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How to read Jacob’s books

By Jacob Aagaard / September 5, 2016

I get a few emails/facebook messages every week, asking questions, coming with
suggestions and so on. In general, I prefer to receive them on the blog, so my answers
can be seen by anyone who is interested, so they can work out for themselves which
direction is right for them.

A few days ago I got the following email, which is quite typical, as is my answer, even
though I went into extra detail this time around. With permission I post it here for
anyone who are interested…

Dear sir,

My name is xxx xxx, aged 1x years and my elo is 21xx. I have bought a couple of books
this month authored by you. I want to know which book should I start reading first. The
books are:

Excelling at technical chess

Excelling at chess

Excelling at chess calculation

Attacking manuals 1 and 2

Inside the chess mind

Grandmaster versus amateur

Practical chess defense

Grandmaster preparation series-

Positional play

Strategic play

Calculation

Regards,

xxx xxx

xxx, India.

My answer:

Dear xxx

First off, Inside the Chess Mind and Grandmaster vs. Amateur can be read for fun and
totally out of sequence. The same goes to some extent for Excelling at Chess, which is
mainly meant to inspire.

Excelling at Chess Calculation is the place I would start. Read it carefully. The exercises
are not that great; I could skip them.

Then move on to Calculation. The chapters are created with more and more difficult
exercises. Once you get stuck; go to the next chapter. The attitude in solving is
important. Do it like it is important!

Once you are well into Calculation, you can start working on Positional Play as well. Work
on them side by side. It does not matter which one you do most of, but do some of each.
Calculation is later replaced by Practical Chess Defence and Positional Play by Strategic
Play. Of all of these books, Calculation and Positional Play are the most important to
really understand well.

You can read Attacking Manual 1 and 2 when your solving is getting steady. (If you do an
hour a day, you will see rapid progress. Everyone who works with these books seriously
have made big progress; including in India). Attacking Manual 1 works well together with
Attack and Defence. Read AM1 and get A&D; but first go through the other books. You
can always read Attacking Manual 1 more than once. Actually, I strongly recommend it.

Excelling at Technical Chess can be read later; it works well Endgame Play, which is also
not on your list.

And please read Thinking Inside the Box when it comes out. It will tie all of the books
together.

If you go through all of these books in the way I describe, you will have more effective
training than most young chess players in the World. It is by no means easy and it
requires a lot of effort. But I think the examples are aesthetically pleasing and the process
SHOULD be fun and interesting. If it is not, please think about how you can make it more
fun. To work with a friend is often a good way. Most progress for most people come
when they are working in a group in one way or another.

I do plan on coming on a book tour of Asia in the spring, hopefully around mid-April.
The main stop will obviously be India, where I have many friends and where a lot of
people have expressed appreciation for my work. I hope to meet you at one of the
lectures/training seminars I will be running giving then.

I also strongly recommend reading my two books written together with Boris Gelfand
and published under his name. An Indian GM and friend of mine called the first one:
“something truly special…” It is for others to decide if he is right. I definitely think it is
worth reading… Also, if you go to our blog, you will find some videos I made together
with Boris at the end of July this year. One of them shows how we created the books, the
two others are Q&A.

I hope this was helpful.

Jacob

I should add to this that the Quality Chess Puzzle Book easily fits into the Grandmaster
Preparation series. The exercises were collected and analysed by me and the book
finished by John, so that the tone is his, but the structure and ideas are mine and the
direction something John and I have always worked together on. Those wondering where
the difference is between John and me (none I presume), should know that there is no
real difference. We work together and our stuff is always a collaboration.

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80 thoughts on “How to read Jacob’s books”

pabstars September 5, 2016 at 9:04 am

Thanks for your great description, Jacob! I’m really looking forward to re-
reading your books when I have finished the Yusupov-series which is super
good too. Keep up with the good work 🙂

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 5, 2016 at 10:49 am

@pabstars
The Yusupov series is where I would send 75% of people…

Reply

Will September 5, 2016 at 10:54 am

Jacob,

Thanks for sharing that informative email with everyone here. I have asked for
the Yusupov series for my birthday, so hope to have that soon. I intend to
study it in its entirety, even if some material in the earlier books might be a bit
below my level (~2100). Where would you slot the Yusupov books into the
above training plan?

