Rapid Chess Improvement- Should I buy it?

Thinking of getting this book for training purpose. Some say it's just for motivation. Is it true? What are your thoughts on this. Is there some other good book out there?

I dont think it is usefuf. I have heard a lot about it just read this review by INTERNATIONAL MASTER JEREMY SILMAN

http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Rapid-Chess-Improvement-p3511.htm

Maybe you could see if your library system has the book or other chess books that you could use for training. There's always YouTube and other resources on Chess.com as well. =)

No, don't buy it. It's waste of money.Lot of people have tried the la Maza's method and haven't succeed. At least I haven't  hear of anyone.

But of course if you do lot of tactical training, your tactics will be better, but you don't need the book. There are lot of information about tactical training here on chess.com and in other chess web sites.

I haven't read the book, but from what I've heard, most of the book is just breathless hype. I've been told that you can get the gist of the information from these two free articles:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140709054314/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles148.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140709012627/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles150.pdf

I have read the book and as an adult player who learned to play chess in my thirties it helped me immensely.  The main focus is on pattern recognition and the exercises with a single queen v a king and rook where you find all the forkable squares on the board was really great, same with doing it with a rook and king v a knight. The potency of this is to see the board uncluttered with pieces and it helps one to isolate tactical motifs.  The failing of the book is that it provides no strategic approach and the two are inseparable in a practical game of chess.  I see this and the Silman books which I have read as opposite ends of the same spectrum, De la Maza is concerned purely with the recognition of tactical motifs and familiarizing oneself with these, Silman is concerned almost purely with a system of imbalances and cherry picks positions to illustrate these.  Practical chess lies somewhere in between.

A much better book if you wish to understand tactics is Martin Weteschnik - Understanding chess tactics and a much better book than the Silman ones is Test your positional play by Robert Bellin and Pietro Ponzetto.

Don't buy it. Seriously, it's a waste of money.

I will summarize the ENTIRE book for you, without cutting corners.

1. Buy a chess tactics problems computer program (the one he recommends is CT.ART, but that software 'devolved' with the windows upgrades and now has a horrible interface that's terrible compared online chess trainers - I bought the new version and it's horrendous - barely usable!)

2. Do it 7 times in a row. He calls it like the "7 circles" or something like that. 

The end. 

Unfortunately, while you will get better with his method, you'll find pretty quickly online that after about 1300 blitz level or some similar lowly level where your opponents don't outright blunder, you won't be able to beat them - with your nonexistent strategic knowledge, you'll get outplayed time and time again, with your opponent making nearly instant but solid non-calculating moves while you burn your entire clock and brain trying to calculate 10 moves deep in a position that has no clear win and really requires a small improving move rather than a tactical knockout. Yup, happened to me.

That and the fact it burns you out on chess pretty quickly since it's so one-dimensional. Seriously, you'll do FAR better doing some tactics, watching some strategic chess videos (Akobian!) and studying endgames and analyzing your own games.

I bought this book early on when it was new - it was hot stuff, and I was brand new to chess and had high hopes. It worked until I was like 'advanced-beginner' level, and then all the cheap tactics tricks simply didn't work anymore. 

Your portrayal is inaccurate and biased, De la Maza advocates setting up a board, using real pieces, physically putting ones finger on all squares where pieces are subject to a fork, a pinn or skewer, moving the pieces and repeating the exercise.  How you could have missed this if you have read and applied the advice contained in it I cannot say, either way your summation is not entirely accurate.

Instead of buying books try viewing videos on the internet. I watched Heisman's videos on ICC and improved greatly and only had to pay  a small membership fee. I am now doing Akobian's videos which are free on YouTube. Also the Tactics Trainer is worthwhile practicing with. If you want books try some of the books that can be freely downloaded.

I had the book and I agree with this.  It is just a reprint of these two articles, preceded by a combination of self-aggrandizing hype and attacks on his critics and people who don't have the time to complete his study plan (IIRC, you'll need something like a minimum of 3-4 hours per day, every day, on average, and that increases the farther you progress in the circles), and closing with pages and pages of glowing tesimonials from readers.  There is literally no value added to the book vs. the content of those articles.

Bunny player nice advertisement :D

de la Maza, takes something simple like studying tactics, and turns it into a nightmare.  Just study tactics, and youll be fine, and save money.

There's so much free stuff on the internet that students don't need to buy anything,but if you want to see what an author has to say for entertainment purposes,sure buy it.

robbie_1969 wrote:

hhnngg1 wrote:

Don't buy it. Seriously, it's a waste of money.

I will summarize the ENTIRE book for you, without cutting corners.

1. Buy a chess tactics problems computer program (the one he recommends is CT.ART, but that software 'devolved' with the windows upgrades and now has a horrible interface that's terrible compared online chess trainers - I bought the new version and it's horrendous - barely usable!)

2. Do it 7 times in a row. He calls it like the "7 circles" or something like that. 

The end. 

Your portrayal is inaccurate and biased, De la Maza advocates setting up a board, using real pieces, physically putting ones finger on all squares where pieces are subject to a fork, a pinn or skewer, moving the pieces and repeating the exercise.  How you could have missed this if you have read and applied the advice contained in it I cannot say, either way your summation is not entirely accurate.

That's like saying my 98% accurate review isn't a good summary because I left out 2%.

The knight vision exercises are minimally useful and he devotes 98% of the book to the 7 circles which is the absolute core of his system.

Your summation was inaccurate and biased. Just accept the fact instead of attempting to justify it and try to be more objective in future.  Also your statement of 2% and 98% is demonstrably false, there are 6 chapters,

1. chess vision skills, 2 the seven circles, 3 how to think, 4 practical tactics, 5 success with rapid chess, 6 what to do next.

pages 25 to 41 are devoted to chess vision, pages 41 to 60 to the seven circles.  That is 16 pages and 19 pages respectively.

Yet another thread on this same book? 

Gugh.

Danny, did you use Vukovic's classic book, Art of the Attack in Chess as a reference to Mating the Castled King?

No, sorry. I'll see if it's available at my library tho.

Regarding Vukovic's book, I think his way of teaching how to attack key squares is really useful.

Yep, of which this is the relative value of what the contribution of each is to his training results:

- Doing 7 circles: 95%

- Everything else: <5%

So I stand by my accurate summary. If you disagree, I guarantee that take any beginner, make one do the 7 circles only for a few months, and have the other do 'everything else' while completely omitting the 7 circles, and it'll be pretty clear who's improving and who isn't.

His system is ALL about tactics. You're fooling yourself if you think it's not.