Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer
by Mark Dvoretsky
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark DvoretskyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-01
ISBN: 188869047X
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Book Reviews of Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer
Book Review: You can read this book! It can be done!
Summary: 5 Stars
Dvoretsky has a well-earned reputation as being the world's best trainer, and his books sell very well on that basis. Ask a master-level player what he or she thinks about Dvoretsky, and chances are that they'll say that (1) Dvoretsky is really useful for improving your chess, but (2) you need to put in a _lot_ of work with his books to get anything out of them, and (3) players under class A or expert level would do best to steer clear of these books. Instead, chess mortals should study materials that are less complex and more immediately digestible.
I'm rated roughly 1500 USCF. I miss tactics often, endings are a foreign language, etc. I'm able - with a lot of work, with the help of a second board for analysis - to work through the book under discussion, Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual. Masters may be able to solve the most difficult questions posed, but I can't, and that's ok! I work through the analysis at a very slow pace and enjoy the mind-blowing complexity of chess on show in this book.
The Analytical Manual is not as focused a collection as Dvoretsky's other works. It doesn't center on strategy or tactics, for example, and it ranges over all phases of the game. It is a bundling of a number of essays available at ChessCafe and e3e5.com, with a fair number of new chapters thrown in. At heart, however, the Analytical Manual is precisely what its title suggests. The book is about the analytical process, how GMs think, the ways they see the board and make decisions, etc. In this it might be the most pragmatic of Dvoretsky's books.
Whatever your chess level, you'll get something out Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual _if_ you make the effort to do so. This is not casual reading. You have to really work to get what's going on in the analysis. But then, that's how you improve in chess!
Summary of Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer
This book is aimed first of all at helping strong players complete themselves. This ensures that it will overflow with exceptionally complex analyses and exercises, which will be difficult for even the leading grandmasters to handle. But even amateur players will find something of interest in it. How can it not be interesting to peek - perhaps not as an owner, but at least as a guest - into the world of high-level chess, to see with one's own eyes what sort of problems chess "pros" have to wrestle with (successfully or not), and how far from being complete even their play is? The many exercises presented in this book differ greatly from one another in their level of difficulty: some are fairly simple and accessible. It makes sense to take a stab at solving the tougher exercises, too; then later, once you have seen the answer, you will have a better grasp of your own abilities, strength and weakness. And finally: the analyses presented in this book include a multitude of most impressive passages, unusual and spectacular moves and combinations - and chessplayers of almost any grade can certainly find enjoyment in beauty. Readers who become familiar with this book will soon see, no doubt, that side variations are often analyzed in far more detail than is necessary to follow the course of battle in the game under discussion. Why would the author do this? Because, first of all, to give an objective assessment of all, or nearly all, the previously existing commentaries, written by other annotators. But chiefly because many of these side variations are interesting and educational in and of themselves, and create supplementary exercises. Look at them simply as lyrical digressions; don't worry if they seem unconnected to the main theme. Where possible, the author has tried to lay out the principles, methods and rules, ideas and techniques that lie behind the moves.The book was also designed as a practice book, to test and underscore the reader's newly acquired knolwedge. This book takes it place next to the author's classic "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" as being one of the great books of the modern era, a book from which the serious student may take his or her knowledge and understanding of complex middlegame ideas to the next level.Chess Books
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