Carte, Grandmaster vs Amateur

Learn to think like a grandmaster

A multinational array of top grandmasters explain the differences in thinking between professional and amateur chess players, and how the amateur can bridge the gap. It usually takes at least a decade of sustained effort for even the most talented player to reach the grandmaster level and though this book cannot guarantee to make the reader a grandmaster, it is certainly a healthy nudge in the right direction.

The authors are:

GM Pavel Eljanov

GM Boris Avrukh

GM Mihail Marin

GM Peter Heine Nielsen

GM Tiger Hillarp Persson

GM Jacob Aagaard

GM John Shaw

Reviews

"One of the nicest features of the book is that the amateur often becomes the star of the show, and not only when he scores a half-point or full-point upset... [They] are profiled and humanized, celebrated as individuals and chess lovers in their own right.

The book may help the amateurs who read it: there are around 35 full, well-annotated games and some additional fragments too. There's plenty of advice too, but the best reason to buy it is as a celebration of the game we all love, and of most - if not, ultimately, all - of the people who play it. As the great Mikhail Tal once commented, "We are all amateurs."

Dennis Monokroussos, Chess Today

"The seven authors in eight chapters (Aagaard wrote two) present games from different angles. Sometimes they were at the beginning of their career facing the GM, later they were in the opposite situation.

Certainly advice on how to beat GMs is interesting, but far more useful for most will be the way the authors dissect typical mistakes made by amateurs. This is very instructive stuff."

IM John Donaldson