50 Essential Chess Lessons

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Edition: Paperback
Author: Steve Giddins
Skill Range: All levels
Publisher: Gambit
Year Published: 2006
# of Pages: 160
ISBN: 1904600417

Description:

Steve Giddins has chosen 50 supremely instructive games. Some old, some new, including many that few readers will have seen before. He has annotated these games in detail from a modern perspective, explaining the useful lessons that can be learned from them, while avoiding the harmful dogma that characterized many older works of this type. Topics include: Attacking the King, Defense, Piece Power, and Endgame Themes. Each game is followed by a recap of the main lessons to be learned.

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by zackistall - 14 months ago
Singapore

Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 111

Rating:

This book thought me the meaning of attacking while defending. I benifited a lot reading this book.

by SonofPearl - 16 months ago
Wales

Member Since: May 2007
Member Points: 3436

Rating:

I'm currently reading this book and highly recommend it.

Steve Giddins is a FIDE Master from England and regular contributor to the British Chess Magazine. Giddins states in the introduction to this book that he is trying to produce a modern version of Irving Chernev's 'The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played'. He succeeds spectacularly and even manages to improve on the old classic by adopting the more systematic approach of grouping the games together into particular topics.

The book is divided into 5 Chapters:

1. Attacking the King (3 Games)
2. Defence (4 Games)
3. Piece Power (10 Games)
4. Pawn Structure (25 Games)
5. Endgame Themes (8 Games)

I found the section on pawn structures to be particularly enlightening. All the games are chosen carefully to elucidate the theme being considered and at the end of each of the 50 games there is a list of 'essential lessons' to take from the game.

A pdf sample from the book can be found here.

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