This was definitely an enjoyable and seemingly profitable book to read from the point of view of chess improvement.

Kotov's Long Shadow

This book was greatly influenced by Kotov's Think Like A Grandmaster and offers Tisdall's take on what it takes to improve your chess. Like many of the authors that I have been reading Tisdall tackles Kotov's fabled Tree of Analysis and finds it lacking in its purest form at least when analyzing in a game situation.

Tisdall states. "My theory contends that a combination of the natural human approach to the position, tempered with some of the discipline advocated by Kotov, is more effective. The components of this technique are (in this order):
1) To aim towards the choice of a single critical variation (heresy!). Branches are dealt with when unavoidable, and primarily to navigate the chief variation.
2) The constant application of abstract assessment.
3) A scan for critical candidates."

Talk to yourself

Tisdall suggests that you combine concrete calculation and a running verbal synthesis of the position.

Shave on sombody else's face - Arnold Denker

"Instead of cutting yourself, try to learn from other people having accidents."

Tisdall suggests blindfold chess as a good practice for improving your ability to calculate. He offers the idea of using stepping stone positions to help clarify and refocus on the positions that come up in your analysis at those moments when your analysis starts to go fuzzy. This is a VERY USEFUL idea when you have to calculate long variations. The stepping stone technique involves "burning" the characteristics of the new position into your mind's eye (making sure that you remove all the pieces that have been exchanged from your mental board) and carefully looking at the whole board so that you have another stepping stone towards your final position. This works when you are reading a chess book without a set and are starting to lose your sense of the position in all the variations.

Tisdall goes on to describe the "Art of Playing Bad Positions"
1. Keep fighting.
2. Create problems for your opponent.
3. Seek the initiative, even at the cost of material
4. Prolong resistance.
5. Use your imagination.

"Never look back. Live in the present and fight for the future."

In the chapter on pattern training he gives a number of exercises and shows how sometimes a particular pattern can interfere with the solution of a tactical puzzle or game position because you want to solve it in keeping with the previous patterns that you are familiar with.

He concludes with a chapter of "Wisdom and Advice" and some useful appendices with a catalog of mating patterns and their names. There is another appendix with tactical themes and an annotated bibliography.

This is a very good book, one that I shall be returning to again and again.

Highly recommended.

Crash


Recently Completed Reading (July, August and September):

1. Winning Chess Brilliancies by Yasser Seirawan
2. Chess Master... at any age by Rolf Wetzell
3. How to Build Your Chess Opening Repetoire by Steve Giddins
4. The Grandmaster's Mind by Amatzia Avni
5. Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar and Paul Truong
6. Chess for Tigers by Simon Webb (Previously Read)
7. Understanding Chess Move by Move by John Nunn
8. Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov (Previously read)
9. Simple Chess by Michael Stean
10.Chess Middlegame Planning by Peter Romanovsky
11.Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
12.Art of Planning in Chess Move By Move by Neil McDonald
13.Improve Your Chess Now by Jonathan Tisdall