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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Have you read any of these 3 chess writers? (Read 5014 times)
parisestmagique
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #13 - 02/10/10 at 08:55:30
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I have two books of Danny King "Winning with the Najdorf" and "The closed Sicilian". They are not theorical books but very informative and clear well analysed games.
  
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chk
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #12 - 02/09/10 at 08:45:05
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@ΤΝ: I have Mastering the Spanish (read it) and Mastering the KID (only browsed over it).

Let me speak about the former one: it contains ~ 15 analysed GM games (1 or 2 at the end of each chapter) where it also gives you a good overview of the theoretical lines. The part on the plans and typical tactical motifs will be a very quick read (and re-read I suppose) for you. So, overall it is a good place to start if you don't know much about these openings, but for your level you would definitely need to accompany this book with an opening primer (or your own research) with variation trees, master games, etc.

Note also that these books cover for both White and Black.

Mastering the KID looks also nice (but I currently play different openings so I have left it for later). iirc there is also a book on the Benoni & Benko (..and the French? but with a different author).

One thing to take also into account is what the starting out series have to say about the same openings as some of the SO books are not basic at all, are more updated and cover the material quite well (e.g. the SO Acc. Dragon book).

my 2c  Cool
  
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TN
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #11 - 02/08/10 at 21:01:27
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Kopec also wrote a book in this 'Mastering the...' series, on the Sicilian. It's not an easy subject to cover in one book, but my impression is that he does a good job of succinctly covering all the key plans and motifs in each variation.

I don't have the other books, but do you think they would be too basic for someone of strong FM standard?
  
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HgMan
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #10 - 02/08/10 at 16:38:46
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TalJechin wrote on 02/08/10 at 09:24:49:
King wrote a good book on the Najdorf sometime in the late 90s, iirc


This was in the old Batsford "Winning with the..." series.  Yes: quite good.  And Mastering the Spanish was also excellent.
  
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chk
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #9 - 02/08/10 at 09:59:38
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..and a very good book on the Spanish (Mastering the Spanish - together with Ponzetto / no board needed for most of the book!)

But I think they are just a bit advanced for your current level..
« Last Edit: 02/09/10 at 08:35:10 by chk »  
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TalJechin
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #8 - 02/08/10 at 09:24:49
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King wrote a good book on the Najdorf sometime in the late 90s, iirc
  
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #7 - 02/08/10 at 08:37:53
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The only complaint one can make about the King DVDs is whether one gets enough material for the money (I guess you can make that complaint about most of the Chessbase DVDs), but at least King's DVDs usually have a pretty good selection of material and he presents is quite well, too. On that basis I would have reasonably good expectation about books he may have written (I was not aware he had, but one cannot know of all chess books, obviously).
  
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sagwa
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #6 - 02/07/10 at 15:51:44
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Thanks for your replies. I think I will order two of Daniel King's books, leave Kopec until my rating improves, and order one of Steve Giddins books. How does that sound?

sagwa Smiley
  
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #5 - 02/06/10 at 23:55:57
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sagwa wrote on 02/06/10 at 17:14:01:
I have heard these three chess writers mentioned from time to time. They are:
   Daniel King
   Danny Kopec
   Steve Giddons
Have you read anything they have written, and if so I would appreciate your opinion  before I order one of their books.
Thanks.
sagwa  Smiley


King - his books are good and very informative. I can't comment on his DVDs since I haven't viewed them, but I've only seen positive reviews of them on the Internet.

Kopec - a bit out of date, but the games are well selected and the annotations are easy to read without being too sparse.

Giddins - In my opinion the best of these three authors, although it isn't a very fair comparison because all three writers aim their books at different readers/markets. He has a very clear, lucid writing style, very good annotations and plenty of suitable advice. I especially liked his article in 'Chess Instructor 2009', and the front cover says he also co-authored the book.
  
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dfan
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #4 - 02/06/10 at 20:22:24
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Oh, I meant an insult to him as a writer Smiley

I think that those two Giddins books I mentioned would be quite good for a 1300; you might have to stretch a little but he won't be way over your head or anything.  If you haven't read Chernev's Logical Chess Move By Move you might want to read that first, as it is aimed a little lower.
  
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #3 - 02/06/10 at 19:52:35
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Steve Giddins' How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire (2003; German ed. 2004) is well written and useful, if you intend to invest time in an opening repertoire. It shows with several examples what a fitting repertoire can do for your chess. Many believe that they have to imitate Gary K.'s openings or buy opening books from the highest rated GMs and learn them by heart. Giddins' book can help to avoid many of these errors.   
  
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sagwa
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #2 - 02/06/10 at 19:07:35
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Thanks, dfan. No, I was not "insulted" about the class B comment. I was flattered. My rating is hovering a bit over 1300!

Would the Giddons books be a bit too hard right now?

I am glad you said Daniel King's DVD's are good. I was eyeing one on pawn structure - 

Thanks for your reply.

sagwa
  
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dfan
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Re: Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
Reply #1 - 02/06/10 at 18:40:42
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I haven't read anything by Daniel King but his Power Play DVDs are very good.

Steve Giddins is excellent at writing for class B players (this is a compliment, not an insult!).  If you are much better than that you might not find them very interesting. 50 Essential Chess Lessons and 50 Ways To Win At Chess are both excellent instructive game collections.
  
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sagwa
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Have you read any of these 3 chess writers?
02/06/10 at 17:14:01
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I have heard these three chess writers mentioned from time to time. They are:
   Daniel King
   Danny Kopec
   Steve Giddons
Have you read anything they have written, and if so I would appreciate your opinion  before I order one of their books.
Thanks.
sagwa  Smiley
  
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