UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHESS is a book that takes to heart Mikhail Botvinnik's dictum that to improve one must analyze one's games carefully. The name of the author may not ring a bell for young players, but those active in the 1980s will remember IM Rizzitano as one of the best players that New England ever produced, who surely would have become a Grandmaster had he not stopped playing. If this book is any indication, he is planning a comeback in a big way.

Rizzitano has structured his book around approximately 100 heavily analyzed games and game fragments which are placed in nine chapters (Battling Goliath, Tactical Skirmishes, Opening Hits, Opening Misses, Opening Wars, Power of the Initiative, Accumulating Small Advantages, Runaway Tactics and Endgame Adventures). The games are almost all his and the object of writing this book is clear. By going back to his old games Jim wanted to find out where his weaknesses are figuring this is where time could be best spent on future study. Readers will benefit from using this book, both as a template to analyze their own games and from the extensive instructive prose commentary.

 IM Rizzitano's UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHESS succeeds both as an instructional work and as a game collection. I particularly enjoyed the vignette about his battles with National Master John Curdo, the measuring stick for New England players for several decades.

Highly Recommended.