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Winning Chess the Easy Way with Susan Polgar, Vol. 2: Learn How to Create a Plan in the Opening, Middle & Endgame | 
 enlarge | From: ChessDVD
Category: Software
Buy New: $24.95
New (3) from $24.95
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 1504
Format: Dvd-ram
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT,
UPC: 837101030342
EAN: 0837101030342
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Grandmaster Susan Polgar shows how to create a plan in the Opening, Middle & Endgame | | • | Susan teaches the general ideas and concepts for short and long term planning in the opening, middle and endgame | | • | Get a better understanding and deeper insight on all three phases of chess | | • | Play with more meaning and purpose - let Susan show you the plans! | | • | Sit back and let one of the Worlds best player train you in chess planning |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Planning in chess is essential throughout the entire game. On this DVD, Susan will teach you the general ideas and concepts for short and long term planning in the opening, middle and endgame. You will come away with a better understanding and insight on all three phases of a chess game. Your moves will have more meaning and purpose, which will result in more wins. So, sit back and let Susan teach you the foundation of essential chess planning. Approximate running time 1 hour 10 minutes. GM Susan Polgar: 4 time Women World Champion * Only World Triple Crown Winner (World Blitz, Rapid, and Classical World Champion)* 5 time Olympic Champion (5 Gold, 4 Solver, 1 Bronze) * Currently ranked #1 in the US and World for Women * 2003 Grandmaster of teh Year and US Open Blitz Champion * Award wining and Best Selling Author * Founder of the Susan Polgar Foundation, a non-profit organization to promote chess for young people
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Disappointing, and deceptively reviewed October 16, 2007
Common Sense (Boston, MA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Okay, I took a look at all the reviews before deciding whether to buy this video, and here's what I find:
Michael Domlin: "...None of the priciples of planning are ever envisaged.."
A Kid's Review: "You see those 7 openings? If you don't know how to play them, then those 7 chapters aren't gonna help you. And if you do know how to play them, then they won't either, because you should already know what the plan is in the opening that you're playing. And she races through them, makes it kind of confusing to follow."
But you also find:
A Kid's Review: "...Excellent instruction on planning..."
A Kid's Review: "...I learned how to create sound plans in chess from watching this DVD."
Contradictory, you say? Well, we're not done yet.
You also see:
A Kid's Review: ["Videos Chug and Sputter"] "...I would have to characterize this set of videos as bad as well, even though the producers had deep pocket books."
but also:
A Kid's Review: "...This is the highest quality chess DVD on the market."
Oscar Cantana: "...The quality is excellent....It's the most professionally done chess DVD ever."
A Kid's Review: "I also like the very high recording quality."
Another contradiction! But we're still not done...:
A Kid's Review: "I find this DVD exciting and quite educational."
A Kid's Review: "...It's entertaining and educational..."
A Kid's Review: "...Exciting, fun, easy to learn from, just simply perfect."
Well, there are no contradictions here, just a run on the terms "exciting", "entertaining" and "educational".
If you read that Kid's Review ["Videos Chug and Sputter"], you get:
"...With two people, the discussion does not skip along, it chugs and it sputters. It is very formal and very rigid. This is because there is a pause as the moves are translated from the mouth of Paul Truong, who reads: 'Pawn to e4' ...
(pause)
...to the hand of Susan Polgar who then moves the piece to e4 . She then pauses again before saying...
(pause)
...'This is a good move, the pawn attacks a central square.'
It would be quicker and better to omit Paul Truong, and just have Susan move the pawn to e4, while she starts explaning why this is a good move."
Does this sound exciting, entertaining to you? How would it seem to a kid?
I took the trouble to look at the other reviews posted by the adult reviewers, and found something interesting:
Melania ["I can't wait for the next volume."] has reviewed only the 5 Susan Polgar videos - nothing else. And all of the comments on each video are identical, including the "I can't wait" line. Strangely, all of the reviews were written on 12/20/2005, so obviously, she didn't have to wait between the time of writing one review and the next, and so the line is obviously meaningless (and therefore clearly intended to deceive).
Vendala ["The quality of the video is fantastic."] has reviewed only the first 4 of the 5 Susan Polgar videos - nothing else. All are identical, and were written on 12/19/2005 (compare to Melania).
Oscar Cantana ["The quality is excellent. The contents are dynamic. It's the most professionally done chess DVD ever."] has reviewed the first 3 of the 5 Susan Polgar videos. Again, the comments are identical.
Oh, he does review 2 other chess books, but with only a couple of sentences. Kasparov's "Greatest Chess Games, Vol 1" gets "...I'm a Kasparov fan. This book contains an excellent collection of Mr. Kasparov's games. My only complaint is its high price." [The book costs a whole $1.50 more than any of the three Polgar videos.]
Cantana does take the time to criticize Alexandra Kosteniuk's "How I became a Grandmaster at Age 14" in eight sentences, two of which have grammatical errors. Others will note that Polgar and Kosteniuk are, of course, rivals.
