» Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve

Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: A VERY USEFUL BOOK!!!
Comment: This is a pretty good book and can be used a couple ways. as a training book to sharpen your skills. As a teaching book if you are teaching others. Also this is a pretty good book to use if you are rusty or have never played in a rated event and want an idea of how good you are playing RIGHT NOW!!! The positions are instructive and the rating scale seems pretty close. I am a master just a bit over 2200 and have shown this book to a lot of my friends who are much weaker. The rating scales give a pretty close estimate of current playing level and will make you better as you progress through the tests. Very well done book. I will probably get a few copies for people I know who play chess and want to get better as gifts.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Exam
Comment: This book is unique and worth the purchase price. It is mainly a rather difficult exam which covers all ranges of chess expertise and therefore we novices miss many of the questions completely and this is a little difficult to tolerate. Fortunately the 100 questions are broken up into 10 sections and you get to review your performance at these points, which is a big relief. The main benefit I got from the book was the detailed explanations of the correct answer and the chess thinking that one should utilize in solving the problem. There is no system to the order of the problems. After the exam there is a very detailed analysis of your answers and you get an approximate rating in various aspects of the game (tactics, endgames, etc.). Based on this information, the last portion of the book provides some general guidance on how to improve, along with some specific books that might help. My only criticism of the book is that it covers the whole range of chess expertise and many of the problems were way over my head. My rating was 1450.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Works for me
Comment: I have now made some progress here. The questions are excellent and doing the work is educational. I have not tried the last half of the book yet.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting positions. Good experience.
Comment: I finished the 100 exercises in a total of 29 hours, what represents spending 17 minutes per exercise. It was a very interesting experience. My ICC rating (standard) is about 1750. The book estimated my rating as 1820. So, very close.

While I was doing the exercises I had the feelling that my game was improving. The positions presented are all very interesting. When you find yourself thinking: "this one is easy", analyse more carefully because there are a lot of "hidden ideas".

But don't think that the job is finished when you complete the tests. This is about 70% of the total job. Now you have to input your results in a table and calculate your score, overall and by 12 categories: opening, middlegame, endgame strategy, strategy, tactics, attack, defense, threat, counterattack, calculation, sacrifice and standard endgame positions.

For each of this 12 categories, the autor gives advices on training and books for reading. In my opinion, this is the differential of this book. After completing the tests, you have an idea of where your game is weaker and what to do to improve.

Now that I have finished the book I will follow his advices and maybe, in 1 or 2 years, I will be back here to say if my game improved or not.

I will not give 5 stars because of following reasons:
a) the process of inputing the scores into the tables (so that you can see your ratings) is very laborious and operational. You should be very careful to avoid mistakes. The book owners should have free access to a spreadsheet which would substitute this laborious process.
b) there are only 6 exercises on openings. I don't believe that with such a small number of exercises, one can evaluate properly the level of your opening play.
c) in the Tactical session the autor refers to "Tactical Motifs" from "Mr. Bloch". Actually the correct reference is "Combinative Motifs" from Mr. Blokh.

Afterall, I recommend this book for those who want to improve but does not know exactly how to do it. At the end, you will have a training plan to follow. No shortcuts. I don't recommend for begginers.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Spectacular
Comment: This is not a typical chess book. It's more like a puzzle book. But instead of mate in 5 type of tactics problems, it covers all aspects of the game in 100 questions, opening, middlegame, endings, positional, tactical, planning (I wish there were more). It is so much fun to do the exercises and they are well chosen. It will definitely improve your play and identify your weak areas.

Another great thing about the book that makes it stand out is the answer keys. You have to come up with 2 answers, one is assessment and the second is the correct move. That eliminates the luck factor from the assessment. Also there's no true/false answer, but you get 5 points for the correct, 1 for the incorrect but close, and sometimes you get points deducted for those that are obviously wrong.

You can take this book with you anywhere you go, anywhere you have to wait for a long time and need some pass time. As for the assessment accuracy I will know when I'm done. But that's not a big concern for me. The interim
that comes after each 10 questions shows me 200 points below what I thought I am, but I am hoping this will increase later.

Strongly recommended.

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