I’m really enjoying Kraai’s commentary. He’s the Bill Burr of chess. :-)
@michaelf8221 Жыл бұрын
That position explaining capacity available to fill space was super insightful. I also thought Perelshteyn's "Evaluate like a GM" did a good job exploring this idea in the quartet chapter. Just exchanging a few pieces really highlights how soothing a position that "lacks space" can actually be!
@wreynolds1995 Жыл бұрын
Never touched Gelfand's book, but I've always loved Simple Chess. It's where I first saw Fischer vs Petrosian (7), and a bunch of other examples really stuck in my mind as well (Vogt vs Andersson is another good one for club players like myself to see). I've returned to it again and again and recommend it to everyone.
@MrSupernova1114 ай бұрын
I'll have to get this one! Thanks!
@iakona238 ай бұрын
I read this book 15 years ago and I quite enjoyed going through it. Very enjoyable.
@marciowinter Жыл бұрын
I've always wondered if there were any "intro" books to positional play, because as a lowly player, I was only into combinatorial play. Many books, such as Pachman's, Nimzowitsch's, etc., do not deal with obviously complex themes in a simple way, but "Simple Chess" has proved to be a fantastic book with fascinating examples, showing that the positional game is not a "big monster with seven heads".
@gregmartin3425 Жыл бұрын
I see this in a lot of chess books. They claim it is some new special system or approach, when it actually is just a collection of games, or a collection of tactical puzzles. I bought Charles Hertan's "Forcing Moves" book, which promised to be a type of system to not miss tactical shots, at least in the introductory chapters, but he gave no system, and the book immediately turned into a tactical puzzles book, without any particular order of difficulty, mixing two ply shots with 20 ply shots. One of Colin Crouch's books promised to teach some strategical system or ideas, and turned out to be a collection of games, heavily annotated with an engine.
@bigredracingdog466 Жыл бұрын
I think players from 1500 to 2200 would find this book useful. I read it about 30 years ago and need to revisit it.
@user-rp8ij8pm7l Жыл бұрын
Your thoughts on the najdorf
@bigredracingdog466 Жыл бұрын
@@user-rp8ij8pm7l I think the Najdorf is a Labyrinth no ball of twine will get you out of unless you're a titled player. White has many ways to steer this opening and I don't think the casual player has the time to learn them all. The player with the white pieces only needs to know his or her pet line against it. Black needs to know them all.
@user-rp8ij8pm7l Жыл бұрын
@@bigredracingdog466 that was very informative and insightful. Thank you so much 👍🏼🙏🏼
@highgroundchess Жыл бұрын
Great video. I did just pick up Simple Chess and looking forward to diving into that. Interesting concepts of space where Stein compared those two positions and how it looks and feels if you take two minors off the board. Fascinating stuff.
@joeldick6871 Жыл бұрын
I think someone who gets a lot of credit for "rediscovering" this book is Fred Wilson from New York.
@davidblue819 Жыл бұрын
In Nigel Short on Chess, Nigel says, "Good books on positional elements are rather hard to find but two stand out in my opinion. The Art of the Middlegame by Keres and Kotov, and Simple Chess by Michael Stean." Nigel's own books and videos are not very systematic, but they are based on his experience of what's simple and what worked for him. He seems to like the "box of hammers and screwdrivers" approach to chess thinking, rather than anything philosophical. If you like how Nigel thinks (which I do) and you want to go a bit deeper in that direction than what he says in his books and videos, it seems to me his recommendations make sense.
@zalannemeth7957 Жыл бұрын
Is there any book on positional chess that you would recommend for a new 2300 player :)?
@theinacircleoftheancientpu492 Жыл бұрын
You seem to be recommending the contents of my bookcase right now. 🤣
@IB4theAIB Жыл бұрын
The “Fischer Endgame” a concept from another English author - Leonard Barden
@SamAsakaChess Жыл бұрын
Liked what was said about engines and the space advantage. Having grown up with engines I can definitely see how that has shaped my view of space.
@paulcarpenter6470 Жыл бұрын
Excellent discussion of advanced chess thinking. Many thanks
@KidsLearnHTML Жыл бұрын
Believe it or not, the fourth page of this book ALMOST MADE ME QUIT CHESS. T(his is when I was 8 years old and it was exactly 1978 -when the book first came out! Our local library was very small and only this book and Fred Reinfeld's "The Complete Chessplayer" were of any substance.) The game in question was Botvinnik - Szilagyi Amsterdam 1966 and the move in question was 15...c5 with its double question mark addition. As a kid who loved tactics and combinations , it made zero sense to me. It took me almost 10 years to get even a half way understanding to what GM Stean was saying.
@zerothehero257912 күн бұрын
One of my top chess books. It gave me the tools to play positionally.
@ChessDojo12 күн бұрын
Great book!
@gmpillo604 Жыл бұрын
Hey BAUZ!!! Aggressive Black repertoire for Chessable later right? Classical Dutch + French? Or maybe Sicilian + Nimzo Indian? Or maybe Sicilian + Tarrasch? Or maybe Sicilian + Benko? Come on man!
@juhonieminen4219 Жыл бұрын
"I don't agree, but I was happy he said it... (in the podcast)". I wish more people would be happy to disagree about things.
@MrSupernova1114 ай бұрын
Pretty cool! I'll have to check this one out.
@PepperChess Жыл бұрын
A title of my play style…..I shall pick it up.
@felixhinz3804 Жыл бұрын
will you also review "pump up your rating"?
@ChessDojo Жыл бұрын
It's in the lineup
@diego0014 Жыл бұрын
Nice find
@milankotevski1663 Жыл бұрын
Its a great book indeed.
@FredPlanatia Жыл бұрын
quote from someone who dedicated his professional life to a game (the game of kings admittedly) "We don't have dissertations because we're not as dumb as academics".
@ChessDojo Жыл бұрын
wrote a dissertation before I became a GM :-)
@blindknitter Жыл бұрын
@@ChessDojoWhat in?
@TheRealRussell7 ай бұрын
I had actually just watched the previous video where you guys ranked your books, and I was honestly somewhat surprised that Ben was the only one that mentioned this book. I don't know, maybe I like it because it's just easy to digest and leaves a lot of room for my own thought. It doesn't overwhelm me in variations which can be burdensome to play through while going through a book. But the fact that none of the titled players in the podcast mentioned the video was a bit disheartening to me. It makes me feel like I've overrated the book and that my time was better spent elsewhere.
@mcronrn Жыл бұрын
Will this help me beat the Penguin at bullet? 😳
@mcronrn Жыл бұрын
@Noah Gault this Penguin is faster than a bullet 😳😳🐧🐧
@benedictineonchessable8 ай бұрын
Simple Chess definitely deserves repeated reading. Great book.