One of my goals in writing chess books is to cover unique subjects that you can\u2019t find easily in other books or media. The one exception is Back to Basics: Tactics<\/em><\/a>, which I was asked to write as part of a series for Russell Enterprises. But even Back to Basics: Tactics<\/em> has a unique aspect: the first chapter has an emphasis on the tactic I call Counting<\/strong>, which is determining whether any sequence of captures \u2013 on one or multiple squares \u2013 will lose or gain material. Counting exchanges on one square is usually relatively easy, given the average values of the exchanged pieces. However, Counting that involves captures on multiple squares can be so complicated with many permutations that it sometimes requires engine analysis to ensure the correct determination. I also included other material not normally found in basic tactics books like the chapter \u201cIs There a Win?\u201d where every position looks like there might be a tactic, but only about half actually do. In that sense the positions in that chapter are similar to actual games, where you don\u2019t know if your position has a tactic even if there are \u201cseeds\u201d of tactical play indicating a tactic might be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n The oldest of my books is Elements of Positional Evaluation<\/em><\/a>. Elements<\/em>\u2019 subtitle tells the story of what the book is about: How the Pieces Get Their Power<\/em>. The contents are based on material from chess courses I had taught at work and adult evening school. Forward Chess sells the greatly expanded fourth edition; the first three editions did not have all the examples and was primarily prose theory. I wrote Elements<\/em> on a typewriter almost 50(!) years ago when I was an unknown expert. For that reason, I could not get it published, and the manuscript languished on a shelf in my closet for about 16 years. Then I heard about a small publisher in Western Pennsylvania, Chess Enterprises, run by Bob Dudley. One day I pulled on Bob\u2019s sleeve and told him he was publishing books from all over, but we had an unpublished author right here in Pennsylvania, me. That first edition of Elements<\/em> became a \u201ccult classic\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n A few years later Bob agreed to publish my second book, consisting of original annotations of my games as an improving player, which I called, not surprisingly, The Improving Annotator<\/a><\/em>. To show you how much I wanted to get it published, I agreed to provide the manuscript to the publisher for no remuneration \u2013 how many authors can claim that? Today Russell Enterprises publishes the greatly expanded fourth edition of Elements<\/em>, while Mongoose Press publishes the second edition of The Improving Annotator<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n As a full-time chess instructor, I noticed that amateur players, not unexpectedly, made similar thought process mistakes. Many of these mistakes did not have names, so as I ran into these same problems repeatedly, I started to categorize and write about them. I also had read that the psychological idea of learning by \u201cchunking\u201d information was not only applicable to critical educational subjects like reading, but could equally be applied to chess. From ideas like these, I was able to write a series of essay-like chapters on learning chess and the typical problems involved, and that book became Everyone\u2019s Second Chess Book<\/em><\/a>. The idea for the book was \u201csuppose someone has learned the rules of chess and knows basics like how to checkmate \u2013 is there some sort of guide that might help him in the next step of his\/her journey?\u201d So I included other issues, like what rules are most important to know, and even a section on chess etiquette.<\/p>\n\n\n After writing some columns about improvement for the online magazine Chess Caf\u00e9, owner Hanon Russell asked me to write a regular column for improving adults. This, of course, was right up my alley! Hanon decided to call it \u201cNovice Nook\u201d, which is somewhat a misnomer because it would eventually include material that could help anyone improve, not just novices! For about 12 years I wrote the column monthly and it won the Chess Journalists of America award for Best Instruction seven times. It’s some of my best work. About two-thirds of the way through the series, the large publisher Everyman agreed to publish an updated version of the best of my Novice Nook columns, and this became A Guide to Chess Improvement<\/em><\/a>; the subtitle was the best of Novice Nook<\/em>. Chess Caf\u00e9 has gone on to become private, but I have been able to cover similar material in my Youtube channel<\/a>, which has also won awards from the Chess Journalists of America.<\/p>\n\n\n One day a friend, Dr. Steven Rolfe, suggested I write a book about dealing with threats (he meant threats made by the opponent\u2019s previous move). I agreed on the condition that Steve approve the contents, which he did. I then scoured my own games, teaching material, student\u2019s games, and famous games for instructive threats. For each problem I asked the reader to identify all the threats from the previous move and then suggest what they could do with their move to best deal with these threats. Because the material ranged from easy to fiendishly difficult, I used an asterisk system to identify how difficult the particular problem was. I came up with the catchy title Looking for Trouble<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n Looking for Trouble filled a void in chess literature about identifying and dealing with threats from the opponent\u2019s previous move. But what about the more common problem amateurs have about determining if their own moves were safe? That would be a good companion volume so, many years after Looking for Trouble was written, I wrote another puzzle book, this time discussing the crucial issue of determining if a player\u2019s own move was safe. This had the not-so-surprising title of Is Your Move Safe<\/em>?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n Before I did Youtube videos, I did hundreds of videos for the Internet Chess Club (ICC). Many of these videos were instructive amateur games, which I understandably culled from my students\u2019 play (anonymously, of course!). It only seemed natural then, that I could write yet another book on instruction based on similar material. This turned out to be The World\u2019s Most Instructive Amateur Game Book<\/a><\/em>, and I\u2019m very proud of it; I think it\u2019s one of my best. Not surprisingly, one or two of the games in this book were played by my student, radio personality Howard Stern! Of course, Howard\u2019s play is also protected by anonymity \u2013 all the games are just labeled amateur vs amateur. I recommend The World\u2019s Most Instructive Amateur Game Book <\/em>to all of my students! <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-18.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-22.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-25.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-19.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-21.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-24.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-23.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Books-20.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DanH_High_Res-for-Youtube-1024x553.jpg\")
<\/figure>