There are many differing opinions amongst the top players in the world of chess, but there is one thing upon which World Champions, Grandmasters and other experts all agree: the art of chess calculation is the absolute key to the success of a player. Master this discipline and you can surely expect your results to improve dramatically. Jacob Aagaard tackles the art of chess calculation, unravelling its many secrets and arming the reader with the necessary tools to be able to calculate effectively at the chessboard. Aagaard pays particular attention to the searching practical questions like ‘when should you calculate?’ and ‘how can you discover candidate moves?’ A thorough study of this book will enable the reader to calculate with confidence in future games.
Review On Sep 11, 2004by Geof Strayer of Altadena, CA
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Maybe there is just something about Aagaard's writing/teaching style that appeals to me, because I always seem to like his books. (Although there seem to be enough favorable reviews of his books out there to indicate that I am not alone in this opinion.) However, this book seems to me to be rather special even when measured against his relatively high standards. (I find it interesting that this is only one of a number of books by Aagaard published in the last few months. Like Graham Burgess, he seems to be capable of producing quantity and quality at the same time.)
I am a reasonably strong club player (my FIDE rating is 2360), and this is not the first book I have read about calculation techniques. It is, however, the one I find the most interesting and useful in a practical sense. Aagaard has somehow managed to both synthesize the best parts of the previous works on this subject (e.g., Kotov's and Dvoretsky's books) and to expand on them with many interesting ideas. In addition, the book is written in a sort of discursive, argumentative style (Aagaard is not afraid to disagree with anyone!) that I found very entertaining. Finally, Aagaard is not just theorizing here, he is trying to teach you something, and he is an excellent teacher.
No book is really capable of improving your game unless you give it some serious thought and/or put in some serious work. However, some books tend to reward serious effort more than others. I personally think that this book has the potential to be a kind of "watershed" book for anyone below, say, IM strength. Of course you have to pay close attention to what Aaagard is saying, you have to think about the things he says, you have to seriously attempt the exercises at the end (there are 100 of them). Moreover, this is the kind of book you need to revisit once in a while, because it is full of ideas and you are unlikely to master them all on your first pass. Nevertheless, if you are an ambitious player who is willing to put in the work necessary, I think this book has the potential to improve your play as much as pretty much any other book out there, and a great deal more than most.
One of my favorite chess books of the last few years.
Only a few chess players work at chess to the best of their abilities.
Boris Gelfand
Puzzle Answer
1.Rd7! Bxd7 2.Qxd7 Qb6+ 3.Kh1 Re8 4.Rxe7! Rxe7 5.Bd6 Qxd6 6.Qxd6+- Gelfand-Salov, Madrid 1996 (Source: Anthology of Chess Combinations)
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