A Ten-Step Program for Chess

Steve Goldberg
10 Great Ways to Get Better at Chess, by Nigel Davies, Everyman Chess 2010, Paperback, Figurine Algebraic Notation, 159pp. $26.95 (ChessCafe Price: $22.95)

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I find GM Nigel Davies to be one of the more entertaining chess coaches around today. Whether on DVDs or in books, he gets his points across quickly, without excessive verbiage, and his annotations are liberally sprinkled with explanations, not just variations. Moreover, he understands that many players, particularly adults with family responsibilities, simply cannot devote the same amount of time to the game as professionals or scholastic players. Such is the case with his latest offering, 10 Great Ways to Get Better at Chess. A couple of these ten ways are what you might expect work on the endgame, stop getting behind on the clock but others reflect the fact that Davies is not just a grandmaster, but a chess teacher as well. In fact, illustrations of how his students have improved are scattered throughout the book. He also has occasional "case studies" demonstrating how he has utilized some of these methods himself to get over the next hump when feeling stuck at a certain level. Each chapter of 10 Great Ways to Get Better at Chess is devoted to one of the "great ways," as reflected in the table of contents:

The Rules of Winning Chess by Nigel Davies

Develop Your Vision Study the Endgame Keep Company with the Strong Take Up Correspondence Chess Create a Pre-Game Ritual Cure Your Time Trouble Read a Good Book Select Your Chess Events Wisely Know Your Enemy Improve Your Fitness Level

Gambiteer II by Nigel Davies

An especially interesting discussion comes from chapter nine: "Know Your Enemy." Davies mentions that there are two primary enemies we have at the chessboard our opponents and ourselves. He discusses the dangers of playing for a draw, and what he terms "Pavlovian responses," in which a player will automatically respond to a move without any thought. Of course, he provides multiple examples of the consequences of both. Within this chapter, Davies also humorously describes a game in which he had to use some rather underhanded psychological tactics. He is somewhat apologetic about the episode, yet at the same time proud that it produced the result he was seeking. Davies provides the entire game, but we'll start here with the position after 23.Qh4, with Davies having the white pieces:

Tricks & Traps Vol. 2 by Nigel Davies

[FEN "r3r1k1/1bqn2pn/pp1pp3/4b1P1/ 2P1P2Q/2N1BN2/PP4B1/2R1R1K1 b - - 0 23"]

"It was around here that I made my first draw offer, hoping that my inferior position would be disguised by some aggressive-looking pieces. But my opponent refused." 23Nhf8 24.Qg4 g6 25.Red1 Bg7 26.Bf4 Qc5+ 27.Kh2 Ne5 28.Nxe5 Bxe5 29.Bxe5 dxe5

[FEN "r3rnk1/1b6/pp2p1p1/2q1p1P1/ 2P1P1Q1/2N5/PP4BK/2RR4 w - - 0 30"]

"This position is just good for Black, the doubled e-pawns being more than compensated for by his control of terrain and key squares." 30.Ne2 Rad8 31.b3 a5 32.Ng1 Rd4 33.Ne2 Rd6 34.Rxd6 Qxd6 35.Ng1 Rd8 36.Nf3 Rd7 37.Re1 Rh7+ 38.Kg1 a4 39.Qg3 Nd7 40.Nh2 Rf7 41.Ng4 Rf4 42.Nf2 axb3 43.axb3 Bc6

[FEN "6k1/3n4/1pbqp1p1/4p1P1/2P1Pr2/ 1P4Q1/5NB1/4R1K1 w - - 0 44"]

"At this point I spotted a really cunning trap, but would the guy fall for it? Maybe not unless I raised his blood pressure a little, so after my next move I threw in an insulting draw offer. This was particularly poor etiquette on my part because I had already offered one earlier in the game." 44.Nd3 Qd4+ 45.Qe3 Rg4 46.Kh2 Qxe3 47.Rxe3 Rxg5?

[FEN "6k1/3n4/1pb1p1p1/4p1r1/2P1P3/ 1P1NR3/6BK/8 w - - 0 48"]

"Hook line and sinker!! White's next move traps his rook on g5." 48.Bf3 Nf6 49.Nf2 "Threatening 50.Nh3, not to mention an advance of the queenside pawns. Black tries to fight on by giving up a piece." 49Nh5 50.Re1 Rg3 51.Bxh5 Rxb3 And Davies went on to win in another twenty-one moves. In the chapter titled "Improve Your Fitness Level," Davies describes how he began having difficulty concentrating and calculating sufficiently as he became overweight. He presents a game in which he reached a rook + three pawns vs. rook + pawn ending, and asks, "Two pawns up in the endgame should be a simple matter of technique for a Grandmaster such as myself, shouldn't it? But this does not prove to be the case." The game sadly ended in a draw. But utilizing various martial arts disciplines, he was eventually able to lose weight and return to form. As a side note, Davies mentions that "I lost 25 kilos (about 4 stone)." Surely, I'm not the only American who has no idea what "4 stone" refers to!? (One stone equals about fourteen pounds Ed.) Each chapter concludes with a "Key Points" summary to help hammer home the primary message(s) of the section. In addition, Davies frequently throws in interesting anecdotal comments, as when he writes in the "Study the Endgame" chapter, "One strong club player that I knew liked to say that, if all else failed, he would exchange queens, which invariably increased his chances of winning." 10 Great Ways to Get Better at Chess is a thoroughly enjoyable, easy read that offers readers the benefit of Davies' many years of chess coaching. As he writes in his Introduction, "The ways people approach the task of trying to improve their chess can be haphazard at the best of times. This is particularly the case at amateur level, where players tend to have far less time and energy available." This book offers a number of approaches to combat the wasted time of haphazard training. Sixty-four well-annotated games significantly add to the reader's learning process.

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