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Good, but not the best book of its type

Customer Rating:
The idea of explaining the idea behind every move is a good. I wish that more books would do this for the Beginning and Intermediate level chessplayer.
There are several problems with this book; 1) The book is overly focused on the opening - it should spend more time going into the middlegame and endgame, and 2) It often would not answer the questions I had about a move or what was going on it the game, and 3) half the games are of the author, who is only a measly master. However, overall I can still recommend this book.
This book does not compare in quality to my favorite book, "Logical Chess, Move by Move, which just recently was updated."

Best insructional book for anyone past the beginning stage

Customer Rating:
This is a revised edition of the book originally published in 2003. The main difference between this edition and the earlier one are:
1) The format has been changed to double column on the pages. This allows the explanations of the moves to be closer to the diagrams which accompany the explanations.
2} Some of the analysis has been updated and expanded to further help the student.
3) A result of the new format and slightly smaller print has been a saving of space (less white space per page}. Therefore, the new edition has the same number of games and explanation, but in under 200 pages. At less than 1/2 the thickness of the previous edition, it is much easier to carry.
4} A new edition gave the author a chance to correct many typographical errors and rephrase explanations to make for further clarity.

Like its predecessor, this book is for anyone (not just juniors) who want to understand why certain moves are played. Those who have read Irving Chernev's "Logical Chess: Move by Move" will be even more delighted with Mr. Snyder's book. Instead of the lengthy explanations that are repeated over and over again in Chernev's book, the book by Mr. Snyder gives the important information once at length and then relies of the reader to review if the explanation is needed again. When a move is a simple recapture he keeps the explanation to a short senctence. In the case of the opening moves being repeated in a later game, Snyder does not give the explanation again, but relies on the reader to refer back if explanation is needed. Half of the games are those of the author and half by other masters. Some important features of the book for students are:
1) Games are arranged by opening and thus start the player on developing an opening repretoire to play against opponents.
2) Analysis (i.e. alternate moves) is kept to the minimum needed to help the student gain understanding of what is happening and of alternate possibilities.
3) There are numerous diagrams (generally after every 3 or 4 moves) to help the student make sure of the correct position. And for stronger players it allows for them to read the book without the need of a board.
4) Explanation of moves are clear and concise. Anyone from about age 11 or 12 and up should have no trouble understanding the material.
I recommend this book for anyone who seriously wants to improve their play.

NEW REVISED EDITION of this top selling book!

Customer Rating:
It just came to my attention that a new revised and corrected edition with a little additional material will be released in a couple of months! I have the orignal Random House edition and this is a great collection of instructive games with analysis of every move. I have enjoyed it with the "More Unbeatable" book as well.

Great Teaching Style - One of my all time favorite chess books

Customer Rating:
I really enjoyed reading Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors. I felt that I gained a lot of knowledge especially in the following areas,
a) Learning how to build an attack. The placement of your pieces and planning aheady.
b) Learning how to use sacrifices and to recognize when they work and do not work.
c) Positional play - manuvering your pieces and planning the use of Pawn structures.
d) Many tactical ideas were covered.
e) Learning the openings. The openings in the complete games are well covered with important opening lines being show. The games are organized by the type of openings being used. This makes it easy to study openings. The lines being shown are up to date and very accurate.
f) There are not a lot of endgames but the ones covered are very instructive. What I like is to see how plans were made to get to the winning endgame right from the opening! This book then gives a step by step explaination of how to win the endgame.
Some special features I liked about Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors,
a) You are asked to find the best move. This forces you to think and makes for fun problems to solve out of games. This is much different than most books.
b) All the moves are analyzed.
c) General rules are pointed out. But, what makes it really nice is when the exceptions to the general rules happen, they are pointed out.
I like the nice easy flowing style of the author. For a person who already knows the very basic stuff about chess this book is just right. This is because there is both a review of important ideas and a depth of analysis making this book interesting for a more advanced player as well. The author uses a lot of his own game where he has used them in chess lessons with his own students. This makes the explaination very clear and things that only an experienced chess teacher knows need to be covered are right there. I have read some of the other reviews which have been helpful to me in being able to point out some of things that I agree with.
If you really love chess and like to study to improve this book is good for any age. But it is written so a 6th grader can understand it.
I understand that this book is going through a new printing correcting any typos and may be hard to get for a while. It would be worth waiting for if you cannot get it now or even getting a used copy for now.

PERFECT: For anyone beyond a beginner who really wants to learn the most important concepts (any age!)

Customer Rating:
After having learned the basics from the same author's CHESS FOR JUNIORS book I decided to get this book for myself, my children and grandchildren.

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I just finished reviewing CHESS FOR JUNIORS, which I consider to be an 8th wonder of the world, and now I discovered the 9th!
CHESS FOR JUNIORS leaves off at the end with with nicely analyzed games (move by move commentary) and UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS adds 24 more games. You will learn just what the author knows you need to learn once completeting CHESS FOR JUNIORS (well, if you know the basics well, then you can skip CHESS FOR JUNIORS and jump right into this book).

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I might also suggest that you get WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS in this series, which provides an explanded opening system, intermediate level tactics and endgames and lots of information on how to improve and prepare for tournaments.

ENJOY!!!