Cheers,

Will

Reply

FredPhil September 5, 2016 at 1:18 pm

Could someone recall me where is the discussion about time studing opening
compared to the total time according to the ELO?
Thank’s

Reply

Richard Martin September 5, 2016 at 2:50 pm

Speaking for myself, Yusopov has complemented my studies with Aagaards

books. I can tell that my thought process is changing and chess is getting
simpler. I finally made it too book 7! Also the revision and exam is awesome. I
like how hard those puzzles are. I hope to see more from Yusopov in the
future.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 6, 2016 at 9:30 am

@Will
On top! I actually recommend a lot of people to have the books lying on the
toilet, if they are “easy” for them. You can read the articles in 1-2 sittings and
solve the exercises in one.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 6, 2016 at 9:32 am

@FredPhil
I cannot. But essentially I made it to GM without having great preparation. I did
find that it helped a lot, when I surpassed 2350, but today I think it is enough
to read a few good books and memorise the content. I have to be honest and
say that openings were never my strong suit, but my general philosophy is that
you have to be able to play well before you can explore good positions.

Reply

Larsen_fan September 6, 2016 at 10:45 am

Hi
With all this fantastic material I so wish you would move into online/software
training programs. The idea of course to have a responsive software feeding
the user exactly the kind of material and exercises he/she would benefit mostly
from. If you include the Yusupov material you would cover the marked from
1300 players to super GMs ;-). Monthly evaluations, mixed theory / exercises,
monthly progress chart and evaluation of weaknesses/strength etc. With your
brand (and the quality of material you would bring to the marked) everybody
would sign up regardless of price. Im talking early retirement for you and the
Team – you could quit work and start doing what you enjoy like writing chess
books and stuff like that.

regards,
Larsen_fan

Reply

Gollum September 6, 2016 at 11:25 am

I gather that the order you propose is:

0. Yusupov books.
1. Calculation + QC Puzzle book.
1.5 Positional play (you start when you have point 1 well under way, and finish
it all together.
2. Practical chess defense + Strategic play.
3. AM1 + A&D + AM2
4. Excelling at technical play + Endgame play
5. Gelfand books.
6. Thinking inside the box.

Reply

Gollum September 6, 2016 at 11:31 am

I thought Practical Chess Defense was significantly harder than the other ones,
so I do not own it (yet!). The order I am following is:

1. Positional play (already done twice, thinking on going over it for the third
time).
2. AM1 + Gelfand 1 (already done).
3. QC Puzzle book (already done).
4. Calculation + A&D (both under way).
5. Strategic play.
6. Endgame play. (I’ve done like 20% of it, but in the subway, so plan to go over
it more seriously starting from the beginning).
7. Thinking inside the box.

And in between, I will mix material from other publishers too 😛 But there are
not that many puzzle books out there, specially if you do not count tactical
puzzle books.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 6, 2016 at 10:19 pm

@Gollum
No really. 5 days & 6 should be read parallel…

Reply

Le Bruit Qui Qourt September 7, 2016 at 6:28 am

Jacob Aagaard :
@FredPhil
I cannot. But essentially I made it to GM without having
great preparation. I did find that it helped a lot, when I
surpassed 2350, but today I think it is enough to read a few
good books and memorise the content. I have to be honest
and say that openings were never my strong suit, but my
general philosophy is that you have to be able to play well
before you can explore good positions.

I hope that all these worthy advices will be covered in GM Prep – Out of the
box.

Actually, I’m, really really fed up with general advices. Get to the point! How to
improve!

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 8, 2016 at 9:14 am

I will not engage with this sort of rudeness

Reply

Supi September 8, 2016 at 2:24 am

Jacob, you have a divine talent for writing, is indescribable the way which I
admire your work, already said via email on one occasion, but I say again, my
sincere congratulations!

Reply

Stephen Jiang September 9, 2016 at 8:31 pm

Mr. Aagaard,

You have 2nd edition for Attacking Manual 1 ( 6 years ago ). I just wonder
whether you have plans to have 2nd or 3rd editions for your other GM Prep
books.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 11, 2016 at 12:54 pm

The quick answer is no. The long answer is that whenever a book
is reprinted, we always look to see if we know of any corrections
that needs to be inserted. But a reworking of the books is not
needed and will not happen.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 11, 2016 at 12:21 pm

@Supi
I appreciate it. More useful for me is probably what you think we can do better
though 😉

Reply

Mirso September 13, 2016 at 7:09 pm

@Jacob Aagaard
Jacob, the Yusupov books are really good. Where in the Yusupov series would
you insert Chess tactics from scratch, Mating the castled king and Chess
structures. Thanks for publishing such good and quality books!

