[BrianWall-ChessList] Review of "Improve Your Chess at any age" by Andres D. Hortillosa

[Brian Wall]

Review of "Improve Your Chess at any age" by Andres D. Hortillosa


What I hated about this book -
I didn't write it

What I loved about this book -
Everything else

What I liked -

I know Andy, we were Denver Open co-Champions
in 2000 with Senior Master James McCarty

Most the games are very recent, 30 played during 2008-2009
with 7 games before that. Fresh games allow for fresh emotions
in the retelling.

Andy uses his education to invent a system to play better Chess
and he shares it with you. He call his readers "improvers".

The best part is the honesty, even though he is touting a system,
he doesn't shy away from painful blunders on both sides.

I tried to delude myself reading the book that I wouldn't make the
errors he did but I remember he showed me the second to last game
in the book at the 2009 World Open and I did not find the key moves
in C.Boor-A Hortillosa.

I studied or played or befriended or talked to many of his opponents -
Studied - Aronian, Svidler, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Gelfand, Van Wely
Talked to - D Hartsook, Van Wely
played at least one blitz game - Radjabov, C. Boor, Macintyre, Lugo
played slow Chess - Ginat, Karklins, Nakamura, Shulman

Andy also mentions two books by my friend David Vigorito,
The Nimzo and the Slav

Knowing a lot of the characters in the book gave it a friendly feel to me.
I have also met two of Andy's coaches, IM Mark Ginsburg and GM Dmirty Gurevich.

Andy is not afraid to speak the truth, with his first hand Phillipine
background he mentions that solving a Chess puzzle by starting at the
end with the desired checkmate is a pervasive solving method in the
Oriental culture.

Andy mentions many common methods of improving, ICC,
Chessbase, coaching, studying your game with Chess engines.

I belong to Dana MacKenzie's Chess blog and he
mentioned yesterday the book title was his idea.

The book basically goes like this - Andy mentions his frustration at his Chess
rust due to his time in the army. After retiring, he has more time for Chess
and wants to make FIDE 2300 for the FM title. He invents a system for Chess
improvement and annotates 37 games, describing how his method worked. Sometimes
the method failed, sometimes Andy failed his own system and sometimes he didn't
have enough time to apply the system. In general it worked very well, most of
the outright blunders belonged to his opponents, most of Andy's errors were due
to the position being too deep. He basically found a method to get the most out
of himself.

The book made me laugh too due to our different styles. I play every opening and
will sac just about anything, unclear or not. Andy is one of those guys that
spends lots of money on Chess books and lets many of them collect dust.
Others I've met come to mind here. Andy tends to play very solid Chess and
constantly offers draws to his higher rated opponents in the book. Sometimes
they refuse and force Andy to play out winning positions. Andy has never played
the King's Indian, Benko or Grunfeld, not to mention the insane stuff I play. He
admits an aversion to unclear play. I like to gamble, Andy likes to play the
percentages. Think of us as the Colts versus the Saints.

I read the book pretty much nonstop upon arrivial, it reads like an exciting
novel. You will squirm when you see how hard Andy is trying and how he twists
in the wind with each painful oversight. You will rejoice as he takes down or
draws a multitude of higher rated players. You will wonder what you would have
done in the same circumstances.

The book is chockful of original insight on every page, for example, the reason
we can see our mistake right AFTER we move is the mind has a clear delineation
between reality and fantasy, before we move, it's a fantasy, we have to make
our next move in our mind to trick ourselves into believing it's REAL, then the
mind will do the necessary work.

Andy doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk, facing 2200-2500 players in
every chapter. The chapters are divided mostly by recent strong tournaments he
played in. He also gives a few games from 10 years ago so you can see how his
Chess was when he left off.

Andy thinks out loud as he climbs the Olympian heights in a way that GMs can't
or won't somehow. I think you will recognize a friend as he struggles to go
higher. I like how he berates himself for missing any move a Chessmaster would
see instantly, even if it looks like it loses a piece. It's a fun book, very
re-readable and a serious book for those trying to improve. His wisdom seeps
into you on every page.

Highly recommended.

Brian Wall



----- End forwarded message -----