Bruce Pandolfini

This is a fantastic resource for chess learners and lovers. In our house, once you complete a page, you sign it. Yes, you can get an app for problems, but there's value in working through a physical book of problems, and these are well done. They are incrementally difficult, making it a great resource as soon as a learner understands the concept of checkmate.

The typos are half the fun! But if you find them annoying, get the errata here: http://www.glennwilson.com/chess/books/pec_errata.html
This book is usually recommended for beginner's, but I must say that I was surprised to find a good amount of material that is more advanced. I'm over 1900 USCF and there are many positions where the solution was not easily apparent. The Queen versus Rook endgames and the B+R versus R are not easy, not to mention that early in the book he covers B+N mate show more against a lone king. I know plenty of experts that would be hard pressed to pull that off in under 50 moves - especially in blitz or time trouble! It's the best explanation I've ever seen of B+N, but it might discourage the intended (beginner) audience. There is also plenty of stuff that is very basic.I really like this book, but it also far from perfect. show less

After reading just a chapter from this book, I just had to write something about the book. Yes, it is just six games in the whole book but judgeing from the first game, the book is a keeper.

What makes it special? It is another "every-move-annotated-book" but I think is stands head and shoulders above both "Logical Chess" and "Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking" (both are fine books!).

Pandolfini tries to annotate the games both on a, if you like, micro- and macro-level perspective. Me, being show more a simpleton, was lured into a more active type of reading by the questions ("Will Nbd7 work?") in the text. I think it was less "Learning by nodding" while reading this book. Also, Mr Pandolfini has a few interesting quotes here and there in the text which adds a little enjoyment to the reading experience and perhaps some additional views on what is going on in the game under discussion.

The macro level annotations is perhaps less instructive but that is perhaps due to the fact that no single game is a pure application of a single strategic approach, say "Colour Play". It is of cours much more concrete to analyze if a single move (i.e. micro level) is safe or not.

The book is a few years old (1987) and I am rather surprised that the book hasn't received more attention.

All-in-all, One enthusiastic rant over an under the radar chess book show less

As a complete ignoramus in chess, the conversational approach of this book felt like a real conversation. The latter gets you through the pages pretty fast, while keeping its educational value.