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 14, 2016 at 10:12 am

Thank you. The first two as parallel – they can be read whenever
you feel like it. The latter I would put after, but again, reading it
earlier would not damage you. On the contrary!

Reply

Matt September 15, 2016 at 7:37 am

Hi @jacob Aagard – as a weak (but improving!) player I found this thread

fascinating. One of the key challenges we face as chess book buyers is knowing
how new releases fit into the bigger picture of the resources available, and
which ones will benefit us most at our stage of development.

Have you though about expressing this visually, in a sort of book/learning

roadmap, where you plot your library and future releases against both strength
and learning theme? This would make your range both more accessible, and
also help us to plot our development through your library. Just a thought!

Keep up the great work 🙂

Matt

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 16, 2016 at 3:05 pm

@Matt
Hi Matt,

There are various reasons why I do not want to do this. Mainly, because I think
that there are so many ways to do things that I do not want to give people the
impression that “their way” is wrong. We do regularly make recommendations
here on the blog and elsewhere, but we always stress that it is a
recommendation. As it is very hard to get people to understand that a
“provisional” publishing schedule is not final, we tend to think that qualifiers
don’t work and thus do not want to limit the possible ways of doing things by
suggesting what we think is useful in too formal a way.

Reply

Stephen Jiang September 20, 2016 at 10:03 pm

Hello, @Jacob Aagaard

I know in the past, you did recommended GM Prep from Quality over your
Excelling series from Everyman. To me, the GM Prep series are workbooks for
Excelling series. The following are the orders I summarize from your comments
(note: (2), (3), (4), (5) could start in parallel; (2) probably starts a little earlier
than others)

(1). Excelling at Chess

(2). Excelling at Chess Calculation -> Calculation -> Practical Chess Defense
(3). Excelling at Positional Chess -> Positional Play -> Strategic Play
(4). Excelling at Technical Chess -> Endgame Play
(5). Attacking Manuals 1 -> Attack and Defense -> Attacking Manuals 2
(6). Thinking inside the Box

I just wondering whether “Excelling at Combinational Play” fit into this – this is
more like calculation, but focusing on Sicilian Defense tactics. Should this be
part of ‘Calculation’ work?

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 21, 2016 at 7:44 am

@Stephen Jiang
You are trying to make too many connections. Only Exc. Calculation and Exc.
Technical works this way from that series. Excelling at Positional Chess is a
workbook itself, not a manual. But yes, Attacking Manual 1 and Attack and
Defence definitely work together as a pair.
I would also not put PCD in any sequence. But it is still a good book, of course.

Reply

Gollum September 21, 2016 at 10:21 am

I’m banging my head with Attack & Defense… it is hard! Or I’m not such a
good attacker… but you read AM1 and Gormally’s book and think it is really
easy, but then the A&D book kicks you in the ass.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 21, 2016 at 10:56 am

@Gollum
Easy to understand; hard to do. This is chess.

Reply

Stephen Jiang September 27, 2016 at 7:30 pm

Hello, @Jacob Aagaard

One more question, do you have any plan to publish DVD or CD version of GP
series? I remember you talked about typing in Averbakh’s endgame yourself
during your own training. A lot of people here would save a lot of time if you
have pgn or cbv version of your books (By the way, Everyman is saleing your 5
Excelling books in pgn/cbv format).

Reply

Stephen Jiang September 27, 2016 at 7:33 pm

Hello, @Jacob Aagaard

I read your review in chesscafe on Mark Dvoretsky’s book. That was long time
ago. Now Mr. Dvoretsky is RIP and we will miss any new books from him. I just
wonder whether you have plan to update your review on his work (and maybe
talk about how to use his work to combine with your work books, as you
mentioned in multiple places, your work had a lot of influence from him).

Reply

Will September 27, 2016 at 8:28 pm

@Stephen Jiang
I recall someone (I think it was Jacob) posting here in the past that they would
not produce cbv/pgn versions of their books. I would imagine that is because
they are so easy to pirate.

