Is Silman's Reassess Your Chess a bit beyond me?

Everybody on this forum seems to swear by Silman's Reassess Your Chess. Now I am open to getting it, (and really I want to ) but I may not be ready for it yet. I am just a beginner plus. I don't how to explaind the "plus" except that I am playing in a tournament (not doing all that great though ) and really wanting to get better at chess as soon as I can. I am willing to read and use software and play here, and I think that will strengthen me.

But enough about me (except to let you know I am not quite an intermediate player yet.) Do you think Silman's book would be helpful to me at this stage?

Some of you may remember that I took out Silman's Workbook from the library and returned it immediately! It just was not for me. But then I had not read the  book on which it was  based.

Please advise.

stwils

I do not think it is 'beyond you'.  Here is silman's own idea on the matter:

Material that is 'too advanced' for your level of play still helps you out.  It drops little mind-bombs in your head and exposes you to more advanced concepts.  You may not really 'get it' when silman talks about the battle between a bishop and knight.  But then one day you'll be playing a game and you'll utilize the concept.

Sure, if you're a total beginner you may be better off with 'play winning chess' by yasser seirawan.  By I want to warn you:  It may leave you with a very stodgy, rule-oriented 'feel' for the game.  Silman's idea of 'imbalances' feels way more objective and should lead you to a way more healthy unbiased view of what is going on, even if you are a beginner. 

I rate myself as a beginner even though I have been playing off and on for many years. I really enjoy the book and it has helped me alot. Maybe they have it in you library if they had his workbook? Give you a chance to check it out. Even if you are not ready for it now, you will be one day.

Yes, it is beyond you.  The book is for USCF players rated 1600+.  Get a tactics book.

 "But that a man's reach shall exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for."  Robert Browning.

chesschamp, I am sure you are right. And I am working on tactics.  But your short to the point comment, which was right on the mark, reminded me of this Robert Browning quote.

stwils

Silman recommends reading the first 52 pages of Reassess Your Chess then put it aside and read The Amateur's Mind, and only then finish Reassess Your Chess.

You need a tactics book, to prove this start keeping track of why you when or lose games.  I did this for 30 games and 24 times it was tactics that won or lost and only 6 times it was strategical elements like in Reassess Your Chess.  And I am a 1700 so for you tactics win and lose you almost all of your games.

I'd suggest something like John Littlewood's Chess Tactics or Dan Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics to learn tactical motifs. There are plenty of tactics problem books out there. Good beginning ones include John Bain's Chess Tactics for Students, Hall's Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors . The tactics trainer here on chess.com is also very useful for working on tactics. Learning mating patterns is also important. Murray Chandler's How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Renaud & Kahn's The Art of the Checkmate are both good books for that.

Some said go ahead with HTRYC.  Some said study tactics.  I say do both.  I recommend (as someone else did) to also get the Amateur's Mind and follow Silman's method of using both books.  As a beginner, you definitely need to spend a lot of time on tactics and learning to attack.  I think it is good to go ahead and get the Silman concepts in your head though.

I am generally rated 1350-1400 on this site.  My understanding is that this would put me at about 1000-1100 OTB.  That is probably about a beginner plus or beginner plus plus.  So take my opinions with that in mind.

Here's the deal.  Most experienced chess players (of whatever level) seem to agree that the most important thing for a new (or poor) chess player to study is tactics. You'll hear the phrase "Chess is 90% tactics".  

This is true because the blunders that low-level Chess players make are far more costly than playing an opening that is not slightly unfavorable to you.  If you want to see significant improvement in your game, stop making blunders and start capitalizing on your opponents' tactical mistakes.  This is why a lot of players have recommended chess tactics books instead of reading Silman's.

But I think this is poor advice.  Yes, studying tactics is necessary for improvement.  But it isn't either/or.  You shouldn't be mindlessly moving your pieces around until you happen to spot a tactic.  Learn how to generate tactics through good strategy.

It isn't necessary to spend hours upon hours reading Silman's books.  I would read enough of Reassess Your Chess or The Amateur's Mind so that you understand the concept of imbalances that Silman talks about.  Enough so that you have a basic sense of how to formulate a strategic plan.  

