PERFECT YOUR CHESS
Andrei Volokitin and Vladimir Grabinsky
Gambit (2007)
149 pages
Price: $27.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

Quite a few "solve the position" books have been published over the years, and more recently we've seen a whole list of books added to the ranks of this kind of chess literature: CHESS EXAM and TRAINING GUIDE by Igor Khmelnitsky (Very highly thought of!), CHESS EXAM and TRAINING GUIDE 2: TACTICS by Igor Khmelnitsky (I don't own it), THE REASSESS YOUR CHESS WORKBOOK by Silman, MULTIPLE CHOICE CHESS 2 by Graeme Buckley (I don't own it), CHESS CHOICE CHALLENGE 2 by Chris Ward (I don't own it), CHESS CHOICE CHALLENGE 3 by Chris Ward (I don't own it), FIND THE WINNING MOVE by Gary Lane (I don't own it), TEST YOUR CHESS WITH DANIEL KING by Daniel King (I don't own it), TEST YOUR CHESS Part Two by Reitstein (I don't own it), MY DAILY EXERCISE: 365 TACTICAL TESTS TO IMPROVE YOUR CHESS by Heinz Brunthaler (About tactics, not better or worse than most other tactical quiz books), and PRACTICAL CHESS EXERCISES: 600 Lessons From Tactics to Strategy by Ray Cheng (very highly recommended by John Watson).

In Ray Cheng's PRACTICAL CHESS EXERCISES, Watson (in the foreword) claims that Mr. Cheng has done something nobody else has done: mix strategic and tactical problems together of varying levels of difficulty. No hints, no "it's a forced mate!" revelations, nothing but the position and your own intuition (just like in real games). Of course, I like this idea very much, but I had used this same method (and was heavily criticized for doing so by one inept book reviewer) in my own THE REASSESS YOUR CHESS WORKBOOK. Nevertheless, a good idea is a good idea, and Mr. Cheng's book will prove very useful to players from 1000 to 1600.

Since it seems to be "in" to claim an original concept or design for a book, the authors of PERFECT YOUR CHESS also do so: "We believe our approach in this chapter is original ..."

In this case their original concept is not only to (occasionally) mix strategic positions with tactical ones (which I firmly believe is the most instructive way of presenting such a book), but also in the way the book is divided. Here is the description in the authors' own words:

1) Make a Move (positions where one must find the best move). This section is concerned with developing intuition and imagination in chess.

2) Find the Win (positions in which one must find a forcing variation, leading to a win). The examples are designed to test combinative vision and the calculation of variations.

3) Answer a Question (the reader's task here is to find the answer to a concrete problem). Solving these examples will develop one's positional understanding and logic.

The authors offer 369 positions, almost all of them played in the last few years. And it should be added that each section opens with 23 examples from Volokitin's games. This is a good idea since Andrei Volokitin, aside from being one of the authors of this book (which means he is able to give us some insider information about those battles), is also (at 21 years of age) one of the strongest players in the world!

Looking over the many examples, I was struck by two things:
1) Almost all feature absolutely fascinating and/or downright beautiful positions.
2) Almost all are difficult to EXTREMELY difficult to solve.

The reason why my old and feeble brain felt mugged became apparent when I read the following: "Then there follow 100 examples in each section, taken from the games of other grandmasters and masters, played since the year 2000, i.e. absolutely fresh examples. They are given in order of increasing difficulty. The first 40 are aimed at the level of a FIDE Master, the next 40 at IM level, and the final 20 at GM level."

I really enjoyed looking through this book (a real "work your ass off" training manual), and if I took up tournament chess again (the appearance of the Rapture is more likely) I would go through every example in a slow and thorough manner.

Since PERFECT YOUR CHESS is very advanced, I highly recommend it for players from 2100 to Grandmaster.

If you are in the 1000 to 1600 range, a far better buy would be Ray Cheng's PRACTICAL CHESS EXERCISES: 600 Lessons From Tactics to Strategy.

Click to buy (or get more information about):

PERFECT YOUR CHESS

CHESS EXAM and TRAINING GUIDE by Igor Khmelnitsky ($24.95)

CHESS EXAM and TRAINING GUIDE 2: TACTICS by Igor Khmelnitsky ($18.95)

THE HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS WORKBOOK by Silman ($19.95)

MULTIPLE CHOICE CHESS 2 by Graeme Buckley ($19.95)

CHESS CHOICE CHALLENGE 2 by Chris Ward ($17.95)

CHESS CHOICE CHALLENGE 3 by Chris Ward ($10.00)

FIND THE WINNING MOVE by Gary Lane ($10.00)

TEST YOUR CHOICE WITH DANIEL KING by Daniel King ($10.00)

TEST YOUR CHESS Part Two by Reitstein ($16.99 -- Featuring only games played in S Africa!)

MY DAILY EXERCISE: 365 TACTICAL TESTS TO IMPROVE YOUR CHESS by Heinz Brunthaler