![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Hobbies, quizzes & games > Indoor games > Board games
The ChessCafe World Chess Champions Series Emanuel Lasker was a great chess fighter, thinker and researcher. He was possessed of gigantic playing strength, retaining the title of Worlds Number One Chessplayer for 27(!) years. Even after losing his crown, he kept his ability for a long time, as shown by his victories and prize-winning finishes in immensely powerful international tournaments when he was 54 (Moravska-Ostrava 1923), 55 (New York 1924), 56 (Moscow 1925), and even at 66 (Moscow 1935)! One of the chief postulates of the Second World Champion was the battle of honor. On the chessboard, lies and dishonesty have no place. These words of Lasker could serve, even today, as an example to every young chessplayer of how to relate to the Great Game. Emanuel Lasker was the first in history to achieve a universal style. This was a Style of the Future, which is why the Second World Champion would not be understood by many of his contemporaries, who believed that he had no style at all. Laskers games of chess, like his entire chess legacy, will live forever! Join Russian chess historians Isaak and Vladimir Linder as they take you on a journey exploring the life and games of the great world champion Emanuel Lasker.
Former US Open Champion Timothy Taylor draws upon his wealth of personal experience to offer an instructive and entertaining account of how to improve your chess. This book is awash with invaluable advice on all stages of the game. Taylor emphasizes the practical aspects of chess: how to really make the most of your ability; how to win at all costs; and how to absorb the lessons of defeat to come back stronger. Grab every advantage over your opponents and be in the best possible shape for battle. True Combat Chess will show you the way.
Once a chess player has figured out how all the chess pieces move,
what is the next step on the chess ladder? This helpful and
entertaining book provides players with the complete answer. In
this easy-to-follow guide, renowned chess teacher Chris Ward
explains all the crucial checkmating patterns, plus how to catch
out opponents with an assortment of tricks and traps, commonly
known as chess tactics. There is something for everyone in this
book: improving players can benefit from learning the basic
checkmates and the key tactics such as attacking and defending
pieces, forks, pins, and skewers, while more experienced players
can discover the delights of advanced checkmates and sneaky tricks,
ones that can flummox even the world's best players!
In 'Supreme Chess Understanding: Statics & Dynamics', GM Moranda meticulously explains rules governing the physics of the game, focusing in particular on the interplay between static and dynamic factors. In today's dog-eat-dog chess world it is namely not enough to know the general principles, but rather to grasp when, how and why can these be bent... or even broken. Thanks to the knowledge gained by studying this work, navigating through the maze of positional transformations is going to become a piece of cake!
Experts agree that regularly solving tactical exercises is a vital component of chess training. However, it's also widely acknowledged that there is one major drawback to traditional chess puzzles - students know for sure that there is a genuine tactic in the position waiting to be found, whereas during a real game there is no such guarantee! In this workbook, Volker Schleputz and Grandmaster John Emms offer a unique framework to practise chess tactics independent of themes, difficulty and - most crucially - even the definite existence of an actual tactic in a given position. Analysing carefully selected games, from beginner through to club and tournament level, the reader assumes the role of a tactics detective, searching for mistakes and missed opportunities by both sides without the help of a chess engine. ------ Are you making the most of your chess talent? Do you always perform to the best of your ability? Do your results match up with your understanding of the game? If the answer to any of these questions is 'no' then read on!In The Survival Guide to Competitive Chess, Grandmaster and experienced tournament player John Emms reveals the secrets of how to maximize your potential and improve your results. Drawing upon his own over-the-board experiences, Emms tackles the all-important aspects of practical play: concentration and behaviour at the chessboard; playing for a win or a draw; winning good positions and saving difficult ones; handling time trouble; avoiding silly mistakes; understanding your strengths and weaknesses; building an opening repertoire; using chess computers and software; preparing for opponents; understanding and utilizing the finer points of the rules; and much more besides. Read this book and play every game with the confidence that you really can give it your best shot.
No opening in recent times has captured the imagination of the
chess public more than the Sicilian Sveshnikov. Initially
popularized in the 1970s, the Sveshnikov has exploded onto the
chess scene at the highest levels and is now regarded by many
experts as one of Black's most promising answers to 1 e4. One of
its major attractions is that more often than not the opening leads
to incredibly sharp and complex play. In such situations both sides
must play with extreme accuracy just to stay on the board as a
single slip may lead to disaster! This uncompromising and modern
approach with the black pieces has found favour with many of
today's leading Grandmasters, including Peter Leko and World
Champion Vladimir Kramnik, while Garry Kasparov also began playing
it towards the end of his career.
Prominent opening specialists take a revolutionary look at the ever-popular King's Indian and select a wealth of 'dangerous' options for both White and Black.
