so maybe I'm not fully qualified to review it. However, let me say this: I am a USCF Expert, I've been playing chess for over thirty years, and I've read at least three hundred chess books. This is, quite simply, one of the best chess books I have ever read. If you're looking for an instructive chess book with some new ideas in it, this book is for you. If there's a bad part, I haven't found it yet.

Finally, a thinking method that works! It is simple, flexible, and realistic, very human unlike Kotov and Silman's suggestions. The chapter on "stepping stones" and visualization are excellent, as well as all the mating patterns in the appendex. A great book to improve your game.

Very good book, with lots of advices about calculating and training in general. You will not be dissapointed if you buy it.

This book really helped me to get back into the game after a long lay-off. I found it a great help to my game.

This was a great favourite of mine in the early nineties, out of print for a long time.This new reprint is worst than the original as the book size doesn't correspond to the written pages, which keep the original Cadogan book size (non standard). Nevertheless to have access to such a classic is for me a pleasure, even though I find some ideas dated or that I have advanced since.It was a fantastic book in the nineties, but chess has progressed a lot since then. Still very glad I re-bought it, as my original copy broke through usage.

Comecei a ler o livro do Aggardd, calculo en Ajedrez, logo no começo ele falou que esse era um dos clássicos pra calculo, e diferente da escola de xadrez do kotov, que se refere a arvore de analise, e nesse livro o Tidal, começa ensinando calculo na defesa, que é omitido , nos livros, geralmente vc livro de calculo no ataque e a defesa fica deficiente... ta ai um livrado para visualizar posições...