What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)

Peace,
Sonja
www.kisa.ca

My System is too advanced for 1100 strength players, in my opinion. What you
need is an all-round book like The Mammoth Book of Chess. I would also
recommend buying a book of tactical puzzles and a book on the endgame.
For tactics you might also consider the computer program CT-ART 3.0 which is
quite good.
hope this helps
IH

"Sonja Kisa" wrote in message
om...
What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)

Peace,
Sonja
www.kisa.ca

"Ian Hurley" escribió en el mensaje
...
My System is too advanced for 1100 strength players, in my opinion.[...]

"Sonja Kisa" wrote in message
om...
What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)

I ask myself. How do you know what "level" you are? I think that or I have a
FIDE rating or another widely known rating or how do I know if I'm a 1400 or
a 1800? A 1800 what? For example, I'm 2500 in chessworld.net, but I'm not
fool enough to think I am even 1800 FIDE. But I don't really know of a real
more or less trustable way of indicating my own strength. Any help would be
appreciated. Are there any trustable chess quiz out there that estimates
roughly your FIDE rating or class (expert, etc.)? I would be very interested
to try it if you know of it.

As of now, I can only state my strength telling what areas I know and in
what deepness. For example: I know some openings, and basic checkmate
patterns, these and those tactical resources... these and those elemental
endings...

Going back to answering the initial poster's 2nd question (I don't know
about the 1st, as I'm spanish) I think that My System is not useful for
outright beginners (learning the game, basic checkmates, basic tactics) but
it starts being readable early on in the beginner stage (can play a slow
game without big blunders, as hanging a piece to a knight fork) and it's a
must read later on in the low intermediate to even strong intermediate
player.

I'm in my second reading now and I keep finding it useful (I consider myself
in the "not-so-strong intermediate level", is that a perhaps 1400 or 1600?
surely not above that) and I think I'll still find it useful to read later
on (if I make progress, ofcourse! ;-)).

About the "easier" books you're reading by Seirawan (winning chess series I
suppose, if I'm not mistaken about the english title) I think they're OK,
but what Silman's books are you talking about? I have How to Reassess your
chess and it's no piece of cake for a beginner to intermediate player. I
started to read it and found it very, very good and highly instructional but
a little above mi grasp at times, so I got back to easier readings for the
moment. Anyway, the first chapters are worth a read even for a beginner.
I've never read a better explained chapter about the kings opposition and
outflanking and also some basic endings.

Regards,
Miguel Angel Fernandez (a.k.a. mafergut)

"Ian Hurley" wrote in message k...
My System is too advanced for 1100 strength players, in my opinion. What you
need is an all-round book like The Mammoth Book of Chess. I would also
recommend buying a book of tactical puzzles and a book on the endgame.
For tactics you might also consider the computer program CT-ART 3.0 which is
quite good.
hope this helps
IH

It does take for granted that you have a developed tactical sense.
But if you want to read it, I say read it. Can't hurt really. But
work on tactics at the same time. One of the first chess books I ever
read was "Chess Praxis", sort of a sequal to "My System" (and a great
collection of Nimzo's games). Much of it was over my head, but it did
help me understand and apply strategical principles.

As C.S. Lewis said, if you want to understand Plato, forget the
summaries and commentaries. Go to the library and check out a copy of
The Symposium.

Everyone is right, of course. At this level tactics and still more tactics
are what counts. Do the classics Anderssen and Morphy and Tarrasch first,
then worry about Nimzovich later. You might enjoy him a lot more that way.

That being said, to answer the original poster's question, AFAIK the Hays
edition is the only algebraic one commonly available in English. The
translation has squeezed out much/most of the wit and wordplay of the
original. You may prefer that approach. But if the the feel of Nizovich's
rather unique writing style is of any interest to you, then the standard
English translation remains the old Reinfeld edition, which tried to
retain as full a translation as possible, but is in descriptive. This is
the edition still available in a cheap(ish) paperback edition from McKay
(Amazon.com under "Nimzovich" rather than, say, "Nimzowitsch" or similar.)

Now I have not seen the Hardinge Simpole edition of this text, but since
this publisher's specialty is reprinting older, descriptive texts which
have gone out-of-print from publishers like Dover, McKay, and others, in
paperback form and frequently at jaw-dropping prices, I can't but imagine
that the publisher has acquired the rights to some ancient British
descriptive edition and is reprinting it at roughly twice the cost of
either the Hays or the Reinfeld translations.

So buy the Hays algebraic edition, just to have it on hand when you're
ready for it. Since it's not a mass-market paperback like the McKay
descriptive edition, who knows when it might unexpectedly drop out of
print?


On 2004-09-16, mafergut wrote:

"Ian Hurley" escribió en el mensaje
...
My System is too advanced for 1100 strength players, in my opinion.[...]