Reply

Reyk September 28, 2016 at 7:00 am

@Will
Yes, you probably cannot do this nowadays. But the work done this way is not
wasted as you will learn on the way and if it is really too much you could split
the work amongst you and a friend for instance.

I don’t see the need btw to digitalize the whole work book – in fact I prefer
books and board for this type of training rather than screen. But I’m trying to
do it with opening books – and often never finish 😉 But it’s much easier to
type into pgn from a book than it is from a stream.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 28, 2016 at 7:15 am

@Stephen Jiang
No, I do not. Maybe Forward Chess though.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 28, 2016 at 7:15 am

@Stephen Jiang
I will write an 8 page obituary for NIC the issue after next.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 28, 2016 at 7:16 am

@Will
Forwardchess.com an app for IOS or Android is the way to go. I really should
put my GP books on there…

Reply

Matt September 29, 2016 at 1:37 pm

hello @jacob Aagard – while you’re looking at new book son Forward Chess,
any chance of Yusupov’s series getting on there? That would be awesome…

Matt

Reply

Jacob Aagaard September 30, 2016 at 8:48 am

@Matt
No chance at the moment.

Reply

PaulH October 4, 2016 at 9:33 pm

@Jacob Aagaard
Do you have an opinion on whether there are benefits to mixing any of the
Dvoretsky books in to the above order?

Reply

Jacob Aagaard October 4, 2016 at 10:28 pm

@PaulH
Yes, they can be used quite freely. I would add the newest (Prophylaxis) after or
before Strategic Play. I would have Endgame Manual together with Endgame
Play. The 9 old books I would read continuously, but if you have the English
editions, I would check the solutions with an engine. Mark had 100s of
corrections, but Olms were not that interested in putting them in. And
(controversially), I would advice against using the Analytical Manual. I know of
2700+ players that found it unreadable. Just too difficult. Tragicomedy you can
include whenever.

It is all rather loose anyway. The main thing is to work on your game, and you
will improve. I have yet to see it not working, although it is certainly no
shortcut.

Reply

Gollum October 5, 2016 at 7:36 am

The last book of Dvoretsky published in english is “Maneuvering: The Art of

Piece Play”, and my guess that you are refering at “Recognizing Your
Opponent’s Resources: Developing Preventive Thinking”, which is the previous
book.

In my opinion, the book on preventive thinking is quite difficult. I have not

given “Strategic play” a shot yet, but comparing to ‘Calculation’ and ‘Attack and
Defense’, I think it is more difficult (so it would make sense to study it
afterwards, as you do).

The book about piece play I’m reading together with ‘Attack and Defense’, for
no special reason really. I have solved only 10 exercises of the ‘warming up’
chapter, so no definitive opinion yet, but up until now, I’m doing quite ok.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard October 5, 2016 at 8:20 am

@Gollum
It was not the opinion of the 2600s I have worked with. They found Mark’s
book a lot easier.

Reply

Gollum October 5, 2016 at 8:33 am

Maybe I’m not a good preventive thinker… The easy part of the Dvoretsky book
is that you need to find a line to refute and a line that you cannot refute. If you
stumble unto the line you cannot refute first, it can drive you crazy, as you
expect to refute it and then find something better… But I guess that knowing
there are those things to find can make it easier.

Around exercise 115 from chapter 1 I failed _a lot_, hence I felt it was time to
move on, as there are 180 exercises in that chapter and things were bound to
go worse from that point on.

In calculation the last exercises of a chapter are hard (really hard), but I think
I’m a little under the 50% mark overall, same thing happens in A&D. Maybe the
differential factor is that you divide your work into a lot more chapters than
Dvoretsky, hence the steep wall you find at the end of the chapter is not that
frustrating in your case.

For reference, I’m a little above 2200 (and that little bit has to be thanks to your
books).

Reply

Jacob Aagaard October 5, 2016 at 8:35 am

@Gollum
Continue the work and it will pay off in great ways. Chess is very difficult and
takes a long time to learn, but it can and will happen.

