Rating: 
Summary: Keres teaches you (maybe) the toughest phase of chess!
Review: I am a chess teacher, and have been one for a long time. I have many students, both locally and hundreds on the Internet.If there were one book you could buy as a primer to the middlegame, this would have to be it. Virtually every reasonable topic is tackled; most standard mid-game positions are covered. Keres shows you how to attack the King: when it is caught in the center; how to attack a King, based on an open file; how to weaken the King's enemy pawn cover to initiate an attack; how to use the 2 Bishops to attack your opponent's King; how to sacrifice to expose the King ... I could go on and on, but I trust by now you get the point. The positions were carefully chosen by the author, indeed they are probably the result of the famous 'Russian School' of chess. Some of the material is slightly dated, but as a Master and a professional chess teacher, this makes little difference. You should already know the 20-30 basic mating positions; Keres does NOT cover them here. (See D. Kopec's book, "Practical MiddleGame Techniques," for these in detail.) A word of warning, the book I just got (a local student purchased one copy for me and one copy for himself); is in descriptive notation. Many students are somewhat put off by this, indeed I think it is time for a good writer to bring out an algebraic edition of this book. My experience is that the serious students who will apply themselves will definitely profit from this book. With almost no conditions! (I do NOT think the absolute beginner should tackle this book ... see my website for a list of books for each class of player. A real beginner should probably get "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, " first, and then Fred Reinfeld's, "The Complete Chess-Player.") This is one of my favorite books on the middle-game. IF you finish this book, and want more, Fine's book on the middlegame, and Euwe's book would be a good next step. (IF ... they are available!) Then you might be ready for GM Larry Christiansen's excellent book, "Storming The Barricades," which is a fantastic book on this subject. Overall this is probably the best single book on the middlegame, and I would have gladly awarded it five stars, if it were available in algebraic notation.
Rating: 
Summary: A very deep and rewarding book
Review: I am somewhat of an intermediate player trying to improve, partly from the help of this book. I have found the analysis contained in it very enlightening and educational. I have not gotten to the chapters by Kotov(though I will-I need the most help on the topics about which Keres writes). A caveat for the beginner-it is very deep, even for someone with experience, but it is well worth the time spent.
Rating:
Summary: not for people below < 1600
Review: I have 1400 rating and I found this book to be not
so useful. It may be me, because I am not that good yet.
But, at least, it can said that this book is not organized
in a manner that helps learning. I am giving it 4* because
I could not totally wrong, because of level.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy It
Review: I have to say one thing about this book. It did teach me how to perform a successful pawn storming operation. The only problem was that pawn storming was only one chapther in the book. Every other chapter was usesless rehashed stuff from Nimzovitch and others. Keres-Kotov did do excellent work on the pawn storming aspects of the game. But not enough to warrant buying this book. The only problem with me however, is that of all the other 20 or so chess books I own, none of them explained pawn storming like this one did. I still go back to this book just for this account. But I never go past page 20.... A GM may state that the section on "defending a weak position" is worthwhile, but personally I'm trying not to get myself into weak positions to start with.
Rating:
Summary: Good value for the money. Advanced book.
Review: I'll not make this sound like an advertisement, but this book is really great value for the money (thanks again to Dover). The book has 5 chapters, one by Golombeck (the translator) which is worth reading, but not much more. The rest are 4 perls by Kotov and Keres. This 4 chapters handle the topics: how to attack the king (depending on the pawn srtuctures and on the castles), how to play whit typical pawn structures (blocked center...) [both by Kotov]; how to defend actively in inferior positions, and how to do analysis (both by Keres, which was a fanatic correspondece player).
Rating:
Summary: this is a classic....
Review: I'm constantly looking for quality chess books at bargain prices; and this Borders/Amazon site is the best.
At the price (used book) at less than 50% of the listed price, this is so good.
Keres is one of the best chess analyst and writer. Kotov is exceptional trainer. I read the book a few times, but recently the chapter about defending a difficult position stands out. None of us wants to be in such a bad position, but in a temporary lack on concentration we make a bad move (creating a hole in the king-castle so the opponent can post a knight or letting him make a "permanent" pin), we can be certain that the next half of the game is "hell" for us. A mate or heavy material loss will follow.
About the descriptive notation, I wonder why it is a problem. I learned it in 10 seconds and never have problem again. Just imagine Fischer's classic book, "My 60 memorable games" in algebraic notation. How un-sexy can it be? ;-)
PS: maybe I need to read the chapter about the art of analyzing the adjourned games, other reviewers make it sound so good. The book did not get 5 stars, because something was missing. Maybe a chapter in tactics and strategies.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the middle game ones. yes, even as old as it is.
Review: If you want a book on chess go somewhere else, but if you
want to learn what to play after that opening, you can read this, Keres and Kotov are the best at the matter.... they
show you everything and make it look as if it just some easy theory.
So, This is the best on the topic,if you're good at endings
and already are used to some opening, this is the book you
need to become the chess player you want to be.
Rating:
Summary: Did not find what I was looking for
Review: It seemed to me from the favorable reviews that this was THE book for an intermediate level chess player. I have a 1550 rating and did not benefit too much from it. It may be for the more advanced chesss players. The one section that I learned from was the section on pawn structure, and how to go about a pawn blitz. Bottom line is that this book is no magic wand. "Well d'uh thats not obvious? there is no single book that has a magic wand effect" you might say, yet the reviews looked great and I had hope that I would end up increasing my rating having read the book; did not happen. final comment about some of the reviews: I think it is unfair to trash the book just because the notation is not algebraic. It takes one minute to figure it out. Descriptive notation does not diminish the information content.
Rating:
Summary: An old but useful text
Review: Previous reviews have already listed the contents of this book, however, I believe a bit more disclosure might be helpful. Firstly, this book is old. And although the material covered is certainly essential knowledge, the methods of instruction therein are somewhat dry. Secondly, the notation is not algebraic but rather the confusing descriptive sort. For the class C-B player, this text may prove noticeably useful. But for class A players and above, I might suggest a more thorough survey into each of the general topics essayed in "Art of the Middle Game." A few suggestions would be "Pawn Structure Chess," "The Art of Chess Analysis," and "The Art of Attack in Chess." In agreeing with what has been said before me, the essay on defending difficult positions is exceptional. All considered, this book is a very good book inasmuch that it does offer a lot of important information all in one small volume.
Rating:
Summary: Great Buy, Great Book
Review: The book is excellent.
All chess players must have it.
The notation used can be learned and it's fun too.
The book is Cheap and Short plus can you improve a lot.
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