There's probably nothing harder in chess than to write a book that describes "simple winning chess," and while this is no potboiler, its wide-ranging coverage unearths little new ground. The author covers a variety of topics, and much of it will interest one player or another, but the target audience is hard to identify, and the book suffers from this vague focus.

The author breaks his coverage down into three parts, issues that occur before the game (opening preparation, developing middlegame and endgame technique, blunders, and how to play against weaker and stronger opponents), during the game (behavior, knowing the rules, clock-handling, swindling, when to offer a draw, etc.), and after the game (analyzing your results, dealing with faulty tactics, chess and computers, etc.). There is quite a bit of written text included in the chapters, and the author generally has a readable method for explaining the issues he presents. There also are a fair amount of examples included with the author's advice.

There are plenty of practical tips and nuggets of advice sprinkled throughout the book, but nothing stands out as being different than the guidance that can be found in any number of similar books. Let's face it – it's tough to build a better mousetrap, and it's hard to give a fresh take on this subject matter. Unless you have the insight of a John Nunn (Secrets of Practical Chess) or decide to focus on a specific aspect of play (such as calculation in Andy Soltis' The Inner Game of Chess), you're likely to end up with a book like 100 others. This book resembles that mass of books.

Too many chapters resemble those from other books. For example, the chapter on endgame technique focuses on mating with bishop and knight and the rook and pawn versus rook endgame. First, I would seriously question the need to spend all the time on the bishop and knight mate; I've never encountered it in 30 years of tournament play – I doubt I can say that about just about any other endgame that occupies as much space in these sorts of books. Second, while the rook and pawn ending is critical and must be learned, is this really the book for that, and this really what the reader thinks of when he encounters the phrase "endgame technique?" This demonstrates a problem that arises in other places as well: the book sometimes provides material meant for basic instruction while in other areas (such as that dealing with chess and computers) it delves into topics probably best suited to quite strong players.

This continues in the chapters on how to play against weaker and stronger opponents. I doubt many will be surprised that the author says stronger players should avoid unnecessary complications and keep things under control. On the other side of the equation, we're told that the weaker player should strive for an unclear position against a stronger player who likes to maintain control. None of this is exactly earth shattering in its originality.

There are some areas where the author gives useful advice, such as sections on behavior on and off the board, knowing the rules, and clock handling.  Still, these are topics that can also be found elsewhere. Perhaps the most interesting discussion involves chess and computers, including chess playing computers and database management systems. This discussion is pretty advanced, however, and probably doesn't fit in well with the book's title.

IM Baker is an experienced player who obtained his IM title at a later age than most. It stands to reason that he could be an example of how hard work and perseverance can lead to results over players that may, perhaps, have more natural talent. To me, it seems as if the author wrote it based on topics and lessons he's provided to individual students.  Unfortunately, face-to-face lessons don't always translate well into print. The individualized instruction comes across as hit-and-miss when added to the many other topics included in the book.

In conclusion, there is material here that might be of benefit to a variety of players. If you haven't come across this sort of book in the past, this might prove useful. However, for players who have bought books of this type before, I doubt that there is enough new, original material to justify its purchase.