I’ve been meaning to write this review for awhile now so here it goes.
The one thing that all adult chess players want to know is how to improve. This is difficult because there are so many aspects of the game to work on. Do you focus on tactics ?(never a bad idea), learn endings? middlegame technique? Openings? Of course if you want to improve, I imagine you’d have to work on all aspects of your game, but for the time challenged the question becomes, “Where should I focus most of my effort right now?” I believe Mr. Khmelnitsky has a book that will help you answer that question.
The book is divided into 10 tests of 10 positions each for a total of 100 positions. Each position has two questions, the first typically asks you to evaluate the position, the next question usually has you selecting a move. The answers for each question appear on the following page so you don’t have to riffle through pages to find the answer. The answer key awards points for finding the best answer, second best answer, and often will deduct points for a truely terrible choice.
You are allowed 20 minutes per position so it should take approximately 34 hours to work through the entire book. I remembered it taking me about 4 weeks to finish. I imagine this is why the author broke the book up into ten sections. There is an interim report at the end of each section that will show you how you did. It is a basic chart that gives your relative ELO rating based on your score. I said basic because at the end of the whole test the grading is anything but basic, but more about that later.
The book itself is instructive in that the author gives a good explanation in the answer to each question. The answers are far more than just a/b/c/d he first will explain why the other answers don’t work and then explains why the answer is….well “the answer”
The grading is in 13 different categories, they are:
Overall
Attack
Counterattack
Defense
Opening
Middlegame
Endgame
Tactics
Strategy
Calculations
Standard Postions (endgames)
Sacrifice
Recognizing Threats
Now some of these overlap, but it makes sense, tactics are not necessarily the same as attack, and counterattacks are not necessarily purely defensive. Each position might contain 3 elements or as many as 5 elements in it. So an opening diagram might fall under tactics/sacrifice/openings. This is where the lengthy grading process comes in. At the end of the test you have to award the points for each question into the appropriate category. When you are done you will have a score in each category simply take your score divide by the total number possible and you get your %. That will equate to an approximate rating in each area.
So not only do you get an overall rating but a rating in each category. Your scores will tell you where you need to focus on. At the very end of the book each category gets its own section. He gives a diagramed position a bit of an explanation and then he makes training recommendations with a book list appropriate to your level. So class C/B players are recommended a certain book while A/Experts are recommended another book.
My Experience:
I went into the test thinking that my Strategy, Endgames, and Defense would all be strong and that my Openings, Tactics and Calculation would all be weak. It turns out my calculation and openings were my strongest points and my Endgames and defense need alot of work. My Strategy was a little higher than my overall rating of 1450 (1620 I believe) while it is better than other areas it not exactly my strong suit. As I suspected my tactics did indeed suck, they were all the way down in the low 1300′s. I not only found out that I needed to work on tactics but he gave great recommendations, the books I bought to correct this issue were excellent as well. If you must know my current rating is 1283, but it has been on the rise the entire year. I was rated at 1009 in January. (I only had played 9 OTB games up until that point)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
$18.21 on Amazon
