What I'm Reading

Just a quick update

I’m close to exhausting the backlog of chess books I’ve read that I can review, so my book reviews are probably going to slow down in frequency as I work through new material. I assume most of my readers aren’t necessarily interested in a bunch of chessable course reviews, so I don’t have many of those lined up.

Speaking of which, here’s what I’m studying lately:

Ding Liren’s Best Games by Davorin Kjulsaveic. 10 hours in and counting, and I’m just under halfway through. So far, it’s excellent, with profuse annotations and instructive moments. This is the first time I’ve deeply studied a collection of games played by someone who is actually still alive. If I keep on track, I should be done by the end of April.

Alexander Alekhine: Complete Games Collection Vol 2. 5 hours in and counting. Vol 1 took me just under 40 hours — it’s a pretty thick project. This is the second part of a full Alekhine game collection. I started and got about 20 minutes in, but having recently read New York 1924, I decided I wanted just a bit more time before diving back into studying his games, so I decided to study Ding instead.

Zwischenzug! by WIM Natasha Regan and Matt Ball. This is a Chessable course all about in-between moves (intermezzos, in-betweeners, whatever floats your boat). I like it a lot and it has a variety of basic and advanced tactics. By definition zwischenzugs are surprising moves played before an otherwise-expected move. Therefore, it’s a bit of a brain-twister even when you’re working on the simplest of positions.

Let me know in the comments what you’re reading! I’m always interested in what my readers read for themselves!