Modern Chess Self-Tutor

I have to disagree with the comments about Feynman made by another reviewer. I read through Feynman's Lectures on Physics two times, and then I scored near the top end of the scale on the Physics GRE. Of course it helped that I had previously spent four years doing hundreds of physics homework problems at a good university. But before I read Feynman my knowledge was a formless blob; Feynman brought it all together, made sense of it, and made it useable. Translating that study program into chess terms might look like this: Several times work through several books whose author is named Polgar (Susan and/or Laszlo) or Ivashchenko or Blokh. Read Bronstein several times to bring everything together. Also, of course, play games frequently. The other reviewer did make a very perceptive observation. Bronstein does feel a lot like Feynman: good ideas presented well by an advanced practitioner at a level that can be understood by intermediate practitioners.

At first this book looks like a primer of chess. But it is one of the best book ever written about chess strategy. GM Bronstein invented modern chess ( with a few others) so what he thinks is fundamental in chess strategy is very, very, very interesting. I'm fide master and it is yet one of my favorite books.

Bronstein is one of the best chess writers/instructors ever, and this is one of the best chess books! I find the reviewers who thought the games didn't illustrate his points, that it is difficult to read, and the book as a whole is not instuctive--incomprehensible.The text is a joy to read (by chess book standards), the games illustrate key points in memorable, often startling ways, and his explanation of conducting a game in stages marching foward rank by rank and invadind with pieces through pawn structure quite unique, logical, and simple.This book, along with a book on tactics and endings, would get a player far indeed if s/he puts in the hard work chess demands.

The book has many well annoted games to illustrate the different learn items. Most of them Bronstein's own games. A very good book for intermediate playes (>1600). <br>My rating is abt 1300 and the text was to difficult for me.

This is one of my favorite chess books (and I have 150). I have read only a couple books ("How Not to Play Chess" by Znosko-Borovsky, "Pawn Power in Chess," by Kmoch, "The Search for Chess Perfection" by Purdy, and "The Logical Approach to Chess" by Euwe, et al. come to mind) where I really felt a connection between me and the author--that he was effetively reaching down from his Olympian heights and making chess a real game to be grasped. Bronstein adds a delightfully simple vocabulary, calling the four ranks, "piece rank", "pawn rank", "fortified zone", and "zone of important squares," and calls the center line the equator, and uses this terminology effectively, so that it brings to life chess ideas. He constantly uses military analogies to hammer his points home. This book rekindled my love of chess, which normally is kindled, but every once in a while a book like this reaches out and grabs me, and says, "hey, you can understand this game. Think of it like this..." This book is precious and special. I had stayed away from it because of the price ($17.95) and now, nearly through with it (the first time), I would pay $100 for it. A treasure. It makes me want to take personal lessons from the man. Thank you, Bronstein. --Johnny B