Eugene Znosko-Borovsky's "The Middle-Game in Chess" is the sine qua non of chess instruction for the Amateur. There is no other book like it.



Written by an exiled Russian Nobleman who served the Czar as an officer in the Russo-Japanese war and played in tournaments with some of the greats of the early twentieth century, The Middle-Game in Chess is a primer on chess fundamentals for beginners and intermediate players which examens the middle-game using a systematic approach, as a set of elements, just as every decent beginner's book does. What separates it from the scores of other books on the middle-game (usually manuals on attack or defense) is Znosko-Borovsky's unique approach to the three elements of the game: time, space and force, and how they intertwine in the conduct of a chess game.



Other writers will tell you that time is important, or that Bobby Fisher's use of it was masterful, but only Znosko-Borovsky tells you how to understand its exact nature in a concrete way. With his unique gift for explanation, Znosko-Borovsky teaches a simple, easily-used method for assessing positions and moves on the basis of time and space and then uses it to illuminate games by great players on the basis of that understanding, The practical result of reading this book and Practicing the principles in it can be a rapid and substantial increase in playing strength in a very short time.



If you are willing to put in the work, you can read the Middle-Game in Chess and go over every example in it in the course of a week or so and then spend a few months playing games where you consciously apply the principles in it. If you do this, you, too may find as I did, that The Middle-Game in chess is one of the only books ever written that can give you hundreds of rating points worth of understanding from only one source.



I cannot recommend it highly enough.