Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors: Instruction for the Intermediate Player

I really enjoyed reading Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors. I felt that I gained a lot of knowledge especially in the following areas, a) Learning how to build an attack. The placement of your pieces and planning aheady. b) Learning how to use sacrifices and to recognize when they work and do not work. c) Positional play - manuvering your pieces and planning the use of Pawn structures. d) Many tactical ideas were covered. e) Learning the openings. The openings in the complete games are well covered with important opening lines being show. The games are organized by the type of openings being used. This makes it easy to study openings. The lines being shown are up to date and very accurate. f) There are not a lot of endgames but the ones covered are very instructive. What I like is to see how plans were made to get to the winning endgame right from the opening! This book then gives a step by step explaination of how to win the endgame. Some special features I liked about Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors, a) You are asked to find the best move. This forces you to think and makes for fun problems to solve out of games. This is much different than most books. b) All the moves are analyzed. c) General rules are pointed out. But, what makes it really nice is when the exceptions to the general rules happen, they are pointed out. I like the nice easy flowing style of the author. For a person who already knows the very basic stuff about chess this book is just right. This is because there is both a review of important ideas and a depth of analysis making this book interesting for a more advanced player as well. The author uses a lot of his own game where he has used them in chess lessons with his own students. This makes the explaination very clear and things that only an experienced chess teacher knows need to be covered are right there. I have read some of the other reviews which have been helpful to me in being able to point out some of things that I agree with. If you really love chess and like to study to improve this book is good for any age. But it is written so a 6th grader can understand it. I understand that this book is going through a new printing correcting any typos and may be hard to get for a while. It would be worth waiting for if you cannot get it now or even getting a used copy for now.

For a kid who already knows how to play chess this is a a very good book to learn more from. I can easily understand everything that it covers. It has 24 complete games played by different players. The the author (Robert M. Snyder) tells you what is going on with each move. Here are some of the important things I learned from this book: 1. How to plan an attack using such things as manuvering your pieces to build it up, using open files and weak points for sacrificing to penetrate a castled position. 2. Setting up and using combinations in a variety of positions to accomplish different things like winning material or reaching a won endgame by leaving your opponent with Pawn weaknesses. 3. How different combinations of pieces are to be used as an advantage such as using the Bishop Pair and when to double Rooks and to nutralize your opponents rooks on open files. 4. Lots of examples of different openings. The important lines and variations with what is good and how to take advantage of weak openings. The games are arranged in the book by type of openings to help you learn them in a good order. The table of contents gives you the names of them to find an opening you might want to study. 5. I counted three games with good endgames to learn from. Not all the games are just on openings and middlegames. 6. Exposing and attacking a King before he has castled along with how to defend a difficult position (the first game is just like that and very helpful). These are just a few examples of what I learned from this book. What I like about it over the other books with games is that when I go over them the author tells what is going on in a way that doesn't leaving me constantly asking, "well what if this was played, or that?". In other words the author knows the common questions that would be asked and answers them automatically. Very few books are good at that! I have played in some chess tournaments and a year ago when I got this book I was rated about 800 in the US Chess Federation. Now (1 year later after reading the book) I am rated over 1100. This book was the number 1 helper for me going up over 300 rating points quickly. I really hope you get this book as long as you are not going to get it and then play me! But chances of us playing are very small out of thousands of kids that play chess in tournaments.

