Isolated
Pawn by Mikhalchishin
and company is poorly produced and poorly translated.
Though translation and production are important,
if it managed to teach the reader on a deep level
then I would still recommend the book. A look
at the table of contents gives you real hope:
chapters like An attack on the King with advancement
of f-pawn (there's that horrible English at work),
An attack on
the King by Rook transfer along the third (sixth)
rank, An attack on the King with transfer of the
Queen to the kingside,
and the list really does go on and on (it even
explores esoteric things like Transforming
pawn structure after the Kxe6 (e3) move).
The examples are numerous and well-chosen,
and if we add a forward by Beliavsky (it starts
with a Tarrasch quote: "He who is afraid
of an isolated pawn should not play chess."),
a page listing the nine main principles of typical
isolated d-pawn middlegame positions, bare-bones
diagrams (only pawns) of standard middlegame positions
with the isolated d-pawn, and a list of standard
openings that lead to this kind of structure,
one might think that this book is special.
Sadly, once we push the smoke and
mirrors aside, we're left with a very imperfect
piece of work. The standard position's diagrams
and lists are not very helpful (no explanation
accompanies this stuff), while Beliavsky's forward
is badly translated and, more importantly, misses
a key point: He says, "Further improvement
depends on player's ability to absorb and comprehend
new information in order to use it effectively
in the game."
This is true, but Isolated
Pawn fails to deliver.
Yes, there is some instruction, but it comes across
in a soulless manner and fails to make an impression
(and if no impression is made, the student won't
remember the desired information). For the most
part, the reader is asked to look at the examples
and come to his own conclusions.
For a master, this book will undoubtedly
prove very useful because he's able to recognize
the key ideas and patterns when they are presented.
Non-masters, though, will find this book dry,
unmemorable, and ultimately not worth the investment
(of time and money).
YOU
CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT
|
