Judgement and Planning in Chess
| Date: 15 April 2011, 15:39
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Max Euwe is justly famed for his series of superb instructional books on the middle game and end game. This book, despite what the blurb says, is firmly a middle game book. What Euwe does is show typical middle game situations, explain the positional dynamics behind them, and advise the reader on how to handle these positions in their own games. This is really useful, practical stuff, clearly explained.
The book does not advocate any sort of 'thinking method' aside from the old fashioned one of examining the position for salient strategic features (such as those shown in the book) and playing accordingly.
For example, the second chapter deals with a strategic feature termed 'pawn majority on the queen side'. Euwe shows how the possessor of the majority should station their pieces so as to support an eventual passed pawn and then, when the time is right, create one. Further Euwe points out the real value of a such a pawn is that the opponent must commit his forces to blockade it, creating weaknesses elsewhere. He comments that many average players will rush a passed pawn through but then find it becomes isolated and is quickly lost. (I find this sort of advice very valuable when playing chess as this is exactly the sort of error one is likely to come across. After all, the vast majority of us only ever play other average players!) Further, we see the sort of openings that lead to this situation - enabling a player to aim for this in their own games.
Euwe cautions that while following this policy the player must remember to keep an eye out for tactical threats and opportunites - he takes pains to reinforce this throughout the book.
Each chapter covers a different theme. Note that chapter one - which you can read in Amazon's 'Look Inside This Book' feature - is actually the least useful chapter, and very different from the rest of the book. I think Euwe's intention in that chapter is simply to reinforce his dictum regarding tactical awareness.
Of course this book does not set out to cover all possible middlegame situations but rather a careful selection of situations which occur with reasonable frequency. Thus it serves as a useful introduction to more advanced middlegame works.
I would say the sort of player who would gain most from study of the book someone who doesn't make silly tactical errors, knows enough opening theory to reach an ok middlegame position, but then finds themselves unsure as to how to proceed.
A well written quality product.
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