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Title: The Art of the Middle Game Author: Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov Publisher: Dover Genre: Middlegame - Strategy |
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Level: Intermediate / Advanced Intermediate
Contents: The book contains five essays about the middlegame, two by Keres, two by Kotov, and one by Golombek. These essays are:
1. Planning in the Middle Game (Golombek) 11 2. Strategy and Tactics of Attack on the King (Kotov) 30 3. How to Defend Difficult Positions (Keres) 80 4. Various Pawn Positions in the Center (Kotov) 125 The Art of Analysis (Keres) 172-231 |
Who is it good for? This is a book for those who would like to improve their understanding of the middlegame.
The Good Things:
· Written by three renown writers, two of whom (Keres and Kotov) were world class players
· The 5th chapter, the one about analysis, though talking about the obsolete phenomenon of adjourned games contains some deep and fascinating analysis by Keres
The Bad Things:
· The material is outdated, especially the chapter about planning and the one about pawn formations in the center
· The book uses descriptive notation
· On every subject of the book there are many books in the market today that cover it more thoroughly
Quote: “That the subject is a difficult one appears from the comparative scarcity of books on the middle game. Books on the opening abound; nor are books on the end game wanting, but those on the middle game can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”
The Bottom Line: As you can see from the above quote the book was published in a different era (1964). All three contributors have written great books but “The Art of the Middle Game”, apart from chapter 5, does not pass the test of time.
Rating: 7/10
Review written by Chessbug.
