School is back in session so it is back to my 40 minute tactics/endgame work with my morning coffee! I decided not to play a G/60 this weekend just to take a break from competitive chess, be it OTB or ICC!
I have been studying some master games in the Open Sicilian (my nemesis). I have found myself drawn to the games of Judit Polgar, Vishy Anand, and Tal! Right now I am annotating one of Polgar's games in the Open Sicilian (as White).
I also went digging in my book closet and found three books! One I had read a few years ago, one I come back to every once in awhile and one I kind of forgot about:
1) "How To Play Good Opening Moves" by Edmar Mednis: Great book on opening principles AND he has two entire chapters on the basic principles of the Sicilian! Great stuff. Nothing too deep but just enough to help look at aforementioned master games with a little more clarity! Mednis was the man!!
2) "Strategic Chess" by Edmar Mednis: Basically a book about closed openings. I decided I am going to dig into the chapters on the Queen's Indian now that I have played quite a few games in that opening. Mednis really does explain this type of topics (openings) better than ANYONE! If Mednis wrote a book any opening I ever wanted play I would buy it sight unseen.
3) "The Art of The Middlegame" by Kotov, Keres and Golombek: I forgot I had this book BUT I decided to peruse the chapter on attack by Kotov! What a great chapter! He outlines basic principles for attack on the castled and uncastled king as well as for kings castled on opposite sides. And the examples are awesome and highlight the principles really well. Obviously he can only go so deep in 50 pages or so but it is just enough for me as I have never really studied "attacking" other than reading over games and/or attacking tactical problems. So this is perfect for me! I think it will help me analyze my games better and even analyze some master games!
I hope everyone is doing well! I will post the annotated Polgar game in a few days.
"How To Play Good Opening Moves" is a great book but all the typos make me sad.
ReplyDeleteSame here the book is very clear,but full of typos.
ReplyDeleteshame this spoiled what should have been a great little book.
Hey Farbror and ChessX:
ReplyDeleteI agree! The typos in the Mendis book are shameful! But Mednis is the man!
And ChessX! How are you doing? Ain't seen you in awhile!