Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur

by Walter Meiden and Max Euwe

Book Overview

These 25 chess games played between master and amateur were chosen, arranged, and annotated to help amateurs improve their games. What better way could the amateur have of learning to exploit the weak play of fellow amateurs than to study how a master would handle such situations? Selected by former World Chess Champion Max Euwe and Walter Meiden, a typical amateur player, the games point out graphically how the chess master takes advantage of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486279472
• ISBN13: 9780486279473
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

chess mastery

The book "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur" is one of the best books I have read on the subject of learning to play chess. The senior author, Max Euwe, was not only a World Champion but was also a scholar and prolific author. He writes very well and with great authority. He, and his coauthor, Walter Meiden show the reader step-by-step the many mistakes amateur players make and the way master players recognize and respond to those mistakes. The book begins with analyses of games in which the amateur player is very weak, moves through games with stronger amateurs, and ends with games against expert or near expert players. Throughout the book the authors show the reader how the amateurs' mistakes were exploited by the master player. This is a very instructive book.

Excellent for Beginners

I rate this book " Chess Master v/s Chess Ameture" as 5 stars because it is excellent book for developing logical and strategic thinking for the beginners. Though the opening mistakes by ameture shown are not very common and the other book by the same authors "The Road to Chess Mastery" (TRtCM) is more realistic. I found the games on French Defence very good for myself. The other book TRtCM does not cover the French Defence and is slightly heavy to understand and analyze for beginners. So if you are a beginner or a lower middle level player who wants to develop a clear cut thinking in chess strategy without devoting much time and energy, this book is for you. After studying it, you may go to TRtCM. I have studied this book and it has worked well for me.Pros:1. Very clear thinking and explanations.2. French Defence (4 games) very useful3. Full Games4. Good for learning opening and middle game strategy5. Introductory portions are well written6. The writer is an authority and so you will like the confidence with which he instructs you. Wonderful annotations.7. Very good treatment of Marshal Variation of Queen's gambit declined which is still played by many. I benefitted by the games of this variation in real tourneys.Cons:1. Not very realistic mistakes (silly sometimes) by the ameture.2. Does not cover many variations commonly played nowadays in tournaments3. Some printing mistakes (2-3 only).4. Needs a board to understand the games fully.

An excellent book for a beginner

I learned how to play chess from this book some 20 years ago, and there are very few better books I would recommend to a beginner. Max Euwe has an amazing gift for clarifying tactical and strategic ideas in chess; he was the world champion from 1935 to 1937. Every game is explained move-by-move,and the reader is gently guided through the whole game. If you are new to chess, or if you are an amateur eager to improve your game, this book is a must.

A must for any chess player

This book is a must for anyone wanting to improve his/her game. It explains the purpose behind the moves, not just variations. It is a great way to learn the ideas of opening moves. But the middle game is where this book excels. It gets into the mind of the master and goes through his/her thought processes, especially how he/she calculates and decides on a move.I found the best way to improve your game from this book is to go through the game, covering up the masters' moves, and try to guess his moves. Write down all your thoughts and analyses you can without moving the pieces and do this until you finish the game, without looking at the comments. Only when you are done with the game, look at what Euwe wrote and compare your notes to his. You'll see yourself getting closer and closer to his analyses as you work your way through the book! You can use this method with Irving Chernev's "Logical Chess, Move by Move."Get these two books and use this method and you will have no excuse not to be at least Expert rated!

I never get tired of reading this book

It is a very well explained book. It is a compilation of games. The games are easy to understand. They are not grandmaster games. Are amateur games that show typical errors in strategy. All the moves are explained in a very logical way: opening, strategy, etc. I read this book over and over. I strongly recommend it to club players of all strenghts. It is a very good book, easy to read and easy to understand. Lots of useful comments.