Play Like a Grandmaster (Batsford Chess) Kindle Edition

Kotov is a fantastic author by classical standards. It is clear that his books influenced many future GMs and that he has a very good chess culture. 'Play like a Grandmaster' is a relatively short book (217 pages) that aims to generalize regarding the most important chess skills necessary to become a grandmaster illustrated through classical examples through the 1980s. As you would expect from classical chess literature, 'Play Like a Grandmaster' is very wordy and you can expect detailed explanation on strategic concepts and typical plans rather than almost exclusively variations (which is all too common in modern books). Relative to other classic authors, Kotov tends to be very analytic and he both attempts to deconstruct the elements and categorize them as precisely as he can as well as detailed variation based analysis when it gets tactical. Due to how complicated some of the variations are and the underlying assumption regarding the reader's tactical competence (and how strategic this book is), it seems like 'Play like a Grandmaster' is geared toward strong club players (1700+) or stronger (expert/masters). Stronger classically trained masters (2300+) might find much of this book to be review, but there is still merit in quickly reading this to cement the fundamentals. While a lot of this book was obvious for me due to being familiar with many other classic books and games, I still found valuable insight from this book - the freshest example being the 'ambush' tactical motif (setting up a tactic against a target that can't be prevented). As naming patterns can help them stick, I found this to be especially helpful. The target audience is mainly adult players and older teenagers, as is assumed from his section on time pressure and how to cure it (I've found that the very young generally have the opposite problem). I noticed some flaws in Kotov's precision of categorization and it is fair to assume that there will be some mistakes in analysis given that this was published in the pre-computer era, but it is not fair to judge a classical book by modern standards. And by classic standards, especially regarding improving your chess culture, I can give this book my warm recommendation.

The knowledge, is what I really liked

awesome

Great book, everything I thought it would be

The book was delivered on time. Published in 1980's, you can't compare this used book with any brand new ones. This version was quite old and all the pages turned yellow. The good thing is that the reader kept it clean and did not scrawl. The price is not cheap at all.

As another reviewer stated, it is solid black pages with white letters. It is non-adjustable. Attempting to change text size and color changes the surrounding area of the book, but not the pages and text itself. It is very unfortunate that anyone thought this was a good transition to an ebook. In addition, you can barely read what is on the pages. Terrible, terrible, terrible....The book itself may be a good book, but I don't know. I'll need to wait until I purchase a hard copy.

Just purchased this book and the pages are black with white print. This is absolutely awful with tiny print and two pages on the screen at the same time.This rating is minus 5.

Among several books I have learned since when I started study chess, Play Like a Grand Master was the book that really improve my game.

Este livro em formato ebook kindle, assim como o livro "Pense como um grande Mestre", possibilita uma interpretação abrangente em todos os sentidos do jogo de Xadrez, pois nos mostra como pensar e como jogar com o foco nos lances, nas estratégias, nas possíveis combinações, nas possibilidades das táticas, no desenvolvimento das peças, na formação dos peões no tabuleiro e nas regras adotadas pelos grandes mestres no meio jogo e finais. Não li a obra toda ainda, mas os capítulos que pude ler me fizeram perceber como o conteúdo é rico em detalhes, e informação. Vou gostar e dedicar ao estudo, e ao aprendizado assim que finalizar o livro outro livro mencionado acima.

Along with Train Like a Grandmaster and Think Like a Grandmaster make up the Kotov trilogy of Grandmaster titles. A classic for a reason.

Good