The game of chess was wildly popular in the Middle Ages, so much so that it became an important thought paradigm for thinkers and writers who utilized its vocabulary and imagery for commentaries on war, politics, love, and the social order. In this collection of essays, scholars investigate chess texts from numerous traditions - English, French, German, Latin, Persian, Spanish, Swedish, and Catalan - and argue that knowledge of chess is essential to understanding medieval culture. Such knowledge, however, cannot rely on the modern game, for today's rules were not developed until the late fifteenth century. Only through familiarity with earlier incarnations of the game can one fully appreciate the full import of chess to medieval society. The careful scholarship contained in this volume provides not only insight into the significance of chess in medieval European culture but also opens up avenues of inquiry for future work in this rich field.

In this unique deduction game of honest misdirection you are all cryptozoologists, trying to be the first to discover definitive proof of a cryptid in the wilds of North America. Each player will be given a unique clue – one piece of crucial information about where the creature lives. When combined, the clues identify a single space on the map – the creature’s habitat.

Each player’s clue either states an area where the creature can be found or where it cannot be found, based on the terrain and structures on the board. During the game, you will ask each other questions with the aim of guessing each other’s clues. The first player to correctly use all of the clues to find the habitat wins the game!

The Game of the Goose is one of the oldest printed board games, dating back 400 years. It has spawned thousands of derivatives: simple race games, played with dice, on themes that mirror much of human activity. Its legacy can be traced in games of education, advertising and polemic, as well as in those of amusement and gambling - and games on new themes are still being developed. This book, by the leading international collector of the genre, is devoted to showing why the Game of the Goose is special and why it can lay claim to being the most influential of any printed game in the cultural history of Europe. Detailed study of the games reveals their historical provenance and - reversing the process - gives unusual insights into the cultures which produced them. They therefore provide rich sources for the cultural historian. This book is beautifully illustrated with more than 90 illustrations, many in color, which are integrated throughout the text.

From the first edition: "Just the right combination of fascination and brio"--Chess Life; "a real browsers delight"--San Francisco Chronicle; "arguably the best chess writer on the American scene...opulent"--Washington Times; "a wonderfully readable book...fascinating"--Boston Herald; "enjoyable"--British Chess Magazine. "[The author] is one of the most accomplished American chess players as well as a prolific chess writer and journalist"--James Henri. The best, the worst, the shortest, the oddest, the longest, the most deceitful, the most memorable, the most brilliant, the dumbest--of players, games, matches, tournaments, books, ideas, etc. The lists are replete with background detail and exact facts--this second edition of Soltiss classic 1984 book is altogether an essential part of any chess collection and a browsers delight. The new edition contains 25 percent more lists, games, diagrams and annotations. The majority of lists from the first edition have been updated or expanded--or both.

If you are aware of endgame patterns, you spot key moves quicker, analyse and calculate better, avoid making errors and memorise what you have studied more fully. Most of the patterns Jesus de la Villa presents in this new book are from the phase of the game just before a theoretical endgame turns up. Knowing these practical endgame fundamentals will enable you to fully reap the benefits of what you learned in De la Villas widely acclaimed classic 100 ENDGAMES YOU MUST KNOW. Studying patterns only makes sense if you are going to encounter them frequently. De la Villa presents those that have the greatest practical importance and explains and illustrates them with carefully selected examples. To show the patterns as clearly as possible, he mainly concentrates on positions in which both sides have just one piece. Presenting positions with more pieces risks blurring the picture and making motifs less straightforward. The fact that players think in patterns has an important side-effect: their endgame errors tend to repeat themselves. Thats why De la Villa has not just included examples from games of elite GMs but also of amateurs. Errors are always instructive and working with this book will seriously reduce the number of typical mistakes you are prone to make. The many practical exercises that De la Villa has selected will help you improve and retain what you have learned.

Do you need to be a genius to be good at chess? What does it take to become a Grandmaster? Can computer programmes beat human intuition in gameplay? The Psychology of Chess is an insightful overview of the roles of intelligence, expertise, and human intuition in playing this complex and ancient game. The book explores the idea of 'practice makes perfect', alongside accounts of why men perform better than women in international rankings, and why chess has become synonymous with extreme intelligence as well as madness. When artificial intelligence researchers are increasingly studying chess to develop machine learning, The Psychology of Chess shows us how much it has already taught us about the human mind.

Details 59 brilliant games from the career of a correspondence world champion with his own notes, and provides insights into the processes of analysis and decision-making, as well as abundant study material. Packed with general chess wisdom and pertinent quotes from the great masters of chess.

A technological milestone is not just a triumph, but a rare, pivotal watershed: Orville Wright's first flight, NASA's landing on the moon¿the victory of a digital computer, Deep Blue, over world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. "Deep Blue: An Artificial Intelligence Milestone" details the historic endeavor to develop a chess-playing computer that would outplay the best human player on Earth. The story tells of the super-talented team of scientists and engineers involved, how one of America's mightiest corporations nurtured that team, and how the team's hard work produced a machine that played epic battles against human beings before eventually proving victorious. Deep Blue's success raises many questions about our future relationship with the digital computer. Topics and features: * Offers a comprehensive record of Deep Blue's Development * Gives the reader insight into the ups and downs of the deep Blue team on its way to finally defeating Gary Kasparov * Includes appendices that completely record Deep Blue's matches * Provides many photographs of the participants involved in the journey * Analyzes Deep Blue's evolution from "hostile force" to "champion" in popular cartoons appearing in newspapers. The work provides a comprehensive and authoritative account of the creation, development, and actions of IBM's Deep Blue technology group and how their computer defeated the world chess champion. Specialists and nonspecialists in AI and computing will discover a fascinating story of one of the major technological milestones in the history of computer science, as well as science in general.