Then put those books away.  Practice tactics.

I think the argument isn't so much that you should do one or the other. It is a question of having a finite amount of time to devote to chess study, and what can you do that will bring you the most benefit in that amount of time. At lower levels that means the most efficient way to increase your playing strength is to learn and drill tactical motifs and get pattern recognition working for you. An example of this is the 10 games I just played in the 1st round of the Ruy Lopez thematic tournament. I think all of them were decided by tactics, blunders, or both.

This doesn't mean you should ignore learning strategic or positional ideas, just that your main focus should probably be tactics.

Another book that is a good introduction to Strategy, and positional chess is Micheal Stean's Simple Chess. This can double as a game collection book to work through since everything is presented through annotated games.

This will probably be an unpopular assessment.

I studied Silman's HTRYC many years ago. While I found it well written and enjoyable to read, I didn't find it as revolutionary as I had anticipated and the concepts Silman stressed had been with me in some form since I was a novice. While it may be an indictment on my comprehension ability more so than on the content of the book, I can't say studying HTRYC changed my way of playng one iota.

My experiences were this: I started reading the Silman books too early and I didn't grasp all he was getting at. What it did, was force me to look at chess in a totally different way. Now after growing quite a bit, I believe I am ready to re-read them. The books I found most helpful at that level were the Winning Chess series by Yasser Seirawan. I would suggest Winning Chess Tactics, followed by Winning Chess Strategy. My chess game improved much more from those books than the Silman series.

Simple answer: do tactics

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts on my getting the Silman book now.

Playing in this tournament I am in has made me realize there are two HUGE things I need. (1) Tactics and being able to see what is coming. I make dreadful blunders because I don't see things until it is too late.

But (2) I need a plan. I need to think about where I am going (attack, strategy). Not just hide and hope.

Therefore, as some of you suggested, I am going to get Seirawan's Winning series, (Strategy, Tactics, Endings, Openings, and Play Winning Chess.) I can get them all second hand at a good price so I am going forward with that.

As for Silman, yes, it is beyond me now, but as I mentioned earlier, Robert Browning said,  "But that a man's reach shall exceed his grasp or what's a Heaven for."  So I am going to get Silman's Reassess Your Chess, put it on the shelf with my other books, and read a little from time to time and hopefully some of his thoughts will gradually become a part of me. Then later after I have become a better player with tactics in my bones and with some kind of plan for what to do, then and only then will I settle down and study him.

I feel good about this.

stwils

Hey Zen,

I actually took lessons from Silman, and he recommends you read his book

Amateur's Mind first.  I have read this and agree with his recommendation

whole-heartedly.

Brymar

 No online rating will put you at a certain scale OTB. There is no direct way to equate the two and estimates are just useless. Only your OTB rating after at least 25 games will ever do that.

To the original poster, study tactics. While you contemplate how your pawn structure favors a queenside attack, or how your bishop dominates the knight, your opponent will mate you.

i've said it before and I'll say it again

• the BEST book for beginners tactics is this

do some of these EVERYDAY and I KNOW you will improve .

I am speaking from experience . I started playing about 5 years ago and got that book after about six months . I went from 1200 to 1400 in about 3 months .

There is a lot of good input here so far.  I would recommend another book by him first. Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master,  This book is broken up by rating class.  So, If you are a class E player then read and understand everything up til class E, then move on to the next chapter Class D.  Don't move on until you have fully understood the lesson(s) for your level.  As you learn more in chess you can move on to the more advance lessons.  This may help you before you get into the more serious chess books.  This book can be found at amazon.com and you can read the reviews about it.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Feel free to challenge me(unrated) and I can always help you as I can.

Motat, thank you. I would love to play you as soon as I get through with this tournament I am in. But I am willing to play a rated game with you as the 1200 they gave me here when I joined, is much too high for me and I want to be who I am with whatever rating I am.

I'll look on Amazon for Silman's other book. I did not know about  that one.  Good grief. I may be out of money before Christmas!

stwils