by Isaac Lipnitsky is now available (quality chess).

Interesting to see sovjet classics translated to english.

Anyone read the book (or the russian version)?

I bought this book last week and almost finished reading it.
It's a fantastic book, I think definitely a "must-have" for people who want to improve. At least I,m really enthusiastic about it.

Strange that it lasted for over 50 years that this fantastic book is translated into english language. It's a real chess classic!

To give an indication, in my humble opinion, for players with level of about 1900 rating up to grandmaster level. But also players below under 1900 can of course learn a lot from it.

What does it cover?

Hello FM Dikkie:

"I bought this book last week and almost finished reading it."

How on earth do you read a book in a week?

Would this book not be out of date, given today's modern approach a la Watson, etc.?

Thanks,

Gerry

Gerry1970 wrote on 10/20/08 at 01:46:39:

Hello FM Dikkie: "I bought this book last week and almost finished reading it." How on earth do you read a book in a week? Would this book not be out of date, given today's modern approach a la Watson, etc.? Thanks, Gerry

I had a holiday for a week, it reads easily. :)

I haven't read Watson (it's a shame  :) )but I can't imagine to call it out of date.

I think/feel the views Lipnitsky gives are good and still very good to use. You can adopt them still, maybe here and there with some little refinements. (Like most of the Nimzowitsj book is usable but I suspect this Lipnitsky book is even more usable).

Of course some opening lines are outdated, but the heart of the matter is not the given opening lines but how to handle an opening line etc.
After all of course it's not an openings book.

The book teach you a lot about positional chess!
I think it gives a good insight of how the Russians worked on chess in these days
Maybe an unknown teritority also for Mr.Watson. But I don't know because like said I haven't read his book.

Is it interesting, the Watson book? can someone give a link of discussion of this book?!

@LeeRoth, what this book covers? I will give the chapters:
Chapter 1.On the Opening
2:The Centre
3:The Centre and the Flanks
4:Conquering the Centre from the Flanks
5:Mobilizing the Pieces
6:Evaluating the Position
7:The Concrete Approach
8:From Critical Positions to Settled Positions
9.Positional Flair
10.Plans in the Opening
11:The Initiative
12:Modern Gambits
13.Opening and Middlegame
14:Reevaluation of Values
15:How long does a "Novelty" last?
16:How is an innovation born?

+Selected games from the author himself.

Thanks FM Dikkie.

I have ordered the book and is really looking forward to it.

Hello:

The book won some awards. Here are a number of reviews:
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/smcs.txt
http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_js/js_secrets_modern_chess_st.html

There is also a sample that can be downloaded from Gambit with a TOCs at http://gambitbooks.com/pdfs/072Samp.pdf.
And of course, Jacob Aagaard take many opportunities in his books to strongly disagree with Watson.

Hopefully this is what you wanted.

Gerry

"Is it interesting, the Watson book? can someone give a link of discussion of this book?!"

This post confuses me  :D

Are we talking about Lipnitsky's book Secrets of modern chess theory?

Or are we talking about Secrets of modern chess strategy? by Watson?

FM Dikkie, i take it you're refering to the former? Because that is what i would like to know about.

ookwelbekendalsemc wrote on 11/05/08 at 07:28:27:

This post confuses me  :D Are we talking about Lipnitsky's book Secrets of modern chess theory? Or are we talking about Secrets of modern chess strategy? by Watson? FM Dikkie, i take it you're refering to the former? Because that is what i would like to know about.

The Lipnitsky book is called Questions of Modern Chess Theory

The thread has been hijacked, yes.

Finally got Lipnitsky's book. First impression is good. Only read the first two chapters so far though.

One thing is strange though. The first three(!) paragraphs in the two first chapters (on the Opening and the Centre) is identical word by word.... :-?

ookwelbekendalsemc wrote on 11/05/08 at 07:28:27:

This post confuses me  :D Are we talking about Lipnitsky's book Secrets of modern chess theory? Or are we talking about Secrets of modern chess strategy? by Watson? FM Dikkie, i take it you're refering to the former? Because that is what i would like to know about.

That's true EMC, like Alias said: Questions of Modern Chess Theory (by Isaac Lipnitsky)

Viking wrote on 11/05/08 at 09:55:46:

One thing is strange though. The first three(!) paragraphs in the two first chapters (on the Opening and the Centre) is identical word by word.... :-?

I noticed this, too. I just received this book, and I’m wondering if there was a bad printing run. I have to say, this makes me a bit angry. Chapter 1, On the Opening, is two pages, with the entire second page being a reprint of the introduction two pages earlier. The first page of the Chapter 1 is three paragraphs covering the basics of shatranj. That’s it, so I’m wondering how many pages are missing here. I have a hard time believing the author would limit a chapter on the opening phase in the game of chess to three paragraphs on shatranj. The next chapter, The Centre, starts off with a reprint of the first page of Chapter 1. I stopped reading here, so I don’t know if there are any more problems further into the book. I am going to write Quality Chess to see if they intend to do anything about this.

That is a bummer. I was hoping to get it over the holidays, but I would rather hold off until the problem is fixed.

That is very odd, because their books usually seem to be pretty high quality.

As the book is a translation of a russian version, the key is how the original book is written. It may be wrong to blame Quality Chess.

GrizzleBazzle, please let us know what Quality chess has to say about this issue  :)

I sent off an email to John Shaw, since he is listed as the chief editor at Quality Chess. However, he and Aagaard are both playing in Dresden, so it may be a while before we hear back from them.

Ok, I was wrong. He got back to me almost immediately. Here is his response:

Dear Eric,

Thank you for your e-mail.

Yes, there is a slip in the typesetting. Unfortunately no one are immune to such problems.

However, not a single word is missing and there are no problems later on in the book.

Best wishes, John Shaw

Good news.

Yes, the thread was nearly hijacked. The book we're discussing is here:
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/22/questions_of_modern_chess_theory_by_isaac_lipnitsky/

They have a pdf excerpt available
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/QuestionsofModernChessTheory-Exceprt.pdf

http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/productimages/thumb/SS-image-2008-09-24-48da2f2cc392c.jpg