The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation (FIDE, from the French acronym for Federation Internationale des Echecs) was founded on July 20, 1924 in Paris but only from 1950 began to award the first international titles. This work lists over 18,000 players who received international titles from 1950 up until December 2016. Information for each entry includes when available last name, first name, middle name, federation, date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death, title and year of award and, peak rating (month and year). A list of sources is included.

Thirty-six masterpieces are up for auction. Are they bargains to be snapped up or over-hyped drains on your finances? You'll never know unless you bid! In this board game for up to six players, you travel the world as an art collector scouring the auction houses, visiting art fairs, and making private deals in search of elusive artworks to complete your collection. The winner is the player with the most valuable collection and the most cash in hand at the end of the game.

This book is the definitive volume on the history of chess in Singapore. Covering 1945-1990, it covers the post-war emergence of a truly 'local' chess scene out of the colonial period, then taking the story up to the modern era. Contained within these pages are tributes to the modern founding fathers of Singapore chess. Also chronicled within are the careers of Singapore's top players and their achievements. This includes fine team performances (belying Singapore's seeming status in the chess world as a tiny red dot) and spectacular individual successes on the international stage.In documenting chess development in Singapore for the period in question, this book also provides glimpses of a wider social history. Personal stories (based on fresh interviews) are provided that give a sense of the chessplaying milieu of the time. Stalwarts in the chess scene, featured in this book, went on to be notable figures in the wider social and political landscape.A selection of 139 annotated games played by top Singapore-based players and Singapore masters between 1949 and 1990 is matched by a rich collection of more than 200 rare illustrations. This volume is a wonderful resource for chess aficionados, interested amateurs, collectors and historians.

This is a chess book for everyone, from eight to eighty, beginner to master. In a clear, easy-to-follow format it explains how the best way to beat a stronger opponent in the opening stage of the game. Delightful and instructive games of famous players are used to show the 50 most effective opening traps that chess masters use to win their games.

The ideal gift for all word gamers! A bumper book of more than 250 puzzles for word game lovers. Based on techniques required for Scrabble, these challenges have been designed to put your word power to the ultimate test. All words used are from the official Scrabble word list, so you learn as you play. Suitable for the whole family. In this collection of word puzzles you will find: Word Slider - move tiles in the grid to create multiple words Scrabble (TM) Word - a variation of Wordle, solve the anagram from the clues given Seven Letters - solve the given clues to find the hidden 7-letter word Scrabble (TM) Score - try and make the maximum score from a given rack of tiles Wordsearch - ideal for word training Anagram Challenges - unscramble the letters from the racks Give me a clue - fill in the blank tiles to match the definition Word Wheel - find as many words as you can with a given length Scrabble (TM) Soup - find the highest-scoring word you can in the grid of letters Word Ladder - get from the top of the ladder to the bottom by exchanging one letter at a time Star Letter - find the word that can be formed using every letter once and the star letter twice Consonant Crosswords - complete the crossword, where all the vowels have already been placed (c)2022 Mattel. SCRABBLE (TM) and SCRABBLE tiles, including S1 tiles, are trademarks of Mattel

The Scandinavian Defence is one of the most popular chess openings among amateur players, and it is easy to see why. Black players immediately limit the opening theory they have to know because there is no way White can side-step Blacks first move. Whats more, the Scandinavian requires only very little theoretical knowledge, so it has an extremely low maintenance factor. To cap it all, Black gets a solid structure. And thats not even the end of the good news, as Thomas Willemze demonstrates in this compact and practical manual. Playing the Scandinavian teaches invaluable techniques that you can use in almost all of your other games. Pressuring the centre, neutralizing your opponents initiative, improving your piece coordination, trading the right pieces and exploiting your opponents weak points are all typical Scandinavian spin-offs that Thomas Willemze teaches you in his trademark lucid style. The Scandinavian for Club Players offers everything you need to know to be fully prepared to meet 1.e4. The various lines are enriched with verbal explanations, diagrams, flash-cards and exercises that make this book even more accessible. Willemze not just uses examples from the games of elite grandmasters. As an experienced trainer he knows that discussing club players adventures are particularly instructive for his target group.

"To be passive... is fatal to the beginner or medium player - such players must be aggressive. He must attack, because only in that way can he develop his imagination, which is a very important thing." This quote comes, perhaps surprisingly, from Jose Capablanca, a world champion far better known for his brilliant strategic and positional play than his attacking prowess. This emphasizes the fundamental importance of having a clear understanding of how to build up and execute an attack. Every chess player loves to attack. Directing one's forces towards the enemy king, probing to create weaknesses and ultimately crashing through with a brilliant sacrifice is always a thrilling experience. However, attacking play must always be based on sound principles and carried out in a forceful and logical manner. This is not always a straightforward task. In this book, the highly experienced author and grandmaster Neil McDonald guides the reader through all the complexities of attacking play. Topics include: * Attacking a king trapped in the centre. * Exploiting weaknesses to develop an attack. * Preventing reinforcements from rescuing the king.

How to Reassess Your Chess is the popular step-by-step course that will create a marked improvement in anyone's game.

In clear, direct language, Silman shows how to dissect a position, recognize its individual parts and ultimately find the move that conforms to the needs of that particular situation. By explaining the thought processes that go into a master's choice of move, the author presents a system of thought that makes advanced strategies seem clear, logical and at times even obvious.

How to Reassess Your Chess offers invaluable knowledge and insight that cannot be found in any other book.

For 70 years the U.S. Chess Federation has held the U.S. Junior Open, featuring young players under 21. This book is the first to focus the formative years of these juniors, who later became many of the outstanding masters of the Unites States. Each chapter contains an annotated game of the winner of the championship and brief identifications of the notable players. Crosstables are included where available.