A lot of Lev Albert's Chess Strategy book's moves are not anotated, for better or worse. And blunders often don't get a question mark. It seems the losing side lost due to blunders, not due to the starting position. But, the value is it shows how the winning side takes advantage of the situation. I guess something can be learned, some basic principles of what one should try to do. But he does not even say what the losing side should be trying to do. So, i think that book is best for playing through fast and only slowly enough to see what the winner was trying to do.
There is something to be said about players being more likely to blunder under positional pressure. The computer finds moves that escape or hold.
Read less books!
I think a lot of your books are a bit under level for what you should be studying now. But there are some good ones there:
-- Art of Logical Thinking -- MacDonald is very good at explaining what is going on in a game, and making it interesting at the same time
-- Pandolfini's Endgame -- has always received good reviews, and you already know about it
-- Cheng's 600 Exercises looks good an probably appropriate level for you
-- Lasker's Manual is considered a classic, though perhaps more because of the author than the content. I've never read it, but even with an 1800 rating I'm betting there are some things in there that are new to me
-- Art of Defense in Chess by Soltis -- Soltis can be a very good author. I had the original version of this and liked it a lot. He substantially rewrote it some years ago, and from the previews I've seen, it is now a better book. This is likely about the highest level book in the bunch. You might not understand all of it (I didn't when I was a 1200 player), but it just might give you an "attitude" about practical play that will stand you well.
@MrPushwood said in #9:
> Well, certainly that Power Moves thing is a dreadful title.
Agreed. But I won't elaborate more until after I return it in a day or have to resell it. Wow.
When reading the title, my first thought was "how many chess books did they have back in the year1650?".
That’s a lot of books if not too much honestly. You gotta have the time to actually play and practice, otherwise reading them will lead to absolutely no improvements at all IMO.
I am not sure that books are worth it to be honest. Publishing in Chess seems to be like the supplement business in bodybuilding (an arena I also partake in but with far more success), I have been on an openings spiral for the best part of 18 months, I am 6 books in and 300 points down on here (or something like) and more on "the other place", though I bought mine used.
I attended a Chess club pre lockdown and they all said books were not the way, they were right.
It is information overload unless you have great aptitude for dull books.
A book that I have found to be helpful is " Learn Chess Tactics", by John Nunn. The exercises increase in difficulty within each tactical technique motif. The exercises are not weird or fabricated but from actual GM games. Have two bookmarks ready as the answers are in the back and there will be constant flipping.
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