Review: Practical Chess Exercises

I sat on Ray Cheng's new book Practical Chess Exercises for a couple of months, thinking it would be yet another run-of-the mill book of puzzles. Even the enthusiastic back-cover endorsements from Dan Heisman and John Watson (Cheng's coach) left me unimpressed. Such endorsements are typically written as favors by people who have only read the publisher's description of the book, or perhaps a small excerpt.

Once I cracked it, I liked the format of this book of 600 problems. Its layout is a boon for those of us who like to read chess books in planes and trains. Open the book to any page: on the left page you will find six positions while the right-hand page provides solutions to those same problems. No need to clumsily flip back and forth to find the answers in the back. Just hold a piece of paper over the right-hand page while working on a problem.

When I finally started working through the problems, my aforementioned skepticism quickly melted away. Then my enthusiasm grew as I realized I held a splendid and unique chess book in my hands. This is the first book I've read that makes me feel like I'm in a real game, where I need to use my full thinking process to pick the best move.

How did Cheng so adeptly manage to capture the spirit of playing in real games? Three reasons stick out. First, the variety of problems is as wide as the variety of positions you'll encounter in the game of chess. The problems include not just tactical themes, but also problems with a defensive problem to solve, endgames, opening themes (see below for an example), and about a third of the problems focus on positional themes. One really nice feature is that for some of the strategy problems there are multiple good moves (just like in real games!), not a single best move. For these positions Cheng mentions the many perfectly acceptable moves.

Second, the problems don't come labeled with themes, and are not sorted by theme or difficulty level. Positions in real games aren't labeled 'Mate in three' or 'Knight outpost.' There isn't a neon sign that starts blinking when there is a tactic to be found. Dan Heisman isn't there in shoulder-angel form to whisper "This is a difficult position, so be sure to give it a deep think." Cheng's problems serve to recreate the fog of war in chess, where it is up to you to determine whether there is a tactic in a position.

Third, the positions are from real games. No kooky compositions. Indeed, many of the problems are from internet games and remind me of the types of positions I see all the time.

All these facets combine to make the book a fun and helpful simulation of the chess battlefield. It forces you to think flexibly about the positions from multiple angles. Are there any major threats I need to deal with? If not, how can I improve my position? It even helps with time management, as the solutions provide quick feedback on how good you are at recognizing critical positions that require lots of thought, versus more quiet positions for which choosing moves based on general principles is appropriate.

The problems include no hints or labels. Just positions. The solutions on the next page have three features. First, a title that encapsulates the theme (e.g., 'Pawn sac to open lines' or the whimsical 'Win a pawn, lose the game'). The titles are useful for getting a big-picture perspective on the problem, and can serve as helpful hints before you cheat and look at the full solution. Next, the main body of each solution provides insightful analysis that strikes an excellent balance between word-explanation and variation crunching. Third, to indicate the difficulty-level of the problems, Cheng gives each problem between one and four stars (one being the easiest). I can find most of the one-star solutions within a few minutes, and tend to get the four-start problems wrong. I discuss the book's likely target audience below.

Reviews usually have criticisms, so I need to come up with some (note I consider these to be minor). For one, it would be nice if Cheng had included an index of themes in the back of the book for those who want to touch up on some particular weakness in their play. Also, while most of the explanations are chess enlightenment in word-form, a small minority could use a bit more meat (e.g., in problem 18 he gives the explanation "intending Nc4 with the advantage": the advantage isn't clear to this patzer and could be made a bit more explicit).

I unreservedly recommend this book, which is likely to be helpful for players rated between 1100 and 2000 at ICC (I am frankly not good at judging how the book would be for players rated so much higher than me, so this upper limit is something of a guess). Cheng himself is rated around 1700 USCF (tournament history here). This is a book to be savoured, and I am not looking forward to finishing it because it's just so damned fun working through the problems. Cheng doesn't plan on putting out another such book, so enjoy this superlative work. My hunch is that it took him a great deal of time to put it together (Fritzo-philes rejoice that he computer checked all the problems, and I did the same with a random selection and found his analysis spot on).

In the name of full disclosure, I should say that I received this book as a free review copy. But if I hadn't, if I had just checked it out of the library, I would quickly return it and buy the book.

To cap off this review, I'll provide one example. It is Problem 20 from the book, and received two out of four difficulty stars. White to move:
(20) ** Stop thematic pawn advance
Black's counterplay in the Semi-Slav Defense relies on the ...c6-c5 advance, opening the diagonal for his light-squared bishop, extending the scope of the rook on c8, and challenging White's pawn center. Here, after unusually restrained play by both sides White can prevent Black's thematic advance with 1. b4!

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Note I just found out that Chess Relearner recently posted a similarly glowing review of the book.