Scottrf don't confuse the chess end-point sales folks with the book distributors.
Yusupov vs. Silman
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The sales folks are the ones who decide which to sell together.
Not always. When you see the same bundle available for the same discount from multiple vendors, then you are looking at a distributor's bundle.
Yep, and the distrubutor forces them to sell it? My point is that the responsibility is with the person who has the contact with the customer.
Actually, the distributor most likely does require they be sold as bundle. If the distributor has that product listed as a single sale item they would not allow it to be broken up if it has a different price point than the items individually.
Further, it is not uncommon when contracting with a vendor for them to require that if you are going to offer one of the distributor's books in a particular market sub-segment, that you have to offer all of the distributor's books in that area.
yusupov books by quality chess are my best chess books ever
"How to reasses your chess" will definitely supply you with all the tools you need to solve a position. It's also really easy to read unlike some chess books that just complicates fundamental play.
Qualy Chess's page on the series: http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/docs/14/artur_yusupovs_awardwinning_training_course/
There isn't any recommended order, but the orange books are easiest, then the blue ones, the green ones are hardest.
Each book has 24 chapters, they're all a mix of different subjects, that's the idea. Instead of concentrating on one area, you should get a well-rounded chess education. If you're particularly bad at some subject in the books then you'll know you'll have to work on those further.
As an example, these are the chapters in build up 1:
1 Mating motifs 82 Mating motifs 2 183 Basic opening principles 304 Simple pawn endings 445 Double check 546 The value of the pieces 647 The discovered attack 748 Centralizing the pieces 829 Mate in two moves 9210 The opposition 10011 The pin 11012 The double attack 12013 Realizing a material advantage 12814 Open files and Outposts 13815 Combinations 14816 Queen against pawn 15617 Stalemate motifs 16418 Forced variations 17219 Combinations involving promotion 18220 Weak points 19221 Pawn combinations 20222 The wrong bishop 21223 Smothered mate 22224 Gambits 232Final test 244
Back to the original question:
i am just a 1500+ and i don´t find Yusupov's "orange" books that hard...of course they are not a "mate in one" serie and require hard work, but in my humble opinion that is a basic condition you will always need need to improve in chess. They are nicely arranged WORK books, mixing different aspectcs you will inevitably need in your progression: from tactics (of course) to endgame and calculation of variations.
Regarding Silman, nice fellow, but don't you get trapped thinking just because he "talks" a lot, you are really learning what he means...that learning in chess goes, necesarily, through personal, individual, HARD WORKING...so, enjoy your Yusupov's oranges....
I finished the first chapter and passed the test:-) I missed ex. 2 & 10...I had #2 but not the best moves. #10 was a little above me. So far I love the book, it's fun to sit at a real board and push pieces:-)
t_taylor wrote:
I finished the first chapter and passed the test:-) I missed ex. 2 & 10...I had #2 but not the best moves. #10 was a little above me. So far I love the book, it's fun to sit at a real board and push pieces:-)
How are the Yusupov books coming? I'm considering these books too and we're about the same rating...
I like the book...it is kicking my butt though:) I'm on chapter 12, but i haven't passed all the tests. I will probably have to go through some chapters again. If you're looking for a tough book, and don't mind spending 2-4 hours a chapter, go for it. I will probably supplement with a good tactics book, such as Martin Weteschnik's "Understanding Chess Tactics" or someone also mentioned one that's pretty new on amazon.
Quasimorphy wrote:
Here's another tactics book that looks like good bang for the buck. It's relatively new, so it may not be as well known as the others mentioned so far.
http://www.amazon.com/1001-Chess-Exercises-Beginners-Workbook/dp/9056913972/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359285882&sr=1-1
Here's an excerpt to give you an idea of the difficulty level.
this may be a good tactics book, also there is chess-steps method in one of the comments. Yusupov also has several suggestions at the end of his book. One thing i do like is his books are not just tactics, but a mixture of everything. Unfortunately, i haven't seen a boost in my ratings, but i did manage to beat the grandmaster of them all, my brother:)
The supplier I was referring to is a chess book supplier.