Chess Exam And Training Guide: Rate Yourself And Learn How To Improve

You will find: - 100 diagrams & 200 total questions of various difficulty. - Comprehensive answers includes diagrams for easy reading away from the chessboard. - Distributions of answers, percentiles and other statistical reports by rating group from unrated to 2400+. Match yourself against players of all levels, up to grandmaster and see how you stock up. - Results evaluated and Rating assigned overall & by 12 distinct categories: Opening, Middlegame, Endgame, Attack, Defense, Counterattack, Tactics, Strategy, Calculations, Standard Positions (Endgame), Sacrifices, Recognizing Threats. - Comprehensive reports on each of the categories with examples, training recommendations and book/materials suggestions

---

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good Exam, 2008-07-05
This book is unique and worth the purchase price. It is mainly a rather difficult exam which covers all ranges of chess expertise and therefore we novices miss many of the questions completely and this is a little difficult to tolerate. Fortunately the 100 questions are broken up into 10 sections and you get to review your performance at these points, which is a big relief. The main benefit I got from the book was the detailed explanations of the correct answer and the chess thinking that one should utilize in solving the problem. There is no system to the order of the problems. After the exam there is a very detailed analysis of your answers and you get an approximate rating in various aspects of the game (tactics, endgames, etc.). Based on this information, the last portion of the book provides some general guidance on how to improve, along with some specific books that might help. My only criticism of the book is that it covers the whole range of chess expertise and many of the problems were way over my head. My rating was 1450.


1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Works for me, 2008-01-21
I have now made some progress here. The questions are excellent and doing the work is educational. I have not tried the last half of the book yet.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Interesting positions. Good experience., 2007-07-31
I finished the 100 exercises in a total of 29 hours, what represents spending 17 minutes per exercise. It was a very interesting experience. My ICC rating (standard) is about 1750. The book estimated my rating as 1820. So, very close.

While I was doing the exercises I had the feelling that my game was improving. The positions presented are all very interesting. When you find yourself thinking: "this one is easy", analyse more carefully because there are a lot of "hidden ideas".

But don't think that the job is finished when you complete the tests. This is about 70% of the total job. Now you have to input your results in a table and calculate your score, overall and by 12 categories: opening, middlegame, endgame strategy, strategy, tactics, attack, defense, threat, counterattack, calculation, sacrifice and standard endgame positions.

For each of this 12 categories, the autor gives advices on training and books for reading. In my opinion, this is the differential of this book. After completing the tests, you have an idea of where your game is weaker and what to do to improve.

Now that I have finished the book I will follow his advices and maybe, in 1 or 2 years, I will be back here to say if my game improved or not.

I will not give 5 stars because of following reasons:
a) the process of inputing the scores into the tables (so that you can see your ratings) is very laborious and operational. You should be very careful to avoid mistakes. The book owners should have free access to a spreadsheet which would substitute this laborious process.
b) there are only 6 exercises on openings. I don't believe that with such a small number of exercises, one can evaluate properly the level of your opening play.
c) in the Tactical session the autor refers to "Tactical Motifs" from "Mr. Bloch". Actually the correct reference is "Combinative Motifs" from Mr. Blokh.

Afterall, I recommend this book for those who want to improve but does not know exactly how to do it. At the end, you will have a training plan to follow. No shortcuts. I don't recommend for begginers.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Simply Spectacular, 2007-07-01
This is not a typical chess book. It's more like a puzzle book. But instead of mate in 5 type of tactics problems, it covers all aspects of the game in 100 questions, opening, middlegame, endings, positional, tactical, planning (I wish there were more). It is so much fun to do the exercises and they are well chosen. It will definitely improve your play and identify your weak areas.

Another great thing about the book that makes it stand out is the answer keys. You have to come up with 2 answers, one is assessment and the second is the correct move. That eliminates the luck factor from the assessment. Also there's no true/false answer, but you get 5 points for the correct, 1 for the incorrect but close, and sometimes you get points deducted for those that are obviously wrong.

You can take this book with you anywhere you go, anywhere you have to wait for a long time and need some pass time. As for the assessment accuracy I will know when I'm done. But that's not a big concern for me. The interim
that comes after each 10 questions shows me 200 points below what I thought I am, but I am hoping this will increase later.

Strongly recommended.


1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Best Training Tool Yet!, 2007-05-25
This book examines your strengths and weaknesses through 100 different puzzles with varying stages of the game, motifs, and difficultys. Unlike most puzzle books, it is not just focused on tactics, but instead, on everything you need.

Some of the other reviews mentioned typos but i have not encountered any noticable errors yet. Anyhow, these miniscue mistakes should not detract from the quality of the book.

Khmelnitsky is a genius; realizing that people want immediate feedback, he puts "interim reports" after every 10 puzzles so you get an idea how you are doing. Each problem has two questions, most often, an evaluation question and a "find the best move" question". A number of different themes (e.g. opening, strategy, counterattack, calculation...) are related to each puzzle and after completing the book it will diagnose your misunderstandings and give you a rating. Unlike such given ratings in places like "solitaire chess" (where it said i was around 2400, fat chance!) it gives you a much more reasonable rating, so far I have gotten a range between 1900-2200.

The book is very interesting and fun to do as well as being a one of a kind training tool. For instance, by just looking at the type of problem and how i did on the percentile charts, I've learned that I have weak tactics but an endgame skill greater than I had ever imagined!

Not only does he diagnose your weaknesses, he gives you advice about how to solve them. If you are trying to improve your chess this is a MUST, I greatly underrestimated its value for quite some time.

This book will improve you significantly more than several sessions with a coach, which could cost 200-400 dollars! Anyone passing this up who wants to improve their chess should get this instantly.

If you are under 1500, you probably just need to work on your tactics; trust me, I've been there. Although dry, tactics puzzles WILL significantly help you much more than learning how to implement a minority attack which you might use in one game only to find that you dropped a pawn in the process to a simple fork. I didn't trust this advice either when i was 1000-1400, and i thought i had tactics down cold. Wrong how I was!

However if you are 1500-2200 then this book is an essential step to becoming a better player!

Highly Recommended!

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.