How to Finish a Chess Book

Hello, chess enthusiasts. Recently, I managed to get my hands on The Soviet Chess Primer, one of Ilya Maizelis' finest works. The first week of having it was good, but then my pace slowed down. Having the time is not an issue but I feel like I'm trying to avoid reading it, when the opposite should happen. Does anyone no how I can invert this thought in my mind and be motivated not only with this book but for future books I'll read in the future? Thanks.

P.S. After self-assessment, I noticed that I spend to much time on youtube, but I find youtube more entertaining which makes it a distraction.

My reading speed is often 1 page per day on average. So the endgame tome by Dvoretzky took me one and a half year...

"... Maizelis’ book [(The Soviet Chess Primer)] is fascinating, especially for the reader interested in chess culture and history, but it is not a primer by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s not just that the knight’s tour is used (18) to help illustrate how the knight moves. Maizelis includes outrageously difficult mate problems in the ‘fun’ section of chapter one, and his account of the theory of corresponding squares (152) belongs in an endgame tome and not here. The breakneck pace of the book and the complex examples preclude me from thinking it appropriate for the beginner. ..." - John Hartmann (2015)
chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/the-soviet-chess-primer/
"... The title might suggest it is for beginners, but that is not the case. [The Soviet Chess Primer] does start off with some basic positions, but quickly moves on to much more advanced material including chapters on positional play and techniques of calculation." - IM John Donaldson
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/231/the_soviet_chess_primer_by_ilya_maizelis/
"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2001)
web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
"... The books that are most highly thought of are not necessarily the most useful. Go with those that you find to be readable. ..." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)

@Sarg0n said in #2:
> My reading speed is often 1 page per day on average. So the endgame tome by Dvoretzky took me one and a half year...

I've heard of Dvoretsky's books which I may get in the future when I'm more advanced.

In terms of my book, I have the time to devote multiple hours a day to it, but I keep delaying it, perhaps some David Groggins will cure that.

My routine is that I won't buy a chess book until I finish one. I also go slow: in 1 hour I can go through 1 game on a physical board and then when the board is clear at the end I go through 1 endgame. So essentially it is 1 page in each of 2 books / hour on average.

When I finish a book, ordering the next one feels like a celebration. bill

@Monnt said in #1:
> How to Finish a Chess Book ... The first week of having it was good, but then my pace slowed down.

Make sure the book is suitable for your knowledge or skill level. If it mainly covers material you're already familiar with, it will eventually bore you. If it mainly covers material you're not prepared for, it will soon frustrate you.

Then, make sure you understand how the book is organized. Instructive texts frequently aren't meant to be studied from front to back. They may also be organized by topic, theme, history, or use. So, you may need to read one chapter per section before returning to the first section again. Or, you may need to read chapters whenever they become relevant to your situation. And, some chapters may be meant for reference, some for theory, and others for practice. Read the book in a sensible order.

Finally, take one chapter at a time. Decide what you did and didn't understand from that chapter, then return to the parts which weren't clear to you. After you think you've grokked it, wait a few days and then review that chapter. Once the ideas and principles feel comfortable in your head, you can move on to the next chapter.

(Note that you don't have to believe the material, but, if you're interested in the subject, you should know it. Authors can not always make sense to everyone, no matter how knowledgeable they are, or how inquisitive the readers are. Tal saw the chessboard very differently from Petrosian. Neither knew the One True Way, but they both knew an astonishingly effective way.)

@Monnt said in #1:
> Hello, chess enthusiasts. Recently, I managed to get my hands on The Soviet Chess Primer, one of Ilya Maizelis' finest works. The first week of having it was good, but then my pace slowed down

I also have this book, and made it about half-way through.

For me, there are many possible reasons to stop / pause a book. It might be too easy, but you will usually recognise this, and going through the material faster is what you'd probably do. It's more likely that you arrive at some exercise that you want to solve, don't find the solution, but don't want to give up. You save it for later, cannot continue with this book, and "temporarily" switch to something else...

And then, there are always other books, courses, videos to enjoy. Get the next book that everyone recommends, read the first chapter, and get distracted by the next book. I recently got a bookshelf to sort my chess books (and I have probably more than I can ever read), and I noticed that many of them had book marks somewhere around chapter 2 or so. ;-)

> P.S. After self-assessment, I noticed that I spend to much time on youtube, but I find youtube more entertaining which makes it a distraction.

Who would have thought... and some of this material is actually quite good as well, while others is purely for entertainment. Not an easy distinction to make at all!

@Sarg0n said in #2:
> My reading speed is often 1 page per day on average. So the endgame tome by Dvoretzky took me one and a half year...

This puts you way ahead of most buyers of DEM. :-)

tomorrow, have a goal of reading one page. just one. 5 minutes work, if that.

Sounds like you could use a little DI Therapy:

"OPEN THAT BOOK AND START READING, MAGGOT!...MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!..."

Ok, thanks people. I've managed to read a couple of hours today and my momentum has picked back up. How to close this forum?