Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover Chess)

This book has really helped my game. I have found when trying to read other books that they sometimes assume you know why a move is good or bad. At my level, I don't. I need it to be explained to me. This book annotates games between a Master (Euwe, I assume) and various beginners and mid strength players. It explains the purpose behind each move, why it it good, or why it is bad. I have since found out why moves I have commonly played in the past aren't the best ones. The style of writing is easy to understand.Some people have complained about the old style movement notation. I didn't find it a problem. I looked up the games online and wrote the algebraic notation in pencil next to the moves in the book. Even so - I didn't find it difficult to work out the moves, and the system is explained at the beginning. Come on people - it's not thaht hard if you try.Recommended.

I loaned my copy to someone years ago and never got it back. I was so glad to see it was still available. This and the companion volume, The Road to Chess Mastery, are the most useful general chess books I have ever read. Each book provides 25 games between a master and an amateur. As you advance through the chapters, the amateur players are stronger and stronger, so that their errors are more subtle. In each game, the authors start by describing the lessons to be learned in this game, and then they comment on each move of the whole game, making it easy to understand how the master identifies and takes advantages of the amateur's weak moves. This is a great learning format.

This is a very interesting little book. Written by a World Champion who was considered a great strategist, it is written with a level of chess understanding that few books possess. I like the concept of studying imperfect games, and how to exploit typical mistakes, as none of my opponents play like the GM's featured in most games collections. So big kudos for the concept, and kudos for the execution, which is in the form of a collections of 25 games of masters playing against increasingly strong amateur opponents. There is enough analysis to satisfy even fairly strong players, and the explanations of the play are very high quality. The drawbacks to this old book are that opening analysis is very dated, and that many of the openings chosen are not seen w/ any frequency in modern play. Although the format is a bit different, Silman's 'The Amateurs Mind' looks at positions played betweeen IM Silman and his students, so it might be a first choice, with this volume in reserve if you want more.

This book is invaluable for understanding why great players make the moves the make, and the blunders us amateurs play. The deep dive into strategy, tactics and theory have given me fresh perspective over how I think about moves. But the notation they use is old and painful to follow. Instead of A-H files and 1-8 ranks, the files are named by king-side and queen-side material. So A1 is QR1 and H2 is KN2. Even worse, White and Black's backrow is rank 1. So an E4-E5 now is P-K4, P-K4. Maddenning. Also, the chess board illustrations have little contrasts, so Black's pieces disappear into black squared. Overall, the information is great. The execution is poor.

I had always heard that this book was classic, and no i can understand why. The games chosen perfectly illustrate why amateurs make the moves they do, and why they shouldn't make them.The only reason i give the book 4 stars and not 5 is because so many seem to have an issue with "learning" descriptive notation. Yes this book is that old, that it is in descriptive notation :-) It doesn't make the book bad, i just gave it 4 stars simply because from other reviews regarding descriptive notation, I know some will not agree with my review.Simply put...if you want to improve your chess game than this book is a mist own!

This type of study is (at least for me) more useful than 100 hundred games with some general words in it (do not include Colin Crouch books) I am learning a lot from this book and its sequel Master vs master.

Very detailed and clear analysis of 25 games. In that sense it's like Chernev's book Logical Chess Move by Move but here the first few games feature rank amateurs and so you see how to exploit some typical beginner mistakes that the kind of people I play against make, but I was unsure of how to take advantage of. Notation is descriptive, but I find that less annoying than expanded algebraic (e2-e4 for example instead of just e4). The book is old so some of the opening analysis might be obsolete. For example, in the latest (Aug 2012) issue of Chess Life, Andy Soltis says that the exchange variation in the French Defense is respectable again because the more common alternatives have been analyzed past move 30. Probably this wasn't known when Euwe wrote this book. But I found this book very helpful.

The book "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur" is one of the best books I have read on the subject of learning to play chess. The senior author, Max Euwe, was not only a World Champion but was also a scholar and prolific author. He writes very well and with great authority. He, and his coauthor, Walter Meiden show the reader step-by-step the many mistakes amateur players make and the way master players recognize and respond to those mistakes. The book begins with analyses of games in which the amateur player is very weak, moves through games with stronger amateurs, and ends with games against expert or near expert players. Throughout the book the authors show the reader how the amateurs' mistakes were exploited by the master player. This is a very instructive book.

Very easy to read, starts off with basic concepts and then builds from there, really helps to hone chess thinking, both strategically and tactically. I would recommend this book for players who are beginners, or intermediate, the notation may be tricky at the start, but its ok once you get used to it. Very helpful and I think would really boost the average amateurs' game.

Classic of its kind. Helps prune the move tree.

the book is in descriptive (not algebraic) notationbut the other comments are bang on... never seen a more clear / comprehensive explanation of each move before in a chess book, nothing is assumed, it is all explained

Este libro y el de Ajedrez Lógico de Chernev son lo mejor que existe para iniciarse en el mundillo del ajedrez. lo uso para enseñarle a mis alumnos el valor de hacer la jugada correcta y el castigo que te impone el juego correcto ante los errores que cometemos los principiantes.

Useless without algebraic notation. I think Kindle should be open with customers and declare in brochure whether it contains algebraic notation. If not no use buying the book