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Books are of course extremely useful in our learning but with so many writers and the extremely high flow of information, we got these days choosing good material can be difficult. Richard is a published author and his books can be found at Amazon.Can you recommend me a book? If only I had a dime for every time a player searching for improvement asked me this question. Richard has been a member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club since 1966. He is the webmaster of chessKIDS academy (or and, most recently, the author of Chess for Kids and The Right Way to Teach Chess to Kids, both published by Right Way Books. He was the co-founder of Richmond Junior Chess Club in 1975 and its director until 2005.
#MODERN CHESS BOOKS PROFESSIONAL#
Richard James is a professional chess teacher and writer living in Twickenham, and working mostly with younger children and beginners.
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Most chess players buy books that are too advanced for them, and all publishers promote books as being suitable for lower rated, or sometimes younger, players, when they’re actually much more suited to higher rated and more experienced players.
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#MODERN CHESS BOOKS HOW TO#
Or, to put it another way, most people don’t understand how to learn, and most chess authors (and many chess teachers) don’t understand how to teach. In the words attributed (probably incorrectly) to PT Barnum, there’s a sucker born every minute. Even if they manage to understand the notation and memorise a few variations, they’ll find that after a few moves their opponents will play something not in the book and become totally confused. Others have been conned into buying the Sam Sloan reprint of MCO6 (not a good choice for any number of reasons) and discover it’s in descriptive notation, which they don’t understand. Some of the punters know nothing about chess notation. All you get is rows or columns of moves with no more than a brief introduction at the start of each chapter. Most obviously, it’s a reference book, not an instructional book. Of course there are many reasons why any novice who opens the book will be very disappointed. And there I was thinking this would be the last edition as the format is well beyond its best before date. A cynical marketing ploy? Perhaps, but publishers, like the rest of us, have bills to pay. The latest (15th) edition, from 2009, has recently been reprinted with a sticker on the front: ‘As seen in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit‘. Various editions of MCO have been near the top of the chess best-sellers for a few months now, along with a number of lookalikes. Beth is seen reading Modern Chess Openings, so viewers who think chess looks cool decide that if they buy MCO they’ll be able to play chess as well as Beth. The reason for the recent mini chess boom is, of course, Beth Harmon. Self-improvement seems to be the current fashion, but you might buy books, for example, to inspire, to inform, to entertain, to refer to. There are many reasons why you might by a chess book. We also know a lot more than we did a few decades ago about how learners process information and acquire skills. Most of the answers are also hopelessly inappropriate: people trying to be helpful by suggesting books which they enjoyed 40 or 50 years ago when chess was very different. Currently these groups are being flooded with requests for book recommendations, most of which are hopelessly vague. I’m a member of various Facebook groups for chess book collectors and chess teachers.
#MODERN CHESS BOOKS SERIES#
The series will include one or two of my books! Some have never been excellent at all, despite their popularity.
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Others were excellent in their day, but are now dated. Some of the books are excellent, but are bought by the wrong customers for the wrong reasons. As promised a few weeks ago, this is the start of a new series of articles featuring books which are frequently bought for the wrong reasons.