ghost_of_pushwood wrote:
Seems making judgments is contagious...
Did I call anyone lazy?
Jeremy Silman's books
Sort:
Nwap111 wrote:
What Zirab means is that Silman's endgame book, Spongy, is not for someone more interested in a technical endgame study.
It seems to me that it is possible to make statements of that sort without making judgments about who is being serious and who is being lazy.
ghost_of_pushwood wrote (~1 minute ago):
kindaspongey wrote:
ghost_of_pushwood wrote:
Seems making judgments is contagious...
Did I call anyone lazy?
Is that the only judgment that can be made?
What judgment do you blame me for making?
Morphys-Revenge wrote:
... TAM is great!
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708094419/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/ammind.pdf
https://www.silmanjamespress.com/shop/chess/amateurs-mind-the-2nd-edition/
So is Chess Master vs Chess Amateur. Or John Nunn's book that explains every move for the amateur.
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Understanding_Chess_Move_by_Move.pdf
"... most players under 1400, unless they are especially ambitious, will probably find the Nunn book rather daunting. ..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092945/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review269.pdf
Jul 15, 2019
0
#28
I am currently working through HTRYC, 4th Edition, and am learning a lot. I have a relatively small experience with chess books though, and other books may be better. However, Silman very clearly illustrates the ideas that he is presenting very well, and most of the examples can be understood by any 1400 and possibly even lower.
Jul 15, 2019
0
#29
And by the way, has anyone seen the long 1 star review on Amazon for HTRYC 4th Edition? The claima
Checkmate. I just finished reading the long one-star review. Wow. The edition I am talking about is his original 155 page book. Not the revised edition, which was apparently poor. I was not aware of the plagarism in his revised books or even that Silman himself said of the revised edition that it was all over the place. In other words, no focus to the book. It indeed sounds like Silman was more interested in marketing than teaching.
Jul 15, 2019
0
#33
But Mr.GetReal must have something against Silman, because he completely twists his words in the books, and if he hates Silman's books so much, then why does he continue to buy and read them?
What bothers first is plagarism in a book.
Jul 15, 2019
0
#35
kindaspongey wrote:
Ziryab wrote:
His endgame book is a decent beginning for the casual player who is too lazy for serious study!
A person has absolutely no obligation to do any particular amount of chess study, and no obligation to seek to be considered "serious" by you. Under such circumstances, does it say anything about anyone other than you if you start making judgments about who is "lazy"?
Good point. However, it should be noted that Silman explicitly pitches his books towards readers looking for minimal work with maximum benefit (a prof I worked for in grad school often referred to certain students as minimaxers--that's a better term than lazy).
My use of the word "lazy" was perhaps lazy shorthand for "people with limited ambitions looking for shortcuts to endgame skill." I read 2/3 of Silman's Complete Endgame Course in an evening and have dipped into it several times since. He succeeded in convincing me to spend far less time teaching the bishop and knight checkmate to young students. I also find some of his vocabulary useful and employ it in my teaching.
However, I have spend vastly more time working through parts of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, and feel that I have barely scratched the surface of what that book offers. I also find that Averbakh's Endgames: Essential Knowledge is better organized and more useful to those with limited time who want to get to the heart of what they need for practical endgame play.
There's no question that Silman's books--all of them (except maybe Complete Book of Chess Strategy)--are useful to the average player. They have helped my play, and they have influenced my teaching. Complete Book of Chess Strategy has some good content, but it always takes me three times as long as it seems that it should to look up something that I know it contains.
I think that Silman's work deserves much more critical assessment that it has received. I'm offering some directions for that criticism.
My final thought on Reassess Your Chess is that it does one thing very well: how to read a chess board.
Learning how to read a chess board will make learning from other chess books or learning material easier. One will have better insight to what other chess educational material is trying to teach, whether it's a book, a software program, online chess educational tools, or a chess coach.
Learning how to read pawn structure will do more for you.
Ziryab wrote:
... Silman explicitly pitches his books towards readers looking for minimal work with maximum benefit ...
No specific actual Silman quote to discuss?
Ziryab wrote:
kindaspongey wrote:
Ziryab wrote:
His endgame book is a decent beginning for the casual player who is too lazy for serious study!
...
... My use of the word "lazy" was perhaps lazy shorthand for "people with limited ambitions looking for shortcuts to endgame skill." ...
Is there any reason for people to do more than what is necessary for their ambitions in a hobby?
What Zirab means is that Silman's endgame book, Spongy, is not for someone more interested in a technical endgame study.