Reply

Martin Dixon January 10, 2017 at 8:57 am

I think it was in Jesper Hall’s “Budding Chess Champions” where he wrote a

chapter Haven’t I Seen This Before. What I took from that was with all the
theory that abounds, millions and millions of pages of GM analysis, millions of
millions of PGN files in databases, most amateur players, like myself, still get
lost in finding the most relevant aspect of the position. Sit around any game
and the kibitzers will tell you you should have done this, you could have done
that. The better players will comment on the structure, the tacticians will say
you missed a good sacrifice, and the positional pundits will say you went bad
many moves ago when you played h3/h6. But as Aagaard has mentioned in his
GM series, paraphrasing, “before you can look you need to see.” And that’s
where I hit the wall. I have mountains of ideas floating around in my head but
which ones should come to the fore, and when? The art of evaluating a
position and knowing what matters most, Soltis, is what separates the better
players. While I am looking for a beautiful bishop and knight mating pattern,
my opponent is just happy to push a passed pawn. The QC series of books are
excellent. I own many. But I need something to help me with cutting the wheat
from the chaff and not getting lost along the way. Thanks.

Reply

Pinpon January 10, 2017 at 6:37 pm

@ Martin Dixon : Inside the chess mind which is JA book ( but not a QC one )
deals with this topic with different test positions submitted to average players
and titled players . Could interest you .

Reply

Jacob Aagaard January 11, 2017 at 5:45 am

@Martin Dixon
Have you tried using the method of the three questions? It is specifically
designed to help with this issue.

Reply

pawnmayhem January 11, 2017 at 9:07 am

Hi Jacob,

Where would Psakhis book ‘advanced chess tactics’ come into your list ?
Before, after or together with your ‘attack & defence’ book ?

Reply

Tim January 17, 2017 at 2:19 pm

@Jacob
You mentioned in september that putting GP Series on forward chess is a
serious option. My question is, when approximately can we expect this to
happen?

Reply

Jacob Aagaard January 17, 2017 at 4:52 pm

@Tim
Going from being an option to giving a date is a long step. If so, it would be
after Box is done so the whole series can be bought at a discount.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard January 17, 2017 at 4:53 pm

@pawnmayhem
Parallel. Good books that cover the subject in different ways. Maybe between
the two volumes.

Reply

pabstars January 18, 2017 at 11:46 am

I’m almost halfway through Smirin’s new book KIW. This could also be added
to “How to read Jacob’s books”. Even though the book is only related to one
opening, it is stuffed with tactics and it also contains quite a few exercises
before each chapter starts. It is truly a fantastic book because you really feel
Smirin’s dedication to chess and especially the KID.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard January 18, 2017 at 12:17 pm

@pabstars
Smirin’s energy and enthusiasm is amazing. I helped a bit with structuring the
book. Ilya is a fantastic player and interesting personality, but of course he is
not a natural writer, so a bit of assistance has hopefully made the book more
accessible. Actually, I really love the book. We will see what else we put out
before the summer, but to me, it is our first possible candidate for a book of
the year nomination…

Reply

Thomas January 18, 2017 at 12:47 pm

Jacob Aagaard :
We will see what else we put out before the summer, …

Any hints?

Reply

pabstars January 18, 2017 at 12:53 pm

Jacob, I have voted for it as the best opening book 2016 on chesspub.com,
even though you can argue that it is at least as much a book on the middle
game. It is true treasure!

Reply

Ray January 18, 2017 at 12:55 pm

@Jacob Aagaard
I agree, this is a superb book, and really a must for each KID player! He kept
the option open for a second volume, so who knows… And indeed you can use
this book also for training, because of the exercises at the start of each chapter.

Reply

The Doctor January 18, 2017 at 1:44 pm

Anyone got the GM Rep book on NID on Forward Chess yet?

Reply

bedogus July 25, 2017 at 3:24 am

Hi Jacob, a question:

I am a 1700-1800 player so maybe the GMP series is a bit avanced for me, but I
am working with Calculation and Positional Play, which has been very useful
and rewarding, But I still feel my calculation is quite disordered, unstructured,
and randomized, (like A. Kotov describes in his Think Like a GM) specially in
caothic positions.
What advice would you give me in order to fix that?
Thank you

Reply

Leaf March 24, 2018 at 10:00 pm

Dear Jacob,

After finishing 300 exercise from Martin’s Chess Tactics from Scratch, which
tactics exercise book should be next, Quality Chess Puzzle Book, Grandmaster
Preparation: Calculation, or something else … ?

