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How to Win at Chess, Next Level
by Levy Rozman
A practical bridge from casual play to stronger chess, centered on building a winning plan, with useful guidance on using engines, analysis, and training puzzles wisely.
What It's About
This book is aimed at players who already know how the pieces move and can finish a basic game, but who keep losing positions they feel they should win or drawing games they should have pressed. Levy Rozman, a well-known chess teacher online, organizes the material around the skills that separate club players from stronger ones: how pawns and pieces work together, how to spot and use tactics, how to attack and defend, how to convert an advantage into a win, and how to handle endgames. The emphasis on making a plan, rather than just reacting to the opponent's last move, runs through the whole book.
The style is conversational and direct, with a lot of illustrated example positions. Reading it feels like sitting beside a coach who keeps asking what you are trying to do on the board. The explanations are meant to be followed with a physical board or a digital one nearby, and the book rewards players who pause, set up the diagrams, and test the ideas themselves.
The later sections turn to tools. Rozman discusses how to use chess engines, game review, bots, and puzzle training without letting them replace your own thinking. This practical angle is one of the book's more useful features for someone trying to improve on their own.
Read this if you…
- are rated roughly in the beginner-to-club range and want a structured path to the next level
- keep losing won positions and want practical methods for converting them
- want to learn how to build a plan instead of relying on instinct alone
Skip it if you…
- already play at a strong club or tournament level and want deep opening theory or advanced endgame study
- are looking for a book on chess history, famous games, or the psychology of competition
Key Ideas
- 1
Pawn structure shapes every plan
Pawns are slow, but where they sit determines which squares are weak, which pieces are useful, and where attacks can happen. The book treats pawn play as the frame for decisions, so you learn to ask what each pawn move permanently changes before you make it. This helps you avoid the common habit of moving pawns just to have a move available.
- 2
Tactics as the everyday currency of wins
Most games between improving players are decided by a fork, a pin, a skewer, or a missed double attack rather than by long strategy. The book focuses on recognizing these patterns quickly and checking whether your opponent has one before you commit. Repeated practice with patterns is presented as the way to make tactical vision automatic.
- 3
Converting advantages into wins
Many players at this level reach a better position and then let it slip. The book stresses simplifying when ahead, trading pieces at the right moments, and keeping the opponent's counterplay in check. It treats conversion as a skill of its own, separate from creating the advantage in the first place.
- 4
Building a winning plan from the position
Rozman's central argument is that a clear plan, such as targeting a weak pawn, improving a bad piece, or opening a file, is what turns good moves into a won game. The book shows how to read a position's features and choose a goal, then check that the goal is realistic before pursuing it.
- 5
Using engines and analysis without dependence
The closing material covers how to use engines, game review, and training tools to learn faster. The main point is to analyze your own games first, then check against software, and to focus on why an engine prefers a move rather than simply copying it. This keeps the tools working as teachers rather than crutches.
Limitations
The book is a broad survey, so each topic is covered at an introductory-to-intermediate depth rather than in the exhaustive detail found in specialist texts. Readers looking for detailed opening repertoires or deep theoretical endgame work will need to go elsewhere. Some reviewers may find the tone chatty or the advice generalized in places. Because much of the material is tied to online tools and platforms, parts of the practical advice on software and training resources may age as those products change.
Questions Readers Ask
- Is this book good for someone who is still a beginner?
- It is aimed at players who already know the rules and basic checkmates and want to improve past the early stages. Complete beginners may find the tactical and planning sections hard to follow without first learning fundamentals. If you are just starting, a basic beginner's guide first will make this book much more rewarding.
- How does it compare to other chess improvement books?
- It is broader and more practical than specialist books on one topic, covering pawns, tactics, attacking, endgames, and planning in one volume. Compared with more theory-heavy books, it leans toward general understanding and habits rather than memorized lines. It suits readers who want a single guide to work through.
- Published
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9780593837818
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Category
- Self-Improvement
Book details and cover from Google Books.
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