Igor Khmelnitsky’s new book, CHESS EXAM: YOU vs. BOBBY FISCHER, attempts to serve as a diagnostic tool for players trying to determine what areas of the game readers should focus on studying. The book, though certainly not perfect, does have numerous useful aspects.
The beginning of the book, a self-published piece, has problems that affect readability. There are many brief chapters placed in an order that make them difficult to follow, and some topics are discussed in more than one place which adds to the confusion. The biggest problem is that the chapter about Bobby Fischer is simply a cut and paste from a Wikipedia article. I am certainly not suggesting that Mr. Khmelnitsky needs to do original research, but he could have written a brief piece on how Fischer inspired him or how Fischer was understood in Mr. Khmelnitsky’s country of origin. Cutting and pasting an article from a web site that is frequently inaccurate, and where the data is known to change often, does not show the respect that the author claims to have for Fischer.
The next section of the book contains 20 puzzles that are taken from Fischer’s games. They are meant to be “warm ups” as they provide the answers with good explanations. The matches are a way to provide a context for the puzzles in which the student is asked to evaluate the position and play the best move.
In a desire to provide more information to the reader, each puzzle has many answers with each answer being assigned some sort of value (0-10). This information is then used to provide the reader with 13 different estimates of various aspects of his or her play. Unfortunately, the way the information is used is quite convoluted and causes some confusion. First, while it is useful to provide information telling a player what he or she needs to study most, having 13 different categories seems to be overkill. Second, few other chess books use some of these categories, such as the “You Are Better” positions, so it leaves the reader confused and wondering how to use this information to actually improve his game; though improvement is briefly discussed in the Appendix. Third, the sheer amount of math may be daunting for someone wanting to learn about chess, especially if they don’t like numbers or are young players. Certainly, an author is not required to write a book that any six year old can read, but when the cover states “For All Levels: Beginner to Master” it should be expected that children will pick up the book.
As for the puzzles themselves, this is where the book is quite useful. Each puzzle has a good evaluation of the position and a very thorough summary of which move should be played and why other moves would not work as well. Here, Khmelnitsky shows himself to be a thoughtful author and teacher, by providing an explanation in words and one or two possible lines. It should be noted, however, that these puzzles are rarely solved in one or two moves, thus they are not appropriate for beginners. I would recommend the puzzles for players rated around 1000 who are not going to grow frustrated with having many wrong answers and have the patience to work through the book slowly, as the author wisely recommends.
Finally there are a few additional sections added at the end, including pointers on improving one’s game and useful advice, such as playing solid openings and taking your time. There are also 12 more puzzles that do not include as much detail, but are given some explanation.
In conclusion, though the book is not perfect, it does accomplish its goal of providing a host of interesting puzzles that act as a diagnostic exam for the student. Thus, I recommend this book for the students who are rated around 1000 and up.