Thanks,
Leaf

Reply

Jacob Aagaard March 25, 2018 at 8:09 am

@Leaf
The Puzzle book will be difficult enough for now, I think 🙂

Reply

Des February 26, 2019 at 6:37 am

Hi Jacob,

I have been hearing all the praise online around all of your chess books and I’m
really excited to start my collection with your books.
I currently have a rating of around 1500 on Chess.com and some people
mentioned it is a requirement to be around 1800+ to understand your
teachings from your books.
Is this true or can I find one book of yours to really devote my time and
dedication to and eventually grasp the knowledge they entail?
I’ve seen some previews of some of your books like Positional Play and I really
enjoy your writing style.

I’ve noticed on Perpetualchesspodcast, almost every IM/GM guest they have

on praise the work you have done for the Chess community. Thank you for
your hard work and for helping all the Chess players to improve and to get
more out of their chess enjoyment.

I hope you will see this message.

Thanks and regards,

Des.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard February 26, 2019 at 11:02 pm

@Des
Hi Des,

Yeah, they are probably a bit too difficult at this point. Thinking Inside the Box
is meant to be more accessible, but honestly, it is still a difficult book.

I do plan on writing some more accessible books over time, but at the moment
I am still doing high level books.

The ideal books for you are the Artur Yusupov series. On our front page, in the
left column, you can find a link to a special page about these books.

Thanks, Jacob

Reply

Des February 26, 2019 at 11:51 pm

@Jacob Aagaard
Thank you Jacob

Reply

Anonymous March 21, 2019 at 2:23 pm

Hi Jacob,
I am a 1400 player, and I want to improve my Tactics and Endgame skills. What
books would you recommend for this? I think the GM Prep series is supposed
to be a bit advanced (2000 level). What books would you recommend for my
level?

Reply

Mmch2020 March 25, 2019 at 12:08 pm

Hi Jacob
My rating is 2150. What do you think to do to be a great master? Thank you

Reply

Mike L April 22, 2019 at 7:01 pm

First off, all the Quality Chess books are amazing and I especially appreciate
Jacob’s books!
@Jacob Aagaard, I have two questions for you.
1. Given that Thinking Inside the Box was released a bit after this thread was
started, I assume you would recommend players read it first, i.e. before this:

“Excelling at Chess Calculation is the place I would start.”

2. I understand your three questions were distilled down from the original list
of nine questions. I would be very grateful if you would share the list of nine
questions you (originally) started with.

Thank you again for founding Quality Chess along w/ John!!

Warm regards,
Mike

Reply

David July 6, 2019 at 11:57 am

Hi Jacob,

Since we’re discussing working through your books, I have several questions.

In Excelling at Chess, chapter 8, the following advice is given for studying

openings (will paraphrase it for brevity, but do let me know if I’ve got the
wrong end of the stick here):
Consider games > 2350 (be aware some games between masters don’t have
ratings)
[Question: how would one include those games without ending up with all
really unrated ones too]
Search for endgames only [Quesition: how without going through each
manually or making a guess on the number of moves?] and study them
Then go back to the middle game (100-150 games) [Question: choose these
how?]
Then look at the theory [Question: How to filter that theory depending on
one’s level and time available]
—
Let’s take the Alekhine to play against as White which is for most club players a
1 in 25 games or so. A database filter gives almost 19,000 games for one player
over 2350. Selecting a smaller set, such as e4 Nf6 e5 Nd5 d4 d6 Nf3 which is
still several thousand games. Even if both players are above 2350 (which loses
some games vs unrated masters and no doubt some good demonstrations
how strong players beat weaker ones), it’s still in the thousands.

Question: How was this advice intended to work practically given that it’s
impractical for any non-professional to sift thousands of games [worse too if
on the board taking one’s time as per the advice]. If this was a more popular
opening the numbers…

Reply

Django November 30, 2019 at 10:45 am

Hi Jacob !
“Thinking inside the box” is the last one to be published, but do we read it first
as an introduction to the other books, or at the end to evaluate our knowledge
?
Thank for the answer.
Warm regards
Django

