THE RULES OF WINNING CHESS
Author: Nigel Davies
Everyman Chess (2009)
192 pages
$26.95
Reviewed by John Donaldson
English Grandmaster Nigel Davies, with over a dozen books and twice as many DVDs to his credit, is carving out a niche for himself as a strong player who writes for the masses from the aspiring club player who would like to become an Expert or Master, to those who dream of one day becoming an International Master. His latest effort, THE RULES OF WINNING CHESS, is very much a typical Davies product with lots of practical advice.
The Table of Contents gives an idea of the wide terrain this books covers.
Bibliography 5
Introduction 7
Chapter 1: The Player 9
1 Train with deadly seriousness 11
2 Educate yourself 15
3 Be vigilant 19
4 Flatten your heart 23
5 Be your own sternest critic 26
6 Don’t think, feel 29
7 Learn patience 33
8 Overcome the fear of losing 36
9 Know yourself 39
10 Healthy body, healthy mind 45
Chapter 2: Preparation 49
11 Sleep well 51
12 Eat breakfast 54
13 Know your opponent 57
14 Become the enemy 61
15 Choose a favorable battleground 65
16 Focus on winning 68
17 Master the art of deception 73
18 Know your weapons well 78
19 Empty the mind 80
20 Walk, but never talk 83
Chapter 3: The Opening 89
21 Aim to reach a playable middlegame 91
22 Play your own game 94
23 Beware of lurking crocodiles 96
24 Try to meet threats with developing moves 100
25 Engage the mind 103
26 In open positions develop quickly 105
27 In closed positions develop well 109
28 Centralize 112
29 Develop knights and the king’s bishop early 117
30 Castle with care 120
Chapter 4: The Middlegame 123
31 Recognize patterns 125
32 Think in terms of ‘pawn islands’ 129
33 Improve your worst‐placed piece 132
34 Harmonize your bishops and pawns 136
35 Keep the tension 139
36 All that glitters is not gold 142
37 Attack the weakest point 144
38 In defense make every point equally weak 147
39 Never say die 150
40 Middlegame understanding helps your opening 154
Chapter 5: The Endgame 157
41 Use the king 159
42 Rooks belong on the seventh 161
43 Passed pawns should be pushed 163
44 Do not hurry 167
45 Beware the point of no return! 170
46 Queen and knight, they’re alright 172
47 Opposite‐colored bishops don’t always draw 174
48 Two bishops are better than none 176
49 Two weaknesses are better than one 180
50 Endgame understanding helps your middlegame 183
Index of Openings 186
Index of Games 188
The 50 mini-chapters follow a set pattern with Davies using one (occasionally two or three) well annotated game to illustrate his points. The emphasis is on explaining things with prose dominating concrete analysis – this is definitely a book can be read without a chessboard for those so inclined.
There is a small amount of overlap with the author’s CHESS PLAYERS BATTLE MANUAL that appeared just over a decade ago, and some of the classics appear once again, but for the most part this book features fresh examples, many drawn from Davies’ own games. His strong interest in marital arts, and how it may apply to chess, appears throughout the book in the form of quotations from the sages.
Recommended
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