Best Lessons of a Chess Coach [Large Print]

What a great teacher Sunil Weeramantry is! In this book he goes through 10 entire games- one per chapter. Using a breezy, entertaining and verbose (for a chess book) Socratic dialog between himself and unnamed "students", Weeramantry walks through the major themes and strategies of his chosen games. Often, his very realistic "students", get answers wrong, and the author carefully steers their thinking to more promising ideas. With this, he guides his reader toward discovering various chess concepts for themselves. Happily, if you find yourself stumped, the answers are right there.Many of the games are contemporary (of 80's and 90's vintage), engaging, and tactically juicy. About half are taken from Weeramantry's own, sometimes flawed, play. (But that's the point.) The themes covered include all aspects of the game from the earliest moves onward. Each themed chapter can be read in about an hour, which makes this book a much swifter read than the average chess book. At the end of each chapter are a half dozen or so supplimentary games that follow similar ideas.If you're rated 1000-1500, ten hours with this book should improve your game immensely. While very rich in ideas, it could easily be read by a bright and experienced 10-15 year old. Indeed, I suspect that many of Weeramantry's hypothetical interlocutors are inspired by real students- most of whom are bright youngsters themselves.I found this book as useful and fun as the more well known "Logical Chess: Move by Move"- which I would recommend as a prelude to this book.

Mr. Weeramantry shows off his brilliant writing style by putting together a masterpiece!This book contains 10 chapters, each analyzing its own game. Within these chapters, the author explains the ideas behind the moves and plans of the competing masters. This gives the reader an insight into how the masters think during a game. With this understanding, the reader can strive towards simulating the logical techniques of the masters and improving their own games.This type of book is very helpful, but it has been seen before on several occasions. What sets this book apart is Weeramantry's style. The author does not simply tell the reader why the moves are made. Instead, he ASKS the reader. This unique approach forces the reader to think about the position rather than just playing through the moves. And each question contains a lesson. And before you know it, after playing through each of these lessons, you now understand the game of chess a little more clearly. It's like magic!And if improving your game is not enough reason to read this book, the sheer joy of Weeramantry's witty style will convince you. He truly makes both chess and reading fun. I can't wait until he writes another book!

This book would be beyond the absolute chess beginner, since just learning to make moves is their primary focus. However, for the avid chess player, one who plays in tournaments, at a chess club, in a school program, or who just plays every chance s/he gets, this is a wonderful book to help improve the understanding of the game. It is so well written that one who can visualize a short sequence of moves (1 or 2) need not use a chess board to fully understand the games discussed. Mr. Weeramantry has written the book as a coach would teaches a student, often asking his student a question about a given position, and then explaining why the student's best response would be good or not so good. If not so good, he asks for another choice. This book (for a chess book) was very easy to read. I'm a class A tournament player who completely enjoyed reading it,... and re-reading it.

"What has White gained after all these trades?" Weeramantry asks his readers about a position, "Who stands better and why?" Weeramantry expects active participation, not just passive reading and shuffling of pieces on a chessboard - again and again he challenges the reader. "How does Black continue the attack?" he wonders, "Let's analyze this together. You play Black and I'll play White."Weeramantry is a great coach and it shows: he questions the ambitious player about individual moves ("Why is 8. fxe5 bad here?") and long-term positional considerations ("On which side of the board is White strongest? How should he proceed?")The ten lessons in the book are based on ten games - mostly played by Weeramantry, a FIDE Master - that exemplify attacking principles using weak squares, weak color complexes, piece coordination, and initiative. He assumes an advanced beginner and intermediate player level of knowledge. Openings are discussed mostly in terms of general principles and their effects on planning. He shows how plans evolve out of pawn structures, piece placement and enemy counter play. Weeramantry does not forget to explain how weak pawns, decentralized forces, pawn majorities, all affect a player's decision to seek or avoid the endgame.Weeramantry summarizes each lesson with guidelines, advice, and supplementary games (about 30-50 extra games in all). There is a lot of practical advice, encouragement, words of warning, and general consideration for readers of all strengths. "With that in mind, what next? How do we keep the attack going?"

I own a chess library of close to 100 titles. If I was only allowed to keep 10, this book would be one of them! This book is extremely easy to read and follow: there are no typos and the socratic teaching style is fun and entertaining.It covers the subjects of strategic planning and methods of conducting the attack. The method is to carefully disect a number of master games and examine the motives behind the moves. The difference is that this book does so using lots of words! (not endless variations and nonsensical symbols like some other books do). As a result, the reader will actually feel as though they can start understanding how a master formulates a plan during an actual game. This book is probably best suited for players rated between 1200 - 1700 USCF. It would ideally be read after reading a more basic book on chess such as "Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernev, or "Play Winning Chess" or "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan.By reading one or two of these other books first, it would assure the maximum learning value by reinforcing and then expanding on what is taught in these other, more elementary texts.