Last year I raved about John Watson's wonderful book (Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy), calling it the book of the year. Sure enough, it won that prestigious award. This year I really enjoyed Soltis' Soviet Chess: 1917-1991, thinking it might take top honors for 2000. However, a new love has taken its place by my bedside (okay, I'm fickle), and now my pick for the chess book of 2000 is Alex Yermolinsky's The Road to Chess Improvement.

Looked at in one way, this new offering from Gambit Publishing is the story of Grandmaster Yermo's trek from young chess hopeful (at 8 years of age), to frustrated chess hopeful, to stagnating chess hopeful, to--somehow or other--success!

If taken in only that context, the book would be a huge success simply because we all started with high aspirations and dreams, we all stepped beyond that to frustration, but few of us ever embraced chess success. In other words, we all can relate to his trials and tribulations. Somehow, his conversational "pen" makes everything seem personal, and this lets us embrace his work in ways that other chess books will never allow us to do. Yermo, in an incredibly hip, modern American tone, makes us blink in the face of his Russian heritage. In fact, his writing style and pace has more energy, humor, and honesty than the vast majority of U.S. chess writers could ever hope to achieve.

Thus far, we can look forward to a fun read. But even a cursory glance will show us another facet of this grandmaster's ability: the man is a natural teacher. It's Yermo's obvious desire to impart his knowledge to the reader that turns a really good book into a must-buy item.

Yes, you get to know him as you go through page after page. Yes, you get to look at some really nice games. Yes, at times you might find his depth of annotation to be praiseworthy. And yes, his lack of ego and his honesty shows a kind of class that not all grandmasters possess. However, the thing that most impresses me is his uncontrolled zeal in trying to give his readers as much information as possible in the limited amount of pages allotted him by the publisher.

Jumping from emotions in chess to methods of study to improving ones tactics to deep looks at a few opening lines, the author leaves us feeling happy we purchased this book, and also makes us realize that it's one of the few books on our shelf that deserves a long, serious study.

At this point the more cynical reader might wonder, why is Silman heaping such enormous praise on this book? Are they best friends? Was Jeremy paid off? Is Silman being blackmailed by the grandmaster in some nefarious fashion? Perhaps the reviewer holds stock in Gambit Publishing?

Alas, here you won't find any smoking guns (I would love to give a boost to conspiracy hounds, but I'm unable to do so at this time). Instead, the answer is straightforward to the point of absurd simplicity: it's a great book, and it should be a must buy for every serious chess student.

YOU CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT