July 27, 2015 | Golden Chess Centre

When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis – 3 Problems Beginners Need to Unlock

by Kish | Jul 27, 2015 | Articles, Book Reviews

When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis

Improve Your Chess Strategy

Andrew Soltis is one author whom I look forward to a lot. He was one of the instrumental authors in my growth as a chess player.

His greatest skill is his lucid writing style and simple methods to elucidate complex chess concepts even to laymen in chess

In the book When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis – the author says that knowing when and what to exchange in chess, is an art that can be learned with the proper training.

Why is the correct exchanging of pieces important?

Exchanging the chess pieces (chessmen) in a series of well-coordinated moves is an essential skill that every chess player must have

If a chess player wants to improve beyond the beginner levels in Chess, he is well advised to have ‘When to Exchange in Chess‘

in his book collection,

Players of all levels will find plenty of practical tips and advice, as well as illustrative examples taken from actual play.

This book is one that will help you improve your game by a few notches since there is a dearth of literature on this subject in chess.

Another old classic that comes to mind is: Exchanging to Win in the Endgame by Gennady Nesis – which deals with the transition from middlegame to endgame.

What is different in this book?

Andy Soltis is different in his approach – in that he explains

When and if you should exchange your bishop for a knight,
Which pair of bishops to exchange
When it’s important to keep rooks on the board, and
When to refuse any trade.

The biggest problem for upcoming players is taken as the subject of this ~~upcoming~~ book – When to trade pieces?

This is a challenging question, especially when playing against a very competitive or patient opponent, or a general beginner who does NOT understand this theory at all.

It is not an easy task to learn something that is not often discussed in chess books, neither directly nor exhaustively.

The author Andy Soltis will guide your chess learning with this important topic of when to exchange pieces in Chess.

I call this the ‘art of conversion‘.

One of the main opening principles I teach to my students in my chess classes is – don’t exchange pieces unnecessarily.

I have to make sure that they follow this advice, after explaining to them the reason not to exchange.

When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis addresses 3 Problems Beginners Face:

The first problem –

Beginner level chess players face is that they do not understand when the opening phase has ended and when the Middlegame in chess starts.

This causes some problems in following the principles while exchanging pieces.

The second problem

is that the beginners do not understand the idea of compensation.

By compensation, I mean, what is the non-material advantage that we get when we trade pieces?

If I ask beginners whether a trade is good or bad, they will immediately look at the piece’s values and decide if it is worthy or not.

But if I ask the advanced players – they will look at the compensation in form of non-material advantages – such as pawn structure, Piece activity, and piece placement with regard to attack or defense.

The third problem

that beginner will be having problems in understanding – is the importance of the concept of tempo.

Ahh… This is one concept that takes some effort in teaching and making sure that it stays in mind. There is so much focus on tactics and checkmates that the poor little tempo guy just seems to be relegated to the backbenches!

But this is where the trainer has a lot of work to do. I think Soltis’s book will be a ready-reckoner and a guide for coaches who want to take up this Herculean task – explaining the Tempo!

Kramnik and Karpov were masters on this topic, as they were masters of exchange and building initiatives slowly.

No wonder their games are featured here extensively.

When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis is an essential read and is a must for the intermediate and advanced chess player’s library.

Order it on Amazon –