Artur Yusupov's award-winning training course

[Niall Doran]

It’s been out a while now, so maybe it’s possible to get some feedback. Has anyone done Yusupov’s 9-book course from start to finish? Or at least a good chunk of it? How long did it take, did it improve your chess (ratings), your enjoyment of chess (getting more out of the game) etc?

Or is it a waste of time and there are better ways to improve?

[stevencarr]

It’s been out a while now, so maybe it’s possible to get some feedback. Has anyone done Yusupov’s 9-book course from start to finish? Or at least a good chunk of it? How long did it take, did it improve your chess (ratings), your enjoyment of chess (getting more out of the game) etc?

Or is it a waste of time and there are better ways to improve?

I'm going through the books at present. But I haven't done all 9 yet.

They look very good to me, from what I have done so far. I fully intend to do all 9.

They take quite a while, as they are not easy.

[Niall Doran]

Yusupov made me stop buying chess books, but in a good way.

Basically he says that each chapter in his series takes 4 hours, 2 hours going through the examples and 2 doing the problems at the end of each chapter. There are roughly 25 chapters per book. So 100 hours x 9 = 900 hours, although I'd imagine the later books probably need a lot more than 4 hours per chapter.

I reckon I can probably spend, on a good week, 4 hours working on chess. So at that rate, one book would take me 6 months, and the whole series 4.5 years.

Having calculated that, I realised that I already have enough books for the rest of my life.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Having calculated that, I realised that I already have enough books for the rest of my life.

No doubt that’s true - but since when was that a reason not to buy chess books??

[Matt Mackenzie]

Having calculated that, I realised that I already have enough books for the rest of my life.

No doubt that’s true - but since when was that a reason not to buy chess books??

Indeed, every true chess enthusiast has quite a few books they have never read properly and never will

[Jonathan Bryant]

Having calculated that, I realised that I already have enough books for the rest of my life.

No doubt that’s true - but since when was that a reason not to buy chess books??

Indeed, every true chess enthusiast has quite a few books they have never read properly and never will

I would suggest it’s more likely that every chess enthusiast has a book or two that they’ve read properly.

[stevencarr]

I'm finding the Yusupov orange (ie lowest grade) books very easy in some chapters, and quite challenging in others.

[Niall Doran]

Any chance you could say which chapters? Or which type of chapter?

In the very first orange book I scored something like 4 out of 20 on Chapter 8: Centralizing the Pieces, and also found Chapter 3 : Basic Opening Principles tough to solve. Whereas on the more tactical type chapters I tend to do better. I'm guessing the level for strategy/planning type chapters is higher than for the rest.

[stevencarr]

Any chance you could say which chapters? Or which type of chapter?

In the very first orange book I scored something like 4 out of 20 on Chapter 8: Centralizing the Pieces, and also found Chapter 3 : Basic Opening Principles tough to solve. Whereas on the more tactical type chapters I tend to do better. I'm guessing the level for strategy/planning type chapters is higher than for the rest.

Chapter 8 Centralising pieces was difficult (for me, anyway).

And also chapter 2 (Pawn weaknesses) and chapter 4 (exploiting weaknesses) of the Boost 1 book.

And also the Queen v Rook endgames in Evolution 1

[Jon Mahony]

I would suggest it’s more likely that every chess enthusiast has a book or two that they’ve read properly.

So I’m not the only one, really should get round to having an ebay sale - will be able to afford more chess books

[Niall Doran]

Any chance you could say which chapters? Or which type of chapter?

In the very first orange book I scored something like 4 out of 20 on Chapter 8: Centralizing the Pieces, and also found Chapter 3 : Basic Opening Principles tough to solve. Whereas on the more tactical type chapters I tend to do better. I'm guessing the level for strategy/planning type chapters is higher than for the rest.

Chapter 8 Centralising pieces was difficult (for me, anyway).

And also chapter 2 (Pawn weaknesses) and chapter 4 (exploiting weaknesses) of the Boost 1 book.

And also the Queen v Rook endgames in Evolution 1

So you've done at least two books, and at least some of the third. Have you noticed any improvement in your play?

[stevencarr]

Any chance you could say which chapters? Or which type of chapter?

In the very first orange book I scored something like 4 out of 20 on Chapter 8: Centralizing the Pieces, and also found Chapter 3 : Basic Opening Principles tough to solve. Whereas on the more tactical type chapters I tend to do better. I'm guessing the level for strategy/planning type chapters is higher than for the rest.

Chapter 8 Centralising pieces was difficult (for me, anyway).

And also chapter 2 (Pawn weaknesses) and chapter 4 (exploiting weaknesses) of the Boost 1 book.

And also the Queen v Rook endgames in Evolution 1

So you've done at least two books, and at least some of the third. Have you noticed any improvement in your play?

I've done 1 book, and 8 chapters each of the other two. I would say that I am playing better. They do seem very useful books.