Popular guest and dedicated improver Neal Bruce is back on Perpetual Chess to break down the most useful “Positional Chess Puzzle” Books for club players. For those who have not heard Neal’s prior appearances, he is a dad and an executive at a software startup who devotes a lot of his free time to improving his chess game, often via flash cards made from chess books. Neal is amidst a 10 year study plan and has recently completed a phase during which he went through 8 positional puzzle books. In our interview, Neal discusses why he thinks this was an important step for his chess development and assesses the books he read. He ranks them in order, assesses their pros and cons, and their usefulness for different rating levels. At the end of Neal’s book breakdown we catch up with Neal a bit and discuss what is next in his 10 year chess study plan. Links for all of the books referenced, as well as timestamps are below. 

 Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition by IM Arthur van de Oudeweetering

How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition by IM Jeremy Silman 

Mastering Chess Strategy by GM Johan Hellsten (also available on Chessable) 

Mastering Positional Sacrifices by IM Merijn van Delft 

The Positional Chess Handbook by FM Israel Gelfer 

Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng 

IM Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess Workbook 

Techniques of Positional Play by Valeri Bronznik and IM Anatoli Terekhin .

Prior appearances by Neal: 

“Pawn Book Championship” Episode 241

Book Recap #11- Taking Winning Chess Strategies with Neal Bruce 

Book Recap #6- Woodpecker Method and Rapid Chess Improvement with Neal Bruce 

0:00- We begin by catching listeners up on Neal’s background and discussing why Neal decided to study 8 “positional puzzle” books. 

5:00- How has this intense study of positional chess impacted Neal’s chess game? 

14:00- What books might be good precursors to the books that Neal discusses? 

Mentioned: Simple Chess by GM Michael Stean, The Power of Pawns 

16:00- Neal discusses two books that didn’t make the list: 

Winning Chess Strategy for Kids by Jeff Coakley, Beyond Material by GM Davorin Kuljasevic 

20:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com.. To check out their latest offerings, please go here:

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21:30- Neal ranks the 8 books he reviewed! The first 4 books are:

IM Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess Workbook  (Read Dr. Patzer’s review here)

The Positional Chess Handbook by FM Israel Gelfer 

How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition by IM Jeremy Silman (Discussed in Book Recap #2) 

Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition by IM Arthur van de Oudeweetering 

37:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess collects and analyzes your games and gives you actionable tips based on the data it gathers. Check the site out, and if you choose to subscribe, please use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%. 

38:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Better Help. You can see some online reviews here, and if you sign up, use this link to save 10%: https://www.betterhelp.com/chess

39:30- The final 4! 

Techniques of Positional Play by Valeri Bronznik and IM Anatoli Terekhin . Read Sam Copeland’s Review of Techniques of Positional Play

Mastering Positional Sacrifices by IM Merijn van Delft 

Check out IM Andras Toth’s review of Neal Mona List here 

Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng 

Mastering Chess Strategy by GM Johan Hellsten (also available on Chessable) 

1:04:00- What are Neal’s OTB tournament plans? What books will he read next?

1:08:00- Thanks as always to Neal for dedicating so much time to sharing his chess knowledge!

The best way to reach and keep up with him is via Twitter. 

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