Yup I'm an adult improver who's pushing 2000 OTB. I saw the first level 2 position in the book, spent 15 minutes on it, saw just how much I missed in the given solution, and put the book away. I could instantly tell that this was created by someone who's average student is Gukesh or Pragg. Not for a mortal like me.
The worst part is that even you are in the 1 percentile. There are people who has played chess their whole life, and really tried to improve, yet are never anywhere near 1700-1800 ELO even. You being 2000 OTB is in fact quite rare. You are better rated than 99% of all people playing chess!
The book is reasonably priced (at least in India ) so I guess the book may not be very costly in US or Europe. I have a different take on this book. If one deals with exercises of this book, then real life chess positions that one would encounter could well seem to be easier to solve for chess players .
Thanks for the review, I had been intending to get this book, and I probably will at some point, but I think there's other areas of my game I need to improve before this!
Dear Andras, thanks a lot for this review. It helped me to decide not to pick up the book too soon ;) Moreover, I have one suggestion for a further video: Could you do something about "Bad habits when training for chess". For example, how often to (not) play blitz during the week, avoiding bullet chess, not checking your mobile, getting enough sleep... and so on. I know the training depends on the time you have during a week, but I assume that everyone could improve faster when being more efficient and consequent with one's training schedule! Cheers and keep up the good work! Chris
Even inserting the capture on e5 before trying to solve makes the puzzle a lot easier. It looks like you'd want to keep the bishop on the board x-raying mate and you'd spend a lot of time looking at moves like 1.Ne6
First off, I want to emphasize that I love this channel. I wonder if in future vids you may want to look into getting a mic insulator so that your mic (which sounds great btw) doesn't boom every time you touch the desk (ie. 0:34 , etc ) . I mean, beggars can't be choosers, and I'll keep showing up either way, but just a delicate suggestion in the mean time. ;)
That example with level 2 is already GM stuff. Especially if it needs to be done in a few minutes. I'm 1500 fide classical and serious on improving, but this level of calculation is a bit to much. But I have to say that calculating AND evaluating is hard to do on your own. No people or engine tells me I evaluated all wrong. So perhaps I should give level 1 a go.
Hey Andras great book review as always and thanks for the disclaimer re who this is aimed at. Was wondering if you could recommend which of the following would be a good book for me. I have a pretty good grasp of fundamentals ie; material, space, time, pawn structure, occasional blunder here and there, OK with tactics, and play mostly KI setups. What I struggle with is calculation and planning in games. I have been looking at Seven Deadly Chess Sins, Chess for Zebras (Rowson), The Chessmasters Checklist, The Inner Game of Chess: How to Calculate and Win (Soltis), and The Amateur's Mind (Silman). Are you able to recommend any of these, over the others? Kind regards and thx for the straightforward and instructional content!
Like a couple of other people, I'm curious about what you think of Jacob Aagaard's Grandmaster Preparation: Calculation, but also if you have any gentler than Ramesh recommendation for an adult in the USCF C or B class range who is serious about improving.
I got the draw part of the "solution" in around 3 minutes. But no luck with the actual winning one. To be honest, I felt good just by finding that one, especially considering the speed.
2033 USCF adult learner and improving here, I think this book is probably out of my league BUT I’m very serious about reaching FM one day (and have grand fantasies of pushing further if I achieve that). So I imagine this might be on the menu years from now. That said, what would be great ways to get my calculation to the level that I can dream of this book taking me to even further levels? A bridge training program?
hello sir, can you please review the book " Winning quickly at chess by John Nunn". we want to know about it and should we pick it up as beginner. thank you sir😊 Love you from Bangladesh 🇧🇩
What would you recommend for a lowly 1000 who couldn't calculate his way out of a paper bag? I'm practicing visualization and naming moves, and I believe that will pay dividends, but if you have a specific resource in mind, I'd welcome it.
