Why You Lose at Chess, 2nd Edition

I will be reviewing "Why You Lose at Chess" and "Better Chess for Average Players," both by Irish chess writer (and correspondence master) Tim Harding. Both are Dover reprints; this one (WYLaC) was originally published by Batsford in 1982, the other (BCfAP) by Oxford University Press in 1978. I should mention that Dover often runs big sales either with heavy discounts on many chess books, or else good savings with incentives (i.e., save $20 off your $40 total). Anyway, back to this book. You can buy it for the great title, as I did, but you can keep it for the truly valuable advice inside. I will include a few snippets below, but rest assured the book is filled with insight that will improve your chess game, regardless of what openings you prefer or even how long you have been playing. "Before you can play well, you must stop playing badly." (From the Introduction, and that alone is the kind of counterintuitive nugget I am usually too dense to grasp.) "The successful ideas of one game contain the seeds of faults and failures in future games." "Nearly every player who has progressed beyond his [beginning/intermediate] chess must study opening literature because otherwise he will lose too many games to people who have." "Play what you know best (even if he knows it too) rather than something you do not really know in the hope that he knows less about it." In grasping the transition to endgames: "analyze not moves so much as the pawn structures and which types of piece will be at their best in the ending because of the pawn structure." "There is no misfortune in chess so galling, and so undermining of the confidence, as losing a game in which one stood well." Of course many points throughout are illustrated by game positions. Although Tim has updated the book to include changes in both computer and correspondence (email) chess, the bulk of the content remains as valid as when it was written in the early 80s. This is because the book focuses not on analyzing specific openings but rather the player's own approach to the game. It is therefore as much about the psychology of chess as it is about the playing. Again, for me, this book rang very true indeed. I am deducting a point from an otherwise excellent book because while the Dover Edition (2001) corrected some typos from the original, it didn't get nearly all of them! Typos in chess books are sadly the rule rather than the exception, yet Harding is a well-respected author and this being a lightly revised Second Edition was a chance to get it tied off cleanly. I therefore submit a partial to-fix list for the Third Edition: p.6, line 6: "scorebooks" should not be hyphenated (see previous page, line 24) p.29, line 32; Diagram 15 should be Diagram 20 p.30, line 7: Diagram 16 should be Diagram 21 p.33, line 11: missing important comma after "2 ed" p.33, line 26: Diagram 32 should be Diagram 33 p.37, line 27: "fe" should be "fg" p.39 header spacing error p.40, line 13: extra space before comma

I bought this book on a whim: I've always wanted to have my picture taken with a quizzical look while holding this book. Interesting to be sure, and maybe a little silly but what I found was a deeply instructive book and to the caliber of writing one has come to expect from Tim Harding. A very good book for beginners and intermediate players and one I highly recommend.

I bought this book with the intention of improving my chess game, but it ended up improving my life. After taking a hard look at what would be required for me to become a Class A or Expert player, I realized that I'd end up cheating myself and others of a lot of good things in life just to satisfy my ego.As a result, I now play chess only casually, without particularly caring whether I win or lose, and devote much more of my time to prayer, visiting hospitals and prisons, and cultivating my friendships. A grateful Christian

I very much enjoyed this book. As always, Tim Harding has a very entertaining writing style, making his books very enjoyable reads. He is an international master in correpondence chess, having won many top level titles, and has a very clear way of presenting his ideas on how to analyze games. The primary focus of this book is to identify where and how blunders as well as less innocuous mistakes are commonly made, and how to avoid making them. As he states on the back cover, "Before you can play well, you must stop playing badly". The book is divided into many sections, each looking into the types of problems which commonly present themselves in various facets of the game. There are chapters on material loss (avoiding tactical blunders), looking for warning signals in both the opening and the endgame phases of a game, and several chapters on the middle game. The latter is divided up into sections on avoiding losses both in good positions and in difficult positions. The author finishes with chapters on how to avoid losing on time, in correspondence chess, and while playing against computers.I gave the book 4 stars simply because it was not quite to the level of some of his other works, such as "Better Chess for Average Players" or "Winning at Correspondence Chess". It is, however, very instructive, and is filled with numerous game examples to illustrate his points.