Quality Chess Build Up Your 1: The Fundamentals

Livro caiu como uma luva para o meu nível. Devo comprar o restante da série

Build Up Your Chess、Boost Your Chess、Chess Evolutionと続く最初のコースの第１巻。IntroductionでElo 1500以下、Elo 1800以下、Elo 2100以下のコースを開講したことからこのシリーズが出来上がったとあるから、上記のコースはこのレイティングに対応しているのだと思う。 ２４のレッスンがあり、各レッスンの最後に試験がある。合格点に達しないともう一度勉強しなさいということになる。全体の最後にまた試験がある。試験の部分は手番が示されるだけでノーヒント。 レッスンはページの外側（綴じていない方）に盤面があり、綴じ目の方に説明がある。本を小さく開いて、まず考えることができるように工夫されている。 私の棋力では、難しすぎず、易しすぎず、ちょうど良いレベルだと思う。楽しみながら力がつきそうである。

Me habían hablado bien de ésta serie y las reseñas en internet eran buenas, pero tenía mis dudas. Sin embargo el material es muy bueno; me siento muy satisfecho con el libro y creo, aunque solo estoy comenzando, que será para trabajar la serie!!!

I ordered this book after playing a few hundred online games and felt that I was hitting a wall in terms of strategy at the ~1000 mark. This book covers a nice range of topics that are each illustrated by diagrams and the line played for half a dozen examples, with the instruction then to turn your attention to a dozen exercises to pull off the chapter's strategy. You will need to sit down, set out the position in the exercise, and then stare at the board trying to find the best sequence. If this sounds intimidating -- this book might not be for you! But if you are at the position where you are playing online or club games where you can evaluate 3, 4 or 5 move lines in your head, this book will be perfect, as most of the exercises require only that many moves for a solution. Yusupov doesn't add much in evaluation or explanation of the tactical themes -- this book is presented plainly as a "Get on with it!" style of instruction after a quick summary of the topic. However, the example games and exercises are all taken from high-level games from chess throughout the 20th century -- no tired retreading of 19th century classics here. Even better, the exercises often have multiple solutions, some better than others. I'd highly recommend this book if you're serious enough about chess to want to invest the time and effort to work through the exercises with a board.

The only negative things I have to say about this book are: 1) the organization is bizarre as heck; and 2) I don’t think Yusupov has a very good sense of what is and what is not difficult. The first point is more of an oddity than it is a serious detractor. Each lesson is internally complete, so it is just weird that one finds the collection of topics in this book that one does. As far as content, this is probably the most important content one needs at the high intermediate level to improve. On the second point, Yusupov gives many reasonable problems, but I don’t think the exercises are always given the correct number of difficulty stars. Some of the 3-star problems deserved 4, and some of the 2-star problems deserved 3. There were also a number of 4- and 3-star problems that I thought should have been a star (or 2) less in rating. The book is all around exceptional. The most important thing to know when considering this text is that it is difficult, and that I’m not sure that the intended audience is really the audience that should seek this book out. I’m not sure what my USCF strength is (officially, my rating peaked at 1608, but I am very likely much stronger), but among myself and two friends --one rated 1660, the other 1780--, both of them had difficulty solving the average problem, while I was occasionally stumped. If this book is intended to move players from 1500-1800, then it has a bizarre quality of being extremely difficult for players that are just about there and who are on the way. The topics, themselves, are not out of the ordinary of what you’d expect for 1500-1800. However, the degree of difficult makes me believe that the end goal of this first series of “1800” might be FIDE, not USCF; or maybe the end goal of this series is really 1850 FIDE, i.e., approx. 1950 USCF. These are certainly not complaints, but clarifications for potential buyers and readers. Let me be clear: this is the best system I have come across, and it is the most information dense. I only wish to provide a caveat lector and caveat emptor, because I’ve spoken with players in the 1400’s and 1500’s (USCF) who said this book was horribly difficult, and they scored 3pts out of 22 on the sections with exercises (e.g., the book rates results as: 12 pts is “pass,” 16 pts “good,” 19pts is “excellent,” and these vary among chapters). The book includes content, as I said, that seems basic in name, but Yusupov makes it quite complex, rich, and sophisticated. These areas included are tactical motifs, opening principles, Steintz’ strategic principles, and endgame concepts. I really can’t believe I got so much out of this book, looking at some of the lesson titles, but I did. I think that’s a testament to this book’s quality in developing sound fundamentals, even in advanced players. About the only complaint I have on the content is that Yusupov claims that forced moves are the same as combinations. While this is true for a professional player, I think the distinction has pedagogical value, and so it is legitimately a downside of this book. That aside, this book is endlessly informative, and very deserving of the Bolaslavski Book Award –and it should be noted that Yusupov beat out some of the biggest names in chess teaching for the award, e.g. Dvoretsky. All in all, I have to recommend this to anyone around USCF 1500. Despite the fact that much of it is easy for me, I see rapid improvement in my game, and I can only conclude that this system is shoring up my holes.