Lev AlburtChess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions (Comprehensive Chess Course Series)

This is a valuable work, one of famous Russian trainer and GM Alburt's best, I think. Not just a simple tactical primer (although tactics get the lion's share of space), it also emphasizes key strategic, defensive and endgame positions as well. In addition you get some concise and valuable lessons that you don't get in standard tactics puzzle books. For example, Alburt points out in one problem that if you think you have a promising tactic, but can't get it to work, sometimes reversing the order of your moves provides the answer. There are many other valuable tips given in the introductory section. The theme of this work is that Alburt has tried to boil all of chess theory into the 300 most vital positions for the tournament player to learn. Certainly studying and mastering these positions will do FAR more for a developing player than memorizing reams of opening moves. This is a trap that many lower rated players fall into, and one that will surely stunt your growth if it is at the expense of learning middle- and endgame skills. I disagree, however, with the author's contention that learning these (or any) 300 positions is enough to make you a strong player. You must also study your own games, read general chess works, play many serious long games, and preferably get some good coaching along the way to become a strong player (unless you are unusually gifted, anyway!). But even if GM Alburt is guilty of trying to boost sales by making rather exaggerated claims, the material is of such merit that I think this can be overlooked. Just realize that holing up and learning this book cold will not take you from, say 1200 to 1700 USCF just like that. It wouldn't even take you to 1300 by itself, maybe, but you will be laying a very good foundation to build upon.

So. Look. This thing came out in like 1997, when a young teenage chess-player wanna be like me would buy the book because it gives off the "bought from the back of a magazine" vibe of "if you read this, women will love you for your macho chess move skills..." (psst. They aren't, a good sense of humor however...)So why 5 stars?Because the content and layout are excellent.Exercises on the left, solutions on the right page. No "flipping to the end of the chapter" nonsense. Just right there to look at if you need them.The diagrams are large and clear to understand. None of the "I can't tell which queen is white or black" problems that come with some other publishers.The puzzles (to me) seem to be progressive in difficulty, so you can see how you improve as you move along.Another thing. It says this is a "pocket book". Which to me means it has to fit in a pocket. And it does. It fits into a cargo-pocket on pants, or into my front pocket just fine.The answers are thorough enough to give you a good explanation, not just a list of moves, and brief enough to fit on one page.Rock solid book in my totally-not-a-grandmaster-opinion. (1049 USCF)

Up until 1995 or so, whenever a chess player asked me what chess book(s) they ought to study so as to gain greater insight into the game, I had often recommended Reuben Fine's classic work on the chess endgame known as 'Basic Chess Endings' (BCE, to serious chess enthusiasts).David Mote, a chess master who resided in central Illinois until his untimely death in 2000, heard about my advice and he remarked that while BCE was indeed a valuable instructional tool, the sheer size of BCE (approx 400 pages) often intimidated people from even picking up the book. Instead, David Mote recommended Lev Alburt's 'Chess Training Pocket Book' as a more preferred option. The 'Chess Training Pocket Book' can be held in one hand (which is hard to do with BCE), the positions and solutions are carefully arranged to fit on two facing pages (again, something that one can not do with BCE) and the much smaller size of Alburt's is not as intimidating as BCE.David Mote was right about the first edition of this book and he would still be right about the third edition.

I will not reproduce the layout description of the book as other reviewers have done that quite accurately. I will mention target audience though.I have not played in many tournaments so my real rating is something of a question mark. My online rating is around 1800 and my IM coach tells me I play around a USCF 1600 level.I mention the above because I believe I am currently at the ideal strength for this book. I get about 60% of the positions correct, 20% incorrect but my solution is one that is explained, and 20% completely wrong. I understand most of the explanations with little effort. Still, there are some that I have to set up on a board. Even for the ones I get correct, I learn something from the descriptions even if only an interesting anecdote. Overall, I find this book to be interesting and challenging and I feel that the author is often pinpointing flaws in my game in an eerily precise way.By contrast, I first purchased this book in 2011 when I was a much weaker player and I found it to be dense and difficult. I labored through about 25 of the positions before giving up. It was discouraging that I didn’t even find the “wrong” solutions that were in the description. It was clear to me that the book was too hard (a blow to my ego) so it was shelved for 8 years. I am glad I picked it up again.