Chess Strategy for Club Players: The Road to Positional Advantage (New in Chess) Paperback – April 28, 2017

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I love it because it is far-and-away the single best strategy and position-assessment book I have read. I hate it because it could have been so much better, and Grooten is certainly good enough to have made it better in the ways that I think it could have been better. Since the review is 5-stars, you can stop here and consider my recommendation for this book superlative. However, I am going to start out by saying what was wrong with the book, after which I will talk about what’s so great.The negative comments made in some of the other reviews are spot on, such as the lack of organization of the book. I really felt like some publisher or editor saw an instant classic in the works and rushed it to sale for the sake of dollar signs. The biggest substantial problem with the book, which truly indicates to me that it was either rushed by an editor/published or for the sake of winning a chess book of the year award is that there are many, many critical places in the text where Grooten doesn’t answer this simple question: why? I don’t think there’s a chapter where Grooten says something, makes some assessment, or the like, and takes the reasoning as tacit. I’m becoming very strong amateur player (officially USCF tournament peak of 1608, and probably getting close to A-class or Expert strength), and I’ve absolutely never had this problem before. This problem isn’t so chronic that it ruins the book. Grooten is definitely teaching a great many things, but the punch line from a number of mini-lessons is simply missing. I’ve been training with a GM, so he’s been able to fill me in on what Grooten was trying to say. I think this all could have been avoided by having an A-class or Expert read the book, so that he or she could let him know that there was some critical piece of explanation missing. There is a general explanatory problem in a couple of his chapters, such as the one on piece harmony, in which case a little bit more detail was needed on a few points; but this is not as big a concern as the previous concern. Another big issue with the book is that some of Grooten’s examples have multiple themes working, not just the one that is being emphasized. In fact, sometimes the emphasized theme isn’t the most important aspect of the example. This could have been rectified by picking less complex examples where the theme is exhibited in greater isolation –and this can be a problem very easily, given the holistic nature of chess, with all the intertangled themes in so many positions. Grooten also contradicts some notable authors on a few things, and probably didn’t realize it, and so he never explained. For example, in the chapter on passed-pawns, he talks about the side with the passed-pawn wanting to exchange the minor pieces. What? Lev Alburt and Jeremy Silman both said that minor piece push and halt passed-pawns, so keep them on the board! I did not think for a minute that Grooten was wrong, but that there was something different about Grooten’s examples and those of Alburt and Silman’s. The difference was how advanced the pawns are. With a space advantaged generated by a far passed-pawns, activity of the opposing pieces are reduced if those pieces are rooks rather than knights and bishops. (Notice how I’ve just mentioned that space and activity are thematic in this chapter, though it is supposed to be about the passed-pawn.) It took me and my coach about an hour to examine Grooten’s, Silman’s, and Alburt’s examples to figure out what the deal was. All of the other issues I had with the book are much less than these.What’s great about the book? The book is structure around Steinitz’ elements; which is to say, the objective and idea behind the book is really solid, and it lends to the effectiveness of the text. I also think that the book is enjoyably written –Grooten is anything but a boring writer, so that should not be a concern. I’ve read a number of strategy and position-assessment books, and this is by far the best. This area of chess is lacking in quantity and quality literature. In a space almost exclusively dominated by a few classics, this book is the most in-depth and expansive book I have come across. The amount of quality ideas and content this book contains is unreal; it really is. Not only that, I think it serves a large field of readers. Ideally, I think the book is best for 1600-2200, but it is very easily accessible to any player under 800. Even at a USCF rating of 800, a great many of the concepts this book teaches can be assimilated. The thing is that, as with all classics, the book requires reading and re-reading. I am very confident that, with each pass through this book, I will develop much more knowledge than I previously possessed. For the unclarity that some parts of Grooten’s text suffers in some places, it more than makes up for in other places. That’s why I am disappointed in some regards, because most of the book is simple exceptional and crystal clear. To give you some idea, if you thought “Chess for Post-Beginners” by Srokovsky was good, this one is world’s better. In fact, that book purports to be aimed at players 1400-2200 (and it’s received rave reviews), yet the analysis in this book is much deeper, more thorough, and the explanations a bit lengthier for clarity.One thing that should be noted is that this is a difficult book in a number of ways. Grooten even says that the reader should not sweat it if he or she does not get the solutions to exercises. One friend, a very positional 1500-level USCF player, said that the book was tough but manageable. A very tactical player (1850’s USCF) and friend, who is weak positionally, said that the book was extremely tough. For me, I thought the book was challenging because Grooten sometimes assumes that you see the tactics that are forcing situations. Finding the tactics, whenever he doesn’t fill in the details, can be seen as a tactics puzzle. You can tell that this text is fairly high-level, because positional strength and weakness is tied in very closely with the tactics and threats required to achieve strategies; again, chess has a kind of holism at work.Excellent book. I recommend it to any player under 2200.

