Rizzitano came in first or equal first in New England tournaments 157 times (out of 336).  He won the New Hampshire Open Championship in 1979; the Massachusetts Open Championship in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1987; the New England Open Championship in 1982; the Rhode Island Championship in 1984 and 1985; and the Illinois Open Championship in 1987 (yes, I know Illinois is not in New England).  He came in first in the 1976 U.S. National Jr. High School Championship, the 1979 U.S. High School Championship, the 1980 U.S. Open Speed Championship, the 1983 Chicago International, and the 1988 National Open.  He made his fourth International Master norm, locking up the title, by coming in first at the 1985 Windy City International.

In 1989, Rizzitano decided to take a year’s vacation from chess.  As every Russian schoolboy knows, however, life is what happens while we’re waiting to make our move, and the time away from the Royal Game grew to 14 years.  (I suspect it had something to do with spending quality time with the wife and two children whom he thanks in the book’s "Acknowledgements".)

A couple of years ago, Rizzitano began to consider returning to chess.  He was faced with the question, how to get back in fighting shape?  He decided to follow the time-tested advice given by Botvinnik (and others) of studying in depth and annotating his own games.  The result of Rizzitano’s self-examination is Understanding Your Chess.

The book contains 64 of Rizzitano’s games, with annotations.  In addition, there are 44 partial games, endgames, and studies; mostly ones played by the author, with notes.  Some of the shorter entries relate to (and follow) a complete game.

The list of opponents includes, among others, Alburt, Benjamin, Benko, Christiansen, de Firmian, Dlugy, Gurevich, Larsen, Speelman, Tal and Wolff.  The list of the openings is no less interesting: Benoni, Bird’s, Caro-Kann, Dutch, English, Four Knights, French, Grunfeld, King’s Gambit Declined, King’s Indian, Modern, Nimzo-Indian, Petroff, Pirc, Queen’s Indian, Reti, Ruy Lopez, Scotch, Sicilian (including three Smith-Morra Gambits) Slav & Semi-Slav, Torre and Trompowsky.

About half of the games have an introductory paragraph or three, before the moves begin, as does each chapter.  All of the complete games are followed by usually three "Game Lessons" – important things that Rizzitano learned from playing or studying the game, or important things that the reader should take away from going over the game.

The contents will give you an idea of the topics touched upon.  After Symbols, a Dedication, Acknowledgements, a Bibliography and an Introduction, the chapters are: Battling Goliath, Tactical Skirmishes, Opening Hits, Opening Misses, Opening Wars, Power of the Initiative, Accumulating Small Advantages, Runaway Tactics, and Endgame Adventures.  There follows an Index of Players and Analysis, and an Index of Openings.

A few words about the title: I don’t know if the book was named by the author, or by the publisher, but it could equally have been called Understanding MY Chess; or, more accurately, Understanding YOUR Chess by Watching How I Understood MY Chess and When You’ve Understood That, by Applying What You’ve Learned to YOUR Chess...  Ok, maybe I can see why they went with the shorter Understanding Your Chess.

Make no mistake, Rizzitano has put a whole lot of effort into understanding his games, and he acts as a model for the player who wants to improve his own chess by following in the author’s footsteps.  It is apparent in Rizzitano’s choice of games, in the depth of his analysis, and the wisdom he imparts along the way.  He explained to me in an e-mail:

Rizzitano took advantage of many resources.  Understanding Your Chess’ Bibliography includes 41 books, as well as 11 electronic (e.g. ChessBase Opening Encyclopaedia) or periodical sources.  Analysis was assisted by Fritz8 and Fritz Endgame Turbo 2.

A hair-raising example of a deep look can be seen in the game Tal – Rizzitano, National Open, Chicago 1988 (Game 6 in the book), which appears in pdf format at the Chess Café "Skittles Room".

Doing what Rizzitano did to get where he got will not be to every reader’s taste – I am reminded of the out-of-shape character who complained that he had watched an exercise video a half-dozen times, and still hadn’t lost any weight.  (I will not be tempted to make a Schwarzeneggerian reference to "chess girlymen.")  Still, Understanding Your Chess can be read as an enjoyable games collection, and chess couch potatoes can look for bits of advice while simply humming when they get to the harder parts.

A sample of Rizzitano’s comments:

There are many, many more.

Rizzitano is dogmatic about which openings to play: stick to the mainstream lines the Grandmasters play, avoid the offbeat (or you’ll be served up as "breakfast at the Road Kill Café").  Even though he has been successful with some dodgy lines, upon reflection he has to admit: "The inescapable conclusion is that romantic gambit play simply does not generate dynamic winning chances against strong opposition on a consistent basis..."

The "Endgame Adventures" chapter is a nice addition.  As Rizzitano notes "Many club players do not like to study the endgame, but it is usually a very efficient use of chess study time…"  Consider the following position from:

Rizzitano – Mercuri
Leominster 1981

The game continued only as far as 49…b6?? 50.b5!! 1-0.  Rizzitano takes a page, though, with diagrams, to explain why his opponent "took a lot of abuse from the spectators for losing the game in this fashion," ending up with the assessment that "the apparently simple pawn endgame is drawn after all; however, it took another twenty moves of analysis to prove it."

It can be argued, as one reviewer did (for the game de Firmian – Rizzitano, Continental Chess International, New York 1982, Game 44 in the book, read the complete review by Sune Andersen), that Understanding Your Chess does not provide enough guidance, tools and teaching to help the reader understand his own chess, learn from his own games or improve his own results.  At the same time, however, the reviewer acknowledged "I can use the games as a template for studies of my own games" – which I think was Rizzitano’s intention behind the book.

The same reviewer closed with a bland recommendation that one turn to game collections by "Nunn, Fischer, Larsen, Bronstein, Kramnik, etc." which is a great idea, although I would have added Alekhine, Botvinnik, Capablanca, etc.  An interesting counter-point is made by Jonathan Tisdall in his Improve Your Chess Now (Cadogan 1997), though:

Nigel Davies, in his generally favorable Tiger Chess review of Rizzitano’s book, expresses a preference for Alex Yermolinsky’s The Road to Chess Improvement (Gambit 1999).  Readers, let’s be fair here: Yermo is a grandmaster, a U.S. Champion with much international experience, and an incredible (and funny) writer.  If you don’t have his book, stop right here, leave your computer, and go buy a copy.  While you’re at it, though, pick up Understanding Your Chess, too – it’s a keeper.