John Watson’s CHESS STRATEGIC IN ACTION is the rare chess book that can take over your life – neither eating nor sleeping seemed as important this past week as absorbing its many fine points. When Francis Bacon observed that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested,” this was the sort of rare book that he was describing.

While attending to this outstanding work in just about every free waking moment since it arrived, I have learned more about chess from CHESS STRATEGY IN ACTION than from the previous 10 books I have read combined. It is a feast of modern chess thought, and every serious player (or lover of the game) should read it.

This is the sequel to Watson’s SECRETS OF MODERN CHESS STRATEGY, which won the British Chess Federation’s prestigious “Book of the Year” award. In that earlier work, the author spent a lot of time developing the theory that modern chess is less dependent on general rules than earlier generations. In many respects, that book was reminiscent of Nimzovich’s MY SYSTEM, while the present book is comparable to its sequel, CHESS PRAXIS. As a youngster, I very much enjoyed Nimzovich’s sequel but did not really understand MY SYSTEM until several years later. I suspect that many players may find Watson’s second book more accessible as well.

In many respects, this book takes on the character of Ripley’s Believe it or Not. The author has gathered a thought-provoking collection of games that fly in the face of conventional chess wisdom. From these he supports his earlier argument that successful modern chess practitioners have moved beyond the classical strictures of the earlier eras.

Among the topics are examples where players benefit from surrendering the center, exchanging when they have more space/not exchanging when they have less space, neglecting development, playing with the flank pawns, accepting all sorts of doubled pawns, keeping bad bishops, trading off good bishops, favoring knights over bishops, trading good knights for bad bishops, decentralizing knights, making early use of the queen, etc. While a reader might feel hopelessly adrift without the normal rules to lend support, Watson’s ability to explain why things are happening – even when all seems strange – helps the book make a powerful impression.

As a card-carrying member of the good pawn structure and development school of chess, I freely admit having my doubts about these concepts from time to time. However, after reading through this book, I found myself emboldened in some recent blitz sessions to try out some of these concepts, and I liked it. My guess is other readers will as well.

Some of the topics covered won’t seem quite so strange. Watson spends a chapter looking at positional pawn sacrifices, with particular attention given to its handling by Kasparov. There are also exchange sacrifices galore, which, as the author readily notes, have become almost commonplace in today’s chess.

While the first part of the book, which covers these and other topics through discussion and example, is excellent, I think the illustrative games, which form the second part, are even better. Watson has assembled 35 outstanding examples of modern play. Each of the games supports at least one of the concepts developed in the first part of the book. Indeed, in many of the games, there are two, three, or more of these topics represented.

The games are also enjoyable because they aren’t the same 10 or 20 games a year that tend to be encountered in games compendiums. Even in the case where a game is well known (or has been covered elsewhere), Watson provides some fresh insight that should benefit the reader. For example, Nunn-Nataf was a spectacular sacrificial attack by the second player that Nunn analyzed in his outstanding book, UNDERSTANDING CHESS MOVE BY MOVE. Here Watson does much more than simply parrot Nunn’s (or Nataf’s) analysis and suggests several different methods for both players. It helped me better understand that game and its possibilities by comparing the notes of Nunn and Watson.

More than any other current author, Watson packs his books with content. This starts at the beginning, as the Preface and Introduction provide seven and a half double column pages of text that provide the rationale for the book and begin exploring its concepts. These are not easy pages to get through, and they illustrate the serious nature of the discussion. While the many diagrams and interesting concepts allow a player to pick the book up and glance through a page or example here and there, most will benefit from working through chapters in their entirety and taking plenty of time to digest the author’s excellent written discussions and analysis.

As a sequel, it’s no surprise that the book often references SECRETS OF MODERN CHESS STRATEGY (to see Silman’s review of that book, click HERE). After not remembering some of the context of that earlier book, I was compelled to skim back through it to have a clearer grasp of some of the concepts in this book. The reader who is familiar with that earlier book may better comprehend this book, but it is by no means a prerequisite to its study.

While Watson’s great writing and care in selecting examples make this a very appealing book, it will require a fair amount of chess experience and ability to fully grasp the concepts. After all, the typical chess rules still have merit and most developing players will become better by understanding and using them to guide their play. It’s been said that chess mastery is defined by knowing when to break the rules. This book is all about that, but many players aren’t really ready for that discussion.

Gambit Publications has published several outstanding books in the past several years, and this belongs in that category. Everything about the book is first-rate: the page size is very user friendly, as are the paper, printing, diagrams, and layout. There are no more typos than can be expected, although one I detected created one of those humorous experiences chess book readers encounter from time to time.

Game 4 in the illustrative games, Lautier-Shirov, is a game I knew from study of the opening, and I skipped over much of the earlier moves and took it up at a diagram after move 17. I followed the game in my head until a note to move 20, where it said that “20.Rfc1 is an obvious alternative. White probably wanted to save that square for the queen’s knight.” That one really got me thinking, because white didn’t have any knights left! It caused me to re-trace my steps and realize that the note meant queen’s rook rather than queen’s knight. Of course, anybody following along on a real board would figure that out, but it made for a confused moment in my “minds eye.”

In conclusion, John Watson has written the best book of the year to date, the rare sequel that transcends the original. This is an outstanding discussion of the dynamic aspects of modern chess. While it may be too advanced for those in the early to moderate stages of chess development, it is required reading for any serious player intent on mastering the game.

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