Bruce Pandolfini


Bruce Pandolfini is an American chess author, teacher, and coach. A USCF national master, he is generally considered to be America's most experienced chess teacher. As a coach and trainer, Pandolfini has possibly conducted more chess sessions than anyone in the world. By the summer of 2015 he had given an estimated 25,000 private and group lessons. Pandolfini's playing career ended in 1970 after a loss to Grandmaster Larry Evans at the National Open in Las Vegas in 1970. After his final tournament game, his official USCF rating was 2241.

General approach

In his books and columns he has explained his methodology for individual instruction, indicating that it consists of four basic parts.
  1. Regular review of the student's games and play;
  2. Constant practice and examination without moving the pieces;
  3. Gradual mastery of endgame basics and fundamentals;
  4. Step-by-step instilling of the analytic method.
The latter he achieves by relentlessly posing relevant questions, until the student absorbs the process of determining reasonable options and making logical choices.

Influence on chess presentation

Starting in the 1980s, Pandolfini identified and filled a role producing books especially for novices and intermediate players. His books have been influential and continue to be steady best sellers.
While being one of the first chess writers in America to rely on algebraic chess notation, Pandolfini created and/or popularized a few other innovations in instructional chess writing. It had been common for chess authors to list several moves before showing a diagram. Pandolfini realized beginning players struggle with that format. Most of his books display larger diagrams, often with verbalized explanations, so that beginning and casual players can examine chess games with greater ease and comprehension.
Another aspect to Pandolfini's teaching is his reliance on short, pithy, often counterintuitive statements to seize the student's attention and stimulate imagination.

Introduction to chess

Pandolfini was born in Lakewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His interest in chess was first realized when he was not quite fourteen. He was browsing in a public library, when he came upon the chess section. There were more than thirty books on the shelf, and they all seemed fascinating to him. The library permitted an individual to take out a certain number of books at a time. Pandolfini took out an initial batch of six books and then went back enough times that day to clear out the entire section. Then he skipped school for a month, instead immersing himself in the withdrawn books.

Chess teaching career

Although Pandolfini hadn't played in many tournaments, he reached chess master strength by his late teens. His long and prolific chess-teaching career, however, didn't begin until immediately after Bobby Fischer won the World Chess Championship in 1972 from Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, while Pandolfini was still working at the Strand Bookstore in Greenwich Village. During the match Pandolfini became an analyst for the PBS coverage. He served as an assistant to Shelby Lyman, the show's insightful moderator, and at the time, America's top chess teacher. It was Lyman who encouraged Pandolfini to pursue chess teaching as a career, and that's what he soon did.
Starting with private instruction and small seminars, Pandolfini, with George Kane and Frank Thornally, formed U. S. Chess Masters, Inc., an educational organization that structured systematized programs to a wide range of players. In 1973 the same group began teaching chess classes for credit at the New School for Social Research, the first such courses ever offered in America. Pandolfini remained on the faculty of the New School until 1991.
Through the years, and while maintaining an active private practice, Pandolfini also taught chess and lectured on the game in many different schools and clubs, including the Shelby Lyman Chess Institute, Stuyvesant High School, Lehman College, New York University, Hunter College, the Harvard Club, the University of Alabama, the New York Athletic Club and the Rockefeller Institute.

