ChessPub Forum - What is the worst chess book ever ?

ChevyBanginStyle Full Member Offline 2 \infty & CRUNCH Posts: 238 Joined: 01/03/10	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #85 - 03/07/10 at 13:04:56	Post Tools	Print Post
	"Many simple strategies are offered and the level of complexity goes all the way from beginner up to complex strategies that only Karpov understands." LOL it's as though he's claiming to divine Karpov's understanding of chess through his writing. "Why Qe2? Heck, I don't know. It's beyond me. Ask Karpov." Magical chess thinking. The guy's obviously a crank. Was he banned for being absurdly pretentious?


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ArKheiN God Member Offline I love ChessPublishing.com! Posts: 728 Location: Belgium Joined: 03/30/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #84 - 03/07/10 at 12:39:57	Post Tools	Print Post
	Richard Moody's book "Magic, the guy has been known in our forum in two knights threads as "sloughter" and after being banned from here he continue what he did here in chess.com's forum under the name of "sloughterchess". Just read that page to introduce his book Magic: http://www.correspondencechess.com/moody.html Probably one of the very "best" worst chess book ever. His often bad ideas may be dangerous for the naive beginner. And the guy thinks he knows the truth of chess and he is about 1700 rated... Another hilarous text : "Magic! Black to Move and Win - Richard Moody 280 pages, A4 format. If you are looking for a book with the patina of professionalism, then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for 260 pages of new ideas, then this is the book for you. With over 300 diagrams, you can read it in a car, on a train, plane or subway, and learn major theoretical novelties while you relax without needing either a board or a computer. In terms of sheer quantity, this book has more major TN's than any book we've seen in the past several years. Featuring radical new ideas such as 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Qe2 Nc6 4.d4! " You can buy the book here http://www.ukgamesshop.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=chnew...


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MNb God Member Offline Rudolf Spielmann forever Posts: 10778 Location: Moengo Joined: 01/05/04 Gender:	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #83 - 03/07/10 at 11:52:14	Post Tools	Print Post
	Smyslov_Fan wrote on 09/18/09 at 05:02:51: I still think Reuben Fine's Psychology of Chess is rank has to rank as one of the worst chess books of all time. It's a Freudian analysis of why we play chess, complete with a discussion of the phallic nature of the pieces, the oedipal urges that we (mostly male) chess players have and so on. My small intestines tried to strangle me after reading that one! Then Alexander Cockburn's (this name is not a product of my overheated fantasy) book should not remain unmentioned as well. Typically the Dutch translation has a favourable introduction by GM Donner. Cockburn's interpretation of Freud's theory would make the Viennese analyst make cringe.

	The book had the effect good books usually have: it made the stupids more stupid, the intelligent more intelligent and the other thousands of readers remained unchanged. GC Lichtenberg
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Quickturtle YaBB Newbies Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 14 Joined: 02/28/10	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #82 - 03/07/10 at 02:05:55	Post Tools	Print Post
	Gambit wrote on 02/17/09 at 03:37:16: Want my take on it? Books written by Eric Schiller often suck. That is because the analysis is extremely superficial, there are many spelling errors, wrong diagrams, etc. When someone else (Joel Benjamin, for example) co-authors Schiller's books, it is not as bad. The co-author sometimes makes sure there are no typos. But more often than not, Schiller's books are so poorly written that he has a reputation for sloppy writing. He did a book on the BDG back in the 80's that was an easy read and got me playing that opening. Of course, bigger and better books by other writers on the BDG came along, but I still thought his was ok for the time it was written


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Willempie God Member Offline I love ChessPublishing .com! Posts: 4312 Location: Holland Joined: 01/07/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #81 - 09/18/09 at 19:37:05	Post Tools	Print Post
	Kasparov on the KID, should rank quite high as well. Copy/paste of games with or without annotations from NIC or the Informator.

	If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.
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Straggler Senior Member Offline Posts: 382 Joined: 08/09/09	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #80 - 09/18/09 at 18:31:12	Post Tools	Print Post
	Smyslov_Fan wrote on 09/18/09 at 05:06:00: Btw, I wonder which book has done the most damage to chess playing skill. It would have to be a fairly popular title that has lead many people down the wrong wrosy path. How about Horowitz & Reinfeld's "How to Think Ahead in Chess", for recommending the Stonewall Attack? Stewart Reuben described this as "the grossest crime ever perpetrated in chess literature".


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LeeRoth God Member Offline I love ChessPublishing.com! Posts: 1520 Joined: 10/22/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #79 - 09/18/09 at 14:15:43	Post Tools	Print Post
	Smyslov_Fan wrote on 09/18/09 at 05:06:00: Btw, I wonder which book has done the most damage to chess playing skill. It would have to be a fairly popular title that has lead many people down the wrong wrosy path. How to Think Like a Grandmaster.