SNATCH THE CHESS PIECE FROM MY HAND GRASSHOPPER! You will find that each of the twenty-four chess games have been turned into first rate lessons designed to install great chess knowledge in the reader's brain! The basic learning tools are games selected first and foremost for their instructional value. This isn't the first book written forming lessons from games with every move analyzed - but one thing is for sure, this is the best book for a player just beyond having learned the very basics or a player with moderate playing ability using this learning method (it is in a class by itself - way above it's closest competitor, "Logical Chess Move by Move"). And, when combined with the follow-up companion book "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" you have a total of 48 lessons, which outclasses "Understanding Chess Move by Move". Why? * Understanding of the inner workings of the thinking process by the author allows him to put on paper what a player needs to know. He gained this through the actual use of the lessons for over 30 years training players from beginner to the 36 national championship title winners. There is an uncanny knack by the author to know in advance the questions you will have about the positions - and they are addressed! What a resource! ** General rules pointed out when they apply to given situations and uniquely often it is pointed out when they don't apply! This helps you create structured guidelines for practical use. *** Important opening lines are provided to help you learn your openings. The analysis will not lose you in a maze of variations in this book, however, the follow-up book has very deep opening analysis designed for it's intended audience (a more advanced level player who has already grasped the concepts covered in "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors"). Games are arranged by opening and the table of contents in the front allows for quick and easy reference - including the main concepts being learned in most of the games. **** The book will test you and make you think! Throughout the games/lessons you will be asked to find the best move. This is unique to this author's books. It helps maintain the interest of younger readers while making it challenging and fun for every age. ***** Key Words Why this book is FIVE STARS and TWO THUMBS UP! - EASE of Understanding, CLARITY of thought and writing style, COMPLETENESS in explanations and covering what is important, ACCURACY in the quality of analysis, SPACING of diagrams is excellent (lots of diagrams to verify the positions or help you follow if you are good enough to go over the games without a board), LACK of unnecessary repetition - you will not find the author wasting your time and money with ongoing repetition. The games are interesting and entertaining in addition to being instructive. The author was a world-class correspondence player, strong master and includes his most instructive games along with those of players like Fischer, Spassky and Karpov. The

Mr. Snyder two books, "Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors" and then the sequel "More Unbeatable Chess For Juniors" take you through 24 complete games per book. These are turned into excellent lessons (used by Mr. Snyder in his private lessons through the internet and face to face for many years) where each move is analyzed. A nice focus is the TECHNIQUE used to accomplish victory. When called for the actual plans are broken down in the analysis pointing out weakness and then a step by step analysis of the planning process. Lets take a look an a major example taken from an endgame in one of the games titled "Planning Ahead" - the author writes, "White's plan consists of the following ideas (not necessarily in the exact order that they are caried out)," 1. Whie will make sure that his KIngside Pawns are secure against any threats by Black's Bishop. This may require placing the Kingside Pawns on the same color as his Bishop, which may be a drawback; however, it will prevent Black's Bishop from attacking then in the absence of White's King. 2. White will move his King towaard Black's weak isolated Queenside Pawns. The King can easily threatn them from the White squares and can aid in the creation and support of a White Queenside passed Pawn. The author goes on with two more (3. & 4.) parts of his step by step ideas behind the planns as well. This is just a small example of the detail and quality of the lessons you will find in Mr. Snyder's books. Mr. Snyder is not one of these authors who has a new book coming out every couple of months. His recent books have only come out at the rate of about one a year, showing he puts in the time for a quality job. Within the games you will be asked to "find the best move here". This forces the reader to get the old brain working and think! A nice aspect of the writing style. Some of the themes in the games covered are: ATTACK AND DEFENSE OF AN EXPOSED KING (the King Hunt!) TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A WEAK OPENING OPENING UP LINES AGAINST THE CASTLED KING PLANNING AHEAD (setting things up well in advance) BUILDING A KINGSIDE ATTACK UNDERSTANDING THE OPENING TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN UNSOUND SACRIFICE OPENING STUDY: RUY LOPEZ AWESOME USE OF MINOR PIECES TAKING ADVANTAGE OF BLUNDERS (MASTERS BLUNDER TOO!) USE OF PINS SACRIFICING AGAINST THE CASTLED KING FISCHER-SPASSKY - WINNING IN THE ENDGAME THE WRONG ROOK (a common mistake!) USE OF THE OUTPOST, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF WEAK WHITE SQUARES, USE OF THE 7TH RANK, ARABIAN MATE, SMOTHERED MATE, OPENING UP AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN EXPOSED KING - ALL IN ONE GAME!!! MASSIVE PAWN CENTER WEAK PAWNS DEEP POSITIONAL SACRIFICE (for long term pressure) QUEENSIDE PAWN MAJORITY DOUBLE SACRIFICE (exposing a King) EFFECTIVE USE OF THE BISHOP PAIR You will learn how to plan ahead, learn improtant patterns both for tactical play and positional play and you will learn TECHNIQUE in chess!!! And, when you are done with "Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors" you can then move on to the more