The 1980s and beyond

In the 1980s Pandolfini's career took different turns. From 1980-1981 he was a spokesman for Mattel Electronics, with his picture appearing on the box of Mattel's initial version of a computer chess game. During those same years Pandolfini became the director of the Chess Institute at the Marshall Chess Club, heading a staff of 23 teachers and masters. At about the same time, Pandolfini developed his longtime relationship with Simon & Schuster, creating the Fireside Chess Library in 1983. In addition to his Simon & Schuster involvement, Pandolfini published a number of books with Random House and several other publishers.
In 1984, Pandolfini became the executive director of the Manhattan Chess Club, then at Carnegie Hall, a position he retained until 1987. It was from the platform of the Manhattan Chess Club that Pandolfini and Faneuil Adams co-founded in 1986 the Manhattan Chess Club School, which was later renamed as Chess-in-the-schools, an organization that since its formation has provided free chess instruction to thousands of New York City school children.
Several years later, Pandolfini was featured in Fred Waitzkin’s book Searching for Bobby Fischer, a perceptive narrative on his talented son Josh and Josh’s successes in the world of children’s chess. The book later became a Paramount film of the same title, in which Pandolfini, Josh’s real-life teacher, was portrayed by award winning actor Ben Kingsley. Pandolfini was the film’s chief chess consultant, training the actors and creating the scenario chess positions. Subsequent films Pandolfini consulted on were "Fresh" and "The Assassins."
In 1990, Pandolfini was the chief commentator at the New York half of the Garry Kasparov–Anatoly Karpov World Chess Championship Match. Later that same year, he was the head coach of the American delegation to the World Youth Chess Championships in Fon-du-lac, Wisconsin. In addition to co-creating the Chess-in-the-schools program for public schools, Pandolfini has been associated with various private institutions, including long-time relationships with Trinity, Browning, Dalton, and Berkeley Carroll.
In 2011 Pandolfini was elected to the American Chess Journalist’s Hall of Fame, and in 2012, he was named as Chess Educator of the Year by University of Texas at Dallas.
Pandolfini’s list of successful students is impressive, including Fabiano Caruana, one of the highest ranked chess players in history; Josh Waitzkin, subject of the film Searching for Bobby Fischer); Rachel Crotto, two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion; Jeff Sarwer, the 1988 Under-10 World Chess Champion and now professional poker player. Other grandmasters receiving lessons as children from Bruce include grandmasters Joel Benjamin, three-time U.S. Chess Champion; and Max Dlugy, 1985 World Junior Chess Champion. On the September 2015 USCF rating list, several of his students continue to be among the nation’s top ranked scholastic players.
'''Pandolfini's Teaching Principles
"Pandolfinisms":
Convenient shortcuts to presentation:
Not only has Pandolfini relied on terse, often epigrammatic phrasings of principles, he typically provides useful constructs for remembering and reinforcing them. One aspect that Pandolfini has codified nicely concerns planning, an area of chess thinking with which students tend to have difficulty. Indeed, in choosing plans, students often opt for courses of action opposed to what they should be doing. For example, students thoughtlessly complicate when they should be simplifying or simplify when they should be complicating. The following chart, from "Pandolfini’s Chess Complete," is an example of his use of classification to enable students to recall and access basic chess strategies.
Enemy Problem – Do This Against It:
  1. Bad minor piece – avoid its exchange; keep it restricted
  2. Blocked pieces – keep them blocked
  3. Cramped game – avoid freeing exchanges
  4. Down the Exchange – use rook to set up winning endgame
  5. Exposed king – threaten with pieces; set up double attacks
  6. Ill-timed flank attack – counter in the center
  7. Lack of development – look for tactics and combinations
  8. Unprotected pieces – play for double attacks
  9. Material disadvantage – trade pieces, not pawns
  10. Weak castled position – open lines; invade on weak squares
  11. Overextended pawns – attack with pieces
  12. Pawn-grabbing – exploit disarray; storm the king
  13. Pinned units – pile up on them
  14. Early queen moves – attack it with development
  15. Time trouble – find good, but surprising threats
  16. Uncastled king – prevent castling; open the center
  17. Under heavy attack – shun simplification until gain
  18. Unfavorable majorities – create passed pawn
  19. Weak pawns – fix, exploit and attack
  20. Weak squares – occupy them

