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Rating: 
Summary: Women are right! Good things do come in small packages...
Review: I found this book very helpful ...it starts with mating patterns (that we all should know , but of course forget...)and tactical devices. It covers pawn structures and levers(which i found especially helpful) and later goes into attack on the opponents king ( conditions and methods). What I like about this book is it's brevity. Some people may argue that it's too short, but in my opinion it covers the essential material while not making the book a chore to read. Ask any chessplayer, and he or she will tell you about their fantastic collection of chess books they HAVEN'T read. This book will be an excellent study for anyone under 1700 and because of it's smaller size, will be a good refresher course for those who have already covered the material.
Rating:
Summary: Kopec gives it to you straight!
Review: If you are a beginner or ANY player rated under 1800, you should probably get this book. How many other authors have told you there are only like 30 or so basic mating positions? FULL OF VALUABLE AND USEFUL ADVICE! (And practically worth its weight in gold!) EASILY 5 stars, at least in terms of pure instruction. If a beginning player told me he could only buy 10 books to study for the next 10 years, I would tell him to get this book! 'Nuff said?
Rating: 
Summary: Learn essential Middle game material
Review: So you know all the rules. Well buy this book and get better quickly. First Dr. Danny Kopec goes through and teaches a variety of tactical positions which are simply essential. Then he talks about the heart of chess - pawns. Finally he puts strategy and tactics together to teach you how to attack. After you read this book and you play on line chess buy tactics books and an endgame book. Continue playing and you will greatly improve. Dr. Kopec has a personal way of writing which I enjoyed. For example: "When I (DK) was about fourteen I first started reading this book. It took me over a year to study this book and I still remember going to restaurants with my parents in New York City ( such as Mama Leone's) where I would read and play though this book (Pawn Power) with a portable magnetic chess set while listening on headphones to thrilling baseball pennant races..." He also talks about knowing Dr. Hans Kmoch who wrote a great book on chess. Kopec is personable, instructive and gives out a lot of "secrets" like the study of pawns. Learn from this book and you will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Learn essential Middle game material
Review: So you know all the rules. Well buy this book and get better quickly. First Dr. Danny Kopec goes through and teaches a variety of tactical positions which are simply essential. Then he talks about the heart of chess - pawns. Finally he puts strategy and tactics together to teach you how to attack. After you read this book and you play on line chess buy tactics books and an endgame book. Continue playing and you will greatly improve. Dr. Kopec has a personal way of writing which I enjoyed. For example: "When I (DK) was about fourteen I first started reading this book. It took me over a year to study this book and I still remember going to restaurants with my parents in New York City ( such as Mama Leone's) where I would read and play though this book (Pawn Power) with a portable magnetic chess set while listening on headphones to thrilling baseball pennant races..." He also talks about knowing Dr. Hans Kmoch who wrote a great book on chess. Kopec is personable, instructive and gives out a lot of "secrets" like the study of pawns. Learn from this book and you will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Chess Reading
Review: The authors of this book obviously knew their stuff. They intuitively described how to handle all kinds of situations in the middlegame. In my opinion you couldn't buy a better book for learning the Middlegame thouroughly!
Rating: 
Summary: This book is trying to do too much in too little space.
Review: The main problem of this book is that it is trying to cover all of the main middle game topics in one thin book. The first section deals with pattern recognition. This is a very important skill. Kosten lists about 24 basic mating patterns and recomends that someone not familiar with them should learn them. He then gives examples for about six of them. I don't think that even the author would think that anyone will learn the basic mating patterns by reading this. The book of combinations by Polgar is an excellant example of a book that will give a lot of practice in finding mating patterns. He also gives pawn play in the middle game a very short treatment.
Rating:
Summary: There are Better Ways to Spend Your Money
Review: The section showing the 26 basic mating patterns is very handy. The rest of the book does not provide nearly as much value, especially at the price.
Rating:
Summary: There are Better Ways to Spend Your Money
Review: The section showing the 26 basic mating patterns is very handy. The rest of the book does not provide nearly as much value, especially at the price.
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