And all of Cantana's reviews were written either on 12/12/2005, or 3 days later, on 12/15/2005 (compare to Vendala, Melania, etc.)
Now, on to Ann Venutolo: "...Well done, simple to understand, very good quality...."].
Ms Venutolo reviews all 5 Polgar videos, they are all duplicates, and they all have the same date: 12/9/2005. She apparently is committing the same deception as Melania, since she also uses the same telltale line again, "I can't wait for the next volume."
Ms Venutolo also reviews 2 other books. One is Mr Kasparov's book [the same one Mr Cantana reviewed...], Garry Kasparov's Greatest Chess Games, v1". In it, she claims: "Kasparov has produced countless incredible games. Unfortunately, this author didn't do a good job with the analysis." Do you know anyone who criticizes the World Champion's analysis without being a titled player themselves? I don't.
Finally, JStallings wrote: "This is simply the best chess instructional DVD series ever!" (S)he reviewed... all 5 Polgar videos, 1 Polgar book, and ... nothing else. All the Polgar video reviews are dated May 11, 2005.
Do you see patterns here? Does it also sound to you like these identities are merely disguises for one or two reviewers who attempted to promoted these videos using deceptive claims, and a chop-shop cut-and-paste reviewing technique that smacks of lack of attention to quality and detail?
I urge you to read ALL of the reviews, and form your own conclusions. There's more here than meets the eye, and not all of it is good.
No other reviewer gave the videos more than 3 stars, and most were much less.
disappointment from such a great IM December 4, 2006
Mr. Michael Domnin (Kent, UK)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like the reviewer "Kid's review" I say that S.P. does not fulfil what she promises to do: teaching.
She names the opening, gives a very brief point about it and passes to another opening in the same manner.
None of the priciples of planning are ever envisaged.
There's some improvement in the endgames section, but not enough to justify the high price you pay to have some advice -even at GM level (If I had to pay for GM level, I would require GM level tuiton).
If you have the book "Modern Chess Openings" by Nick Firmian, you'll find far more esplanations in that reference book than in Ms Polgar's DVD.
Sorry Ms Polgar, I cannot recommend anyone, even a beginner, to buy this DVD for lack of explanation.
If you say that you are going to show "How to plan games" then indeed you must show how to. This is lacking from the DVD.
Not a teaching good buy.
 The best December 20, 2005
Melania (Red Bank, NJ)
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bought these DVDs for my 3 kids who are rated between 600 - 1200. They are glued to them and have learned a lot from the series. I also enjoy these DVDs as well. I can't wait for the next volume.
Excellent Instruction December 19, 2005
Vendala (Rome, Italy)
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
The last reviewer wrote the dumbest thing. There're info about medical issues online everywhere. Then why do people go to the doctors? Of course everything in every chess book or DVD can be obtained elsewhere. But the point of having a GM explaining in details is what people pay for. This is the same reason why people pay to take chess lessons with GMs. There're are millions of chess players who see the same position but don't understand it. This is where videos like this come in. Ms. Polgar goes through all the details and explain everything in a very easy to understand manner. Many beginners play chess but have no idea what to do right after the openings. In this video, Ms. Polgar explained ways to learn the patterns of chess and tactics. No one has ever done this before. This is not for advanced players. It's for beginners and novice players. The quality of the video is fantastic.
You aren't taught "How" December 18, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is what you get:
Runtime 1 hours 10 minutes
Long-Term/Opening Plans:
1 King's Indian Defense
2 Meran Defense
3 Dutch Stonewall Defense
4 Queen's Gambit Exchange Carlsbad Variation
5 Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation
6 French Defense
7 Sicilian Dragon
Endgame Plans:
8 Pawn Endgame
9 Knight vs. Bishop
10 Bishop Endgame
11 Rook Endgame
12 Queen Endgame
Middlegame Plans:
13 Teresa Needham vs. Susan Polgar
14 Susan Polgar vs. Ramayrat
15 Susan Polgar vs. Ljubojevic
16 Susan Polgar vs. Paunovic
17 Botvinnik vs. Capablanca
18 Smyslov vs. Kasparov
You see those 7 openings? If you don't know how to play them, then those 7 chapters aren't gonna help you. And if you do know how to play them, then they won't either, because you should already know what the plan is in the opening that you're playing. And she races through them, makes it kind of confusing to follow.
You see the 5 endgame chapters? She just gives you an endgame position, and then tells you what the winning plan is. But not what your choices are, and not how to make a plan.
You see the last 5 middlegame chapters? At least she really does annotate these parts quite well!
Summary: She doesn't tell you "how to create a plan" she just tells you what the plan is. But for the annotated games this is forgiven because she at least is annotating a partial game for you.
This is given 1/2 star because you are not taught 'how to create a plan' like was promised. It is given another 1/2 star because at least it has some partially-annotated games in it.
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