Jeremy Silman is an American International Master of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

. He has won the US Open

U.S. Open Chess Championship

The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since 1900.-History:Through 1938, the tournaments were organized by the Western Chess Association and its successor, the American Chess Federation .The United States Chess Federation ...

, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 of the US junior national chess team. Silman has authored over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, and served as a chess consultant on the 2001 Harry Potter

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in the United States and India as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The film is the first instalment in the Harry Potter film series,...

. He has given lessons to many top players of the game and has contributed to chess magazines such as New in Chess

New In Chess

New In Chess is a chess magazine that appears eight times a year with chief editors International Grandmaster Jan Timman and Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam. It contains notes by top players and chess prodigies on their own games...

. Silman is known for his empathy for the class player, and has written whole books targeted towards lower rated chess players. He has also authored many chess mentoring puzzles on the chess.com website.

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:

• Initiative
  Initiative (chess)
  Initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored. He thus puts his opponent in the position of having to use his turns responding to threats rather than making his own. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver his pieces into more and...
  
  , Silman notes that this (along with superior development) is a dynamic imbalance which must be used quickly if the advantage is not to fade away.
• Material In his Chess Life series The Art of Planning, Silman called this the most important imbalance because it had an impact on every phase of the game.
• Pawn structure
  Pawn structure
  In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position.-General observations:Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such...
  
  .
• Control of lines and squares.
• Superior minor piece, which refers to the relative strength of the knight
  Knight (chess)
  The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
  
  s and bishop
  Bishop (chess)
  A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
  
  s.
• Development.

Silman was a common contributor to Chess Life

Chess Life

Chess Life is a monthly chess magazine published in the United States. The official publication of the United States Chess Federation , it reaches more than a quarter of a million readers every month. A subscription to Chess Life is one of the benefits of Full Adult, Youth, or Life membership in...

, writing educational columns for amateur players. In many cases he included games played by amateurs, pointing out the mistaken thought processes such players make. His annotations are known for the candor, and occasional harshness, for example The Amateur's Mind chastises a student with "This incoherent litany shows why he doesn't do well in tournaments". Silman has directed this harshness towards his own play as well, for example annotating the game Silman-Delaune, he wrote that having won material, he thought the game would win itself, and that "With this terrible mental attitude, White ceased to think, refused the draw offer

Draw by agreement

In chess, a draw by agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1...

, and coasted along mindlessly, making one awful move after another". He currently writes online chess articles for chess.com

Chess.com

Chess.com is an online chess community with over 4 million members as of October 2011. Chess.com has free chess play and contains a range of activities for its users, including tournaments, articles, videos, and social tools...

.

Books

• How to Reassess your Chess
• The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery
• The Complete Book of Chess Strategy:Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z, 1998, Siles Press, ISBN 978-1-890085-01-8
• The Reassess your Chess Workbook
• Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions, 2004, Siles Press. With Pal Benko
  Pál Benko
  Pal Benko is a chess grandmaster, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.- Early life :Benko was born in France but was raised in Hungary. He was Hungarian champion by age 20. He emigrated to the United States in 1958, after defecting following the World Student Team...
  
   and John L. Watson
  John L. Watson
  John Leonard Watson is a chess International Master and author.Watson was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He was educated at Brownell-Talbot, Harvard, and the University of California at San Diego, where he took his degree in engineering...
  
  
• Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master, 2007, Siles Press, ISBN 1-890085-10-3.
• Accelerated Dragons, 1998, Everyman Chess
  Everyman Chess
  Everyman Chess is a major publisher of books and CDs about chess. The company was formerly called Cadogan Chess. "Everyman" is a registered trademark of Random House and the company headquarters is in London. Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is their chief advisor and John Emms is the...
  
  . With John W. Donaldson.

External links

• Personal web page
• Chess Position from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
• Interview with Jeremy Silman
• Profile on chess.com