It is rare to find a chess improvement book that strays from the ordinary, but this book provides a lot of useful insight with a fresh perspective. This book is crammed with excellent ideas and methods for improvement, and it is obvious that the author has a passion for chess both as a player and as an instructor.

The author is a strong player who was runner-up in the 1996 Swedish championship, but it appears that he now spends a fair amount of his time as a chess trainer. According to the book’s back cover, Hall trains the 30 best juniors in Sweden via the Internet and has been employed by the Swedish Chess Federation to develop Swedish chess.

The book is written in a very personal style that is engaging to the reader. Many internationally titled players cannot really reach their audience – while they expound on advanced topics the average reader is more interested in figuring out a way to stop hanging pawns and pieces. Hall, however, starts with a description of his own personal odyssey into chess knowledge. This begins with a game he played that started 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5. Many aspiring players will relate to the author’s explanation of his progression of chess learning – even strong players did not start their first game by playing the latest trendy variation of the Sveshnikov Sicilian.

The book is structured so that readers can use it in different ways, and this adds to its utility. A player can use it as a guide to various important chess concepts, and there are many covered. The average player may get enough value from just playing through its examples and absorbing the author’s insights. However, the author has done a good job of providing suggestions for further reading and exercises for the player who wishes to build upon the book’s foundation. Finally, the author provides advice to chess trainers, and coaches and trainers can find much of value in the book.

The topics covered are wide ranging and cover all parts of the game. These include general methods, such as chapters on analyzing a players’ own games, calculation, planning, mental training, and using a computer. They also include more specific discussion of aspects of the game, such as central pawn structures, how to study position types, various kinds of positional advantage, openings, and endgames.

There is engaging, useful material throughout the book, but (as with any books) some parts strike me as better than others. The author has spent a lot of time on the endgame (about a quarter of the pages), and, judging from the play of the target audience for this book, that emphasis is justified. These pages cover general themes, such as the strength of the king in the endgame, not hurrying, and the principle of two weaknesses. The book also covers a lot of very useful basic endgames that players should know. If every class B or lower player would simply study and study these pages, they would likely raise their rating a minimum of 50 points.

I think the general chapters are also very useful. The book succeeds because it presents useful concepts in a compelling fashion, and it then provides suggestions for the player to explore other, more specialized texts.

The converse is that I find the chapters (other than the endgame chapters) that deal with specific chess position analysis to be slightly less helpful (but still quite good). This is, no doubt, because the various topics developed in each chapter could be the subject of an entire book.

As noted previously, the author does provide very helpful advice on where to look for this further, in-depth knowledge. This is something of an outstanding compilation of “greatest hits” books: I found myself constantly agreeing with the author’s suggestions, including classics like Shereshevsky’s ENDGAME STRATEGY (click to see Silman’s and Watson’s reviews of this book), Keres and Kotov’s THE ART OF THE MIDDLEGAME IN CHESS (click to see Silman’s review of this book), and Nimzovich’s MY SYSTEM. It also includes books that will ultimately emerge as classics, such as Silman’s HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS (click to see Benjamin’s review of this book), and Tisdall’s IMPROVE YOUR CHESS NOW (click to see Silman’s and Watson’s reviews of this book).

The book is nicely produced, with attractive illustrations, a larger print, diagrams, and page size that will appeal to younger aspiring players. There are also a number of exercises with solutions, a chess-training diary, and indexes of players and openings.

In conclusion, this is a special book that transcends the ordinary offering generally found on this subject matter. Its love for chess comes through its pages, and readers will recognize the passion the author has for the game. I am confident that this passion, combined with a variety of useful tips and training methods, will prove useful for most players desiring to improve their game.

To see Donaldson’s review of this same book, click HERE.

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