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What It Takes to Become

a Chess Master

Andrew Soltis

BATSFORD

First published in the United Kingdom in 20 12 by

Batsfo rd

10 Southcombe Street

London

W12OA

An imprint ofAnova Books Company Ltd

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reseved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmited in any fom or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or othewise, without the

prior written pemission of the cop i ght owner.

ISBN 9781 849940269

A CIP catalogue record fo r this book is available rom the British Libray.

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12

10 9 8 7 6 543 2 1

Reproduction by Rival Colour Ltd, UK

Printed and bound by Bell & Bain, Glasgow

This book can be ordered direct rom the publisher at the website

www.anovabooks.com, or y your local bookshop

Contents

Page

Introduction

Cha p ter One:

What Matters Most

Cha p ter Two:

Habits

Cha p ter Three:

Little Tactics

Chapter Four:

Chapter Five:

Sense

Cha p ter Six:

Winnability

106

Cha p ter Seven:

Easier

132

Cha p ter Eight:

Comp

148

Cha p ter Nine:

Knowing

169

Quiz Answers

191

Introduction

Only a tiny raction of people who play chess become masters. In fact, only

two percent of the people who take chess seriously make master. Why?

Or, to put it personally: You take chess seriously. You read and reread books

and magazines. You may have acquired a large collection of books and/or

sotware. You scan the Web sites that helped you get to where you are. But it

doesn't seem to help you get urther, to master. Why?

The answers aren't mysterious. The main reason is that the skills and know

how that helped you get this far - such as tactical sight, awareness of general

principles and knowledge of basic endgame positions - have almost nothing to

do with making progress to the master level.

Sure, being good in these core areas is necessary to get to where you are. But

becoming beter in them - going from good at tactics to great at tactics, fo r

example - doesn't translate into much greater strength.

It's like height in basketball. Being 6-foot-tall is viually essential to making

it as a pro. And being taller, say 6-foot-6, ofers a much beter chance of playing

in the NBA than a mere 6-foot- 1 player.

But a 6-foot-9 player isn't necessarily superior to a 6-foot-6 player. (If you

don't believe me, look up a 6-foot-6 guy named Michael Jordan.)

Chess players are bon with their own limitations. Some, fo r example, have

vey good memories and others don't.

You need a relatively good memory to reach average strength. But a much

better memoy isn't going to make you a master. There have been plenty ofgreat

players with merely good memories. Or worse. Take the case of Sammy

Reshevsky.

He was a world-class player for 40 years. But he had one glaring weaness,

the opening. He made book mistakes as early as the sixth move and was lost in

some games by the tenth move.

Fans blamed Reshevsky's lack of study. Not tue, said Pal Benko, who

seved as his second. "We would study openings all day," Benko sighed in his

memoirs. "And by evening he wouldn't remember anything we looked at."

Another ability you needed to get to where you are is calculating skill, to see

at least two or three moves ahead. Many amateurs think that if they lean to

calculate beter, they'd play at master strength.

We ll, it certainly doesn't hurt to be able to see one move urther than you do

now. But there's a powerul law of diminishing reuns in chess calculation, just

as there is in basketball height. The human who can see two moves ahead has

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