Q&A Way in Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini

THE BEST ANSWERS TO THE BEST QUESTIONS ABOUT CHESS

From world-renowned chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini comes a collection of more than 200 remarkable questions posed by readers of "The Q&A Way", the popular chess column on ChessCafe.com

For players of all ages and skill levels, Pandolfini's thoughtful and entertaining answers reveal how

• improve performance and rating
• develop good habits
• teach chess
• compete more effectively
• overcome insecurities
• understand new innovations
• practice proper etiquette

and much more!

Genres: Chess

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2005

About the author

Bruce Pandolfini (born September 17, 1947) is an American chess author, teacher, and coach. A USCF national master, he is generally considered to be America’s most experienced chess teacher. As a coach and trainer, Pandolfini has possibly conducted more chess sessions than anyone in the world. By the summer of 2015 he had given an estimated 25,000 private and group lessons.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[David W. Cofer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The advice given by Pandolfini is ridiculous if one wants to truly improve. His advice to every question is to don't worry about improving, just enjoy the game. Don't try to be a better player or gain rating points, just play blitz chess and enjoy the game, even though you will never get better at the game.

Is he an aging hippie or what? Most players want to improve and get better at the game, thus that is why they study the game, analyze their games, work tactical problems, review grandmaster games, etc. If one does not want to improve, but just wants to play for the pure enjoyment of the game, that is great, but that is not the typical reader of this book. This book is a total waste of time for the player who wants to get better at chess and improve their game.

[Bryce · Rating 1 out of 5]

*This is a 2022 review of an old book

Unfortunately, this book hasn't held up to time. The internet has changed chess so profoundly that the advice in this book is badly out of date is some places.

Also, I like the idea of collecting a newspaper column into a book, but in order to make that concept work there is a tremendous amount of editing work that has to be done to avoid repetition and encourage flow. That work wasn't done or wasn't done well in this case.