From my experience, chess is never all that simple, and books that treat it so are mostly oversimplified, but there are exceptions. Here, grandmaster Emms provides interesting discussion – and depth – in a way that does, indeed, make some advanced positional concepts more readily understandable.

This is the follow-up to an earlier work, titled (no big surprise) SIMPLE CHESS. I confess I did not look at the first volume – I readily admit to a bias against books with the word “simple” in their title. Too often this seems to be a tacit signal that the author has dumbed down the content to appeal to those wishing everything to be, well, simple. I'm glad I took the opportunity to delve a little deeper into this volume.

The author has chosen topics that often confound the player seeking to improve their positional play. These include dealing with problem pieces (improving your worst placed piece, inducing an opponent to put a piece on a less desirable square, and taking advantage of an out of play piece); fighting with and against the bishop pair; and utilizing kings, queens, and rooks. The book benefits from the use of a lot of examples where matters are not as clear cut as are often found in instructional manuals. As Emms notes in the introduction, it's a lot less interesting when most readers can figure out what should (or shouldn't) be done in a particular position. In that respect, he succeeds – I found many positions where the solution surprised and interested me. In the end, that is how one advances their chess learning.

Perhaps the book's longest chapter, on issues dealing with trades, is also its best. Emms spends 41 pages on the topic, and it is time well spent. The author notes that discussions of exchanges are not often found in chess literature (as he notes, GM Peter Wells suggests that editors prefer the word ‘sacrifice' to ‘exchange'). Here he covers exchanging to remove an attacker, a defender, a worst placed piece, exchanging to open lines, to inflict weaknesses, to control a color complex, etc. Of course, the yang to the “exchange is good” yin is that in many cases one should refrain from exchanging, and Emms covers these as well. All through, there is instructive discussion – I particularly enjoyed the Balashov quote that “Fischer almost never has any bad pieces. He exchanges them, and the bad pieces remain with his opponents.” This is the sort of practical insight that can prove valuable to the reader.

I can see how a thorough study of this overlooked topic could bring big benefits to many players. One of my chess “epiphanies” came by way of Mednis' FROM THE MIDDLEGAME INTO THE ENDGAME, where he explained that often the defending queen was the glue that held the defender's position together. I would guess I've won at least a dozen tournament games from learning this important concept. There are several in Emms' book that could prove similarly rewarding.

Besides the content, each chapter contains exercises to cover the concepts, with the answers found at the back of the book. The solutions themselves often contain paragraphs of additional insight that should benefit the reader.

The author himself addresses the question of whether this is a sequel that demands knowledge of the original book, and I tend to agree that this can function as a stand-alone work. My guess is that the original book was a bit more basic, and this is largely addressing topics that reach beyond the first book. As a way of bridging any coverage gap concerns, the introduction gives a brief synopsis of the key lessons from SIMPLE CHESS.

My only real question about this book relates to coverage and the all-important price to pages ratio. I found the content here enjoyable, but I couldn't help but wonder whether the reader would have been better served by combining the books and, perhaps improving the price to page ratio a bit. This, of course, is something that each individual reader will have to judge for himself. Those who are particularly price conscious should probably deduct a half point from my rating.

In the end, though, John Emms is an excellent chess author who presents interesting material. He covers important topics in a way that doesn't shortchange his readers. Here he covers many slightly advanced positional topics in a way that should make them more accessible to the average player.