There's nothing earth shaking or even particularly interesting about
this post, but I can't resist showing this snapshot from Artur
Yusupov's Website. Excerpts from his courses can be seen HERE. I looked at some of the excerpts which can be downloaded in pdf format and there are over 100 of them, so if you just want to browse it's a good way to kill some time plus there are some snippets of information and some nicely annotated games.
One reviewer commented, “I can't believe a 1500 player will get
much out of them. I think 1700-1800 is a good starting range. Doing
all 9 books means solving more than 2700 tough exercises spread out
over all the subjects that chess study involves.” That sounds a little harsh because there are courses for under 1500 rated players. But, it's hard for me to say because, to tell the truth, I am not sure exactly how good under 1500 players are these days. Back when I played in tournaments, they dropped pieces like flies, for example. As usual, I am guessing there is a lot of hype associated with the
courses. There are 3 books for 3 levels of play:
Under
1500 (Orange cover
books) The Fundamentals, Build Up Your Chess, Boost Your
Chess, Chess Evolution
1500-1800
(Blue cover books) Beyond the Basics, Build Up Your Chess, Boost Your
Chess, Chess Evolution
1800-2100
(Green cover books) Mastery, Build Up Your Chess, Boost Your Chess,
Chess Evolution
The rating guide given is for the level you are currently at and the
books cover all areas: positional elements, openings, endgames, how
to calculate, how to attack, etc.
What I thought was interesting was the phrase, “Tired of bad
positions? Play the main lines.” This is the same
advice GM Alex Yermolinsky gives. Makes me wonder about all the
opening books titled “Win With the (insert with the name of some
crappy gambit).”
Another thing is Yusupov insists that you should
play through the examples on a real on board. I think this is
good advice because you will probably retain a lot more.
Don't bother to buy his books, or any instructional book for that
matter, unless you intend to really study it. The books
cost about 30 Euros ($33 US) each, so a three book course at each
level cost will be $100. Because I am not interested in improving
these days (you have to know your limitations) the only books I buy
are game collections because they are fun to pay through.
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