The Reassess Your Chess Workbook by IM Jeremy Silman, is a follow up to Silman's highly popular How to Reassess Your Chess which has gone through three editions (the latest was published in 1993). This current work, which is a big book at over 400 pages, has a slightly misleading title. When I see the title "workbook" it conjures up images of grade school texts with big pages, questions at the top and blank space below for the solutions. Think of Roman Pelts and Lev Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course series and you will know what I have in mind.

The Reassess Your Chess Workbook is not this sort of manual. Silman has become famous for his theory of imbalances in chess, and this book is aimed at improving the reader's understanding of the game through this vehicle. Since the publication of Alexander Kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster in 1971, the chess public has become aware of the idea of candidate moves. Kotov's suggestion was that in a position the player try to determine the best course of action by selecting around five plausible moves and analyzing only them. Since human beings are not computers, this suggestion makes good sense. But how does one select the right candidate moves? This is the question I.M. Silman attempts to answer in his book.

The 1981 U.S. Open Champion believes the way to correctly orient oneself to finding the right candidate moves is through a checklist of the imbalances that exist in most positions. He considers the following seven to be the key criteria.

List of Imbalances

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  Superior Minor Piece - the interplay between Bishops and Knights (trying to make one superior to the other).
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  Pawn Structure - a broad subject that encompasses doubled pawns, isolated pawns, backward pawns, passed pawns, etc.
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  Space - the annexation of territory on a chessboard.
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  Material - owning pieces of greater value than the opponent's.
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  Control of a key file or square - files, ranks, and diagonals act as pathways for your pieces, while squares act as homes. Whole plans can center around the domination of a file, or the creation of a weak square in the enemy camp.
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  Development - a lead in development gives you more force in a specific area of the board. This is a temporary imbalance because the opponent will eventually catch up.
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  Initiative - dictating the tempo of a game. This can also turn out to be a temporary imbalance.

The first 37 pages of The Reassess Your Chess Workbook are devoted to thinking techniques and a crash course on imbalances, but the bulk of this book is devoted to applying Silman's theory of disparity to various opening, middlegame and endgame positions. This section of the book is divided up into two parts: problems and solutions. Here Silman breaks new ground as the solutions section is roughly 280 pages! The real value of the book is here, as Silman sometimes spends six pages explaining the answer to one of the problems. The author's enthusiasm and infectious desire to communicate his ideas comes across loud and clear.

Who is this book for? Most likely players from 1200 to 2200. Stronger players will find parts of this book stimulating and may realize that subconsciously they already use the theory of imbalances in their chess thinking. Players below master level will find The Reassess Your Chess Workbook to be a very valuable book that draws them out in a way that most chessbooks don't, with its many problems and detailed solutions. Think of this work as a training program.

The Reassess Your Chess Workbook is an attractively produced book with a clear layout. The photos, by Silman's wife Gwen Feldman, are excellent, particularly the one on page 108 from a Melody Amber tournament where Karpov is analyzing while Ljubojevic and Judit Polgar look on intently and Vlastmil Hort frowns in the background.

A first-rate book with a great price! Highly Recommended.

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