Positional Decision Making in Chess

Even though I'm hardly into this book yet I figured I would publish a review as there is hardly anything posted yet. This book was going to be on my wish list but I just couldn't resist and bought it anyway. Like the other two Quality Chess books I own (Learn From the Legends and Advanced Chess Tactics) this one appears to be a gem. It includes five chapters : 1. Playing in the Style of Akiba Rubinstein 2.The Squeeze 3.Space Advantage 4.Transformation of Pawn Structures 5.Transformation of Advantages. The Appendix contains an interview of Gelfand from 2012. I've 'read' through much of the book without putting in the necessary work to get any improvement out of it but enjoy it immensely already. I'm only a 1700 player but feel like I can learn a lot here. There is deep analysis but also plenty of regular English for amateur/club players to understand Gelfand's thinking and ideas. What really attracted me to the book was the fact that I would get to see Rubinstein's games, a player I've always wanted to study, through a top players eyes. In addition to this there are fully annotated battles of Boris versus lots of the Worlds elite including Carlsen, Anand, Kasparov, Aronian, Grischuk and Morozevich. Basically I can't wait to put the time into this book that it really, really deserves! If you're interested in what some notable players think of the book check out the reviews on the Quality Chess website. I will update my review once I get into the meat of the book.

Gelfand's book is truly outstanding. But please note that the stronger you are as a chess player the more you'll get out of this book. This book is for serious students of chess, not the casual player.

A good read. Instructive chess anecdotes of famous players and chess history. The games were fun to play through and Boris's comments were very entertaining and informative. I am rated a little above 2000 and the book was pretty easy to follow. I highly recommend the book.

I like the dept of the ideas which constitute the main purpose of this Grand Master and chess autor. I have no complains about the book.

Great!

Very easy to go through , read it in just a week the amount of information that I could absorb without being bogged down by countless variations was amazing! My one criticism would be it has too much of the chebaneko slav by the end I felt like an expert in the opening! Topics like the chapters the 'squeeze' and space advantage is worth the price of the book alone!

I highly recommend this book for anyone including a son or daughter who is training to be a better chess player.

Self instruction

Mit diesem Buch habe ich mich anfangs schwer getan. Der Aufbau ist sehr konventionell - es werden Partien von Gelfand, aber auch von anderen Spielern wie Rubinstein, analysiert. Was das mit dem Titel des Buches zu tun hat, hat sich mir erst Stück für Stück erschlossen. Ab dem Kapitel über Raumvorteil läuft Gelfand zu großer Form auf und leitet aus den Partien ganz allgemein nutzbare Ratschläge ab. Dass z. B. ein Spieler mit Raumvorteil die Schwerfiguren tauschen sollte, damit diese ihm nicht durch Umgehungsmanöver in den Rücken fallen können, leuchtet mir sofort ein. So explizit habe ich das bislang in keinem Schachbuch gelesen. Ich vermute, dass Spieler mit weniger als Elo 1900 einige Mühe mit dem Buch haben werden. Ich selbst bin schon länger nicht mehr aktiv und habe mich früher irgendwo zwischen 1900 und 2000 bewegt. Das Niveau empfinde ich jedenfalls als ziemlich hoch, und ich verstehe bei weitem nicht jeden Kommentar oder jede Variante. Ich werde mir aber sich noch weitere Bücher von Gelfand zulegen: neben dem schachlich interessanten Inhalt haben mir die vielen Einblicke in die persönliche Gedankenwelt des sympathischen Autors viel Vergnügen bereitet.

Excellent advanced book. The inner thinking of a top player is very well explained. For example, Gelfand shows what he did learn from Rubinstein, and how he use it in some games.

Aprofundando o conhecimento

Excellent read!! Reading into the minds of a Super GM became easy reading through this book. Boris keeps it is so simple that his concepts are easy to understand and implement in real games.

Es un magnifico libro para jugadores de Eli mayor de 2000 que quieran seguir aumentando su nivel. No es un libro básico, por lo que no se recomienda a jugadores aficionados o amateurs.