I can't help but be curious about this book. "Rapid Chess improvement:A study plan for Adult Players" by M. dMaza. It provides anecdotes and criticisims on typical coaching style of certain coach/authors systems which are not really applicable to class players.It even has criticisms on  Sillman's books (balanced criticisim of course.).

Here is the rebuke from Mr. Silman

http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_js/js_rapid_chess_improv.htm

Who would I prefer as a teacher:

A guy who has studied chess tactics for 8-12 hours a day for a year to go from 900 to 2000 elo. Not explained how he has a life and a job with so little time left to do anything else (just as well it is possible to read chess books on the toilet). Has only trained himself and no one else. He burnt himself out with this crazy chess fanaticism and then he gave up after one year.

Or

An international master (2400+) and professional chess mentor and author who has taught everybody from promising juniors and chess hacks like me how to improve at their own pace.

Studying tactics is very important to improving and Michael de la Maza just states the obvious and provides unrealistic study timetables for real people. In my opinion, it is better to use the chess tactics trainer here or elsewhere (checkout chessbase DVDs as well) than follow this lunatic. Also, ignoring chess strategy as this guy advocates, is ignoring one of the main reasons why chess is a great game.

Very well said brother...I just find it strange that a certain author criticize another when they are both going in a direction towards one goal. That is to teach.

Do yourself a favor and take a look at reviews at Amazon.com on "Rapid chess improvement".

That book should be taught in business school on how to pull a fast one on customers! 

Tactics alone will only take you so far. Now obviouisly, everybody should study tactics but what about openings, endgame and strategy?

my opinion is, study your own games and study position which you not sure what how to progress. for me, i usually blurred a while in middlegames but ends up making a ?! move. it is good also when you study chess lectures from masters. I like Roman's Lab, used his advise in blitz games. i get better result then in tournament games.

I recommend reading Michael de la Maza's articles (you can find them at chesscafe.com, here is the second one www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles150.pdf) because they are free and say essentially the same thing as the book. The book is just filler and fluff around the core of the two articles. The bottom line is, tactics are very important for avoiding mistakes and punishing mistakes. Learn the heck out of them, because these mistakes decide most games at least up to the expert level.

"Chess Training for the budding champions" by Jesper Hall is the book you need to read, once you understand it you can build your own study program, I believe this is the book your looking for, not a book written by a 2000 ELO player .

The Amateur's Mind was the book by Silman that really springboarded me from being a woodpusher to an OTB Club Playin' Hack.  It may not sound like much of an endorsement, but considering I basically used that book to teach myself all the strategy beyond the tactics it has helped me out a lot.

fanat> Tactics alone will only take you so far. Now obviouisly, everybody should study tactics but what about openings, endgame and strategy?

De La Maza demonstrated it 'only' takes you to 2000 USCF. Baltic is rated 1000 chess.com. I would argue the opening, endgame, and strategic knowledge one needs to make 1400 chess.com fits on a cocktail napkin--tactics are key to moving up.

fanat> That book should be taught in business school on how to pull a fast one

He's a good salesman, but it's more like someone selling accurate roadmaps for $15 that he also makes available online for free. If you're on a budget, get the free version!

I spent over 10 years rated OTB at under 1200 USCF.  I don't study openings, just try to make sensible moves that will get me into the middle game without being destroyed.  Since reading De la Maza's book, I have been doing tactics training with software for 30 minutes to an hour per day. My rating has gone up over 150 points and I see a lot more in my games ( my moves, and my opponents).  My rating on Chess.com is in the high 1600's. I agree wholeheartedly with him, that most games below Class A are won or lost because of a mistake (or more) by one side or the other. By the way, he doesn't say to only study tactics. Studying your games and going over them with a stronger player, which he recommends (especially with a graph showing where good or bad moves were made) I think is just as important.  I see a lot of players on this site and others that play hundreds and thousands of games, and don't think they are looking at their games and probably making the same mistakes over and over.

I have over 100 chess books, and find that a vast majority are way over my head and written for much higher level player.

De La Maza's book actually gives a window into how to learn anything you really want to... but that's the subject of another lecture. What most people get out of De La Maza can be summed up in two words: Study tactics. I think that's a good way to improve for most players... not sure that requires a book (I suppose a better summary of De La Maza requires three words: Study tactics intensively).

But read ReAssess your chess, or The Amateur's Mind.

Silman's will not only teach you things that can help you play better chess, he'll help you get more out of the game, more understanding and more enjoyment,that alone is worth the price of admission.

My chess improved considerably when I got a copy of The Middlegame in Chess by Reuben Fine. His method of analyzing positions and creating plans made sense to me. WARNING: make sure you get an older copy, not the 2003 version butchered by Burt Hochberg. You can get a used copy on Amazon.com.

Never bothered with tactics. I read Fine’s middlegame book, studied a few R&P and K&P endings and played over the best game collections of Reshevsky, Botvinnik and Alekhine. My first otb rating was 1667 and it never went any lower. Eventually I got around to reading Pachman’s book on the middlegame, studying more endings and playing over hundreds of master games trying to increase my pattern recognition and got to about 2100 before giving up otb play for postal. Where did I go wrong?

Everything of importance in the de la Maza book can be found in the 2 articles he did for chesscafe. The book is basically those 2 articles with a bunch of filler material. There is nothing groundbreaking about what he says and if he was truly correct that nothing but tactics mattered he could have kept going, but he himself knew that they wouldn't take him any farther so he quit.

Tactics drills should definitely be a part of your chess work (the tactics trainer on here is a great tool for that), but you shouldn't neglect other areas of the game.