My System: 21st Century Edition

This classic book teaches fundamental concepts in chess which every player must know. Other chess books assume that these concepts are understood prior to reading their books. Most likely other authors learned these fundamental concepts from this book and therefore assume everyone's learning has followed a similar path, which is why they never explain the concepts in depth. This book addresses the level of information I need to understand the game better.My System teaches the amateur player using small examples to make the concepts clear. This 1930 book has been translated, both in language and chess notation. Adult readers will fare better understanding the explanations than young readers because the expressions used in some paragraphs reflect the writing style of a century ago. At times the reader will be called upon to perform their own contextual translation of a concept because of the older style description. Added to this there are a few typographical errors so it can be difficult to discern a typo from an uncommon expression or failure to understand the point being explained.The book covers the elements of the Center and Development, Open Files, the Seventh and Eighth Ranks, the Passed Pawns, Exchanges, Endgame Strategy, the Pin, the Discovered Check, the Pawn Chain, and then Positional Play is covered in several chapters. The book ends with 50 games that emphasize the points taught in the book.

Don't advance too far before reading this book. The reason I say this is that although this book is not for the beginner, it should be read before your chess thinking is developed much further than that of a beginner. I've been playing chess for 40 years and if I had read this on the road to becoming an intermediate player I would be a lot stronger today. There are a lot of beginner books for rules, tactics, basic strategy, but I haven't found nearly as many to properly address what happens at the next stage of a players development. This book succeeds on several levels. Having grown up without a teacher, 'My System' straightened out a lot of wrong thinking that I had developed in my game. I can now see more possibilities in a position. Also it is an excellent book on positional play that shows that you never have to lack for a plan because there is nearly always some vital improvement that you can make to a position. The algebraic '21st Century' keeps this important book alive, and there are some updates to the language to make the early 1900's, European Nimzovitch with his colorful descriptions a little easier to understand.

"'My System' is of course one of the great masterpieces of chess literature..." - International Master John Watson. Initially published in 1925, perhaps no other chess book has had as profound an influence on how chess was played throughout the 20th century. This was the first book to systematize and consolidate into a single volume the principles of positional chess, all of which are still valid today as evidenced by the many thousands of chess books written over subsequent decades reiterating those very same principles. While there are several excellent editions of the title available, the Lou Hays 21st Century Edition may be the easiest English translation to read.

I am not an accomplished chess player, as I have only started to enjoy the game in the past year. When I began reading "My Sytem", I quickly realized that it contains a wealth of information on the strategic principles of chess. However, I found it somewhat slow reading, because much of the material is arranged in solid blocks of copy that should be broken up into shorter paragraphs to facilitate not only easier reading, but also retention of the material being read.As a beginner and as one who does not have the memory capability for retaining the various prior positions of pieces on the board after reading through many moves, I think that the book should make use of more diagrams showing the pieces after various moves (but not after every move), in order to aid learning.I realize that my recommended changes would substantially increase the number of pages in the book, which would increase its cost to the reader. It would also be advisable to enlarge the page size of the soft cover book in order to "open up" the copy to make it less formidable in appearance. This, too, would add to the reader's cost, but I think the additional cost would be well worth it to the reader, for this is a great teaching book and it could be even greater if it were redesigned by an expert contemporary book designer.I rated this book 4 stars only because of its shortcomings in design. In content, it is obviously a five star book that is essential reading with or without my design recommendations.

Notice several entries complaining about the Kindle version without search capabilities, even with the paperback version I open a free Chess Board Editor on the web, or enter moves into my Chess search engine and make notes along the way, and save as a pgn file for future reference. This is a classic, one to be read over and over with the intent to make you more competitive, as noted by several GM's and IM's over the years. Highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more or simply brush up on theory! Nothing worthwhile comes easy!

I have not finished it yet but so far it seems to be relatively o.k. It was in good or very, very good condition. One chess player, I am familiar with has read the book and found it to be rather difficult but did believe it contributed to his understanding of chess. So. I guess. Maybe I should pick it back up and start reading it again, but for the moment I am tied up with the London System.