A challenging book that will improve your game
341813
Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess" is a modern classic, and one of the most frequently recommended books for the intermediate player.

The book utilizes Jeremy Silman's thinking technique for creating a plan in chess, which is not covered in many books.  Many, instead, focus on tactics, strategy, and "brilliant combinations".  These are great, but what does a player do when there is no brilliant combination to be played at a particular moment?

Silman attempts to answer that question by providing the student with a thorough method for developing a logical plan that can and should be implemented in every game.  Silman says that a player must make a plan in accordance with the imbalances in the position.  There are several imbalances a player must recognize such as: minor pieces, weak/strong squres, open files, development, material, initiative, etc.

The book is broken into 13 parts, not including the glossary.  Mastery of all of this information will take some time, so be prepared to invest some time and effort.  Doing so, I believe, will give the reader a good idea of how to construct a plan for just about any position he may come across in a game.

Though the book is very good at what it does, Silman recognizes that a good chess player is always learning, so he provides a recommended reading list at the end of the book for further study.

This will not be the one and only chess book you'll ever want or need, but it is probably the best book I've seen for how to develop a plan based on the realities of a position.
3863495
I have been attempting to build up my chess tactics for sometime now, and I've examined several of the basic tactics books out there. There are several books that discuss tactics, for example, explaining what a pin is, what a fork is, yadda yadda yadda, and yet those "basic" books (i.e. Beginning Chess Players Bible, for example) don't really have many practice problems. Sierwan's popular book "Winning Chess Tactics" had a similar problem for me.

  From there you have hard-hitting, heavy books on tactics that were simply too advanced for me. Combination Challenge was one of those books, too complicated for me at times, too difficult. It took me a long time to find that kind middle-ground books for relative beginners trying to work on their tactics.

  In the end, I've been working out of two main puzzle books to practice my tactics: Polgar's monstrous CHESS (5355ish problems...) and then this little gem of a book. When I discuss Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors, understand then that I've seen a few of the harder books but the other book I've mostly worked with is Polgar.

  For starters, Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors is a derivative work. Hays took some problems from Combination Challenge and put them together in this book. For me, that's not a complaint because the full fledged CC was too difficult for me. One immediate plus when I got this book was that it is TINY. Tiny is not a bad thing -- it's fantastic! 128 pages of mostly diagrams is a solid chunk of problems, and it fits anywhere!

  I admit, I was concerned how long it would take to get through the book. I've plowed through about 700 of Polgar's problems in only a few weeks, so I was concerned that Winning Chess Tactics would be silly.

  No. Don't let "For Juniors" fool you. For beginners, this book will kick your face in. It is an EXCELLENT tactical workout. There's a few reasons for this. For one, the diagrams are relatively complicated, so you have to consider a variety of potential moves. Secondly, you are only given the clue of who's turn it is to move. That means you might be winning a piece with a tactical strike, or you may be playing for mate. The only clue aside from who's turn it is would be the section grouping (i.e. "discovered attacks" section will contain many variations of a discovered check, discovered attack, double dhecks, etc).

  This lack of hints makes it an extremely useful workout. In Polgar, and several other books I looked at, you're given "White to play, Mate in 3", or "Find the Fork", etc. That kind of mental prompting is very nice, actually, but in some ways it is illusory. During a game you will not know there is mate in two, unless you yourself can SEE, in fact, there is a threat of mate in two. Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors is an excellent book because it makes a much more realistic simulation of what you might find glancing at the board in your own games.

