Black & White Magic

Grandmaster Axel Smith is the award-winning author of The Woodpecker Method, Pump Up Your Rating, e3 Poison and Street Smart Chess, which were all enthusiastically received by readers and reviewers. Using the Woodpecker as part of his training, as an adult he improved from a rating of 2100 to becoming a Grandmaster.

"The book is packed with interesting positions and game fragments. Mostly from the author himself. But it's definitely not a game of bragging. Smith regularly deals with positions in which he did not find the best continuation, but later in the analysis managed to improve… What I sometimes have trouble with is a chess book where the author floods the reader with variations. That's definitely not Smith's style. He keeps it limited and there is a lot of emphasis on explaining the material. He does this in an entertaining and sometimes even colourful way. The book reads very easily. I myself can follow the material well without grabbing a board. That is, of course, a great exercise in visualization.Smith introduces the chapters with clear definitions of the topics he will discuss in each chapter. He then closes the chapters with the most important lessons the reader has learned. This is of course very clear and seems to me a didactically strong move.All in all, I think it is a very educational book with its own perspective." -- Michel Hoetmer, www.schaaksite.nl