"Sonja Kisa" wrote in message
om...
What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)

I ask myself. How do you know what "level" you are? I think that or I have a
FIDE rating or another widely known rating or how do I know if I'm a 1400 or
a 1800? A 1800 what? For example, I'm 2500 in chessworld.net, but I'm not
fool enough to think I am even 1800 FIDE. But I don't really know of a real
more or less trustable way of indicating my own strength. Any help would be
appreciated. Are there any trustable chess quiz out there that estimates
roughly your FIDE rating or class (expert, etc.)? I would be very interested
to try it if you know of it.

As of now, I can only state my strength telling what areas I know and in
what deepness. For example: I know some openings, and basic checkmate
patterns, these and those tactical resources... these and those elemental
endings...

Going back to answering the initial poster's 2nd question (I don't know
about the 1st, as I'm spanish) I think that My System is not useful for
outright beginners (learning the game, basic checkmates, basic tactics) but
it starts being readable early on in the beginner stage (can play a slow
game without big blunders, as hanging a piece to a knight fork) and it's a
must read later on in the low intermediate to even strong intermediate
player.

I'm in my second reading now and I keep finding it useful (I consider myself
in the "not-so-strong intermediate level", is that a perhaps 1400 or 1600?
surely not above that) and I think I'll still find it useful to read later
on (if I make progress, ofcourse! ;-)).

About the "easier" books you're reading by Seirawan (winning chess series I
suppose, if I'm not mistaken about the english title) I think they're OK,
but what Silman's books are you talking about? I have How to Reassess your
chess and it's no piece of cake for a beginner to intermediate player. I
started to read it and found it very, very good and highly instructional but
a little above mi grasp at times, so I got back to easier readings for the
moment. Anyway, the first chapters are worth a read even for a beginner.
I've never read a better explained chapter about the kings opposition and
outflanking and also some basic endings.

Regards,
Miguel Angel Fernandez (a.k.a. mafergut)

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 14:15:30 +0000 (UTC), Kevin Croxen
wrote:

I can't but imagine
that the publisher has acquired the rights to some ancient British
descriptive edition and is reprinting it at roughly twice the cost of
either the Hays or the Reinfeld translations.

Reinfeld didn't translate "My System". He *edited* the translation by
Philip Hereford. It would be interesting to know what he chopped out
and what he added as part of his editing.

(Sonja Kisa) wrote in message . com...

What is the best English translation of My System?

Whatever you get, avoid the dreadful version translated by Jan van
Reek (Chess Digest 1996). I can't say what translation is the best,
but this is perhaps the worst.

Taylor Kingston

On 16 Sep 2004 02:00:32 -0700, (Sonja Kisa) wrote:

What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).


At the time that "My System: 21st Century Edition" translated by Lou
Hays came out, reviewers commented favorably on the fact that Hays
corrected some of the awkward wording of previous translations. I
remeber reading earlier translations of both "My System" and "Chess
Praxis" that were available in descriptive notation during the mid
1970s and some of the wording was very strange although I could
usually figure out the intended meaing. I have only read the Hays
book lightly, but I don't recall finding any of these abrupt breaks in
the flow of discourse. So I would recommend the Hays translation. I
believe that it also has some supplementary material at the end on the
same topic of positional/strategic chess.

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)


I would read "The Amateur's Mind" by Jeremy Silman before reading "My
System". I think that Silman's book is far more accessible for
players at your level. That being said, you may want to focus a large
percentage of your chess study time tactics until you reach an Elo
rating of 1600 or so. John Bain's "Chess Tactics for Students" is a
good beginning book.

Peace,
Sonja
www.kisa.ca

Mike Ogush

On 2004-09-16, Mike Murray wrote:
On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 14:15:30 +0000 (UTC), Kevin Croxen
wrote:

I can't but imagine
that the publisher has acquired the rights to some ancient British
descriptive edition and is reprinting it at roughly twice the cost of
either the Hays or the Reinfeld translations.

Reinfeld didn't translate "My System". He *edited* the translation by
Philip Hereford. It would be interesting to know what he chopped out
and what he added as part of his editing.

Shows you what I get for having to reply from memory, without my books in
front of me.

That _would_ be an interesting investigation, to see just how heavy
Reinfeld's editorial hand was in this case.

(Sonja Kisa) wrote in message . com...
What is the best English translation of My System? I want it in
algebraic. I see there's one by Hardinge Simpole Limited (ISBN:
1843821079) and one by Hays Pub (ISBN: 1880673851).

Also, at what level should I start reading it. Should I wait until I'm
1600 or something? (As I'm around 1100, I'm focusing on books by
Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman for now.)

Peace,
Sonja
www.kisa.ca

The Hereford translation (unfortunately in descriptive) is still the
best: Nimzowitsch is a great writer, and the "unstuffy" Hays edition
is less true to the original. Nimzowitsch's prose style reminds me of
Karl Marx's in _The German Ideology_--but N. is more lively than M.

Re accessibility. When I was 14 years old (Fischer mania days), I
remember a couple of my junior high friends (who never became
"serious" chess players or broke ELO 1200) reading _My System_ &
enjoying it.

Ken Smith's advice was to read the 1st half of My System, then put it
aside for a year or two & read the 2nd half.

My advice is to read it like a novel now--setting up the chessboard
only if something interests you deeply--and study it seriously later.