BUILD UP YOUR CHESS BEYOND THE BASICS volume 2, by former World Championship Candidate Artur Yusupov, is the second book in a trilogy designed to provide the novice player with the necessary information on their road to mastery. Yusupov makes it very clear that studying his series, by itself, will not turn a club player into a Master, that it must be supplemented by playing regularly, analyzing one’s games diligently and also studying other chess literature (he provides suggested reading lists). What Yusupov does impart is core knowledge which he introduces to the student at the right time so that the material builds on itself. A list of the contents for volume 2 gives an idea of how varied the subject matter is spanning opening, middegame and endgame; tactics, calculation, strategy and endgame technique
1 Mating combinations 8
2 General endgame principles 18
3 Combinations involving the back rank 30
4 General opening principles 38
5 The double attack 48
6 Good and bad bishops 56
7 Candidate moves 68
8 The centre 78
9 The pin and the discovered attack 90
10 Zugzwang 98
11 Deflection 108
12 The Greek gift sacrifice 118
13 Evaluating the position 128
14 Planning in chess 138
15 An opening repertoire for White after 1.e4 e5 150
16 Destroying the castled position 162
17 An opening repertoire against 1.e4 174
18 Exchanging 186
19 Priorities when calculating variations 198
20 Pawn endings 1 208
21 Decoying 220
22 Time in the opening 230
23 Improving the position of your pieces 240
24 Pawn endings 2 252
Final test 263
Like the other two volumes in the series, BUILD UP YOUR CHESS BEYOND THE BASICS does not offer a lot of prose. Yusupov starts every chapter off with an introduction to the topic, then follows with several well chosen annotated model games and finally 12 exercises to solve. The student is given detailed answers to the exercises and a scoring system to track their progress.
The chapters where Yusupov covers openings for White after 1.e4 e5 (The Scotch via 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4) and an answer to 1.e4 (the Petroff) are designed to do more than provide the basics. They also aim to show how the club player how to construct a simple but well thought out opening repertoire.
Yusupov, in the introduction to BUILD UP YOUR CHESS BEYOND THE BASICS, says this volume is aimed at players from 1500-1800 though I suspect that those on the lower end of this range will find the material very challenging and that 1800 can be replaced by 2000 with even players up to Master finding gaps in their fundamental knowledge.
The author makes it quite clear that he believes the aspiring chess student will improve the greatest and quickest with the use of a human chess trainer, but there can be no doubt that BUILD UP YOUR CHESS BEYOND THE BASICS will prove quite useful for those that don’t have access to coach.
