I live in a very small town, so I have to buy books by mail
or internet, sight unseen. I have heard that two very good
books on chess are "My System" by Nimzovich, and "Chess
Primer" by Capablanca. When searching for them on the
internet, I often run across books that sound almost the
same, i.e. "A Praxis of My System" by N., and "Chess
Fundamentals" by C. Can anyone tell me if the latter are
completely different books, or different versions, or
alternate titles for essentially the same book? The latter
seem to be easier to find and cheaper, but I'd rather pay a
few bucks extra if the former are significantly better
books. Thank you.

"Die Blockade" (1925) was the first book by Nimzowitsch. Then came "Mein
System" (also 1925) which was followed by "Die Praxis meines System" (1929).
Hans J

skrev i en meddelelse
...
I live in a very small town, so I have to buy books by mail
or internet, sight unseen. I have heard that two very good
books on chess are "My System" by Nimzovich, and "Chess
Primer" by Capablanca. When searching for them on the
internet, I often run across books that sound almost the
same, i.e. "A Praxis of My System" by N., and "Chess
Fundamentals" by C. Can anyone tell me if the latter are
completely different books, or different versions, or
alternate titles for essentially the same book? The latter
seem to be easier to find and cheaper, but I'd rather pay a
few bucks extra if the former are significantly better
books. Thank you.

No, they are not the same books, although the Capablanca books are
almost the same, the main difference being the games he annotates.

If you want a book by Nimzo, get the Praxis -- My System will probably
just confuse you. If you want something by Capa, get Chess Fundamentals,
or preferably, the Chess Machine CD by chesscentral.com, which contains
Chess Fundamentals and much more.

Other good books for a beginning chess book buyer would be Nunn's
Understanding chess move by move and McDonald's Chess: the art of
logical thinking.

And get yourself a decent endgame book or two or three ...



wrote:

I live in a very small town, so I have to buy books by mail
or internet, sight unseen. I have heard that two very good
books on chess are "My System" by Nimzovich, and "Chess
Primer" by Capablanca. When searching for them on the
internet, I often run across books that sound almost the
same, i.e. "A Praxis of My System" by N., and "Chess
Fundamentals" by C. Can anyone tell me if the latter are
completely different books, or different versions, or
alternate titles for essentially the same book? The latter
seem to be easier to find and cheaper, but I'd rather pay a
few bucks extra if the former are significantly better
books. Thank you.

Tapio Huuhka wrote in message ...
No, they are not the same books, although the Capablanca books are
almost the same, the main difference being the games he annotates.

If you want a book by Nimzo, get the Praxis -- My System will probably
just confuse you. If you want something by Capa, get Chess Fundamentals,
or preferably, the Chess Machine CD by chesscentral.com, which contains
Chess Fundamentals and much more.

Forgot to mention that I'd pick up Tarrasch's Three hundred chess
games before anything by Nimzowitsch. And see for myself how
"dogmatic" he really was.


Other good books for a beginning chess book buyer would be Nunn's
Understanding chess move by move and McDonald's Chess: the art of
logical thinking.

And get yourself a decent endgame book or two or three ...

On 6 Aug 2004 05:05:40 -0700, (Tapio Huuhka)
wrote:


Forgot to mention that I'd pick up Tarrasch's Three hundred chess
games before anything by Nimzowitsch. And see for myself how
"dogmatic" he really was.

I'd second that.'Three Hundred Chess Games' is still one of the best
chess books ever written,in my opinion,and I much prefer Tarrasch's
writing style to Nimzo,personally.

Tapio Huuhka wrote:
McDonald's Chess

I'm lovin' it.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Salted Tool (TM): it's like a handy
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ household tool but it's covered
in salt!

For anybody wanting to try Nimzowitsch books, let me mention that the
most common English version of _Blockade_ found in online used
bookstores is indeed in algebraic notation, although neither the front
nor back covers mentions that.

My copy (algebraic notation): "Blockade", Chess Enterprises publisher,
isbn 0-931462-07-x, 1983 revised version, editor B.G. Dudley,
softcover Yellow with brown Knight covered by yellow pawn.

In title page it calls itself the third printing, on the back cover it
says fourth printing.

"Clearly instructs the chess student on the proper handling of pawn
majorities, both qualitative and quantitative; center and flank; the
creation of passed pawns, and the defense against passed pawns by
restriction, and as a climax - the Blockade!"

I agree with the word "clearly", it is easy for relative beginners
(like me) to follow along with what the author is trying to teach. His
other two books mentioned are a bit too deep for me right now.

On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 05:17:11 GMT, wrote:

I live in a very small town, so I have to buy books by mail
or internet, sight unseen. I have heard that two very good
books on chess are "My System" by Nimzovich, and "Chess
Primer" by Capablanca. When searching for them on the
internet, I often run across books that sound almost the
same, i.e. "A Praxis of My System" by N., and "Chess
Fundamentals" by C. Can anyone tell me if the latter are
completely different books, or different versions, or
alternate titles for essentially the same book? The latter
seem to be easier to find and cheaper, but I'd rather pay a
few bucks extra if the former are significantly better
books. Thank you.

"My System" is an exposition of the principles of chess strategy
according to Nimzovich. It includes mostly postions and game
fragments with (I believe) some complete games. "A Praxis of My
System" (sometimes just called "Chess Praxis") is a collection of
complete games played by Nimzovich that illustrate the principles
expounded in "My System". Each game is annotated by Nimzovich mostly
focusing the comments at the points in the game where one specific "My
System" principles are illustrated.

There are recent editions of both of these books, which cleaned up
some of Nimzovich's clumsy English, converted the notation from
descriptive to algebraic and provided additional, more modern examples
of the principles.

As far as the Capablaca books: they are different books, but exactly
what they cover and whether there is much overlap between the two I
don't know.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 20:46:40 GMT, (Mike Ogush)
wrote:

"My System" is an exposition of the principles of chess strategy
according to Nimzovich. It includes mostly postions and game
fragments with (I believe) some complete games. "A Praxis of My
System" (sometimes just called "Chess Praxis") is a collection of
complete games played by Nimzovich that illustrate the principles
expounded in "My System". Each game is annotated by Nimzovich mostly
focusing the comments at the points in the game where one specific "My
System" principles are illustrated.

There are recent editions of both of these books, which cleaned up
some of Nimzovich's clumsy English...

It might be better to say, "cleaned up some of the translators' clumsy
English", which, AFAIK, was not the language in which Nimzovich wrote.