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Holbox Senior Member Offline Saigón Café Posts: 369 Joined: 02/08/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #78 - 09/18/09 at 13:34:58	Post Tools	Print Post
	I love an old book by B. Weinstein something like "the trap in the opening"..., it was mi third book on chess. I love the chapters on "the appetizing pawn" and "Finally, Sergei takes (eats) the appetizing pawn". FYI the appetizing pawn is the e5 pawn after the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf6 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4!??. I enjoy by playing this as white or black in blitz. Obviously this book damages your formation in chess in a sense that playing for traps is a wrong way of playing chess but the book is funny.

	"Ladran, luego cabalgamos", NN
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Smyslov_Fan God Member Correspondence fan Offline Progress depends on the unreasonable man. ~GBS Posts: 6902 Joined: 06/15/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #77 - 09/18/09 at 05:06:00	Post Tools	Print Post
	Btw, I wonder which book has done the most damage to chess playing skill. It would have to be a fairly popular title that has lead many people down the wrong wrosy path.


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Smyslov_Fan God Member Correspondence fan Offline Progress depends on the unreasonable man. ~GBS Posts: 6902 Joined: 06/15/05	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #76 - 09/18/09 at 05:02:51	Post Tools	Print Post
	I still think Reuben Fine's Psychology of Chess is rank has to rank as one of the worst chess books of all time. It's a Freudian analysis of why we play chess, complete with a discussion of the phallic nature of the pieces, the oedipal urges that we (mostly male) chess players have and so on. My small intestines tried to strangle me after reading that one!


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Markovich God Member Offline Posts: 6099 Location: Columbus, Ohio Joined: 09/17/04	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #75 - 09/17/09 at 16:30:07	Post Tools	Print Post
	It's not really fair to include books by amateurs and autodidacts in the list. I once saw a book about the "Egyptian Defense," in which Black invariably goes for Nf6, Nc6, d6, e6. Apparently the guy's dad, an Egyptian, always played it. "Most disappointing" might be a better superlative to consider than "worst," since it rightly emphasizes what was expected in a chess book. Schiller's books probably don't rank among the most disappointing, for instance, since nobody really expects Schiller to be all that good. Or at any rate, we should at least say, "Worst written by a GM," "Worst written by an IM," and so forth.

	The Great Oz has spoken!
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Stefan Buecker

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Re: What is the worst chess book ever ?
Reply #74 - 09/17/09 at 15:10:53

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In one of his works published by a major German publishing house, H. C. Opfermann claimed to have refuted my Vulture repertoire: 1.d4 c5 2.dxc5 e6 3.c4 Bxc5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5

That's from memory. I must confess that I didn't buy the book. Several years later I met the author, a friendly old man who said all his books have become best-sellers. - Many enthusiasts have written on chess. It seems pointless to criticize them for what they do. The publishers share a great deal of responsibility for those bad books.

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Michael Ayton God Member Offline ‘You’re never alone with a doppelgänger.’ Posts: 1977 Location: durham Joined: 04/19/03 Gender:	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #73 - 09/17/09 at 14:29:28	Post Tools	Print Post
	I have a related book by the same author (H. C. Opfermann), in Italian translation! It was originally entitled [i]Schacheroeffnungen meisterhaft gespielt[/i], and was given to me by its translator in 1979 when she was staying with a friend from whom I was then renting a room. It pursues the same thesis and, while that might sound a bit loopy, as I recall it's one of those books that delivers enough interest along the way as to have something to offer (sorry!) despite its 'line'.


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boki Full Member Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 181 Joined: 04/02/08	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #72 - 09/17/09 at 13:43:57	Post Tools	Print Post
	You have never heard of a german book by a certain Offermann "schachgestalten", he tried to count how many squares your pieces controll and then which move you should play, I saw at once in a libary ---- unbelivable....


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TN God Member Offline Posts: 3420 Joined: 11/07/08 Gender:	Re: What is the worst chess book ever ? Reply #71 - 09/17/09 at 08:40:48	Post Tools	Print Post
	Now that we have a clear winner for the 'worst book ever' title, what is the worst chess book ever not authored by Schiller? I nominate 'Openings for White Explained' as the worst book that I currently own. This is because, unlike most bad chess books, all of the analysis provides the amateur with a false sense of security, and the analysis given actually harms the player trying to learn the variation. They would be better off playing the variation without any knowledge of the theory in the book. Additionally, the complete games in the book are annotated only very sketchily (the COBE book is somewhat better in all of these aspects). Fortunately I have only bought one of Schiller's books...whilst the content wasn't very good, the analysis and suicidal ideas made me laugh several times, which makes it worth the money.

	All our dreams come true if we have the courage to pursue them.
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