Interesting Chess Books By GM Judit Polgar & GM Rios

Once in a while my chess addicted friend Mehul asks me to order books for him which I gladly do as I get a chance to see some nice chess books before I pass them over to him.

This time there were two interesting books for "Wood Pushers" like me.   The first one was "How I beat Bobby Fischer's record" by Judith Polgar and the other was "Chess Structures A Grandmaster Guide" by Chilean GM Maricio Flores Rios.

A bit more about GM Rios - he combines his career as a chess player and trainer and hold on for this - he is doing his PhD studies in Mathematics at the University of Minesota.  How the heck guys do this.  Become a GM and yet have another interesting life.  I can only dream about things like this.

I guess life as a veteran "Wood Pusher" is really no fun!

Here are some photos from the two books.

I never got chance to review the Judit Polgar book due to time constraints.  However the book is hardcover, paper quality is fantastic and the photos great.  Judith has some interesting anecdotes to go with the games.

 

The other book was heavy reading until I turned to the last chapter.  What GM Rios has done is to look at pawn structures for various opening and explain in general terms what the plan for each side is.  He then follows up with some sample games to explain the points further.  I enjoyed reading the sections on the French Defense as I keep playing it and still not very good at it.