Chess Secrets: The Giants of Strategy: Learn from Kramnik, Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Nimzowitsch [Kindle Edition]

I also want to totally disagree with the first reviewer. First, as to the newsprint or production values or whatever, I have read this book on the train to and from work every day for the past month and it has held up fine (I can't see grading on a book primarily on this aspect anyway!).

More to point, the analysis in the book is simply fantastic! Yes, the author goes over old games (Capablanca, Petrosian, etc.) as well as new (Karpov and Kramnik), but this is not an opening book, where the latest variation is important, it is a strategy book and strategic principles do not become obselete! Furthermore, it is instructive and fascinating to see the same principles applied by players from different eras in different contexts.

Most importantly, this book will improve your chess play (and that's really what its all about). McDonald explains key strategic principles of pawn play (and piece play related to pawn play) in a clear, understandable, enagaging manner that an intermediate player can grasp and apply to his own play. For example, I also bought Soltis's Pawn Structure Chess, which had glowing reviews, and found it much, much less helpful. Soltis's book focused too much on specific variations and not enough on generalizable principles. Moreover, the difference between Soltis's dry and dreary prose and McDonald's lively writing is like night and day.

McDonald wisely limits his subject matter to 7 or 8 related principles (e.g., outposts, pawn majority, pawn break, blockade), but goes over these related principles in just the right depth to bring you to a higher level of understanding without losing the intermediate player. I found that after reading the chapters of this book, when I looked at a game position, I was much more attuned to the important aspects of pawn structure (e.g., the pawn majorities and potential pawn breaks and how to make use of them), similarly to how I am attuned to look for "imbalances" from reading Silman's book. Basically, the book helps you "see" the structure of the position much clearer.

If you buy a lot of opening books, this is one book I would highly recommend to help your play in the middle game. Unlike most middlegame books, which generally just present games with interesting tactics that are not easily generalizable to your own play.

I buy most of my books online or at used book stores, but I saw this book at Borders while I was there with my kids, and - after browsing through it - bought it at full price, and I have not regretted it one bit!! Unlike some of the opening books that I bought three years ago and still have not opened, I have read and reread this book.

Useful examples on pawn play or weak square complexes are shown clearly in the older players games, then extremely similar situations are displayed in the games of Kramnik and Karpov. Everyone says study the games of the old masters but this book shows how to do it. I taught scholastic chess from 1986-2002. I wish I had this book available as just a few examples illustrate the heart and soul of positional play.
Excellent material for instructional use.

This is a nifty little strategic primer, targeted at <1800 USCF (<140BCF) players. Many of the games are well-known and can be found in several other books, but McDonald has done a good job of collecting the most important and easy-to-understand games pertaining to any one of the six or seven themes he covers (rook on the 7th, pawn breakthrough, restraint, etc.) and giving enough verbal explanation so that a reader can understand the underlying logic of the game. I would have liked to have seen Rubinstein included among the giants but it would appear one can't have everything.