Yusupov's series from Quality Chess

Build up... Boost... and Chess Evolution (the 9 chess workbooks).

What are your impressions of these? What are the main advantages and disadvantages? What level did you find each book to be pitched at? What was the writing style like (Dry / casual / boring)?

The 9 books are on offer as a hardback set from Quality Chess. Wondering if they're worth looking in to.

I've never heard a bad review of them, I think that's the most striking thing as most chess books have at least a few detractors out there.

One advantage is that it's kind of a one-stop shop.  Many club players (in my experience at least) waffle back and forth between books and training methods, never really making any progress.  With the Yusupov series, if you can stay focused, you don't need to waste time looking at anything else or wondering *what* to do.  You just put your nose to the grindstone and do the work.

Another advantage is that it's essentially the classic soviet system of chess training and has been proven time and time again.  Yusupov is one of the greatest trainers in the world, he himself was trained by Dvoretsky and went on to collaborate with Dvoretsky on training materials.  So you could not ask for a better trainer.  Essentially you're getting 24 2-hour lessons (per book) with one of the best trainers in the world for the price of a book, where else can you find this kind of value?

Really the only disadvantage that I can think of is that, it may seem like a magic bullet to chess improvement.  It's not.  The magic bullet is hard work.  The Yusupov books are just one way (a really good way) to enable you to work hard on the right material.  If you buy the Yusupov books thinking it's an easy way to 2200, then you're in for a rude awakening.  The material is great but you do have to work very hard.

Also you really get the best out of it if you can dedicate ~2 hours per session to studying.  Each lesson is self-contained and designed to take that long (more or less), and while it's possible to split the lessons up into two sessions, I really wouldn't recommend it.  So if you can only afford 30 minutes or so for your practice session, it's probably best to just do some tactics and endgame puzzles rather than working a quarter of a Yusupov lesson.

You do have to study these books with a physical chessboard -- true learning is best achieved through experience and he makes it very clear that if you're just passively reading the book, you're not going to get the best out of it.  I certainly agree with him so I do not consider this a disadvantage, but you may if you want a book you can read on the train without a set in front of you.

The writing style is fine.  They are very active books, and keep you engaged.  You will spend a lot more time moving pieces around on a chessboard than you will reading.

I found the orange books to be challenging (in a good way) at my level (1400-1500 on here).  There were a couple of lessons that I "failed" and had to re-do but overall I didn't think the material was above my level.

I highly recommend them for the very motivated student -- with the caveat that I haven't really looked at the blue/green books too much, but I expect they're just as good as the orange ones.

That's a really great summary!

Should the books be read by colour or by number? E.g. all the orange books first or all the books marked with a number 1 first?

I've downloaded a few of the chapters from the Quality Chess site and I really like two things:

- Each of the lessons are bitesized and make the reader have a sense of accomplishment when they complete the exercises at the end
- The 24 lessons in each book are on a large range of topics and it means that the reader always looks forward to mixing it up 

I only have the first book, and have just started, but I love what I see so far. Rather than being a treatise on the opening or endgames or any one specialized part of chess, the book addresses everything about the game. It starts off with mating motifs, then tackles basic opening principles. It then goes into pawn endings, followed by a look at tactics. It continues on in this manner, which keeps the reader interested and engaged, in my opinion. As kponds said above, though, and it's mentioned in the beginning of the book, you must use a board in front of you, with this book. The work is all about playing out the variations on the board. A chapter gives you examples to play through, then an exercise at the end to do on your own. You are to score yourself on the exercise using the point system given in the book, and if you didn't do well enough, you are to work through the chapter and exercises again. Another thing I like about the examples given, is that there are equal numbers of them with black to play first. I don't know why, but it irks me in those publications where it is always white to play. Here, you're given real life situations, and it is 50/50. Any way, I guess you can tell that I'm a fan of this series. I can't speak for any of the books except the very first one (Build up, orange cover,) but if the rest are similar, then they are great!

thanks for the very helpful reviews of the course!!!

"Should the books be read by colour or by number?"

On mine (mine are paperback editions though), the colors and numbers are the same.  That is, all of the orange ones are marked 1, all of the blues are marked 2, and all of the greens are marked 3.

All of the Orange books are subtitled "fundamentals".  Then all of the Blue books, "beyond the basics".  Then all of the Green books, "mastery".

If you wanted to do all 9 books, the logical and intended order is:

Build up Your Chess Level 1 (Orange)

Boost Your Chess Level 1 (Orange)

Chess Evolution Level 1 (Orange)

Then follow the blues in the same order, and the greens in the same order.

You can likely get value out of the Orange books if your rating is under 1800 (OTB), they will almost certainly clear up gaps in knowledge.  I would not recommend skipping them.

Sorry, you're right, my mistake. When I said colour vs number, I meant to say colour vs name, i.e. there is an orange, blue and green book all with the subtitle 'Build up Your Chess'. So I wasn't sure whether to read all the 'Build up Your Chess' titles first or the orange titles first.

