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PAL BENKO: My Life, Games and Compositions, Siles Press, Los Angeles, 2004. Hardcover, 668 pages, $45.00
“Pal Benko’s love of chess is an inspiration. A most impressive autobiography!”
-- GM Lubomir Kavalek, three-time U.S. Champion, chess columnist for The Washington Post.
“GM Pal Benko is one of the greatest composers and endgame specialists of the 20th century. He gives us 300 of these compositions in this book, and if all those gems weren't enough, he intrigues us with the story of his life, while revealing in-depth notes with world-class competition. A real chess renaissance man, his contributions to the royal game are immense.”
-- GM Walter Browne, six-time U.S. Champion.
SILMAN: Six years in the making, this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. However, I also think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
Of course I was delighted when it swept all three “Best Book” prizes (the only book to ever take all three): The Cramer Award, The Chess Café Award, and the British Chess Magazine Award (trumping Kasparov’s MY GREAT PREDECESSORS).
FROM THE INSIDE COVER:
Grandmaster Pal Benko is a chess legend. A challenger for the World Championship, an innovator of many modern opening systems, a problem composer par excellence, and a father figure to his close friend Bobby Fischer, Benko has played and defeated most of the top players of the last fifty years.
This amazing collection of 138 deeply annotated games—carefully prepared to be entertaining, enlightening, and instructive—is brought to life by Pal Benko's memoirs of his early years in war-torn Hungary where he takes the reader into a world of poverty, chaos, pain, and ultimately, personal triumph. His insights into famous grandmasters transform their names into real people with substance and personality, and his reminiscences of legendary tournaments take us on a journey of chess history unlike anything that's been published before.
Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions is a celebration of this great man's creative legacy: Interviews with other players offer further insights into Benko's nature. A massive survey of Benko's openings (by famed author John Watson) shows us the scope of Benko's theoretical contributions to the game. Photos abound, and 300 of Benko's chess compositions allow lovers of the game to become intimately acquainted with a strikingly beautiful aspect of chess that most have overlooked.
This highly entertaining and instructive book gives competitors who wish to improve their playing strength a dynamic, fun way to deepen their knowledge and understanding.
Click to buy or find out more about: PAL BENKO: MY LIFE, GAMES, and COMPOSITIONS
HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS, Expanded 3rd Edition, Siles Press, Los Angeles 1993.
“The most fundamentally important middlegame book since Nimzovich’s My System.”
-- Nick deFirmian, International Grandmaster, author, and three time U.S. Champion (1987, 1995, 1998. He also tied for first in 2002, but Christiansen won the playoff to take the championship ring).
SILMAN: After creating a system of thought for my students (over a period of many years), I decided that these instructive concepts should be available to the general public. Of course, I never imagined the popularity this book would garner, nor did I guess how many famous chess teachers would employ my ideas in their own lessons.
FROM THE BACK COVER: How to Reassess Your Chess offers the chess student a step-by-step course that is designed to create a marked improvement in anyone's game. In clear, direct language, Jeremy Silman shows how to dissect a position, recognize its individual parts, and ultimately find the one move that conforms to the needs of any particular situation. By explaining the thought processes that go into a master's choice of move, Mr. Silman presents a system of thought that makes advanced strategies seem clear, logical, and at times even obvious.
For those who have always dreamed about truly understanding the mysteries of chess, How to Reassess Your Chess offers invaluable knowledge and insight that cannot be found in any other source.
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THE AMATEUR'S MIND, 2nd Edition, Siles Press, Los Angeles 1999.
“The Amateur’s Mind is eminently readable and instruction-rich. Jeremy Silman never disappoints those who seriously wish to improve their game.”
-- Joel Benjamin, International Grandmaster, author, 1987, 1997, and 2000 U.S. Champion.
SILMAN: Created for players under 1800, The Amateur’s Mind (still expounding the system of thought in How to Reassess Your Chess) was designed to present an enormous amount of instruction that is highly personal (the reader often feels like he’s being talked to directly), fun, and intense. I’m extremely proud of this book, and can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything that compares to it.
