I had a great video he did on endgames. I wore it out lol.
Edmar Mednis books
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Practical Rook Endings
How Karpov Wins
Danny -
Coincidently, I just received my third Edmar Mednis book in the mail today - "Practical Middlegame Tips".
To answer your question, the first thing that must be said is that very few chess books are totally useless. That is, there is something of value that could be gained from studying almost any chess book. This is certainly no less true of Mednis' books. The second, and probably more important, point is that not all books are "easily" accessible to all levels of players. That is, many chess books, regardless of how "good" they are touted to be (particularly by those with "Master" in their chess title), are simply too advanced for the less experienced or accomplished player, meaning, for example, that the beginner-novice player is far more likely to benefit from books written for that target audience, than from books addressed primarily to titled players. A good example is John Nunn's books (very advanced treatments) vs Bruce Pandolfini or Dan Heisman (beginner-novice). For a player who does not have very good command of the concepts covered in Pandolfini's or Heisman's books, trying to learn learn from Nunn's books would be like trying to read a calculus book before you have a good grasp of algebra.
If one accepts the aforementioned theses, then for the beginner-novice I would say the most useful of the Mednis' books would be "How to Play Good Opening Moves" (my first Mednis book, which served me well when I was just starting out in chess).
Beyond that I would say most of the other Mednis books are targeted, and therefore of most use, to the experienced intermediate player and above. This is certainly the case for his middlegame book. The same could be said of "Practical Opening Tips", which is the third of his books I own.
Bottom line - for someone at your level (well below 1600), I would say there is no compelling benefit to be gained from acquiring/reading most of Mednis' books. There are just too many other books available which would probably benefit you more.
To wit:
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Good stuff... I have the "How to Play Good Opening Moves" book (and Emms' Discovering Chess Openings). Curious about Mednis' other books because I have read a comment/review or two where he is favorably compared to authors typically writing for amateurs (like Silman, Alburt, Heisman, etc).
dannyhume wrote:
Good stuff... I have the "How to Play Good Opening Moves" book (and Emms' Discovering Chess Openings). Curious about Mednis' other books because I have read a comment/review or two where he is favorably compared to authors typically writing for amateurs (like Silman, Alburt, Heisman, etc).
Mednis's "How to Play Good Opening Moves" was the first openings principles book I read (i.e., the first three chapters on move selection) when I was just beginning in chess. Emms' "Discovering Chess Openings..." had not yet appeared on the scene. While there are certainly some useful tips in Mednis' book, the Emms book has since surpassed it in terms of quality and "comprehensiveness" of instruction in fundamental opening principles.
I am not familiar with Mednis' rook endings book, but coincidently enough, I find that Emms' "The Survival Guide to Rook Endings" is a very good introductory to this facet of the endgame. As the endgame goes, pawn endings and rook endings are typically the most commonly encountered in practice, the study of which will repay the greatest dividends over the long run.
As for pawn endings, "Secrets of Pawn Endings" by Muller & Lamprecht is outstanding.
For up to intermediate players, I recommend Pandolfini's "Endgame Workshop" as an exceptional introduction to fundamental principles of the endgame - in a sense, it could be considered the endgame analogue to Emms' "Discovering Chess Openings". Also in that conversation would be (Jeremy) "Silman's Complete Endgame Course".
Thanks RussBell for the insight/info. I enjoy tactics and endgames because of they are concrete by their nature, but I am coming out of openings very weak, cramped, or down material only a few moves, and my OTB winning percentage OTB goes up about 15-20% if I can get beyond move 6 without being down a pawn or more, so I am looking forward to reading both Mednis' and Emms' books as a welcome diversion from tactics and endgames, hopefully enough to satisfy my opening itch without me drowning myself in a sea of useless encyclopedic opening variations (useless for my level, that is).
I have read through class C in Silman's Endgame book ... good for verbal explanations, but seems like I need more drilling and problem-solving rather than "explanations."
I have not read either of the Pandolfini's Endgame books. I got frustrated at the first one as a sub-1000 player for showing multiple 15-20+ move mating sequences when I felt I would be best served training 2-4 move tactics problems, but maybe I will revisit those his endgame books.
By the way, what do you (or anybody else) think of Pandolfini's Endgame Course (as opposed to the Workshop)?