  Out of the puzzle books I've worked with (Sierwan's being the other prominent one), this book strikes a nice balance of difficulty and variety, and it's format makes it very useful. Though this is technically a derivative product, it is a very useful product and the fact that it is derivative doesn't really matter to me. If you're advanced enough to be taking on the full Combination Challenge, of course, you don't want this book, but if you're relatively new to club / tournament chess and you want to practice your tactics, I highly recommend this book.
2054236
I play a lot of coffee shop chess and notice that many people rank in the 1200 to 1400 have days when they play real well and days when they just cant finish correctly.  And it seems like the issues is they are not sure on how to formulate a plan.  At the same time I find that many in the range of 1800 tend to use the attack methobs in this books.  So what i tell those that are lower rank is to study this book, especially for those that love to play 1e4.  The book is a tactical and strategical book in one, but not like a puzzle book.  You will be studying games and taken to a key position, where you can launch the attack.  The book will show you what the requirement are for an attack what weak squares to focus on and what your opponents most likely replies will be.  You will learn how to attack the king that has yet to castle, how to attack the castled king and even how to bust up the fianchetto.  This is basically an attacking manual.  What i have notice is people that were lower rank, tend to jump up in rating quickly, because they are learning how to formulate a plan, and since the illustrative  games are attacking games the games are not boring.  The nice thing also is that you are taking the first steps in positional play, and you are starting to study annotated games, so your killing several birds with one stone.  I recall when I first read this book, many years ago I was  only 1200 and my rating shot up to 1500, and I was giving 1800 a hard time getting the win because i starting to recognize the attack formations and waited to a critical moment to mess up their plan, while I was still losing to 1800 during this time it was not because they killed me in the middle game but because i lost in the endgame.  But I took it as a personal win because I was no longer getting crush in the middle game.  This is an excellent book and one that people showed read.  You will learn a lot from this book, you will take steps to become a positional player, and you will become better at formulating attacking plans.
1245376
A great read!  guaranteed to improve your game ... and ... your enjoyment on the course (regardless of your handicap).  Provides specific 'games' and ideas that truly make it possible to 'have a purpose' with every shot.  Their 'point' system regarding 'hitting fairways', 'up and downs', '1-putts' , etc ... is very inventive and easy to apply while playing.  So impressed, I bought 3 more as Christmas gifts for my playing partners - and they have all said the same things about the book!  You will be happy with this purchase - easy to read and use!
270258
Even if you don't know the first thing about chess, this book can help you learn the fundamentals behind chess strategy and become a good player within a short period of time. The book is profusely illustrated with hundreds of diagrams and annotated games.

The author uses a clear and conversational style to clarify problems that may seem difficult or confusing for the beginner or casual player. This book is an update of a previous work by Lasker (Chess strategy) that was consider the "Chess Bible" when published many years ago.

The book is organized in two parts and five chapters as follows:

PART I - FUNDAMENTALS
- The rules of the Game.
- Elementary end-games.
- Fundamental middle-game combinations.
PART II - PRINCIPLES OF CHESS STRATEGY
- The openings.
- Middle-game and End-game.
4772635
There are thousands of chess books to choose from, and this holds especially true for an established chess player. Narrowing down which books are the best to get isn't easy. I will therefore try and point out why I feel that "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" should be placed high on your consideration list.

"More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" will greatly increase your depth of understanding of many very important concepts in chess. The author uses his extensive knowledge, based on many years of teaching, to create lessons that implant ideas and the techniques needed to use them. Pure genius is an understatement. Knowing just what the mind of a 1000 to 1600 rated player needs to be fed makes is one major factor that makes this book superior to all others that use a move by move comment.

"More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" is an expansion on this author's "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" (one of the most popular chess books written). If you are an average tournament player or above then having read the author's previous book(s) is not necessary to use this one.

Whereas, there is a heavy focus on opening concepts and lines, and important middlegame strategies there are several excellent endgames. Understandably, if you want to learn endgame technique, get an endgame specialty book. However, this book is packed with important opening lines not found in other books (some of the variations after 1. e4 c5 2. b3 - Sicilian, 1.e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Bc4, plus variations in the Nimzo-Indian, Queen's-Indian, Caro-Kann, Pirc, Modern, Scandinavian,  Petrof's, Goring Gambit, Scotch, Ruy Lopez lines with the Marshall, Exchange, Keres, Birds and Steinitz variations, Benoni and Bird's Openings).

