How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess-Mastery Course, Expanded 3rd Edition Paperback – January 1, 1993

First, there are no more than 3-5 typos in the whole book (3rd edition). Right after finishing this book, I beat the highest rated Chessmaster opponent I ever have before. But what's impressive is that I played the game in a third less time than usual! Thanks to Silman's teaching style I have learned the thinking mechanics good players use to break down a position and see what to do with minimal effort (thru the early middlegame, at least). I know intuitively whether to initiate or allow a trade, alter the pawn structure, etc. Now my mental energy goes to analyzing variations, finding weaknesses in my opponent's camp, and planning toward a winning endgame.It's so much easier to create and build on imbalances than to obsess on material gain or waste time in the middlegame constantly trying to find a checkmate that isn't there. I used to be terrified to sacrifice even a pawn. Now I know that pawn was taking a useful square from my knight or blocking a now open file for my rook. The improvements in my thinking are too numerous to cover them all.This was the fifth chess book I have read, and it opened my eyes to ideas I wasn't exposed to nearly as well before. Books crammed full of variations don't teach me anything I would retain, and put me to sleep. This book teaches how to break down a position so you can recognize what your aim should be, how to get there, and preventing counterplay. You learn how to strengthen your own pieces AND weaken your opponent's. A dedication to preventative rather than reactive defense is a skill I was sorely lacking until I read this book. I finally understand how to gain a winning position without a material advantage. I know now whether I must strike immediately or if I can afford to take a few moves to strengthen my position first. In short, I feel like I'm in control of the whole game now, rather than only planning my moves and playing wait-and-see with my opponent's.If you're an intermediate player, buy this book. You will never regret it.

Bobby Fischer once revealed that what drove him most as a child was an obsession with trying to discover why the very top players in the world consistently won. While we can only dream of ever knowing the mind of Fischer, most chess players can relate to the notion that it's almost a mystery why the top players excel. We read books on tactics until seeking overworked pieces and weak back ranks is second nature. We study openings in incredible depth often committing many iterations to memory that match how the Grand Masters play. We learn positional play, eventually moving rooks to open files by instinct and naturally looking for those strong squares for our knights. But in time what almost everyone discovers is that books begin to repeat themselves, we find no new principles to elevate us beyond the expert level. So what then must it be that differentiates the 2000 rated player from the 2500 rated player when no theory has been left unturned? Thus enters Jeremy Silman with another masterpiece in "Reassess Your Chess".The basis for the book is learning how to assess imbalances in the game. Not simply one player having a better position or material (although those are imbalances) but particularly in games that are quite even where one player's positional strengths and weaknesses represent the other players weaknesses and strengths. Learning to identity these provides the insight required to know how to strategize in perfectly balanced games, the core element according to Silman that differentiates master players from experts.This book can not be taken lightly. Not only is it packed full of theory, but there is so much information and ideas that it will take several readings and perhaps years for it to sink in entirely. For players at a plateau searching for means to truly advance their game into elite status, this book is an absolute must.

The principles this book teaches are indeed invaluable and may be eye-opening for the intermediate and even good player. Some are well-known and some would never be thought of by the amateur. However, it's quite time-consuming, and I'm still ambivalent about whether or not the massive amounts of annotated games and examples do more harm than good. I find the majority of the games Silman lists are only slightly and/or temporarily relevant to the themes he teaches at any moment.Some more detailed complaints:The biggest problem to me is that the book fails as an instructional guide in that I feel it's incomplete in many of its teachings. For example, Silman emphasizes the importance of controlling or occupying weak squares, putting your Rooks on open files and applying pressure to the kingside pawns. However, he could've done a much better job of teaching what to do once that's accomplished. "Okay, my Knight's on the e5 support point. Now what?" "Okay, I have an Alekhine's Gun pointed at the g7 pawn in front of the enemy King. Now what? That pawn's defended by four other pieces!"The second problem is the aforementioned verbosity. Related to this is that Silman lists a huge collection of examples for all the themes he teaches. However, going through them is too time-consuming for their own good, especially because the point he stresses is only temporarily or peripherally touched by them. The majority of these examples are from real games, and I feel he could've been more straight and to the point by using hypothetical positions and playing only a few moves per game to demonstrate that point instead of making the reader play a couple of 30 to 40-move games.A final complaint is about one of the most important features of this book: Silman's Thinking Technique. He devotes a few pages describing it and hardly touches it again. He should have made the rest of the themes he teaches more relevant to the thinking technique.With all that said, I believe it's a good, solid book; probably one of the most quintessential for the 1200-1700 level player. If you're really serious about chess study, also purchase his 'Reassess Your Chess Workbook' to get a complete education of what Silman teaches in this one. You'll have a better idea of how to use imbalances to your advantage after working through the exercises listed therein.