Rating: 
Summary: Really a "practical" approach to chess
Review: A good book that covers a lot of practical aspects of chess, the material spread is somewhat to much for my taste, but the pages are all full of useful hints.
Rating: 
Summary: The expansion of chess counciousness.
Review: After reading this book I had an epiphany.Nunn spoke about not allowing one mistake to effect another.Essentially I think he meant general tactical blunders.Nervertheless one night I was playing with fritz when a thunderbolt from the blue hit me.I allow one bad move to effect another due to perfectionistic tendencies.This concept of bad move can be expanded to bad plan.A example of this would be,on move 10 I have developed what at that time what I thought to be was a good plan.At move 20 it hit me like a ton of bricks that my initial idea was weak and flawed.Normally I would become upset with the game and virtually fall apart. I remembered Nunn and was able to make an objective adjustment in my thinking process.So my game isnt as good as I thought it was.Therefore I will change my evaluation in the position and change my plan to cope with the new existing situation on the board.This is a Quintessintial example of flexibility of thought.Live in the moment the tao of chess.Deal with the new situation at move 20 40 50 etc.Earlier mistakes are for the skittles board after one goes over there mistakes.Of corse other things are mentioned which really does not need to be repeated for this review.Nevertheless I felt this secret of practical chess to be of utmost importance to me personally.Therefore kudos to John Nunn and his book secrets in practical chess.
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Summary: Pragmatic advice = Dramatic Improvement
Review: Although there are no quick-fix promises made, the always sensible Nunn advice and clear-cut writing will probably make this the most useful improvement book you will ever own. The section on openings and selecting an opening repertoire is required reading for anyone of tournament level. Famously Nunn demolishes the Latvian Gambit in one section (Books on Offbeat Openings).
Whilst that analysis in itself is of some importance, Nunn's main objective was to pound home an important point - an opening repertoire based on risky sidelines is in danger of being busted overnight. A well-written and well-focused book.
Rating: 
Summary: snapshots of chess
Review: As usual, Dr Nunn has produced a first-rate book, with all sorts of practical advice. It's really for fairly strong club players upwards, and I think most players below GM would learn some things. A few examples:DAUT -- don't analyse unnecessary tactics. Especially cogent from an author who's won fierce tactical slugfests with some of the world's best. Be sceptical of books advocating offbeat openings, and learn to decipher their "codes". You'll never have to fear the Latvian Gambit or Møller attack again! Instead, study proper openings like the Rúy López that will serve you for years to come. Calculation tricks -- don't be too worried about Kotov's candidate move theory. But learn about safety nets, i.e. a way to bail out with say perpetual check if it turns out not to be as good as you thought. Avoid time trouble -- you might get a 0.1 pawn advantage more by taking all that extra time, but the piece hung in time trouble will more than make up for this. Some practical endgame lessons. Most people will benefit greatly by knowing how to save R v R+B, and the "second rank defence" is not found in Keres' "Practical Chess Endings". Some very useful tips in Q and R endings too. How to defend bad positions, and let's face it, unless our initials are GK or VK, all of us have to some time (and even those initials don't always work!).
Rating:
Summary: Goldmine of useful tips
Review: As usual, Dr Nunn has produced a first-rate book, with all sorts of practical advice. It's really for fairly strong club players upwards, and I think most players below GM would learn some things. A few examples: DAUT -- don't analyse unnecessary tactics. Especially cogent from an author who's won fierce tactical slugfests with some of the world's best. Be sceptical of books advocating offbeat openings, and learn to decipher their "codes". You'll never have to fear the Latvian Gambit or Møller attack again! Instead, study proper openings like the Rúy López that will serve you for years to come. Calculation tricks -- don't be too worried about Kotov's candidate move theory. But learn about safety nets, i.e. a way to bail out with say perpetual check if it turns out not to be as good as you thought. Avoid time trouble -- you might get a 0.1 pawn advantage more by taking all that extra time, but the piece hung in time trouble will more than make up for this. Some practical endgame lessons. Most people will benefit greatly by knowing how to save R v R+B, and the "second rank defence" is not found in Keres' "Practical Chess Endings". Some very useful tips in Q and R endings too. How to defend bad positions, and let's face it, unless our initials are GK or VK, all of us have to some time (and even those initials don't always work!).
Rating:
Summary: Stop the carping please
Review: I can't see how anyone can give this book just one star, or two. It is a fine book. It is called Secrets of Practical Chess. And that is exactly what it is. A successful World Class player tells you some of what you really need to know to be practically successful yourself. He saves you from wasting time on less important things. Nunn has been accused of failing to understand the needs of weaker players. That is unfair. I don't think he ever intended to spoon feed those incapable of handling a spoon for themselves. But if you trust him, read the book through half a dozen times, play the examples over and over until they are burned into your brain, you'll get there. Some of what you need to know (various R+P enings) can seem a bit dry until you start to understand them, but like most of what you need to do to get better it just requires HARD WORK, and may need you to IMPROVE YOUR CHARACTER, and ADMIT YOUR WEAKNESSES. Nothing worthwhile is achieved without effort. It is unfair to criticise Nunn for your own laziness.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks any substance!
Review: I paid £15(pounds sterling! though 15 dollars would be bad enough) for this book and that was about 5 years ago! (not from amazon I hasten to add). It didnt help me at all as a beginner and it hasnt done anything for me as a more experienced player.
My gripe of the book is this:
1)Nunn slags off kotovs tree type analysis as not being efficient or helpful to humans, I agree totally but I dont need someone with a Phd to tell me this, (most players who have tried the tree method will find it awkward to say the least) but there isnt much detailed advice on alternative methodology.