FROM THE BACK COVER: The Amateur’s Mind takes the student on a journey through his own mind and returns him to the chessboard with a wealth of newfound knowledge and the promise of a significant gain in strength.
Most amateurs possess erroneous thinking processes that remain with them throughout their chess lives. These flaws in their mental armor result in stinging defeats and painful reversals. Books can be bought and studied, lessons can be taken -- but in the end, these elusive problems always prove to be extremely difficult to eradicate.
Seeking a solution to this dilemma, Mr. Silman wrote down the thoughts of his students while they played actual games, analyzed them, and catalogued the most common misconceptions that arose. He then eliminated these mental traps by offering advice, rules of conduct and strategy, and penetrating psychological insight.
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THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CHESS STRATEGY, Siles Press, Los Angeles 1999.
“Mr. Silman is one of the most original, articulate and perceptive chess teachers in the world.”
-- Bruce Pandolfini, author and featured character (played by Ben Kingsley) in Searching For Bobby Fischer).
“Jeremy Silman is the most lucid instructional writer that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.”
-- Yasser Seirawan
SILMAN: This reference book was designed for players under 1700 that don’t wish to spend enormous amounts of time on their various chess questions. Instead, most important strategic and tactical queries are answered in short, informative, easy to digest sound bytes.
FROM THE BACK COVER: The Complete Book of Chess Strategy is an amateur's dream-come-true! Due to the overwhelming amount of strategic and tactical ideas in chess, students of the game buy dozens of chess books but still find it impossible to isolate the key points. Seeing the problems his students faced, Mr. Silman has created the first comprehensive strategic guide in dictionary form. Now all aspects of chess strategy, tactics, basic opening and endgame ideas, and even psychology are painlessly accessible to players of all degrees of strength. Each concept is listed alphabetically, accompanied by a clear, easy-to-absorb explanation and an example.
Studying has never been easier! Take this book to work, on vacation or, if you’re a serious competitive player, to all your tournaments. The world’s best players make regular use of this information. With everything presented in simple, easy-to-understand language, Grandmaster techniques can finally become your techniques too.
Click to buy or find out more about THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CHESS STRATEGY
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THE REASSESS YOUR CHESS WORKBOOK, Siles Press, Los Angeles 2000.
“How to Reassess Your Chess and The Reassess Your Chess Workbook should be among the first books bought by players who want to improve their game. Highly recommended!”
-- Larry Christiansen, International Grandmaster, 1980, 1983, and 2002 U.S. Champion, author of STORMING THE BARRICADES
“I wish I could be a beginner again. This book makes learning about chess incredibly fun!”
-- Alex Yermolinsky, International Grandmaster, 1996 U.S. Champion, author of THE ROAD TO CHESS IMPROVEMENT
SILMAN: This follow-up to How to Reassess Your Chess is designed to continue a player's study of imbalances while simultaneously testing him to see if really understands the thinking technique that my Reassess series espouses. The range of difficulty is rather large, at times being extremely basic and at other times offering up positions that would prove difficult for grandmasters.
FROM THE BACK COVER: In this comprehensive workbook, International Chess Master Jeremy Silman tests a player’s strengths and weaknesses with 131 problems that cover openings, tactical and positional middlegames, and endgames.
Unique among books that present problems and their solutions, but offer little actual instruction, The Reassess Your Chess Workbook takes the player through the processes of problem solving and analysis and provides advice and instruction that ultimately helps him discover the major flaws imbedded in his play. Through this method, the player is led to an understanding of a thought system that will add hundreds of rating points to his chess strength.
This workbook may be utilized with or without Silman’s earlier book, How to Reassess Your Chess. It may be used in the problem/solution manner described above or its section of solutions may be read as an instruction manual itself. However one chooses to read this book, it will surely prove a font of wisdom and insight for all students of the game.
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Here's the complete list of my published books. | 