Reply

Igor faynshteyn January 15, 2020 at 4:59 pm

Hello, I am an adult chess player (37) who in the last few years came back to
playing chess after many years of layoff (I learned at around 7; was never
committed to it; then played on and off throughout my teen years and 20s for
short periods). I play only on chess.com today, and my blitz rating is in the
1500s, and puzzle solving rating usually in the 2300s.
I have some couple of dozen chess books, including some of the best out there
for my level – Silman, Nunn, Seirawan, Watson’s opening books, FCO, and
some classic games collections, like by Fischer, Tal, Larsen, etc. I certainly
haven’t gone through all these books, in fact many I haven’t even opened yet.
What I am looking for is books/training material that has potential to
systemically improve my game, through a sustained and systematic study,
assuming I commit about 3-5 hours a week after work. I of course have many
problem areas, but I would say I got substantially better at calculation as a
result of doing thousands of puzzles on chess.com over the last 3 years, but I
am considerably weaker in understanding positional play and strategy.
I read many good things about the Yusupov series, but the entire 9 books
course may be a bit pricey for me. Given my level, would you recommend I
start at the Fundamentals (orange) books, or Beyond the Basics (blue)? Of
course, I’d welcome recommendation of any other books, or training manuals.
I would assume Dvoretsky and your books (JA) would be too difficult for my…

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Andrew Greet January 16, 2020 at 12:51 pm

@Igor faynshteyn

Your message was cut off due to the character limit, but I got the gist of it.
Yusupov’s books would seem perfect for the kind of systematic study you have
in mind. Considering what you’ve said about your positional/strategic play, I
imagine you’ll find the Fundamentals series to be ideal.

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Igor Faynshteyn January 17, 2020 at 2:25 am

@Andrew Greet thanks for your reply. I am assuming you recommend I start
with orange books, rather than assuming I am too strong for them and going
for blue? Also, are the orange books (like other colors) in ascending order of
difficulty (i.e. build up, then boost, then evolution), or are they the same
difficulty level but just different material coverage?

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Andrew Greet January 17, 2020 at 10:09 am

Fundamentals = orange. All three orange books are the same approximate
difficulty level.

I can’t think of any special reason to work through the orange books in one
order or another. Most people start with ‘build up’ as it was the first one
published, but if you’re the type of rebellious miscreant who prefers to mix
things up and start with one of the others, you’ll also do fine.

And yes, definitely start with the orange series. Based on your own comments
about your positional play, I think you’ll find this series to be of great value in
elevating that side of your game. I guess you’ll rate higher on tactics – but even
if those sections are somewhat easier for you, there’s no harm in reinforcing
core tactical themes.

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Karl January 20, 2020 at 2:35 pm

Yusupov had organized remote training and divided his group in under 1500
(orange series by QC), 1800 (blue) and 2100 (green). That’s where this book
series come from. Even with round about 1800 FIDE and in the 1700s on
chess.com blitz i find some very challenging problems in the orange material
and some chapters where i have big problems to reach the pass marks in the
tests. I also think that the material from orange book one to orange book two
is getting a bit more complicated and sometimes he refers to former chapters.
Therefore i would suggest to use the order for anyone at my level or below.
Much stronger players maybe know all that stuff and for review that order isn’t
so important.

btw: Chess.com puzzles rating are inflated, the top 50 all have 5000 Elo or
more. My rating is also 2200+. I don’t guess i’m a good tactican.

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Andrew Greet January 20, 2020 at 2:43 pm

Yusupov’s rating guidelines are incredibly conservative. Even as a 2400+ IM,

I’ve gone through some of the orange and blue books and occasionally been
tripped up by certain exercises and encountered theoretical endgame positions
which I didn’t know about.

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Igor Faynshteyn January 21, 2020 at 6:56 pm

I agree with you Karl that chess.com puzzles are definitely inflated. My puzzles
rating currently there is almost 2400, and occasionally I am able to solve
puzzles rated at 2600+. I think they are some 500 pts inflated, in fact. Because
when I do “lessons” there that are rated by the masters who designed them,
like Silman, I am almost never able to fully solve 2100 puzzles.
Based on all the responses, I am persuaded: I’ll get the first 1-2 orange books
and see how it goes.
A related books question: has anyone read Zenon Franco’s move by move
books, from Everyman? Thanks again!

Reply

Patrick January 28, 2020 at 4:42 pm

@Igor Faynshteyn
Is there something about Franco that you are looking to know specifically? Or
the Move By Move books in general.

I do not own any of Franco’s Move-by-Move books. I can speak for others in
the series:

Ruy Lopez – Neil McDonald – Decent if you are new to the Ruy – Too shallow
for experienced Ruy players

Sicilian Taimanov – John Emms – Excellent

Caro-Kann – Cyrus Lakdawala – His BEST book!