2)He exposes some poor analysis by another chess author (a rival company, no suprise, im sure gambit books have no errors whatsoever anywhere in their books), so what? doesnt help me at all. I dont even own the other book, I own this one and its not helping me!
3)He spends alot of time slagging off rare openings and books of a particular genre (another rival publishing house again!, becoming a bad habit this John) on rarely played opening lines and to an extent he is right (the idea of "winning with" any particular opening is absurd), but there are objections to this dont play rare openings approach:
(a)Amateur chess (and I dont think this book is meant for IMs or GMs) is rarely won in the opening, a slight advantage to white/black at move 20 is unlikely to determine the result of the game.
(b) Many rare openings are not bad, they are just not fashionable atm with GM's.
(c)You can find a bad book on "popular" openings as easily as you may find one on rare openings, I know this because I own some.
(d)Nunn says its best to study mainlines of respectable openings like the ruy/sicilian, maybe some of us dont have the time/memory to prepare for the white side of the ruy/french/caro kann/alekhin/pirc/sicilian -scheveningen, najdorf, klashinikov, dragon, paulsen ,sveshnikov, pelican,nimzowitsch, Kan, taimonov,polugaevsky, cheesegrater, lawnmower variation. I expect most people under 2000elo would gain more by investing a tenth of this mainline preparation time in tactics/endgame study.
(e)Nothing is said about the pyschological affect of a non mainstream opening on an opponent.
4)The endings section is sketchy and -although this is a matter a personal taste- not very well explained.
5) Many subjects just seem to be discussed superficially or in an unhelpful manner such as time trouble basically he says dont get into time trouble! and others nuggets like make sure you arrive on time (lol). What little amount of good advice was in this book could have been fitted into a magazine article.
6)Theres virtually nothing about the importance of tactics, yes you could just calculate everything but you would soon tire and you would use alot of time (some proper advice on time trouble -take note!) where as a thorough familarity with a particular tactic could allow you to spot and play/prevent a combination more or less instantly.
I feel compelled to write this review as I have purchased lots of books which were not cheap and didnt do anything to improve my game, but perhaps this one is the most dissapointing as it is by a very strong player and cost £15! (I know ive already said that, but this is an absurd amount for a flimsy paperback).
There are established classic books (old and new) out there which do represent value for money (many dover books for example) and will help improve your game, my advice to anyone buying a chess book is to read reviews that concentrate on the books and ignore reviews which are written by sycophantic cult followers of the author, reviews that start with "so and so has excelled himself.." or "so and so was one the strongest..." etc (amazon.com allows you to check contents page for most books,which is recommended), and dont assume that really good players will write good books! And before someone writes a review and says something like "its not meant for weak or average players" then ok tell me what a strong player will get out of this book?
As a last note I would like to add that I do not have some vendetta with the author who has produced some excellent books for advanced players such as "understanding chess move by move". Which is expensive but justifed by the work/expertise which has obviously gone into it, and may well become a "classic".
Rating:
Summary: If no "Nunn" name, this is a clunker
Review: So he explodes some shoddy analysis by others, big deal. This book is billed as an instructive manual for a chess player, whereas actually it is only for those who belong to the cult of Nunn. This book contains very few useful ints for practical chess. If this book was not written by John Nunn, but had the exact same content by another author, it would have immediately been relegated to the shelves of used bookstores. And it is a crock that this one has a hefty price tag, because it is a slim book, that seems to have taken very little effort to write. In fact, try as he might, Nunn lacks the ability to communicate with the average chess player. His Understanding Chess, Move by Move, is an example fo this too. That book purports to be an instructive manual, but Nunn just can't help himself from being a PHd type thinker, and that is how he comes across. I don't know if it is arrogance or ignorance, but the man just cannot write for the practical player, no matter how much he wishes he could. However, I still think Understanding Chess is a great book on its own merits. My point is that Nunn fails if he is trying to reach a general audience; he can only write effectively for the more advanced player. Do not misinterpret what I am saying. I am not saying that Nunn is not a great writer, or that he has not done a great deal for chess and chess publishing. I am simply saying that he writes like an elite player, and he is not (yet) capapble of effectively translating that to the intructional level.
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Summary: A Meditation On Chess Themes Than A Primer On Improvement
Review: The book is interesting primarily as a example of grandmaster style thinking about calculating variations, judging opening repertoires, middle pitfallls, and basic endgame knowledge. But be warned: it is not a primer. The author has not devised a "chess study plan" for self-improvement. Anyone looking for commandments about calculating move sequences, avoiding time trouble ("just don't get in it"), opening choices, detailed strategic planning, etc., should be looking at books specifically aimed at giving a program. This book is more like listening to a knowledgeable Grandmaster lecture at a quiet chess club, sipping some wine and discussing topics.
Rating:
Summary: practical book
Review: The emphasis of this book is improvement for the least time effort and it delivers. Nunn's tips on how to calculate variations and his dissection of Kotov's famous tree of analysis are excellent. The chapter on offbeat openings is a must read as Nunn basically refutes the Latvian Gambit and the Moeller Attack in the Giuco Piano in 10 pages! I particularly liked the section on the endgame. I am not about to sit through a 200 page endgame manual and memorize things like "this ending is a win with K on e7 and R at a2 but a draw if the K is on d6; however, if the passed pawn is a RP, then the White K must be on the 3 squares in front of the RP, etc." Nunn gives good basic rules and examples in the endgame which, if you learn, should cover 90 percent of your endgames.
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