Chess Visualization Course

Book 1: General Tactics

By Ian Anderson

Published by Gelvert Publishing 2007

324 pages $24.95

When I first heard of this book through the chess news groups, I thought what and interesting and original idea for a chess training book. I then contacted the publisher and asked for a review copy which they were more than happy to send. As soon as it arrived, I did a once over through the book and thought this would be a great tool for my private lesson with one of my students I had scheduled to teach later on that evening.

Previously, I had been working with my student on developing his chess sight by working through 4-6 move combinations, but the progress was slow. That evening I brought the book with me and we went through the first Chapter of 20 problems.

The book is set up into six sections with 26 chapters (4 or 5 chapters per section) and a total of 800 positions taken from real games. Each chapter is set up with a series of problems (20-32) designed for you to concentrate on and simply visualize the out come of a given position and offered set of moves. Most positions start with a 4-7 ply series of moves and increase to as many as 39 ply as the problems progress. A ply is a half move, one made by either White or Black in the series of moves. Thus if a variation is 4 ply, then it is two moves by White and two moves by Black.

Here is the first problem from the book in the first chapter- Even Exchanges:

4 ply

1. The count on d8 is 2-2 (two attacker-two defenders). White has a mobile queenside pawn majority. Visualize the position after the moves 26.Rxd8+ Rxd8 27. Rxd8+ Qxd8. What is the material balance?

Not to hard, huh? Setting up each of the first 20 problems on a chess board with my student that evening and having him find both the count on each designated square and the material balances after the out come of the given exchanges took an hour. Of the 20 exercises, my student only came up with only two wrong answers and that was towards the end of the problems when they were at 8 ply each.

With each new chapter, the problems to visualize become more difficult, longer in ply as well as different in nature. These include chapters involving exchanges with an extra attacker, pieces of different values, after penetration, and passed pawns. Others include preparatory build-up, exchanging to a won ending, multiple imbalances, expanding the position, attacking the queen, rabid pieces, seeing further and longer variations.

Four of the more interesting exercises are found in Section 3, Chapters 10-11, Two Sectors of the Board; and Section 6, Chapter 23-24, Three Sectors of the Board. Here the problems are based on play in more than one area of the board. For example:

6 ply
257. Visualize the position after the moves 16.Nxf5 Bb4 17.c3 Bxc3 18.bxc3 exf5. What is the material balance?

11 ply

694. Visualize the position after the moves 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Nxd5 cxd5 10.Qxc8+ Qd8 11.Bb5+ Nc6 12.Bxc6+ bxc6 13.Qxc6+. What is the material balance?

            In the introduction at the beginning of the book, the author Ian Anderson makes it very clear on what the book is about, its themes, the chapters and the best way in which to use the book for training.

The answers to all 800 positions are found in the back of the book along with the game information of who played who, where and the date of the game. It is definitely a well researched book. There is also an index of ECO codes listed at the end of the book as each position has the code listed to its immediate right. In the ECO index, the position numbers of which games used that opening are also listed for quick reference.

            The book itself is made of sturdy stock, spiral bound to lay open flat as to make working through the book much easier. The diagrams and the fonts are clear and easy to see on the white background with only four positions per page.

            In continuing training with my private lesson student each week, we now do 20-30 minutes of these exercises with two problems from the beginning of one chapter, two more from the middle of the next chapter and 2-4 more from the end of the next chapter, keeping a record of which ones were solved and which ones weren’t before moving onto other training. He enjoys doing these training exercises and has begun to see further ahead in his games, being able to explain to me what he was trying to do when going over his tournament games.

            Another way I have found to use this book for training is to set up the position and have my student to try and see if he could come up with the first move or two of the series on his own. I have noticed that this has helped him make better choices in candidate moves.

            I have also begun using this book and the above mentioned methods to train my other private lesson students as well as training with it myself. Over all I am very happy with the book and its exercises. Though it is recommend for players 1200-1800 strength, I believe it will benefit anyone from beginners up to and including masters who want to improve their chess sight. This book is well worth the price.

            You can visit the publisher’s website at http://chessvisualization.com to see a complete table of contents, description of the sections and chapters and more sample exercises as well as how to order the book. There is also a link in which you can sign up to receive the  Chess Visualization Newsletter by e-mail.