Jeremy Silman

Jeremy Silman (August 28, 1954 – September 21, 2023) was an American chess player and writer. He obtained the title of International Master (IM).

Early life

Silman was born in Del Rio, Texas, on August 28, 1954. His father was in the military and the family moved frequently before settling in San Diego by the early 1960s. Silman began playing chess at the age of 12. In high school, he wanted to move to the Soviet Union and study chess, due to the game's popularity and the number of skilled players he knew there. This was infeasible, so he instead served briefly in the U.S. Army before moving in San Francisco to continue playing chess. His family was not understanding of his passion for chess, and he grew apart from them over the years.

In San Francisco, Silman was involved in the Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1970s. The preface to his Endgame Course mentions this, and fellow chess players Daniel King and Ronan Bennett allude to this in a newspaper column from 2007. His years in San Francisco inspired ''Autobiography of a Goat'' (2013), a semi-autobiographical novel. He lived in London, Chicago, and Seattle for brief stretches before moving to Los Angeles, where he was based for the rest of his life.

Chess

Silman won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. He attained the IM title in 1988. He wrote over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, as well as articles for chess magazines such as ''Chess Life'' and '' New in Chess''. He also wrote many articles and puzzles for the Chess.com.

Silman was 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''. However, Silman was uncredited for his work on ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''.

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. According to Dana Mackenzie, the imbalances are, in roughly descending order of importance:
*Superior minor piece, which refers to the relative strength of the knights and bishops
*Pawn structure
* Spatial control
*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 (along with superior development) 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 that players use. This procedure is to be followed ''after'' checking for tactical threats for both sides.
# Figure out the positive and negative imbalances 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 (called candidate moves). The candidate moves are all the moves that lead to our dream position.

Personal life and death

Silman was married to Gwen Feldman. He died from primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia, on September 21, 2023, at his home in West Hollywood, California; he was 69 years old.Chessbase: Jeremy Silman (1954-2023)
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Books

* ''Silman's Chess Odyssey: Cracked Grandmaster Tales, Legendary Players, and Instruction and Musings'', 2022, Siles Press, .
* ''Autobiography of a Goat'', 2013, 252 pages, Maelstrom Press, .
* ''How to Reassess your Chess (4th edition): 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, .
* ''Gambits in the Slav'' with William John Donaldson, 2003, 160 pages, Chess Enterprises, .
* ''The Reassess your Chess Workbook: How to Master Chess Imbalances'', 2001, 400 pages, Siles Press, .
* ''The Amateur's Mind (2nd edition): Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery'', 1999, 443 pages, Siles Press, .
* ''Accelerated Dragons (2nd edition)'' with William John Donaldson, 1998, 320 pages, Everyman Chess, .
* ''The Complete Book of Chess Strategy: Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z'', 1998, 360 pages, Siles Press, .
* ''Winning with the Sicilian Defense (2nd edition): A Complete Repertoire against 1.e4'', 1998, 353 pages, Chess Digest, .
* ''Essential Chess Endings Explained Move by Move Volume One: Novice thru Intermediate'', 1992, 223 pages, Chess Digest, .
* ''The Dynamic Caro-Kann: The Bronstein Larsen and the Original Caro System'', 1990, 182 pages, Summit Publishing, .
* ''A Complete Black Repertoire'', 1986, 126 pages, Chess Digest, .

References

External links

*

Personal web page


from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Reconstructed in
YouTube video


Profile
on chess.com
Silman's courses
o
The Great CoursesJeremy Silman
at Find a Grave

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silman, Jeremy
1954 births
2023 deaths
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American male writers
American chess players
American chess writers
American male non-fiction writers
American non-fiction writers
Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Chess International Masters
Chess coaches
Deaths from dementia in California
Deaths from primary progressive aphasia
Jewish American non-fiction writers
Jewish chess players
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from West Hollywood, California
United States Army soldiers
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from San Diego
Writers from San Francisco
Chess players from Los Angeles
Chess players from San Diego