Thanks for the review. I find it very accurate. This book is not useful at 1700 FIDE level (2100 rapid lichess). Not useful at all. Not even Level 1 and Level 2 positions are useful for me. Even though I watched the review, I decided to try solving about 10 positions (Level 1 and 2, and one Level 3) from this book. I failed at majority of them. Some examples why this book is not a material for sub-2000 players. Game 5 (Level 1): says "Find a forced win for White", so I tried and I found the best continuation (actually both of them) but unless I am missing something, White is simply winning a pawn in both continuations? How is being a pawn up "a forced win"? Maybe at GM level, but on an amateur/club level, this is closer to equality than to a forced win :). Game 6 (Level 2): I failed this one and I should have seen why my candidate move was bad. But the first move in the solution is annotated with exclamation mark and no comment at all. I continued staring at this move with disbelief and I didn't understand it. Maybe an obvious thing for a stronger player, but for me unclear. Game 8 (Level 1): the task is to find a forced draw in 3 minutes. I managed to do this in 3 minutes, but my problem is that in a real game I would make an evaluation mistake and I would try to push for a win. Game 9 (Level 1): I calculated the first 3 correct moves for both sides and then couldn't see the continuation. After the first 3 full moves I am sensing that Black can be in a trouble but I am still not sure who is winning. The full solution is 9 moves deep for both sides. Calculating 9 moves deep is not typically necessary for 1700 FIDE players. I have checked how deeply should I calculate in most recent 15 calculation mistakes in my slow games (opponents varied between 1300 FIDE and two title players - FM and IM): three times 1 move deep, five times 2 moves deep, twice 3 moves deep, four times 4 moves deep and once 6 moves deep. Being able to calculate 9 moves deep is really not critical for a 1700 player. I would much more benefit if I could simply get all candidate moves correctly at 4 moves deep or if I could visualise the board correctly at 4 moves deep. One might argue that if I learn to calculate 9 moves deep, I would get calculating 4 moves deep 'for free'. But at what cost? Wouldn't doing a bigger number of still difficult but actually doable exercises be a more efficient way to learn?... Game 10 (Level 1): I failed this one and while I really should be able to solve this one, it is definitely not FIDE 1200-1600 material. Game 11 (Level 2): it is the exercise that Andras discuss in this review. I agree with everything said, but I'd like to add some unclear things for me. At 7:10 in the review two possible checks are shown. After Qb6+ White should react with Kh1 (not allowing queen exchange), but after Qa7+ rather with Qf2 (allowing queen exchange). I was puzzled with it: why Kh1 in one variation and Qf2 in the other. Not understandable without an engine at my level. Now let's say that I was able to calculate it all until Nxg7. Now I look at the final position after Nxg7 and think "oh, White has pawn up and more active pieces". But the book asked me to "find the forced winning continuation for White". A "pawn up and more active pieces" is not really "the forced winning continuation". So, puzzled, I continue thinking what I am missing in my evaluation. I give up after some time and I turn up an engine. Stockfish 15 at depth 20 says +0.78, so I keep it running and at depth it 50 says +0.55... How is +0.55 "the forced winning continuation"? Is it even a forced win at GM level? At club level this is just equal. Game 18 (Level 1): there is only one good move here. In my opinion this move is absolutely unthinkable at 1200-1600 level with which this puzzle is associated. Unthinkable also for me at FIDE 1700. And even if someone handed this move to me, I would have big difficulties calculating why it is good.
Hi Andras! How do you compare this book with Aagaard's "GM Preparation: Calculation" one? I've had trouble finding good calculation exercise books to push through ~2100 ELO, and Aagaard's book feels like it's aimed at people somewhat above that. I was wondering if Ramesh's book would fill that gap in your opinion (or any other book you can think of, for that matter). Thanks!
If you were to compare this book with Aagaard's calculation? which one will you recommend to your student? based on extracting max value. say he is 1800- 2000fide.
I'm probably dumb but I don't see the mate at 7:52. It's black's turn, king to g8 and both of white's pieces are hanging, the best move is to save them by knight to g5. What am I missing?
This is the best book for any player between 1400-2400 ELO and even IMs can benefit from it although I don’t recommend it for GMs. After careful study of this book you will never need any fake chess app or money-wasting coach any more.
@@KeepChessSimple have you ripped yourself badly trying to improve? This book is not suitable for players below 1400 ELO and naturally you feel ripped and confused.
@@kevinwellwrought2024 No but the video says this book is clearly waaaaaay to difficult for 1400's so I can.imagine if you are going to study this at that level, you end up hating chess.
Great video, Coach! Your comments on this book confirm what I thought after playing through the preview of the book. I am ambitious but the level of this book seems very high, too high for where I am currently perhaps. Do any of these calculation books like Woodpecker method, Argard's book actually discuss how to improve visualization, how to visualize longer lines..or are they basically tactics/puzzle books with some commentary? I'm looking for something that will help me to visualize longer lines. I thought Ramesh's book was what I was looking for, but from reading the preview as well as your review here, I don't think so now.
The last position of the winning position looks unclear to me. You are just one pawn up and your king still looks vulnerable to back rank checks and diagonal checks. In short, I don't see a clear plan to win. Making a passed pawn on the queen side is one plan. Black king also looks vulnerable. But black will try to eliminate that pawn.
Hi, I'm a beginner in chess. I don't have any formal training. Calculation is my weakest areas. Can anyone recommend me a book that is focused on chess calculation training for beginners?🥲