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Chess for the Gifted and Busy: A Short but Comprehensive Course from Beginner to Expert
This right-to-the-point one of the game's foremost teacher-writing teams uses a breakthrough approach to teach chess fast!
- GenresChess
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 1, 2012
A wonderful, personal and conceptual book that could be used to take any novice player through training to become a solid club (tournament) player. Lev Alburt and Al Lawrence hit a homerun here as they combine concepts in more of an orderly learning sequence (as opposed to a vastly in-depth topic approach). No wonder these two great chess writes are among the truly elite of the small handful of "teaching" grandmasters - rare is the deep grandmaster also a strong instructor - making this book a prize, and natural prerequisite read before diving headlong into IM Jeremy Silman's "The Amateurs Mind.
January 17, 2013
Shoddy. Filled with overly complex analysis, not enough actual useful advice for beginners.
Why aren't there more chess "e-books" where along with the text it lets you view games move-by-move in an embedded player? That would obviate the need for page upon page where it's just description of moves. (4. Kg4 axb4 5. c6? d3! etc. etc.)
It would also shrink this book to 8 pages.
Why aren't there more chess "e-books" where along with the text it lets you view games move-by-move in an embedded player? That would obviate the need for page upon page where it's just description of moves. (4. Kg4 axb4 5. c6? d3! etc. etc.)
It would also shrink this book to 8 pages.
April 17, 2023
Half of what Lev Alburt wrote was pretty good, and half of what he wrote was crap.
Some say this is Lev Albert's best book, so I'd say that's a 6.3 out of ten.
and....
I'm usually fed up with most books that promise something for 'beginner to expert' in one volume.
some have bitched that the analysis is way too heavy for all the beginners (but not the experts) as well as things could have been much much more helpful in this book, and on both counts, I think they're right.
---
I'd probably bet money that Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess is way more useful and focused.
But I guess for some, who want one hard to digest brick of a chess book, to browse for a lifetime, and feel a little disappointed, just like many 1950s chess manuals, this is fine.
Some say this is Lev Albert's best book, so I'd say that's a 6.3 out of ten.
and....
I'm usually fed up with most books that promise something for 'beginner to expert' in one volume.
some have bitched that the analysis is way too heavy for all the beginners (but not the experts) as well as things could have been much much more helpful in this book, and on both counts, I think they're right.
---
I'd probably bet money that Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess is way more useful and focused.
But I guess for some, who want one hard to digest brick of a chess book, to browse for a lifetime, and feel a little disappointed, just like many 1950s chess manuals, this is fine.
February 18, 2022
This is a tough book. Maybe all chess books are. I can't imagine what quality from its ostentatious title I might be missing; apparently I'm not busy enough.
The exercises are a good challenge, but I don't think they are representative of the basic toolkit. One of the first exercises, which we get after an explanation of the basic rules of chess, involves underpromotion to a bishop. It's a cool problem, but what the heck? On the very next page it states:
"we won't waste your time asking you to study rare, one-in-a-thousand game scenarios." So it's a useful compact summary of skills, and I'm still reviewing, but it lost track of its purpose early on.
The exercises are a good challenge, but I don't think they are representative of the basic toolkit. One of the first exercises, which we get after an explanation of the basic rules of chess, involves underpromotion to a bishop. It's a cool problem, but what the heck? On the very next page it states:
"we won't waste your time asking you to study rare, one-in-a-thousand game scenarios." So it's a useful compact summary of skills, and I'm still reviewing, but it lost track of its purpose early on.
April 29, 2021
Helpful !
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews