"The Secrets of Practical Play" is a wide ranging discussion of chess which almost seems like a series of articles rather than a book with a unified theme. That by the way is not a criticism but merely an observation. I suppose that you could argue that Nunn who is an excellent author is merely giving you a series of secrets which may be helpful to your play and study of chess. I have never been disappointed by a Nunn book and I was not disappointed by this one either.

The book starts with a discussion of Kotov's Tree of Analysis and the possible failures of that method. Much like Tisdall's book "Improve Your Chess Now" which is mentioned in this book as well, Kotov's shadow fell over this book too. It has turned out to be a good thing that I reread "Think Like A Grandmaster" prior to these two books.

DAUT

This acronym means, if in doubt, Don't Analyse Unnecessary Tactics. Nunn argues that tactical analysis is an error prone activity where missing one important finesse can completely change the result of the analysis. Nunn argues that if you can decide on a move based on purely positional considerations then you should do so.

Tips on Making A Plan

1) Make sure your plan is beneficial
2) Make sure your plan is realistic
3) Make sure your plan is not tactically flawed.

"Having decided on a plan, you have to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility."

Making Your Opponent Think

Nunn gives the example of a position where your position is slightly worse and you evaluate ... h6 where you allow your opponent to make an unclear sacrifice. He suggests that you play ...h6 quickly and let your opponent do the work. There is a little bit of gamesmanship involved here but Nunn suggests that the worst outcome would be for you to analyse ...h6 for half an hour, come to no definite conclusion and then have your opponent play something else almost instantly.

LPDO

Loose pieces drop off.

Oversights and Blunders

Nunn suggests that the reason for many blunders is oversight of a move which at first glance may look strong leading to self-recriminations and a poor follow-up. He suggests calming down before responding to a move that surprises you.

He talks about hard to see moves, time trouble and laziness as contributing to blunders.

Nunn seems to agree with most strong players who caution against playing inferior sidelines as opposed to mainline openings.

Nunn makes observations on good positions, bad positions, attack and defense in the middlegame. He then looks at several endings and points out how some are quite unique and you have to pay attention to finesses

Using A Computer

One of the more interesting chapters deals with computers and Nunn goes through the exercise of using chess engine tournaments to help you decide on how to play highly tactical games. He also discusses the limits of computer analysis. He cautions against playing random games against computers as this can lead to discouragement for all but the strongest grandmasters. Instead he suggests using the computer to set up a positon that you want to play and playing against the computer and trying different approaches to help you understand the position.

Nunn also goes through examples of studying a quiet line through the use of a database of games and he shows how you should draw conclusions from statistics generated by most of the database programs. Its nothing terribly new but interesting in his presentation of the way to go about it given specific openings that you are trying to learn.

The concluding chapter is on chess literature and how to get the most out of it. He concludes with a reading list and reviews of Michael de la Maza's "Rapid Chess Improvement" and Reuben Fine's "Basic Chess Endings."

We have discussed some of Nunn's criticisms in Fromper's thread on his Improvement Plan. This review along with my reading of what his program is has certainly put me off of buying that book.

Anyway I highly recommend Nunn's book for serious chess students as there are a lot of good pointers and practical advice to anyone hoping to improve their practical results.

Crash

thanks, the book sounds cool. I don't want to seem selfish by always changing the topic of threads to suit my needs but theres so much I want to learn about chess!! Here it is anyway: I here a lot about basic chess endings and I can't think how it would be good, it dosn't seem fun to read and I think a book discussing various endgames and endgame themes without trying to cover everything would be more practical and better in the long run. After all does the book show how to mate with two kinghts against pawn in various situations? I doubt it. what do you think about this? wouldn't more managable and fun to read book be better?

A well written review so thanks for the info, Crash! I have Kotov's book and Tisdall's book you mentioned but have not read them yet. I also have a different Nunn book, "Secrets of Grandmaster Play", but that one looks too advanced for me at this point. I'll stick to Sliman and Chernev books right now. I'll keep an eye out for "The Secrets of Practical Play" for my future round of Chess book browsing at the Library/used bookstores...

The best book that I read on the endings was the Keres book "Practical Chess Endings" which is also probably the only book on endings that I have read from cover to cover. It takes a practical approach and gives you the endings that you are going to get in practice. I thought that it taught me what I needed to know and these days I am fairly happy with the way that I play the ending. Right now I have several books on endings that I plan on reading once I get my openings squared away including books by Mednis, Shereshevsky, Dvoretsky and Silman. I suspect that I will be ready for this new phase in about three or four weeks.

My favourite books are ones where grandmasters spend a lot of time talking about ideas rather than concrete variations. These annotations seem to stay with you longer than a dense forest of variations. Chess Life and Review used to have several grandmasters who would annotate games in this manner and I loved it back then.

Chess is a game and it should be fun and so should chess study or you will never be able to sustain it. By all means learn your endings slowly but do reading that you enjoy as well.

Crash

Do yourself a big favour and read the Kotov and Tisdall books. I guarantee that if you read them thoughtfully (and they are both enjoyable) you will improve. Secrets of Grandmaster Play is a good book. I don't think you should tackle it as a book that you are going to read in one sitting. Go through one game every few days while reading other chess material. It will take you longer to get through it but it will be more profitable.

Crash