Extremely well-written book brought my game up more than a notch. Janice's writing manages to explain conceptually and instruct specifically at the same time, which is no easy task. The examples and problems presented led my understanding up to and through each lesson both without being so easy and obvious I felt I was just regurgitating the example, without solutions so obscure that they made me feel I'd missed the point, and with a nice little grading curve so to speak so at the end of each problem set I had a frame of reference for how solid I was on the lessons (so if you got 1-4 Review more, 5-6 Average, 7+ Excellent sort of thing).
So the book is helpful, yes, but next you must be asking yourself it it's helpful to you. Specifically, this book helped my game develop tremendously by teaching me how to look for big plays, it got me better at ignoring small plays, it taught me how to take advantage of an opponent's mistakes (even small ones). This is done by walking through how to narrow down your choices for opening moves and how to judge the relative merits of the few good options you really have, a subject that previously mystified me. This book teaches how to transition from that strong opening into a commanding mid-game, an area I didn't consider myself terribly weak before (I'm no pro but I didn't feel totally lost there) but I got a tremendous boost in mid game too, and there's also an excellent section on end-game principles and strategies on how to get the lion's share of the big endgame moves. I don't think you need to be all that established a player to begin reaping the benefits of this book's lessons, and I also suspect it would be helpful to players into the single-digit kyu ranks as well (though certainly not being that far myself as I read this, take that with a grain of salt)
Again I want to stress how masterfully the author balances conceptual understanding and specific instruction. She uses the easy to remember sayings, shows you how they work, and how and when to apply them.
My brother in law, who had gotten "ahead of me" (we've gone back and forth playing stronger for *years*) before I read this, was dumbfounded when I read this book and started winning by unprecedented margins. I lent him the book when I was done with it but you might want to start off buying 2 copies, one for yourself and one for your favorite rival (after you start your own copy of course ;) )
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John Pritchard
Clear and concise
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2017