    Writings

Pandolfini has written a monthly column for the magazine Chess Life titled "The ABC's of Chess" since 1979. This column once featured endgame lessons, then monthly tutorials on openings, but since the early 1990s has evolved into "Solitaire Chess," an instructional column inviting readers to guess the moves played in a single chess game. Pandolfini also has written regular features for the Chess Cafe and Chess.com, both of which offer online services. But it is as an author of chess books that his writings are perhaps best known. Pandolfini has to his credit more than thirty titles on the game of chess.
List of Books, APPs, Videos, and DVDs by Pandolfini
1980 Let's Play Chess
1985 Bobby Fischer's Outrageous Chess Moves
1985 One Move Chess By The Champions
1986 ABC's of Chess
1986 Principles of the New Chess
1986 Kasparov's Winning Chess Tactics
1987 Russian Chess
1988 Pandolfini's Endgame Course: Basic Endgame Concepts Explained by America's Leading Chess Teacher
1988 Best of Chess Life and Review, Volume 1
1988 Best of Chess Life and Review, Volume 2
1989 Chess Openings: Traps And Zaps
1989 Weapons of Chess: An Omnibus of Chess Strategies
1990 Understanding Chess - Pandolfini on Video: Master teacher Bruce Pandolfini teaches the elements and tactical themes of chess
1991 Chessercizes: New Winning Techniques for Players of All Levels
1991 More Chessercizes: Checkmate: 300 Winning Strategies for Players of All Levels
1992 Pandolfini's Chess Complete: The Most Comprehensive Guide to the Game, from History to Strategy
1993 Beginning Chess: Over 300 Elementary Problems for Players New to the Game
1993 More Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps 2
1994 Square One: A Chess Drill Book for Beginners
1994 Chess Target Practice: Battle Tactics for Every Square on the Board
1995 Chess Thinking: The Visual Dictionary of Chess Moves, Rules, Strategies and Concepts
1995 Chess Doctor: Surefire Cures for What Ails Your Game
1996 Power Mates: Essential Checkmating Strategies and Techniques
1996 Chess Starts Here – Audio
1997 Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine
1998 The Winning Way
2003 Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess
2003 Every Move Must Have A Purpose: Strategies From Chess For Business And Life
2003 Every Move Must Have a Purpose: Strategies From Chess For Business And Life
2005 Q&A Way in Chess
2005 Solitaire Chess
2007 Treasure Chess: Trivia, Quotes, Puzzles, and Lore from the World's Oldest Game –Hardcover –
2007 Pandolfini's Chess Challenges: 111 Winning Endgames
2008 Let's Play Chess: A Step by Step Guide for New Players )
2009 Endgame Workshop: Principles for the Practical Player
2010 The Rules of Chess
2010 Chess Movies 1
2011 Chess Movies 2: The Means and Ends
2012 Pandolfini's Mates in One:
Quotes by Bruce Pandolfini
"Playing chess gives us a chance to start out life over again, and this time, no one has more money than us, no one is more beautiful, no one lives in a better neighborhood, and we all go to the same school. Other than having the first move no one starts with any unfair advantage."
"Chess is art. Chess is sport. But it's also war. You have to master on the order of a hundred thousand different chess ideas and concepts, patterns of pawns and pieces. That takes work. And you're going to lose a lot of games in the process, so you'll have to be able to make your peace with that, which isn't easy. Because there is no luck involved in the game, you have to face the fact that you lost because your opponent outwitted you. Ninety per cent of my students give up on tournament chess when they get into junior high school and the main reason is that they can't stand losing."
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"If you rely on your own judgment, either of two good things will happen. Either you’ll be right, and succeed, or you’ll be wrong, and learn something."
"We don't really know how the game was invented, though there are suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we'll let you know."
"The polarity is clear. When you teach, you're trying to help someone, and when you play, you're trying to hurt someone. Both of these situations - being too sympathetic while playing or too antipathetic while teaching - are not necessarily perceived, since they tend to exist on the unconscious level."
"Chess is a creative process. Its purpose is to find the truth. To discover the truth, you must be uncompromising. You must be brave."
"The two most important forms of intelligence are the ability to read other people and the ability to understand oneself."
"After 1972, we lost so many great pieces of art. Hundreds of masterpieces he would have created if he had stayed a sane being. We feel the great loss. All chess players do."
"Play as if the future of humanity depends on your efforts. It really does."