Best Lessons of a Chess Coach

It has been a stable week in my progress towards advancing my chess knowledge. Saturday I met at a coffee shop and played with a good opponent and we discussed some of my weaknesses that I display throughout the four games that we played (2-2).

We entered into an endgame position with him having a rook, knight and three pawns against my rook and five pawns. He allowed me the rook trade and then I was able to march one of my pawns in. This began a good conversation on how power the pawn and pawn placement can be in the end game. In addition to this, I have have just about completed a book called "Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" by Sunil Weeramanty and Ed Eusebi (ISBN: 0-8129-2265-4).

Although I wouldn't count this book in the top of chess books that I have read, it is still very strong for players of my rating. The thing that I liked best of this book is the way that it runs through its lessons. It provides you a game and then walks you through each move asking you to come up with possible solutions and best next moves. I then walks you through the thinking of each of those moves. It provides alternate solutions and all the while, compairing the moves to solid chess theory.

The biggest takeaway I have from this book is that I still move way to fast. Many times I would come up with the move I thought best to have the authors agree that it is good, but then to show me an even better option. I need to slow down and look deeper. Somewhere the is a saying, "When you find a good move, keep looking until you find the best move." It is something that I need to take to heart a bit more closely.

But if you are starting out, this is a good book to grab. I found it at my local library so it was zero cost to my budget.

Well, off to finish it up...