The Chess Instructor

THE CHESS INSTRUCTOR 2009
Edited by Jereon Bosch and Steve Giddins
218 pages
New in Chess (2008)
$23.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

THE CHESS INSTRUCTOR 2009 is the first in a series of planned annual compendiums about chess training at all levels from the publishing house of New in Chess.

Primarily two books in one, approximately two thirds of the 16 chapters in THE CHESS INSTRUCTOR 2009 are aimed at experienced tournament players with the remainder geared for those from 1400 down to beginner. As one can see from the table of contents, the chapters are not arranged according to any strict criteria, bouncing back and forth from chess and children to some quite advanced material for strong players.

Mike Basman - The Chess Teacher Who Puts 70,000 Kids to Play, Every Year
Mark Dvoretsky - Controversial Thoughts
Cor van wijgerden - The Step-by-Step Method
Igor Zaitsev - The Development of a Sensible Concept
Jan van de Mortel - Top Ten Things to Remember as a Chess Teacher
Jeroen Bosch - Small Strategic Operations
Anique de Bruin - Helping Chess Players Improve
Steve Giddins - Learning an Opening - by Studying the Endgame!
Alexander Vaisman - Honoured Trainer of the Ukraine
Richard James - Chess Thinking Skills in Children
Adrian Mikhalchishin - Endgame Trouble at the FIDE Women's World Championship
Karel van Delft - The Apeldoorn Analysis Questionnaire
Charles Hertan - The Hertan Hierarchy
Wily Hendriks - First Move, then plan, then judge
Simen Agdestein - Working with Magnus
Jeroen Bosch - Book Reviews

The material contained in THE CHESS INSTRUCTOR 2009 is of a uniformly high standard, the layout is clean and brightened by photos interspersed throughout the book. Diagrams are plentiful. The question is, who is this book geared for? The answer is likely several audiences. The ideal purchaser is a player rated around 2200 still trying to improve who teaches chess to children.
For these individuals, buying THE CHESS INSTRUCTOR 2009 is a no-brainer. Experienced tournament players in the range 1800-2300 with no interest in teaching will find much useful advice and training material so a buy recommendation is still in order, especially as the chapters by Basman and van de Mortel on children and chess are interesting to read for all. What isn’t so clear is how useful this book is for those who teach chess to children but don’t play very well themselves. In this case over half the book is going to be Greek for them. That said IM Cor van Wijgerden’s chapter taken from his and Rob Brunia’s Step-by-Step Method will likely be gold to such instructors if only to bring to their attention the availability of a professionally thought out comprehensive program for taking students from beginner to 1800.

Recommended

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