As a lower rated club player, I have needed a book that provides inside into how to plan and organize. This is it, finally. It reads easily and explains concepts in terms a lower rated club play can grasp without having to study like a final exam. I would recommend this for any club player beyond a beginner. You must have intermediate skills and knowledge of chess to make the book work for you. This is one of those keepers that every club player should eventually have on her/her shelf. I wish I would have had it years ago. It will be one of those that will provide great reference and guidance for years to come, especially to club players. The book is written so well that reading and studying the concepts within seem more effortless than most chess books. My suggestion is buy it, enjoy learning from it, and keep it handy for future reference. It is an absolute keeper!

Make no mistake, if you're a club player that wants to have all the basic teachings related to Steinitz in one book, there probably is no better book around that systematically goes through the material. It is ironic that the publisher "New In Chess" published this book because most of the ideas are 100 years old. With that said, you can win a ton of games with these ideas and players over the last 100 have done just that.The book primarily uses game and game fragments to illustrate the execution of strategic plans and reaction of those plans to the opponent's moves. It is quite obvious that Grooten is very experienced chess coach and I'd gladly take a lesson from him any time. With that said, this book is a bargain at less than 20 dollars for all the valuable information in the book. It really is a one stop shop for a complete Steinitz principles.With that said, I did give the book only four stars and it was for a reason. There were times when Grooten simply does not ask enough questions to really penetrate the finer strategic points of a position. Translating that into chess terms, he doesn't look for the really challenging moves in certain positions and then provide a clear and coherent positional assessment on why one side is better. In fact, very few authors have the ability to really elucidate why one side is better but instead provide assertions with no proof. This is a shortcoming of this book as well, albeit a minor one. Also, there were times during the book when the author presented the material as if he had been the original discover. Theory of two weaknesses was one such example. I know that he was simply trying to exhibit how HE discovered it, but plenty of material is already devoted to exploiting two weaknesses dating back to at least Nimzowitch. This could have been a problem with the translation from Dutch to English, but I'm not quite sure. Finally, certain subjects are just glossed over with limited discussion. This is forgivable because the book is already 400 pages and I'm sure that the publisher has something to say about a 700 page book for something under 20 dollars.In summary, this is an excellent book for those who are good at self study. It actually is even decent for those who like ideas and information spoon fed to them much in the vain of Pandolfini. I would highly recommend this book to anyone really interested in understanding the basic principles so they can later on understand the exceptions (which is what Grandmasters do in almost every one of their games because they are tactically skilled and understand that dynamic chess is the part of the Steinitz school that really wasn't integrated very well). So, go and by with the confidence that if you spend time really systematically reading this book, the strategic ideas will become second nature.

This is personally one of my top 5 chess books, if not top 3. I can see where grooten is a wonderful coach he's updated or refreshed Steinitz line of thought and brought it up to date. I feel like when I read this book your being coached by Grooten himself .Understandable, explainable and a clear cut instructional guide. This book for me is staying around til I wear it out then i'll buy it again. I do know that this book has helped my game out a lot. Buy it, you want regret it

It's a little soon for me to give a through review of this book. But at first blush it appears to be one of the best chess books I have come across and I have read many.The book takes you beyond chess openings and into positional chess, which is where I need to be.