1…d6 – Lakdawala – Eh, ok at best

Slav – Lakdawala – Some faulty analysis in the Central Variation

Colle – Lakdawala – Decent

Torre – Richard Palliser – Above average but not the best in the series

Modern Defense – Lakdawala – One of his better ones, but Caro-Kann beats it.

Stein – Engqvist – A must have!

Reply

Patrick January 28, 2020 at 4:43 pm

Oh, and the one on the Old Indian by Junior Tay was also good. His ideas with
the Dark-Squared Bishop is interesting.

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Frank January 29, 2020 at 12:36 pm

It might not be that chique to promote every other publisher on this forum.
And those books mentioned might be interesting(I can’t judge), but from what
I have seen, in my honest opinion, it is not quality-chess material. Congrats to
my youth-idol Jop on his upcoming collaboration with Jacob. Eagerly awaiting
the material to compare it to steps.

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Patrick January 29, 2020 at 3:48 pm

@Frank

2 things Frank:

1) Chique? What???? I even looked it up and it’s not in any English Dictionary.
What are you talking about?

2) Books by other publishers have been mentioned on this forum before, even
by the publishers themselves. It’s not like we are advertising other sites, like
“Hey everyone, such-and-such a publisher has this major sale for today only!”
That would be a whole different story, and that should not be done here.

Actually, I think Jacob once compared a New In Chess book to another book
previously written and questioned the copyright legality! I don’t recall the
name of the book. I seem to recall it being maybe a year or two ago, and it had
a black cover.

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Parth June 3, 2020 at 12:23 pm

1. Chess tactics from scratch ( + Learn chess the right way (5 vol) )
2. Mating the castled king and Positional Chess Sacrifices( + Art of attack)
3. Yusupov books ( + 100 endgames you must know)

4. Chess structures ( + Pawn Structure Chess)

5. Inside the Chess Mind

6. Grandmaster vs. Amateur
7. Excelling at Chess

(5,6 and 7 for fun and to get inspired)

8. Excelling at Chess Calculation

9. Calculation + QC Puzzle book
10. Positional play (you start when you have point 9 well under way, and finish
it all together.
11. Practical chess defense + Strategic play.
12. AM1 + A&D + AM2
13. Excelling at technical Chess + Endgame play ( + Dvoretsky’s Endgame
Manual)
14. Gelfand books.
15. Thinking inside the box.(14 and 15 parallel)

What would you suggest for an 11 year old with 1300 FIDE rating is this a good
curriculum.
Thank you for all the good books by Quality Chess.

Regards – Parth.

Reply

ash August 4, 2020 at 8:11 am

Hi Jacob,
can u suggest a book similar/good to your gradmaster series calculation.I have
read it couple of times.
thank you.

Reply

Anubhab Gupta June 6, 2021 at 8:09 pm

Hello
I wanted to know that Jackob Aagard’s books are for what rating level?

Reply

Richard February 24, 2023 at 1:21 pm

I recently started reading “Excelling at Chess Calculation”. JA’s annotations are

quite revealing and honest and I’m learning things from them that I haven’t
come across elsewhere. When he annotates his own games he provides a lot of
insight into how he thinks. I own numerous GM best games collections that
don’t provide such insights.

I thought all the analysis was computer checked, based on the many references
to computer analysis, but apparently not so. I prefer that the author leave some
room for error, otherwise the reader has little motivation to critically examine
the annotations, since it’s hard for a human to refute a computer’s analysis. I
decided to look at one of his games on my old Fritz12 program and I
discovered the following.

In the game Nataf vs Aagaard pg.44 after 24.Rc1? the comment is “…24.Qd3
was necessary in order to bring the Rook quickly to d1, and after 24…Nc5
25.Qd2 Black is clearly better, but nothing immediately conclusive strikes the
eye.” Perhaps it should have read “..strikes the human eye” because Fritz claims
that 25…Nxb3! then wins for Black.

All in all, Excelling at Chess Calculation is proving to be a most interesting read.

Reply

Jacob Aagaard March 13, 2023 at 1:11 pm

Thanks for the kind words. I am working on new books on

Calculation that will be out in a year or two. Hopefully they will be
better than this early work; but still have the magic you like.

Did you remember to check it with 2003 engines and hardware?

Anyway, these books were published by Everyman and has not

much with Quality Chess to do, besides name recognition 🙂

Reply

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