Complete Chess Strategy v.3

by Luděk Pachman, John Littlewood

Good books on the indeterminate stage of chess between openings and endings are rare. Ambitious players wanting a practical guide to the middle game will find that Ludek Pachman's great trilogy, which is completed with this volume, stands in a class of its own. In each of these books the need for understanding is emphasized: there are too many variations for any memory to store. The player must understand the basic principles involved and the typical positions or maneuvers that can arise. Ludek Pachman's examples will augment his experience and should facilitate finer judgments as to the types of position to aim for, how to plan for them and in the allocation of priorities. But games also need to be viewed as an entity, and for this reason the author has concentrated on teaching by means of whole games. Ludek Pachman, the West German and former Czechoslovak Grandmaster, has taken part in international chess since 1945. The present work is a substantial revision of a series of books that first appeared in Czech. It has been translated from the German by the English International Master, John Littlewood.

Genres: Chess, Games

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Luděk Pachman (German: Ludek Pachmann) was a Czechoslovak-German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and political activist. In 1972, after being imprisoned and tortured almost to death by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he was allowed to emigrate to West Germany. He lived the remainder of his life there, and resumed his chess career with considerable success, including playing in the Interzonal in 1976 and winning the West German Championship in 1978.

Reviews

[Mike Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third and final book in the 1978 set by Ludek Pachman which looks at play on the wings. Unlike the first two volumes, I found a couple of errors here. Pachman was Czechoslovakian, and the books in my library are English translations by Sam Sloan in 2012. Unfortunately, they were translated in English descriptive notation which is somewhat out of date so the books may have limited interest to current chess players, and would have been of somewhat greater interest had Sloan taken the time to convert the notation to the common algebraic or symbolic.

Nevertheless, it is good to see these in print as classics in chess literature. A condensed single volume exists as well, but contains far fewer examples. I found the final chapter on the limitations of chess engines interesting from a 1978 perspective. We've come a long way. Overall, 4 stars for classical value and instruction still relevant to today's modern play.