Lessons with a Grandmaster

by Boris Gulko, Joel R. Sneed

Imagine you are a club player who has been given the opportunity to talk at length with a famous grandmaster. How would you make the most of this opportunity? Club players are unaware of the subtleties that exist in grandmaster chess. Great players can analyse chess at a depth that is unfathomable to amateurs. However, having reached such a high level can make it difficult to understand what is lacking in the mind of the amateur. Lessons with a Grandmaster bridges this gap between grandmaster and amateur through a series of conversations between teacher, the renowned Grandmaster Boris Gulko, and student Dr. Joel R. Sneed, a professor of psychology and amateur chess player. The lessons are based on Gulko's own battles against fellow grandmasters, and there is particular focus on strategy, tactics and the role of psychology in chess competition.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2011

Reviews

[Psycroptic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written book. It features 25 games of GM Boris Gulko. Each game is presented as a dialogue between himself and co-author Joel Sneed. The two converse as the moves and variations are presented. Sneed is no chess slouch himself and strives to answers Gulko's key questions at various times during the game. The reader is of course expected to try and solve these puzzles too. Sneed usually fails to find the perfect move (they are not easy!), but sometimes does pull through. GM Gulko then presents the proper move along with a full explanation. The solution will usually seem obvious after the key move is explained. I found that it does help to have a computer program to evaluate these positions as you read since there are times when the move you find differs from Gulko's best move analysis, so it's nice to know that your move is sound at least as an evaluation program is concerned. Sneed also poses questions to Gulko concerning any confusing aspects of the game. GM Gulko does a fine job of explaining these points.

Be aware this book is not for novices. Even the questions that are ranked as being easy are really fairly intricate. There really are no simple 'find the combo' or 'mate in 3' type problems, instead the book's focus is entirely positional. What is being presented here is focused on deeper, strategic play. Certainly tactics come in to play, but really as only a supporting aspect of the positional game. The purpose is to show how a high calibre opponent can be out-played with proper positional play.

The psychological aspect of the book was talked about at various times, mainly dealing with anticipating your opponents weaknesses and tendencies. Mostly though this is a book about positional chess.

[Ignacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book showing the clear thinking process of a GM

[Andre Hermanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good:
* An excellent book on mainly strategic ideas for intermediate players.
* Illustrates that it is very important to be flexible and any rules/guidelines can be broken depending on the situation.

Bad:
* More diagrams are needed, especially before going to the variations.

[TheF7Pawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concur with the other reviewers. This is a highly instructive and entertaining book.