I have read through class C in Silman's Endgame book ... good for verbal explanations, but seems like I need more drilling and problem-solving rather than "explanations."
I have not read either of the Pandolfini's Endgame books. I got frustrated at the first one as a sub-1000 player for showing multiple 15-20+ move mating sequences when I felt I would be best served training 2-4 move tactics problems, but maybe I will revisit those his endgame books.
By the way, what do you (or anybody else) think of Pandolfini's Endgame Course (as opposed to the Workshop)?
Danny -
For any player who fits into the beginner-novice range or close to it, I recommend both of Pandolfini's endgame books - "Pandolfini's Endgame Course" as well as "Endgame Workshop". This is because they do not duplicate each other as much as they supplement each other. The books take a different approach. "Workshop" takes more of a fundamental principles and theme instructional approach, with lots of discussion and explanation. "Endgame Course" - is more like a puzzle book, if you will, still organized by endgame themes, but each page is a self-contained puzzle-lesson on a particular theme (with explanation). Note also that used copies of "Endgame Course" are very cheap from third party sellers on Amazon.com (which is how I like to buy chess books).
There is also an online errata sheet for the "Endgame Course" book...
http://www.glennwilson.com/chess/books/pec_errata.html
As mentioned, both books are targeted to the beginner-intermediate player, with material that is relatively "easy" to digest, and in my opinion provide excellent bang for the buck in introductory endgame instruction. Once you feel like you've done justice to the content in these books you can then more easily go on to more advanced endgame treatises, assuming it's even necessary.
By the way, I would counsel to take the approach, when studying the endgame (similar to studying openings) of not attempting to memorize stuff as much as asking yourself whether you understood what you've just been exposed to. That is, do I understand the idea, the theme, the principle illustrated - if you can say yes to that question, you have accomplished your mission for that lesson. So spend a few moments to reflect on what you've just learned for each lesson, to plant it in your subconscious. Even 15-20 move endgame sequences involve some kind of theme which you should try to identify. Trying to memorize such lengthy sequences is next to impossible for the less accomplished player, so don't even try. Just try to get the fundamental idea. You'll be surprised that these ideas were buried in your subconcious such that down the road, you will be able to resurrect, maybe not perfectly, but to some useful degree, those ideas during your games as the need arises - more so, certainly, than had you never exposed yourself to the ideas at all. But this will only happen if you were able to answer "yes" to the question of understanding, as a part of your study process.
Thanks RussBell! I wasn't sure the utility of trying to play through some of these lengthy sequences, but now that I have a little more experience with being able to drum up basic themes from more complicated patterns, I will find time to read them both sooner than later. Thanks for the errata link, also.
Yes. Just put a little effort in trying to discern the idea, concept or principle. If it still escapes you, move on. You will certainly have learned something useful, even if it's not readily apparent at that moment.
Chess on Danny!
Did he write "How to beat Bobby Fischer"?
He did beat Bobby if I remember, so he did what few others did.
I must study a little more about Mednis, although I must say that Averbach is my early mentor for Endgames.
Learnt that very valuable piece of Chess Knowledge how to mate with King, Knight and Bishop v Lone King.
Has come in very handy, as my opponents seem to sense I know it, and so i have never had to use it.
kindaspongey wrote:
Book review of Pandolfini's "Endgame Workshop"...
Thanks Spongey!
Mednis opening book is a very good book on opening basics but limited in scope and I'm not sure how much his analysis holds up on his main emphasis, the Sicilian Dragon and Queen's Gambit Declined, since publication. But very solid on getting across opening principles.
Mednis "How to beat Bobby Fischer" is enjoyable and instructive. Though not particularly deep, it does show how players, even a super GM, can go wrong and get punished. The book is one of my favorites.
Occasionally, I'll come across a glowing comment about his work. On Amazon, I see a lot of titles he has written that are older (he died in 2002), books that I have never heard of, that have no reviews on Amazon, and that don't often get thrown into the "how to improve?" lists (like Chernev, Heisman, McDonald, and Silman, for instance). Patrick Wolffe (who wrote the Idiot's Guide to Chess) was coached by him.
Are his works still useful (I don't mean marginally useful, or good reading for historical interest, but helpful for improving playing strength) or are they too dated in this modern age?