Move First, Think Later: Sense and Nonsense in Improving Your Chess

The chess playing mind does not work like a machine. Selecting a move results from rather chaotic thought processes and is not the logical outcome of applying a rational method.
The only problem with that, says International Master Willy Hendriks, is that most books and courses on improving at chess claim exactly the opposite. The dogma of the chess instruction establishment is that if you only take a good look at certain ‘characteristics’ of a position, then good moves will follow more or less automatically.

But this is not how it happens. Chess players, weak and strong, don’t first judge the position, then formulate a plan and afterwards look at moves. It all happens at the same time, and pretending that it is otherwise is counterproductive. There is no use in forcing your students to mentally jump through theoretical hoops, according to experienced chess coach Hendriks.

This work shows a healthy distrust of accepted methods to get better at chess. It teaches that winning games does not depend on ticking off a to-do list when looking at a position on the board. It presents club and internet chess players with loads of much-needed no-nonsense training material. In this provocative, entertaining and highly instructive book, Hendriks shows how you can travel light on the road to chess improvement!
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One of the most original chess books the judges have seen for a number of years. Both serious and highly entertaining at the same time.
(Judges of English Chess Federation)

What a fantastic book! I have not enjoyed reading an instructional book so much in years. I was laughing out loud throughout, because it is very witty, but it is also a really important instructional volume.

(Steve Giddins)

Hendriks uses many new examples to make his point. A very entertaining and provocative read. I'm sure readers will improve their chess.
(International Master Arthur van de Oudeweetering ChessVibes)

I can't really express just how much I enjoyed Move First Think Later by Willy Hendriks.

(Mark Crowther The Week In Chess)

For anyone interested in chess in a broader context, I highly recommend reading Move First, Think Later by Willy Hendriks. (Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura)

Really a fantastic book, loaded with fresh ideas and excellent examples. After reading this book you will feel like Neo in the film The Matrix, when he discovers that his life so far was an illusion and that his real life will start only now.

(Martin Rieger Rochade Europa Magazine)