A Guide to Chess Improvement features the very best of Dan Heisman's multi-award winning chess column Novice Nook, which ran for over ten years at the popular website ChessCafe.com. This book is full of valuable instruction, insight and practical advice on a wide range of key subjects: general improvement, thought processes, planning and strategy, tactics, endgame play, technique, time management and much more besides.
Heisman has thoroughly revised, expanded and updated his work to produce an easy-to-navigate guide. He has also included brand new and exclusive columns. Any player from beginner to expert who is serious about improving their chess should read this book!
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Dan Heisman's Books
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Analyzing the Chess Mind is an exploration of psychology in chess. Psychology affects the chess moves we make, as the authors entertainingly illustrate in expertly annotated examples, but our personal chess psychology is not fixed. We can improve our chess psychology, and the authors show how.
To write about chess psychology, the ideal authors would have world-class chess skills and advanced professional qualifications in psychology, so GM Boris Gulko and Dr Joel Sneed are perfect for the task of Analyzing the Chess Mind.
One of the finest chess books ever written, now in the revised algebraic edition. The author expounds both the basic principles and the most complex forms of attack on the king. A study of this masterpiece will add power and brilliance to any chess enthusiast's play.
The book consists of 36 attacking games from the 21st Century divided into four chapters.
Mastering attacking play in chess is a dream that we all long to achieve, but of course the art of attack does not arise by itself.
Constructing positions which favour the attack is the most difficult task.
In this book we shall see games with brilliant finishes, but we shall also draw attention to the different phases through which the struggle passes, in order make such finishes possible.
Attention has been paid not only to what happens on the board but also, wherever possible, to the influence of the analysis engines not only on a player’s preparation for the game, something that has become more important in these early years of the new century, but also on the practical context of the game.
The games are prefaced by brief biographical information and a short description of the events of the game.
After each game some lessons are highlighted.
Grandmaster Igor Zaitsev ranks as one of the most creative chess minds ever in the history of the royal game. This is his book of secrets and methods, his remarkable life’s work. Zaitsev unearthed astonishing ideas which even giants of the game had overlooked. World champions Tigran Petrosian and Anatoly Karpov insisted on Zaitsev’s analytical help in their matches, wanting to be first to play his profound discoveries, such as the famous Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez. Zaitsev was himself a tournament champion. With his sharp, combinative style, he won dozens of “Most Beautiful Game” awards. Many of these games provide context for his lessons. But Zaitsev is even more than a renowned coach and competitor. Part analyst, part champion, part chess philosopher, and part chess poet, he reveals the underlying logic and beauty of chess in a way no one else has ever done. In his eye-opening title chapter, “Attacking the Strongpoint,” Zaitsev makes explicitly clear a common strategic element never formalized until this book. Often overlooked by amateurs and even GMs, the idea can lead to winning tactics in many games! Backed up by top-level games, Zaitsev also provides deep-level explanations about: Combinations and Piece Harmony; Strategy and Structure; Learning from the Cycle of Chess Epochs; The Role of Reason and Judgment; The Chess Law of Conservation of Energy; Strategy: Evolution vs. Revolution, Recognizing a Favorable Structure. As you read Zaitsev, you’ll often find yourself thinking, “Ah, now I get it!” The volume is topped off by supplemental games, a complete autobiography by Zaitsev, a special foreword by world champion Garry Kasparov, as well as tributes and memories from world champion Anatoly Karpov and famed coach Mark Dvoretsky.
In the course of a game of chess, questions continually arise that test a player’s reasoning skills. Questions such as: “Who has the better position?”, “Should I resolve the tension in the center?”, “How can I improve the placement of my pieces?”. In this long-awaited extension of the classic Best Lessons of a Chess Coach, the reader is invited to take a seat in the classroom of a renowned chess teacher, and learn how to answer such questions while experiencing the beauty, logic, and artistry of great chess games. When Sunil Weeramantry lectures on the games of top grandmasters, one can imagine making decisions alongside them. When he lectures on his own games, one can also experience the personal excitement, disappointment, and satisfaction of a well-contested game of chess. The cumulative effect of studying these lessons is to give the aspiring player a wide range of tools with which to win.
In this book, Grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic teaches you how to look beyond the material balance when you evaluate positions. With loads of instructive examples he shows how the actual value of your pieces fluctuates during the game, depending on many non-material factors. Some of those factors are space-related, such as mobility, harmony, outposts, structures, files and diagonals. Other factors are related to time, and to the way the moves unfold: tempo, initiative, a threat, an attack. Modern chess players need to be able to suppress their need for immediate gratification. In order to gain the upper hand you often have to live with uncertain compensation. With many fascinating examples, Kuljasevic teaches you the essential skill of taking calculated risks. After studying Beyond Material, winning games by sacrificing material will become second nature to you.
Benjamin Katz is a renowned chess coach with over 20 years experience coaching students of all ability levels throughout the United States. He has helped numerous students improve and achieve chess success.
This book details the training program he has developed based on this extensive experience. It cultivates the core skill set required to advance beyond the basics in chess. Included are key strategies, basic endgame positions and techniques, information on what to do when you’re stuck, how to convert an advantage, and a high-level opening repertoire for both black and white.
There are also numerous practical exercises that utilize a combination of recent examples from the games of Benjamin’s students, as well as games played by the top players in the world, both contemporary and from the game’s history.
Learn from the legacy of one of the most talented players to ever grace the chess world.
All elements of the game explained in an easy-to-digest and highly entertaining fashion.
Dear readers, it is both our solemn duty and exceptional honour to present you a collection of Ivkov’s instructive explorations on various chess themes. In this book you will find a great number of intriguing anecdotes casting a new light on some of the greatest chess players of all time, and some lesser known heroes of our bellowed game. Also, this book can serve you as an inspiration to investigate a bit deeper in the areas of strategy, planning and tactics learning chess in the “good, old way” unpolluted by the excessive engine usage. Finally, you can simply browse through the material and enjoy solving numerous riddles, studies and puzzles, picking up bits of chess wisdom along the way.
We hope that you will find as much enjoyment reading this book as we experienced ourselves editing it for your pleasure.
Dear readers, the book in your hands is the second part of Ivkov’s “Chess Parallels”, the last book of his extraordinary career of chess player and analyst.
In this tome Ivkov deals with endgames and various types of queenless middlegame positions (early endgames). The examples he selected are both entertaining and highly instructive. Many of those jewels are not widely known, so a diligent reader should benefit quite a lot by examining them with patience and willingness to learn. Of course, the book could serve you well as a source of reference, as well as a collection of extremely interesting and captivating positions to delve deep into and put your brain to some severe tests! Either way, you are guaranteed to have a lot of fun and to pick up bits of chess wisdom on your journey through this book.
We hope that you will find as much enjoyment reading this book as we experienced ourselves editing it for your pleasure, since you are now well acquainted with Ivkov’s thought process and mastery by absorbing the material from “Chess Parallels I&II”
The chess world has witnessed a great number of wonderfully gifted attacking players, geniuses who have dazzled the chess public with their brilliant masterpieces. Everyone has their own favourites, and in Chess Secrets: Great Attackers, Colin Crouch chooses three of his own: Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Tal and Leonid Stein. World Champions Kasparov and Tal need no introduction, while Stein was a highly creative and intuitive player with the ability to destroy the world's best players with his vicious attacks. Crouch examines phases of these players' careers, compares their differing approaches and styles, and highlights key attacking themes including the idea of controlled risk - in some sacrificial attacks even the greatest players can't always see everything to the end. A study of this book will help you to enhance your skills in one of the most crucial elements of the game.