| Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 3 reviews)
Sales Rank: 250389
Category: Book
Author: Mark Dvoretsky
Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Studio: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Manufacturer: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Label: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 6.9 x 1
ISBN: 188869047X
Dewey Decimal Number: 794
EAN: 9781888690477
ASIN: 188869047X
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This book is aimed first of all at helping strong players complete themselves. This ensures that it will overflow with exceptionally complex analyses and exercises, which will be difficult for even the leading grandmasters to handle. But even amateur players will find something of interest in it. How can it not be interesting to peek ? perhaps not as an owner, but at least as a guest ? into the world of high-level chess, to see with one?s own eyes what sort of problems chess ?pros? have to wrestle with (successfully or not), and how far from being complete even their play is? The many exercises presented in this book differ greatly from one another in their level of difficulty: some are fairly simple and accessible. It makes sense to take a stab at solving the tougher exercises, too; then later, once you have seen the answer, you will have a better grasp of your own abilities, strength and weakness. And finally: the analyses presented in this book include a multitude of most impressive passages, unusual and spectacular moves and combinations ? and chessplayers of almost any grade can certainly find enjoyment in beauty. Readers who become familiar with this book will soon see, no doubt, that side variations are often analyzed in far more detail than is necessary to follow the course of battle in the game under discussion. Why would the author do this? Because, first of all, to give an objective assessment of all, or nearly all, the previously existing commentaries, written by other annotators. But chiefly because many of these side variations are interesting and educational in and of themselves, and create supplementary exercises. Look at them simply as lyrical digressions; don?t worry if they seem unconnected to the main theme. Where possible, the author has tried to lay out the principles, methods and rules, ideas and techniques that lie behind the moves.The book was also designed as a practice book, to test and underscore the reader's newly acquired knolwedge. This book takes it place next to the author's classic "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" as being one of the great books of the modern era, a book from which the serious student may take his or her knowledge and understanding of complex middlegame ideas to the next level.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Superb From Dvoretsky--As Usual November 29, 2008
This is another sublimely interesting compilation from the Dvoretsky files. It is not as thematic as some of his other books, which have focused on, for example, opening preparation, attacking ideas and endgames. (His Endgame Manual is required reading.) This one is collected from articles published by the author over the last few years, mostly on the internet. But it is much more than that. He has updated and expanded virtually everything that appears in the book. And in some respects the fact that each section is a separate mini-manual makes the book even more compelling than some of the others. The variety of concepts keeps the reader anxious to get to the next section. As always with Dvoretsky, the analysis is astoundingly thorough and the games fascinating. The first game in the book could reward a year's study all by itself. But unlike some of his other works, all of which are aimed at the stronger player and many of which can be daunting even for the best, the number of diagrams and the clarity of presentation here makes for a very pleasant experience. This reader for one has not even found the need for a chessboard to go through the variations: I highly recommended trying to read it without a board as an aid to training in visualization. Wonderful games, astonishing variations, clear and highly instructive commentary--Dvoretsky makes liberal use of others' work, illuminating and contrasting, and often correcting, the views of top players and commentators, right up to those of long-time World Champion Garry Kasparov. As always with Dvoretsky, this is not a book for beginners, but anybody rated over 2000--even the ambitious 1800+ player--will find a wealth of material for enjoyment and study.
 A book with no audience November 9, 2008
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
Dvoretsky writes a lot: articles, books. He is a great chess trainer and a skiled writer. But in this book he seems to write to... himself. His everlasting search for the truth leads him to give endless variations and to screen billion hypothetical positions. Very difficult to follow, and attractive for only the most dedicated. The book may be sold to many, because of the author's name, but I predict that only a handful of them will survive beyond page 40. Unless you are 2500 Elo and above, you'd better do with Dvoretsky's earlier works.
You can read this book! It can be done! November 1, 2008
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Dvoretsky has a well-earned reputation as being the world's best trainer, and his books sell very well on that basis. Ask a master-level player what he or she thinks about Dvoretsky, and chances are that they'll say that (1) Dvoretsky is really useful for improving your chess, but (2) you need to put in a _lot_ of work with his books to get anything out of them, and (3) players under class A or expert level would do best to steer clear of these books. Instead, chess mortals should study materials that are less complex and more immediately digestible.
I'm rated roughly 1500 USCF. I miss tactics often, endings are a foreign language, etc. I'm able - with a lot of work, with the help of a second board for analysis - to work through the book under discussion, Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual. Masters may be able to solve the most difficult questions posed, but I can't, and that's ok! I work through the analysis at a very slow pace and enjoy the mind-blowing complexity of chess on show in this book.
The Analytical Manual is not as focused a collection as Dvoretsky's other works. It doesn't center on strategy or tactics, for example, and it ranges over all phases of the game. It is a bundling of a number of essays available at ChessCafe and e3e5.com, with a fair number of new chapters thrown in. At heart, however, the Analytical Manual is precisely what its title suggests. The book is about the analytical process, how GMs think, the ways they see the board and make decisions, etc. In this it might be the most pragmatic of Dvoretsky's books.
Whatever your chess level, you'll get something out Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual _if_ you make the effort to do so. This is not casual reading. You have to really work to get what's going on in the analysis. But then, that's how you improve in chess!
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