John Watson Book Reviews (103) John Watson Book Review #103 - Challenging Conventional Wisdom IM John Watson - Monday 28th January 2013

Move First Think Later. | http://www.theweekinchess.com John Watson reviews and discusses one of the most controversial and provocative instructional books in many years "Move First, Think Later" by Willy Hendriks. I (Mark Crowther) think the book is wonderful and have learned a lot from it. I'm not sure I agree it is for players of all strengths, I think a certain amount of ability is needed to get something out of it. As someone who has struggled with quite a lot of instructional literature over the years this book is a great tonic. I've found strong practical puzzle books as the only thing I've truly got on with. This book has given me many ideas on what to try next. I was pleased to read in the book there is a nice idea on how to use the TWIC games section by choosing random games and positions to produce an almost unlimited amount of exercise material. See John Watson's detailed review below.

John Watson Book Review #103 - Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Move First, Think Later; Willy Hendriks; 256 pages; New in Chess 2012

Introduction

I've been asked about Willy Hendriks' Move First, Think Later enough times (by people who loved or disliked it) that I thought I'd contribute my own two cents worth. This review turned into something frighteningly long, but that's in large part due to the fact that I have reproduced Hendriks' examples and prose at considerable length to give you a direct taste of the material.

First, let me attempt a general description of the book, which, incidentally, won the English Chess Federation's 2012 Book of the Year award. In Move First, Think Later (subtitled ' Sense and Nonsense in Improving Your Chess'), Hendriks tries to demolish a number of myths (in his view) about how to improve one's chess, as well as to investigate how the mind of a chessplayer works and what insights can be derived therefrom. In doing so, he refers to the cognitive sciences ("cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, neurology, neurobiology, philosophy and others"), which he says have made "considerable progress." To quote from the Introduction: "From general concepts and theories we are moving towards knowledge on a more empirical and microscopic level, to summarise it briefly and (too) simply. Some of the old questions and new insights of the cognitive sciences form the source of inspiration for this book. Are they of any use for the player trying to improve his chess? Do they shed new light on our different training methods? Or even suggest new and different forms of training?" But what most people will remember from this book, and will likely be either amused or alarmed by, is Hendriks' acidic criticism of famous chess authors and of conventional chess wisdom. Much more on that below.

The book consists of 27 chapters, most of which are essentially essays covering a wide array of subjects. It has quite a few exercises, presented at the beginning of each chapter and then discussed within the chapter, which I think is an attractive and useful method of getting your points across. Hendriks' says, with his usual sense of humour: "If you do the exercises, you will learn the most from this book. Some may say: 'You will learn at least something.' "

The range of topics is impressive - Hendriks likes to jump here and there, touching upon subjects or random thoughts which are only tangentially related to chess. That's fine, even stimulating, and particularly good for browsing. In part, this flitting about may be due to the fact that some of the chapters were originally articles written for a chess column. Nevertheless, a good portion of the book's contents are related to a major unifying idea. That is expressed in various ways in various chapters, but to a large extent comes down to the idea that moves themselves are more important than verbal concepts in chess, and that methods for improvement that go from the general to the particular are flawed. He has several ways of saying this, e.g., "You learn to play good chess by taking in good chess. There is no way to outsmart a diligent student with some clever way of thinking. There is no short-cut route to the best move by some revolutionary way of looking at the position. The strongest players are not following secret protocols."

Hendriks Video Lecture from London Classic

Another version of this can be seen in a lecture by Hendriks at the London Chess Classic, which you can see on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7CWvB5pz79k).

Improve without using language?

In it he says "In my book I have the suggestion that maybe it's possible to improve your chess