Anyway, I think the series would be a good fit for me, because I'm prone to having short attention spans and wading through HTRYC, I get through 15 pages of prose and then the Wii U stares at me and Mario Kart is more interesting than chess all of a sudden.

If you can make yourself work very hard they're really good. If you tend to try to go through stuff quickly instead they won't help that much.

I'd say a good level to start these books is 1600 FIDE.

I took out a premium membership yesterday so that I can have access to tactics trainer and so on. One book which I have found immensely useful (I'm only a little of the way through but it's excellent so far) is Chess Tactics from Scratch by Martin Weteschnik (another Quality Chess publication as it happens). It's another book along with the Yusupov that has short chapters with exercises at the end. I think I probably am a learning by doing sort of person - but I also love reading in general, maybe it's the style of prose in the Silman, then again maybe it's the laziness of the student!

They are excellent. Starting level would be around 1600 OTB (maybe 1500 if you're young), but they require work. As stayed in kponds' excellent review, they require work to benefit from the material, but the value for the money is hard to beat.

These books are the polar opposite of HTRYC.  HTRYC is like an epic, 500 page poem and Yusupov is like a collection of 1000 haikus with fill in the blanks.

I won't say HTRYC is bad (I'm not qualified to), but it has such a narrative style that I found it difficult to stay engaged.  Not that it's dry, it just feels like I'm in a very long lecture.

The format of any given chapter in the Yusupovs is like "Here's a position, analyze it.  Did you find this line? Did you find these other lines?"  repeated 12-15 times, and then a 12 position test to make sure you got it.  

There is very little prose, limited to only the basic explanation neccessary.  The material does not at all lend itself to reading passively or being disengaged.

I'd say it's more similar to chess mentor than it is to most other chess books, actually.

Excellent thread!  My compliments to Kpond for such a thorough answer.  I thought about these books some time ago, but was not ready.  Perhaps 2015 is the year I try out Yusupov's instruction.

I made the mistake of ordering the third book first. The very first position was Zukertort-Blackburne (below). As the people at the Quality Chess blog point out, Yusupov vastly overestimates his audience. The books that I've seen so far are great, but I would not expect even a 1600 player to stick with such a difficult course. 

Here's the first position from his third book in the series. Do you really think this is beginner-level stuff?

To reply to SmyslovFan, I'm in two minds, the theme here is piece deflection, I can see a player who spends a full 10 minutes analysing the position (and remember it's not 'from scratch', it's a position in a themed chapter), might get somewhere, maybe not the full solution. Another thing to point out is that a 'pass' mark for the tests is about 2/3 - and points are often scored for a half-correct answer. Also, the player is introduced to themes through a half dozen explanatory positions to orient the player correctly to the themes in the test sections. I ended up buying the first book in the series and it is challenging but I have noticed a marked improvement in my slow play - definitely not blitz, chess.com is my 10 minutes blitz account while having a beer - but I drew against someone last week OTB given that it was my first 'serious' league game in 11 years, and I think this book helped, I think the first book is correct for a player between 1250 and 1500. Bear in mind it is definitely OTB classical time controls, where people have the luxury of a quarter hour to calculate and think. Really think. Can't comment on the further books in the series.

The position I chose was the very first one in the book. Generally, the first puzzle is the easiest. I don't think that's at all easy. Take a look at the number of side variations needed to calculate! That's just too much to expect of any novice. I'd give that puzzle to some 1500s as a bit of a challenge after I'd already introduced the concept.

I do rather like the series so far, but will pick and choose which sections to give to my students. I can easily imagine that the later books are really geared towards the +2000 rated crowd. 

As I mentioned, the folks in the QC blog respect Yusupov's work but are just about unanimous in stating that Yusupov isn't writing for beginners. If you work really hard, any good book will help. These books will definitely help, perhaps more than Silman's books. But they require a tremendous amount of work and dedication. Yusupov doesn't make it easy.

As a teacher, what is your recommended course of study for a 1300-1500 player?

I've been working through tactics books Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar and Tactics Time by Tim Brennan.  I think solving jsuch puzzles has done much for my game.  I really enjoy the puzzle format as opposed to pages and pages of prose, hence the attraction to Yusupov's series.  

The series is great. I have started working with the stage 3 books and it's helping me. Using them to build myself up to FIDE 2300

Bruch, it sounds like you're on the right track. Yusupov recommends getting a coach, which is certainly a good idea if you can afford one. 

If not, get your hands on Nimzo's My System and Watson's Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy and some really good game collections that are well annotated. Don't take any short cuts. Reading these books may take months. Think of these as your text books in an independent study course. You will get out of them only what you put into them.

I hear of so many people reading these books in the wrong order. It's a bit ambiguous so it is good you posted that to clarify.

I will not make that mistake (but I am not yet advanced enough for these books).