EXCERPT FROM REVIEW BY TOM CODISPOTI AT CHESSVILLE

The 10 Most Common Chess Mistakes…and how to avoid them

by GM Larry Evans

Cardoza Publishing, © 2002

ISBN: 1-58042-042-7

Soft cover, 256 pages

algebraic notation


I always get a little nervous when I see chess books with titles such
as “The 10 Most Common Chess Mistakes…”. My impulse is to check the
index of games in fear that one or more of my games have been used to
illustrate these “common mistakes”. I imagine an accompanying text
that reads: “And here is a game played by Thomas Codispoti, in which
he manages to make all 10 mistakes, some more than once!” Of course, I
rapidly come down to earth after realizing that it is a bit
egotistical of me to assume that any of my games are infamous enough
to warrant publication. Besides, Evans has collected 218 errors that
were played by masters, including World Champions. No need to worry
about any of my games ever showing up in such good company!

But what about the book? The sales blurb on the back cover states
that the book is “ a fascinating collection of 218 errors, oversights,
and outright blunders [which will] show you the price that great
players pay for violating basic principles, and how you can avoid
these mistakes in your own game”. “From neglected development, king
safety, misjudging threats and premature attack to impulsiveness,
snatching pawns and basic inattentiveness, you get a complete course
in where you can go wrong and how to fix it.” Wow, pretty heady stuff.
Now I am fully aware that publishers put these plugs on the back
covers to entice people to buy the book. I also understand that they
may be, let’s just say, embellished a bit since they are sales
pitches. But with promises like “Sage advice to help you avoid
blunders and become a better player” I have to admit that my
expectations were high for this book.

What Larry Evans has done is come up with 10 common mistakes made on
the chessboard. These a

1. Bad Development
2. Neglecting the King
3. Misjudging Threats
4. Ignoring Pins
5. Premature Aggression 6. Miscalculation
7. Impulsiveness
8. Pawn Snatching
9. Creating Weaknesses
10. Inattention

These are all fairly obvious on the surface and I doubt that any of
these are new to anyone who has read an introductory book on chess.
Just to be certain, I checked the book that I used to get started in
chess, Modern Chess Strategy by Edward Lasker. Sure enough, there are
sections in Lasker’s book with titles such as “Rapid Development”,
“Premature Attacking Moves”, and “Provoking Weakening Moves”. But
Evans isn’t claiming to have discovered new material, he is making the
point that even masters lose games because they still make basic
errors and by avoiding these mistakes, your game will improve. Fair
enough.

The layout of the book provides each mistake its own chapter. The
individual chapters start with a quote that relates to the topic,
followed by one or two pages that explain the concept of the mistake.
After the introduction, approximately twenty examples appear at the
rate of one per page. Each example is given a sentence or two for
background and a diagram of the position in question. Beneath the
diagram, two moves are given for you to choose from. One is a mistake,
as was played in the game, and the other is the correct move....

There is a nice chapter at the end called “Anatomy of an Error” where
Evans analyses a game that went horribly wrong and shows how to narrow
down the moves to find the one that possibly caused the problem. An
exercise that I want to try is to use this idea to analyze a game and
find the mistake on my own and then check it against a chess engine or
a master’s annotations.

Evans does provide some nice advice but not enough that I am
confident I can consistently avoid these mistakes in my own games.
While I hoped the hype was true, the book is not the panacea that will
add 300 points to your rating just by reading it. We are all still
searching for that book! Evans does reinforce some of the basic
tenants of chess and shows how even masters sometime forget them. It’s
nice to be reminded that even the greatest of GMs are still human and
can still make the same mistakes as you and I (remember, it is the
frequency of those mistakes that makes the difference). But there is a
big leap between showing someone what is a mistake and empowering that
person to be able to spot, and avoid, similar mistakes in their own
games. Just as with everything else in chess, you will have to put in
the work to make that happen.

My recommendation? This is a fine book if you are looking for
something to study where you do not want to set up a board such as in
the waiting room at the doctor’s office, in bed, or even (dare I say?)
in the bathroom! The experience level is hard to judge since the
difficulty of the examples seems to vary quite a bit. The target
audience range for this book would be from beginners up to
intermediate level players with the payback curve declining as the
experience level rises. For beginners, this book would be an excellent
companion to a chess primer. The lessons of bad development, pawn-
snatching, etc. could be reinforced with the examples from Evans’
book. The only caveat here is that some of the mistakes reviewed in
the book are very subtle and may not be very apparent to the novice.
However, even if you don’t attempt to find the answer, just reading
Evans’ explanations of why each move is good or bad makes for a worthy
learning experience. For more experienced players, the examples are
reminders to stay alert and not forget basic ideas in their zest to
learn more complex issues such as opening lines or endgame techniques
(it is much harder to study calculus if you don't remember your
algebra). I doubt that experts and above would get much benefit from
the book.

Common sense tells you that you won’t play mistake-free just because
you read the book. But you can hope that by being exposed to these
concepts in different ways you will be more aware of them in your own
games and this book is a good tool for that. If you’re looking for a
book that will tell you exactly how to prevent miscalculations, or the
trick to avoiding deadly pins, this won’t do it. It is a nice means to
reinforce the basic principles of chess that will help you improve
your game – with lots of work (sigh).