This book will also help you learn to plan ahead. Once again the words I will use to describe what you will find here - "pure genius".
368678
While there could be a book with a more refined title, it covered all the points well and will improve my game in the long run. I had to agree with everything he said and have tried to follow his methods. It just makes sense to focus on fewer good shots and stop blaming yourself when you think you can play as well as the pro players. Prectice what he says and you will be surprised at how quickly you will improve.
2612216
This book helped me when I was learning. This book gives 3 basic openings and encourages the user to focus on just these. This is good advise for someone who knows how to play, but not well. These openings will get you into a sound middle game, and if your opponent is not careful they will make a mistake you'll be ready to capitalize on. I now follow a similar line of reasoning but I now use a differnt opening, the King's Indian...partly because it can be used for white or black, and it is more difficult to disrrupt. My favorite book for that is "The Ultimate King's Indian Attack" by Angus Dunnington.
1934701
If you really want to improve your game, this book has to be the best resource you can have. I really like it.
3190285
An entertainingly challenging game for groups that is quick to get a basic understanding of but tough to master.
1669658
While the book is geared to the more serious Tour type golfer it is wriiten in a manner that golfers of all levels can take away enough to help the evryday game.
2673355
Already knew about everything in the book.
Easy to follow. The illustrations change from table to table. It will not be perfect. You must practice and figure this out yourself. Advanced players who can run out 2 out of 5 games will waste money. You probably won't learn much. I don't care if you've been playing 20 years if you can't run 2 to 5 or even 2 to 10 then you need this book in your arsenal. If you do have trouble understanding then obviously you need to work on cueball control and shot shape/Defense first.
825715
If you read this book, study it, and apply it--in my opinion your playing strength should improve.  Also it will help fill in some of the missing pieces and apply the chess knowledge as you acquire it.
.
I am a strong correspondence chess player and it helped me--at a level where it is difficult to improve.
1684334
Let me clear the basic facts about what kind of book this (and the rest of the series) is; it is a game colection, very resonably anotated, with critical points arising somewhere at the end of opening phase or at the begining of middlegame. (It is not a bambambum tactics which resolve a game in instant.) At that point thematic tactical move arises which usually changes the evaluation of position by (dissa)prooving the way to handle it as black or white. Since the whole game is covered, we can see the ultimate logic of playing that position to win, but in number of games inferior side is giving its best to stay in the game. Although cover of this book is focusing on french defence, out of its 236 pages the french is having around 1/4 of it having 68 pages. The rest of the book comprises of 50 pages of Caro-Kann, 22 pages of Scandinavian, 40 pages of Pirc, 12 pages of Kings fianchetto and 26 pages of Alekhine, to be precise. What I like the most in this book is that authors managed to find a good balance between descriptive and analytic in annotating the games from the book. Also, the most of the games in here are very new, which is nice from the teoretical point, but I like that authors also included some of the great clasic games from those openings, which can be very instructive.

I give this book a strong four stars, and can recommend it to the practitioners of theese openings as a useful reminder and refreshment.
4033360
I think it is an excellent book for the advancing player.  It doesn't mention using a Strong Club Bidding System like the Precision bidding system which is the superior bidding system.  I guess the writers didn't want to complicate matters for Non-Precision players.  Almost all of the Pros play a strong club system.  But this book has a lot of great information.
4849676
This is an excellent book that tries to improve ALL aspects of your game. In bite-sized tips, your game is gradually taken to another level. I especially liked the sections on Declarer play and Defense, with the section on Opening Leads being the best feature of the book. As most players know "Lead Trumps when in doubt" is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. However, I was not sure when I SHOULD lead trumps. The feature of this book in my opinion is clearly laying out when trumps should be lead.
These tips include most of the basics like Third Hand High, Rule of 11, as well as a lot more tips that are not as well known. The sequel to this book (50 More Tips ..), while also good, is not as useful for beginning players.
1762709
This book is tough to review because people have different expectations with sport psychology books. If you are looking for a neatly organized system of beliefs, principles, and exercises to begin applying to your game tomorrow this might not be the book for you. Maybe you should check out With Winning In Mind or 10-Minute Mental Toughness? With that said, I loved this book. Once you start it you might not be able to put it down. Its a motivational book that weaves sports psychology principles into stories to illustrate the importance of each principle. This book inspired me to write down an effective system of beliefs and checklists I can go through before a game. The important part is the system and beliefs are mine.