Jeremy Silman is an American International Master of chess and writer. He has won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. Silman has authored over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, and has written articles for chess magazines such as Chess Life and New in Chess. He has also authored many chess mentoring puzzles on the chess.com website. Silman is the professor in a video chess course produced by The Teaching Company as part of its Great Courses series. Silman served as a chess consultant on the 2001 Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Monk, and Malcolm in the Middle.
Strategy of imbalances
In his books, Silman evaluates positions according to the "imbalances", or differences, which exist in every position, and advocates that players plan their play according to these. A good plan according to Silman is one which highlights the positive imbalances in the position. The imbalances are, in rough descending order of importance according to Dana Mackenzie:
Material; in his Chess Life series The Art of Planning, Silman called this the most important imbalance because it affected every phase of the game;
Control of open files, diagonals, and squares
development
initiative; Silman notes that this is a dynamic imbalance that must be used quickly if the advantage is not to fade away
Silman's thinking technique
Silman proposes in How to Reassess Your Chess a five-fold procedure that he recommends players to use. This procedure is to be followed after checking for tactical threats for both sides.
Figure out the side of the board you wish to play on. You can only play when a favourable imbalance or the possibility of creating a favourable imbalance exists.
Don't calculate! Instead, dream up various fantasy positions, i.e., the positions you would most like to achieve.
Once you find a fantasy position that makes you happy, you must figure out if you can reach it. If you find that your choice was not possible to implement, you must create another dream position that is easier to achieve.
Only now do you look at the moves you wish to calculate. The candidate moves are all the moves that lead to our dream position.
Books
Autobiography of a Goat, 2013, 252 pages, Maelstrom Press,.
How to Reassess your Chess : Chess Mastery through Chess Imbalances, 2010, 658 pages, Siles Press,.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master, 2007, 530 pages, Siles Press,.
Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions, with Pal Benko and John L. Watson, 2004, 520 pages, Siles Press,.
