Don't reassess your chess until 2007
Jeremy Silman is going to radically alter his book Reassess Your Chess, fixing many of its problems (some of which stem from lack of computer checking). What follows is a quote from an article he recently wrote called Reassessing how to reassess your chess:
Compare Silman's sentiments with de la Maza's criticism of the book:
[There are] positions in HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS that, in my view, were not explained properly in the book, and one even featured a small typo. It was this kind of error, a lack of computer checking (strong chess engines didn't exist when I wrote this book), and the availability of a wealth of new examples (thanks to the wonders of databases, another thing that didn't exist when this book was written) that has convinced me to totally rewrite HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS (yes, a 4th Edition due out at the end of 2007).
My intention is to gut dozens (as much as 80%!) of the existing examples, and even toss a whole chapter or two into the rubbish bin! There are several reasons for doing this: the endgame chapter is useless and never belonged in HTRYC in the first place. It's also redundant since my new (upcoming) book, SILMAN'S COMPLETE ENDGAME COURSE, will give you everything you need to know about the endgame, and much, much more. The enormous amount of new examples I intend to make use of in the 4th Edition of HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS gives fans of the 3rd Edition more study material, and allows me to make the many key points about imbalances fresh and compelling.
Most importantly, I have changed many of my views over the years and now have new theories and ideas that I would like to present, making REASSESS (4th Edition) the teaching tool that I always wanted it to be.
Compare Silman's sentiments with de la Maza's criticism of the book:
Pick any analyzed position in Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess, the book that has become famous for teaching class players positional concepts, set up the position on your favorite computer program, and play the side that is winning according to Silman. After a few moves the computer will deviate from Silman’s analysis. Feel free to check Silman’s book or any other source for advice on what to do about the computer’s "new idea." You will quickly learn that the computer has busted Silman’s plan and a new plan is required. Now what do you do? If you are a GM you can create a new plan (provided that you didn’t reject Silman’s plan from the start), but if you are a class player there is little that you can easily do to learn about the new position.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 10/05/2006 06:35:00 PM
12 Comments:
A curious way to herald his new book. Can I get my money back for his old book?
Sillyman.
Am i glad i still did not buy it :-)
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
look for the 3-star review of HTRYC called "a startling reappraisal" on amazon.com
Silman can be safely avoided altogether, imo.
When I was first learning chess, Silman's HTRYC was the first book that truly spoke to me as a patzer. Up to that time, any attempt at book learning was marred by the fact that most chess players cannot write for sh*t. Silman showed me positional concepts that helped me understand the game on another level.
I have heard all the criticism before about the examples not being the best and all that, but I could care less. Silman showed me how to make bishops and knights more effective, and gave me the ground work on evaluating positions.
I'm going to buy his new edition, for sure.
Hopefully I'll be done with these damned circles by the end of 2007!! :O
I'll buy the book then.
I agree. De La Maza is a tosser.
Well, I can safely say that my first appraisal of Silman's books have been corroborated - by the author himself!
The notion that his work did not show depth of analysis because strong computer progams and extensive databases were not available at the time is the worst type of lame excuse I have ever heard.
A man who is supposed to be in the top 1% of chess players in the world should not need a computer program or database to see the types of blantant errors is his book. Even I, without computer assistance, was able to find flaws in his lines - and that was over a year ago when I was far weaker than I am now.
At least I know what to do with my old copy, now. . .I was runnning short of tinder for the fireplace [grin]
thank you patrick for the silman comment at bluedevil. i just now went back to the amzn review, querying three stars, and lo and behold, i knew that review from one or two years ago, and love THAT review. thanks for reminding me of it, it is very inspirational. it is the truth of correct chess training as i know it. dk
Hey! Good to see you're still going strong.
HTRYC is good but I don't think people talk enough about Silman's Amateur's Mind. That was one incredibly readable and helpful book for me when I was around 1500.
in other words, silman has to cherry-pick his examples so that his process (coincidentally) produces the best plan.
Silman's solution is to excise the examples when his process (The Silman Thinking Technique [insert angelic choir sound]) produces the WRONG idea. IMO, this represents a problem not with the examples, but with the whole SYSTEM. Err, The Silman Thinking Process.
I pasted AmateursMind awhile ago after borrowing it from a Silmanite-- who is stuck at 1550 for 5 years, go figure.
Sillmans book is a classic but outdated, its timely for a rewrite and a make over.
De La Mazas criticisms are idiotic given there is no room for planning in his own system.
Its great that Silman has taken the time to update his classic.
Congrats on being mentioned in the About:Chess article on chess blogs!
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