Introduction
This is the first chess book I’ve ever read. I remember sitting in a café in 2016 and thinking about which chess books I should read. I had no idea what makes a good book, or that they’re divided into opening, middlegame, endgame books and other categories. I chose Lessons with a Grandmaster because it sounded useful. I couldn’t afford a coach so the premise of the book was very appealing. I read it from cover to cover within two days. I hadn’t been setting positions up on a board, as I didn’t think it was important to analyze all the positions by myself. I loved it. Hearing a GM explain their reasoning is incredibly useful. Especially a strong one like Gulko. And having a curious and well spoken player, similar to my own strength on the other end made the reading into an almost personal chess lesson. Joel Sneed was asking all the right questions and making mistakes similar to my own.
Since then I have gone through each of the 25 games multiple times; on my own, with my coaches, and with my students. The concept is perfect for chess training, and there have been very few chess books written that have the ability to explain the difference between how masters and amateurs think. I have made numerous errors in my own analysis, and so have my students, and, on many occasions, GM Gulko would explain exactly why that certain bad idea doesn’t work, and what needs to be done instead.
Only recently has there been a great attempt at improving Gulko and Sneed’s concept, in Think Like a Super GM by Adams and Hurtado, where Hurtado has given the same positions to twenty or so players of varying rating, giving us an insight into how they think and analyze. Lessons with a Grandmaster is a conversation with immediate feedback, which makes it, in my opinion, more useful for adult learners than Think like a Super GM.
There have been two more volumes published; Lessons with a Grandmaster 2, which focuses on dynamic play, and Lessons with a Grandmaster 3, titled strategic and tactical ideas in modern chess. The second volume is structured exactly like the original, following GM Gulko’s games, and the third is divided into chapters by topic.
The Structure of the Book
Lessons with a Grandmaster is divided into 25 games. Every game was played by GM Gulko himself, and almost all of them were against chess superstars at the time, like Karpov and Kasparov. The book starts with less complex games and increases in complexity and difficulty as you progress, or at least it feels that way. Each game is unique and offers fresh strategic concepts.
Many games come with occasional exercises. This isn’t a puzzle book and there aren’t tons of positions to solve, but GM Gulko asks specific questions in critical positions and asks the reader to find a solution.
The problems are divided into five categories according to difficulty. They aren’t presented in a typical problem-solution way you’ll find in most chess books. Instead, you’re given a problem to solve and then you jump straight back into the conversation and hear GM Gulko explain it, as well as other subtleties important for the position. I found most of them easy to solve the last time I went through the book. That’s normal since I’d already seen each a few times before. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t remember how I did back in 2016 when I had done it for the first time. All I know is that I hadn’t been setting them up over a board and treating them like serious exercises, which is a shame. Still, it was my first time reading a chess book.
Quality of Annotations
In short, they are wonderful. Remarkably instructive and full of instructive advice given by GM Gulko. Just imagine having access to a Grandmaster’s thoughts about his own game, about his reasoning, his fears, his planning, and the way he’d approached each problem position. There’s always a difference in the quality of annotations when strong players annotate their own games and when someone does it for them. No one can go as deep into a position if they haven’t played it themselves.
What makes Lessons with a Grandmaster one of the best annotated chess books ever written, in my opinion, is that the annotations are almost a chess lesson transcribed into a book. Not only do you get to hear a Grandmaster analyze, but you also have access to Joel Sneed’s thoughts, questions, and, often, flaws in thinking, adding massive value and depth to the book.
When it comes to annotations in chess books, a simple rule applies – the more the better! There’s nothing worse than having “raw” variations without any explanations in a book. The reader wants each move and each idea explained. Lessons with a Grandmaster does that perfectly. There are very few places in which the descriptions and explanations were lacking.
Difficulty and Recommended Rating
Everyone should read Lessons with a Grandmaster, and everyone, except for top Grandmasters, would surely benefit from it in some way. If I had to recommend a perfect rating range for reading it, I would say 1600-2000 FIDE. Players in that range are strong enough to understand the concepts on a basic level, and yet very weak compared to GM Gulko, explaining them.
When it comes to difficulty of going through the book, I think anyone above 1400 chess com rapid would find it easy to follow along. If they follow the games on a real board.
Don’t make the same mistake I have and just read Lessons with a Grandmaster as if it were a novel. Maximize what you can get from it by making sure you analyze and think for yourself.
Conclusion
Lessons with a Grandmaster is a collection of 25 conversations. Each game, each conversation is a training session between the two authors, during which they share their thoughts on the positions, often vastly different, allowing the reader to see why and how a Grandmaster is able to be more efficient at finding the best moves. Lessons with a Grandmaster is exactly like having 25 free lessons with one of the top Grandmasters.
