| When Alexander Kotov�s Think Like a Grandmaster came out in the early 1970s, it proposed a specific way to analyze involving the selection of candidate moves in a given position, which were to be analyzed once, and only once. Previous to this, the way to calculate accurately was said to be play in a lot of tough tournaments, and your abilities would improve. Kotov not only advocated a certain way of thinking, but also proposed that the aspiring student set up a complicated position from a game with good notes. That he put a fixed amount of time on his clock, pull out his notebook and record what he felt were the essential elements of the position. For more than twenty years, Kotov�s book was the only real attempt to describe a system of analysis. Much has changed in the last ten years. Books by Jonathan Tisdall, Jeremy Silman, John Watson, John Nunn, Jonathan Rowson and Alex Yermolinsky have all approached this complicated subject from slightly different angles. On one thing they agree: Kotov�s system was too rigid to be efficient. Or, as Grandmaster Anatoly Lein once put it, �I�m not a tree!� The latest offering in this field is How to Think in Chess (Russell Enterprises 2001, 276 pages, figurine algebraic, paperback, $24.95) by Jan Przewoznik and Marek Soszynski. The authors offer varied suggestions on how to improve one�s thinking abilities in which they advocate the advantages of thinking aloud and protocol analysis. This first part of the book may or may not strike a resonant chord with the reader, but there is one thing I�m 100 % sure of: If you go through all the 200+ exercises, you will improve you ability to calculate, without question! The last part of the book deals with psychological training. Some people that are not fans of the social sciences may not find this part of the book particularly helpful. For others, it could be just the thing. One thing that struck me as very sensible and borrows a page from Grandmaster Sveshnikov�s old chess school was the following: The basic plan is set up a study group, agree on an opening, gather the material, have everyone in the group go over it, locate the key positions, play training games with the key positions, and then analyze the training games. This worked like a charm for Sveshnikov who had all sorts of strong young IMs finding novelties in the Sveshnikov and 2.c3 Sicilians. Sort of like college professors writing books with their graduate students. One thing I did find optimistic was the author�s cheerful conclusion that this �will be the group members secret weapon; for two years it will be constantly updated from experiences from tournament games.� Today, in this age of constant information, I would say a few months is a more realistic time period for keeping things under cover. Recommended. This book is available through Russell Enterprises, Inc., PO Box 30, Milford, CT, 06460 or go to: www.chesscafe.com |