[.ca] Chess Strategy For The Tournament Player (ISBN 1889323160)

Something clicked:
As the other reviewers stated, this book covers the usual suspects, like bishops versus knights, ranks/files, weak and strong squares, etc. What this book does, that the others haven't for me, is pull it all together. His examples, not only show how to create an advantage, but also show how to USE that advantage to create advantages for your other pieces or as the center piece of an attack. I've read several tactical books and can solve most of the challenges, but never seem to be able to create strong combinations in real games. This book has made the practical use of tactics also more clear _ as a player accumulates strategic advantages their opponents defenses begin to break down naturally, creating the opportunity for tactical blows or a break-through into enemy territory. Obviously, there is nothing earth shattering about what I'm saying here. But the clarity of the examples and connections that Alburt/Palatnik make, have made these concepts usable to me in games I play _ I've only had the book a couple of days and I already see a big difference in the complexity of positions I am creating. I definitely recommend.

Pretty good strategy book:
This book is well organized, with 80 game examples and 30 test questions in total. If you want more detail into important middle game topics such as pawn structure and mating attacks, you will need other books in addition to this one, but I like the book layout very much- it seems well thought out Its easy to read and uncluttered, and can be recommended to all players under 2000 elo rating. Lets face it- this middle game strategy material is the most difficult to teach off all chess subjects as it often defies categorization, but this book does as good a job as any I have ever seen.

Fantastic:
This is responsible for me being an expert strength chess player, and rising. This and Fred Reinfeld's 1001 combos book, for practice. Don't put the cart before the horse, studying advanced strategy while you routinely leave pieces hanging or get checkmated. LEARN TO PLAY

Excellent!:
There is something special about these books. It's not just the paper and production, which is probably the best in all of chess publishing, and it's not just the crystal clear instruction. More than that, it seems somehow that Alburt understands exactly how to teach an aspiring chess player. Alburt knows that the player must feel he is progressing through a book. How often have you spent two hours on a single page of Dvoretsky and felt that you were getting nowhere? (Not to say that Dvoretsky books are not great, because they are. The point is that those books are aimed at a very advanced player; these are aimed more at typical club players). With this Alburt book on Strategy, you will feel that you are learning, and that you are plowing through the book. His books are long in pages, leaving plenty of room on pages for your own notes or thoughts. The examples are very well chosen to inculcate core concepts into your head. This sounds trite, but there is really something here in that regard; Alburt knows how to pick examples that will provide maximum instruction. Most importantly, as I go through this book, I am having fun. It never goes over your head. There are variations placed at precisely the rights spots. Having fun going through a chess book is very key, since many of us have a very up and down relationship with chess. Sometimes is seems to hard to improve, and thus becomes less fun. If I had to sumamrize this Strategy book and all the other books of the Alburt series, I would say that they are fun, and you will ENJOY chess working through them. Is there a higher compliment than that?

Accessable to the intermediate player.:
I really improved after reading this book. I read this book on a plane ride to California (from Buffalo) and during my trip (4 days). I finished it a couple days after returning (about a week and a half total on the book). I did not have a board, but I visualized the board from the diagram as there were enough for me to do so. I enjoyed the examples and thought they were very useful in teaching the material. In any case, a couple weeks later, I won the Under 1600 section of the New York State Chess Championship. I'm not saying that this book was the only reason for doing this, but I learned much and was inspired by the positional play in all of the examples I read. My only criticism is that there wasn't enough analysis behind some of the moves where the author makes a statement such as "and of course move x was terrible" and doesn't explain it. However, in my specific case, this was good, as I couldn't really analyze too many variations anyway, and instead was able to get the ideas behind the strategies explained. I highly recommend this book as well as "Chess Tactics for the tournament Player" by the same author.