50 Essential Chess Lessons

50 ESSENTIAL CHESS LESSONS
Author: Steve Giddins
Gambit Publishing (2006)
www.gambitbooks.com
160 pages
$23.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

50 ESSENTIAL CHESS LESSONS by FM Giddins is an instructive games manual along the lines of LOGICAL CHESS, MOVE BY MOVE. Giddins does not actually have an annotation for every single move to each of the 50 games that are presented, but there is lots of explanatory prose. The games are organized around five chapters: Attacking the King, Defense, Piece Power, Pawn-Structure, and End Game Themes. The games themselves run from classics from the past like Schlechter-Rubinstein, San Sebastian 1912, to contemporary classics like Short-Timman, Tilburg 1991 (remember the White King marching towards h6 in the middle game?).

This book could be compared in some ways with John Nunn's UNDERSTANDING CHESS MOVE BY MOVE, produced by the same publisher in 2001. Giddin's book is likely to be more accessible to players from 1600 to 2200, whereas Nunn's, which has many more concrete variations, would be better suited for players from 2000 to 2400. Keep in mid that these rating guidelines are approximate. Those who are highly motivated would be able to stretch the boundaries.

50 ESSENTIAL CHESS LESSONS is a solid work with well chosen, but not so well known, examples that would be useful reading for most club and mid level tournament players.

Recommended

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