The Road to Chess Improvement – Revisited

I picked up the “The Road to Chess Improvement” once again and was struck by a thought that this book’s title may be interpreted as the reader’s road to improvement.  That may lead to disappointment as the book does not present the reader with a structured plan of what to do in order to improve their chess.  What it actually is is author’s road to improvement.  The author documents all the ups and down that he had as a chess player.  Those include experiments with different openings and different strategic ideas, as well as playing styles. For example in the beginning of his chess career he did not played many gambits mostly preferring closed openings.  That led to his playing style being somewhat limited. Expanding his opening repertoire later on with the openings that involve sacrifices added to his practical strength.  It is up to the readers to judge how this applies to their chess path. As for myself, I feel more motivated to look at my own games, realizing that I had spent very little time actually analysing them.