Current Rating: 1934 USCF

Current Books: Law School (not a lot of time or will to read other stuff)

Book Reviews:

Play the Sicilian Dragon: Edward Daering -- It may seem like I am just a praiser of books instead of a reviewer, but then again, if a book sucks why would I read it, much less review it? ;) Dearings book is awesome, though, and for anyone around my level who wants to play the Sicilian Dragon I highly recommend it. It has a great balance of positional mushy nonsense and straight up but less helpful lines -- when combined, and with a little bit of patience, you really can get a feel for how to play the Sicilian Dragon. I usually dont like opening books also -- either they just talk mush the whole time and you know you arent learning anything, or they just give lines and you still know you arent learning anything. I liked this one though, and would actually read it for enjoyment a little bit!

*****

The Delights of Chess: Assimov -- this is a solid book that, though not very informative in a strict chess sense, is a very enjoyable read and may help remind you of why you like chess in the first place. Great for bed time reading.

***

Kasparov's Fighting Chess: Tibor Karolyi and Nick Aplin -- I am tempted to straight up recommend any book by Tibor Karolyi -- the man seems dedicated to writing a good chess book. His books are really thick, though, so I might be on the lower edge of someone who can truly enjoy it. However, accepting the fact that I will probably not finish the thing cover to cover, going over a game or two every so often is just an absolute joy. The lines, and ideas, Tibor gives in the wild positions Kasparov's games generally involve, are great to go over. Further, Tibor (maybe it should be Mr. Karolyi, I dont know the man personally) has such a great way of leaving out just enough information that you have to figure out somethings on your own -- but offers enough information that you dont say, my god, this author missed the most obvious move! There are a lot of tactics that go underneath the given lines of Tibor, and figuring them all out is probably the most enjoyable part of the book. I dont think at any time while doing this, also, that I gave up exasparatedly. There was enough in the lines to lead me to the tactics -- for instance, one line would have say omit a move, and you would say why not "X." Work it out for a while, and you say dang it I dont know, but then if you move on a little bit you see in another line, with different moves a mating attack. You take this and go back to the orginal line and there you have it -- the move you thought would be good loses to some mating attack. Pretty awesome. People lower ranked than me, or people with less patience than me, might get less out of the book. People better than me might even be able to finish the thing cover to cover ;). Either way, it is a good book to have around, for that "1 hour lets go over a game" chess reading.

****

Mikhail Tal Life and Games -- I only got half way through, but this is the best chess book ever.

*****

My Best Games of Chess: Vassily Smyslov -- This book is pretty good, but it can be a little dry at times. I honestly didnt try very hard at it, though, and will probably try to get 'in to it' later.

***

Why Lasker Matters: This book was pretty awesome -- it took my two tries to read it though. Lasker's ability to perform chess 'miracles,' and I geuss more importantly, your ability to learn how and why he was able to do this, is a excellent and exciting thing to learn. The moderate biographical blurbs in front of the games were nice too. Longer would have been better, but then of course it would be a totally different kind of book.

****

Openings for White According to Kramnik: Book V (Queen's Gambit Declined): Well, what can I say. I dont really care much for opening books. This book is pretty dang thorough, though, and Khalifman does a decent job of picking lines, giving evaluations etc. I think I read that this book was 2100+ recommended, and I would probably agree with that. Good for the Class A dreamer though!