The new series of middlegame books by Adrian Mikhalchishin and Georg Mohr starts with a volume about the center.
The idea behind this book is for you to ‘play’ as in a real game, and it is my job to ensure you have a pleasant time while training. I suggest you take at least an hour and a half for each game and as your coach I will indicate when to guess the moves. Sometimes there will be suggestions — including tricky ones — to measure your concentration level. Th e ideas behind the moves are always explained.
Points are awarded for the ‘right answers’ as well as for some other moves, and at the end there is a general assessment plus a review of some of the things to be learned from the game. During my coaching period I was able to witness how motivating it is for kids to receive points for the right answers, their ‘lives are at stake’ when they try to find the answers, and it is a challenge much appreciated by them. Later I also noticed a similar effect with adults although, unlike the kids, the older students try to hide it.
The final score is not that important; it is not scientifically based. But of course the more points you get the better you ‘would have played’. The effort you put into trying to find the best move every time is what matters most. I firmly believe it really helps to learn a little more about playing chess with every game.
This handbook, probably the most thorough grounding in the history of teaching chess, was recently created for chess teachers at the DYSS, the special sports school for young talents in Russia.
In VOLUME 2 you are again handed basic and advanced tools to improve in a wide array of areas: assessing and handling pawn structures, employing positional and tactical means to improve your position, identifying weak spots, mastering attacking dynamics and more.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu
Mostly basing my chess work on this statement of the great Chinese military theoretician, I have managed throughout my chess coaching career to implement many of his principles, and even establish them as being valid for the game of chess. I think the statement above should be taken as an axiom. Thus, strategy must be the leading chess topic, and definitely based on logic. Moreover, strategy must tower over all other chess topics and sub-topics; strategy is the ultimate chess idea and it sublimates and determines other principles.
How to learn strategy? Can it be learned? It can be, of course. And these volumes are the perfect guide to learn (or, more precisely, to learn to understand) strategy.
My idea is to throw light on all the strategic concepts in these volumes. To help you navigate more simply, I have divided all the material into two volumes. This first one is exploring the elements of strategy, explaining typical and essential principles in detail. The second one is about pawn structures. Of course, structures themselves actually mean nothing without recognizing patterns and principles from the elements (because pawn structures are used to determine the values of pieces, for instance). That is why volume two can be considered as an advanced level of strategy. Generally, examples will be based on material adopted from volume one and upgraded.
Volume 2 is divided into eight chapters. Unlike Volume 1, it is possible to mix the order in which you study these chapters, but not to study the games within each chapter out of order, since the examples build upon each other in complexity. I suggest that the chapter on “Passed Pawns” should be studied first, because many of the various middlegame structures can ultimately give rise to a passed pawn in the endgame. Work carefully through these examples, because masters use pawn structures even in the opening to predict the properties of endgames which can potentially arise – this is a widely neglected aspect and can be a strong weapon for you!
Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world chess champion, was one of the deepest thinkers the chess world has ever seen. His handling of complex positions was legendary.
With his rare strategic feeling and exceptional vision, Petrosian gradually became one of the top exponents of the art of the exchange sacrifice, and perhaps the leading protagonist for the positional exchange sacrifice.
Acclaimed author Vassilios Kotronias has assembled a splendid collection of Petrosian’s games, exemplifying the artist at work. The Greek grandmaster presents 36 games – all deeply annotated – in which he puts the Tiger’s signature sacrifice under the analytical microscope. And each game has an exceptional introduction putting it into historical perspective.
As noted by American grandmaster Alex Fishbein in the Foreword:
You will find your share of positional exchange sacrifices here. But you will also see exchanges sacrificed in the midst of a crushing attack. You will see sacrifices born of desperation, to save a bad ending. You will see correct and incorrect sacrifices. In fact, Tigran Petrosian will lose some games here. This is real life; there are mistakes, and the author explains it all to you.
Vassilios Kotronias has brought you the material in a way that will enhance your appreciation of chess as an art form. He has also offered you practical lessons you can use in your own chess endeavors.
You are already familiar with the exchange sacrifice as an art form. Now enjoy the brilliant games of its greatest artist, Tigran Petrosian.
The book you have started reading explains the concept of the exchange sacrifice in chess. It is a complex concept where the value of pieces is not determined solely by their numerical value but also by the potential strategic advantage they provide. Beginners are taught the value of pieces using pawns as a unit of measurement, but as players progress, they begin to understand that a material advantage is not always a guarantee of winning. The sacrifice of an exchange, where a player gives up a rook for a bishop and a knight or a pawn, can lead to a strategic advantage. However, many players are hesitant to make this sacrifice due to the fear of losing a material advantage and ending up in a fatal endgame situation. The book explores the psychology behind this fear and offers guidance on how to overcome it. The book also covers the increasing use of exchange sacrifice as a tactical and strategic element in modern games. The author delves into the reasons behind this trend and discusses several open questions related to the exchange sacrifice. By shedding light on this complex concept across many chapters, the book offers a comprehensive understanding of the exchange sacrifice and its importance in chess strategy.
The basic concept of the book is simple but quite effective: various surveys on all aspects of the game, covering and explaining unrevealed or poorly explained ideas and paths. In the present book a total of 40 concepts are deeply analysed.
Chess master, author, and renowned teacher Dan Heisman shows you the whys and the hows of annotating your games. Using entertaining clashes from four decades of tournament play, Heisman traces his own development as a player and analyst, illustrating how his method works in practice.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Dan Heisman's Books