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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) What is the worst chess book ever ? (Read 148534 times)
Hadron
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #115 - 06/25/12 at 07:39:24
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Simple....Unorthodox Chess Openings by Joel Benjamin and Eric Schiller....Grade A crap
HTH
  
I'm reminded again of something Short wrote recently, approximately "The biggest fallacy in chess is the quasi-religious belief in the primacy of the opening."
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #114 - 06/25/12 at 02:38:16
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This is shooting fish in a barrel.  Only works by titled players deserve critcism on this basis.
  
The Great Oz has spoken!
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #113 - 06/24/12 at 22:05:34
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That reminds me, although I've enjoyed some of Keene's books, I recall coming across a "revised edition" of one (an opening book, I'm thinking Caro-Kann or maybe Nimzo-Indian) in which the revision seemed to consist of tacking on a few recent unannotated games at the end.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #112 - 06/24/12 at 20:38:30
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I at one time had Chess Openings For White Explained.  I rmember following a Scotch gambit line without any explanation with the line ending suddenly.  It was really the title that got me.  How can a book with the claim of explained end up leading the reader down a gambit line without explanation?  I immediately sold it without any regret although I felt some small amount of guilt that someone else whould find this out on their own.

Also Kasparov on the KID is indeed poor, but it at least has the merit of being usable as a games collection, but its pretensions to being a "book" make it terrible.  Whole games without analysis?  But having Kasparov evaluate a position even without extensive annotation has some value.  But can you even call it a book?  Terrible yet with redeeming qualities.  I haven't sold it or given it away.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #111 - 06/17/12 at 15:50:09
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No matter how good this book is...

http://www.newinchess.com/Anand___Gelfand-p-7137.html

I will never buy it!
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #110 - 06/17/12 at 04:28:01
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DionTheGreek wrote on 03/22/10 at 20:01:04:
How To Think In Chess by Jan Przewoznick and Marek Soszynski is one of the worst books on my big collection.


WHY does this book suck again?
  
"Experience is a dim lamp, which only lights the one who bears it."
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #109 - 06/16/12 at 23:46:19
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"Chess Openings: New Theory" certainly looks like a prime candidate- very little substance and many dubious lines suggested.

Schiller's book on the Frankenstein-Dracula has been updated and has extensive preview material at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Dracula-Variation-Vienna-Game-Chess/dp/487187...
Still looks scarily similar to what Carsten Hansen described in his review...

However on comparing the preview material for both books I'm tempted to suggest that "Chess Openings: New Theory" might if anything be even worse.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #108 - 06/16/12 at 23:11:02
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kylemeister wrote on 06/16/12 at 16:38:24:
Just thought I'd mention that I came across something that may be unsurpassable.  I give you "Chess Openings:  New Theory."

(Amazon link)
http://tinyurl.com/8x934d9

One of the innovations "analyzed":  1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nd5.

Awesome link! the blurb in the Book Description section is in pure Borat/Jahnoun style. Hafla!
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #107 - 06/16/12 at 17:57:54
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Yes, it's been nominated several times. Some have sought to disqualify it because it's not a chess book. I don't know what it is, to be honest.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #106 - 06/16/12 at 17:11:36
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The worst?  I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I'd nominate Magic by Richard Moody.  I think he had an earlier book, too, and I'd wager that was pretty unfortunate.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #105 - 06/16/12 at 16:38:24
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Just thought I'd mention that I came across something that may be unsurpassable.  I give you "Chess Openings:  New Theory."

(Amazon link)
http://tinyurl.com/8x934d9

One of the innovations "analyzed":  1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nd5.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #104 - 03/28/10 at 21:46:22
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His book 'Unorthodox Chess Openings' was also quite poor, but not as terrible as his Frankenstein-Dracula book. Fortunately, I learned my lesson after buying two of Schiller's books (Unorthodox Chess Openings and one on tactics; the tactics book actually wasn't that bad), and stopped buying any of his books.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #103 - 03/28/10 at 20:31:35
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Speaking of Schiller, I thought that his "First Chess Openings" was strikingly bad, and was surprised at some positive things that were said about it here something like a couple of months ago.  One thing I seem to recall from perusing it in a bookstore is that it devoted a page to the "Queen's Defense," which at least in this case meant 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Qe7.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #102 - 03/28/10 at 20:12:04
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Nothing I have read in this thread has changed my opinion that this crap by Schiller must be the worst chess book ever. I mean, Moody at least provides a lot of original moves, no matter how bad they are. Bangiev provides a new theory, no matter how incomprehensible. Schiller simply provides nothing. I have seen one page of this crap on internet. Everything Hansen (I did not know this review before, thanks JK) wrote s true.
  
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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #101 - 03/28/10 at 01:58:32
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Markovich wrote on 03/16/10 at 14:01:19:
I returned Moody's Evans Gambit book to the bookseller when I saw what it was.  He was good enough to give me my money back.

I remember Moody trying to defend the knight sac line in the Evans (7.0-0 Nge7 8.Ng5 d5 9.Nxf7) where White basically ends up a piece down for next to nothing in his main line.

That said, from the reviews I've seen, the top candidate would have to be MNb's suggestion of Eric Schiller's on the Frankenstein-Dracula:
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen15.txt

British Chess Magazine's review of the book complained of "pages of scantily annotated gamescores" and said "this book surely belongs in the Chamber of Horrors", though sadly they've removed the pre-2007 reviews from the internet.
  
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