ChessCentral Winning Chess The Easy Way with Susan Polgar, Vol. 2: Learn How to Create a Plan in The Opening, Middle & Endgame Bundled with Art of War DVD

POLGAR'S DVD WORKS WELL ON MY TV.

Susan Polgar is unquestionably one of the grandmasters of chess. Her understanding of the game and her demonstrated expertise in tournament play are nothing short of awe-inspiring. This DVD, however, would probably be of most use to extremely experienced players. I have played for years, but not terribly seriously and have lately wanted to improve my game. Examples from very famous games are provided in this DVD, often with the pieces moving extremely rapidly and without full explanation of the thinking involved. To state the generality, there is less explanation of the principles than I would have liked. I felt like I saw great examples of play, but did not have the principles and theories behind the moves adequately explained. That may indicate my lack of experience at the very serious level, but I think it will be a common experience for those of us who have not passionately studied the game as yet.

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.

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.

Notice that the reviews are wildy skewed on this work (and its twins). That means there's a camp of people who rate it as a 2 or worse, and a camp that rate it as a 5. The only time that ever happens is when the author and their co-conspirators are trying to combat bad reviews by posting spurious and biased 5-star reviews under pseudonyms. See below for the proof of this manipulative and deceptive practice. First, here are some of the details of why this "work" earned poor reviews. You will notice that the 5-star reviews give no specifics or details, they just praise the stuff in general. Michael Domlin: "...None of the priciples of planning are ever envisaged.." That's not just odd, it represents deceptive advertising, since the subject of this video is _learning how to create a plan_. 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 (by other reviewers, using the same moniker): 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? And (as stated earlier) lacking in detail? 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 (different reviewer, same alias): 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". These are vague and (if you read the low-star reviews) absolutely unsubstantiated claims. 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 <as Paul shuffles his papers>. 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? Now the proof of the deception: 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 already had all of the videos in hand. So the line is obviously pure deception. 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). Reviewers who review only one product, and whose statements simply contradict the criticisms in vague terms, are usually phantoms set up to try to cancel out the bad reviews. This reviewer follows the 'phantom' pattern perfectly. 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.] The claim is vague and unsubstantiated (to the point of being a tautology - the author in question was the longest running World Champion in history, so you'd have to be an editorial idiot to fail to produce an excellent collection). These empty and vapid book reviews are clearly intended to camouflage the phantom nature of the reviewer, and their only purpose for existing is to try to give the reviewer some credibility when they 5-star the Polgar DVD's. They fail miserably. 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. So, this review is actually spiteful, besides being posted under a pseudonym. Surely this is the lowest form of cowardice in a review, attempting to mask bias by using an alias, and singling out your rivals for criticism. 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.). This is the attribute that guarantees that a group of reviewers are phantoms - they do all their work on the same day, and usually within a week of the others. Now, on to Ann Venutolo: "...Well done, simple to understand, very good quality...."]. Why do you say that? What's the evidence for these claims? Wendy's put it best: "Where's the beef??" Ms Venutolo reviews all 5 Polgar videos, all of the reviews are copy and paste jobs, 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." Here's another clear indication that one person is posing as multiple reviewers - cut and paste jobs in one reviewer's work and then using the same idiomatic phrase under two or more pseudonyms. Ms Venutolo also reviews 2 other books. One is Mr Kasparov's book, Garry Kasparov's Greatest Chess Games, v1". This is the same one Mr Cantana reviewed; even the subjects of the camouflage reviews are identical! 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. And there are no examples of the supposedly flawed analysis - hardly a credible statement, given the source's lack of credentials and the review's lack of evidence. 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. In order to make this claim at all, you would have to know about all of the other DVD's... Does JS seriously expect us to believe they have cataloged, let alone reviewed _all_ of the chess instructional DVD's that exist? Again, no evidence, a wildly exaggerated claim, and no specifics. Obviously, simply an attempt to cancel out a bad review. 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? Would you agree that even the deception itself is insultingly simplistic and poorly executed? If so, do you think the same work ethic could possibly produce a high-quality instructional DVD? I urge you to read ALL of the reviews, and form your own conclusions. There's more here than meets the eye, but not much. No other reviewer gave the videos more than 3 stars, and most were much less. The _unbiased_ camp has clearly panned this work, and for good reasons that they are happy to explain. The other camp fails to provide evidence of their claims, and has only thinly disguised who's at work and what they're up to. Obviously, it's no good.

[...] This is by far the highest quality chess instructional DVD on the market. GM Polgar is one of the most well known chess players, authors and coaches in chess. She makes things easy to understand with this DVD. I own all six volumes and would highly recommend it.

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.

Well done, simple to understand, very good quality. Roman's series' too advance. Other series look like they were filmed in someone's basement. This is the best by far. The kids must have watched this series 50 times already. I can't wait for the next volume.