The Closed Sicilian has always been a great favorite with club and tournament players. Here, Grandmaster Daniel King explains the strategy and tactics of this dynamic opening variation, using model games for both sides to illustrate the important ideas. Armed with this book, readers will have everything they need to know to play the opening with either White or Black.
All 210 games from the greatest tournament since World War II. Smyslov, Bronstein, Keres, Reshevsky, Petrosian, 10 others; perceptive annotations by Bronstein. Algebraic notation. 352 diagrams. First authoritative English translation from the Russian.
The Scandinavian (also known as the Centre Counter Defence) occurs when Black meets White's 1 e4 with 1 ... d5, immediately countering in the centre. White invariably continues with 2 exd5 when Black can choose between two systems, both of which are covered in this book. Firstly 2 ... Qxd5, which regains the pawn immediately but exposes the black queen early on - a feature that complicates the play for both players. Secondly 2 ... Nf6, which invites White to risk attempting to hold onto the d5-pawn. If White goes down this path then a complex tactical struggle can easily develop. ----- First Steps is a new opening series and is ideal for improving players who want simple and straightforward explanations. First Steps emphasizes: ----- the basic principles --- the basic strategies --- the key tricks and traps ----- First Steps books are based around carefully selected instructive games which demonstrate exactly what both sides are trying to achieve. There is enough theory to enable the improving player to get to grips with the opening without feeling overwhelmed. If you want to take up a new opening, First Steps is the ideal place to start.
Looking for a new opening? The Veresov could be the one for you!
It's a surprisingly tricky system that, in the right hands, can be
forged into a powerful attacking weapon. White forgoes the normal
queen's pawn opening ideas in favor of speedy development of the
queenside pieces. One advantage of this underrated line is that
players with the black pieces are less likely to be familiar with
all the subtleties here than in a more mainstream opening.
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?
Something in the multiverse has shattered, and now the universe is bleeding. Throughout Mega-City One there are reports of invaders wreaking havoc. Celtic barbarians in Ezquerra Block. Russian nobles in Apetown. And rumours of fragments of other universes, waiting to be claimed. Head to the streets of Mega-City One with Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter, a new miniatures board game combining Martin Wallace's critically-acclaimed Wildlands rules with the worlds of 2000 AD. Four unique factions bring iconic characters from Slaine, Nikolai Dante, and Strontium Dog crashing into Mega-City One, all intent on finding the shattered fragments of their own universe and crushing anyone who gets in their way. Things are going to get rough, but one thing is certain. No matter what universe you are from, you still have to answer to the Law! Players: 2-4 Ages: 14+ Playing Time: 30-60 minutes Contents: 20 unique ink-washed miniatures, 188 cards, double-sided playing board, counters and tokens
In this highly original book, Grandmaster Ipatov shares the chess philosophy that helped him become a top chess grandmaster. Contrary to the generally accepted norms that permeate the modern chess world, he argues that spending most of one's training time on studying opening theory and memorizing trending lines until move 30 is wrong. However, this is exactly how most beginners start learning chess nowadays. Some strong grandmasters also fall into this trap when they prioritize opening theory amongst other aspects of the game. This often leads to fundamental gaps in one's chess understanding which is really hard to fix, especially for young players. Ipatov's ideology lies in that one should work on enhancing his general chess understanding and take on a surprise-first approach when it comes to playing openings in order to avoid opponents' preparation in the mainstream theory and take them out of book in the early stage of the game. Most of the book is comprised of Alexander Ipatov's original analyses covering a variety of offbeat opening lines from both White and Black's perspective. His recent match against the 2018 US Chess Champion Sam Shankland, where Ipatov implemented a novelty on move two - something unheard of in the modern era with millions of games being played to date - serves as a good illustration that the philosophy deserves more attention and research than it currently has. This book serves to fill in this gap and welcome more debate on the subject.
The computer has changed the way top players think about chess. The silicon mind has no psychological barriers. It is "willing" to check moves that most humans, including top players, consider absurd and reject instantly. Thus this brave, new computer era inevitably leads to a reassessment of old axioms, principles and evaluations. In Play Unconventional Chess, the reader will discover the incredible power unconventional moves can have. These moves contradict the most fundamental principles of the "old chess", and yet most of them played by leading grandmasters. At first sight these moves look so strange that the reader can not avoid asking, "Was this grandmaster was inspired or drunk?" The answer will definitely surprise you. As we progress as chess players we quickly learn a set of guidelines which help us to formulate plans, develop typical strategies and recognize key tactics. However, chess is not an easy game, with fixed 'rules' that can be applied to every single position. In fact, blindly following such rules proves to be counterproductive and prevents a player from moving on to the next level, whereas knowing when to 'break' these rules is precisely the skill which separates the best from the rest. In Break the Rules!, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies in depth the key components of successful rule-breaking in chess. Drawing upon his own experience and using illuminating examples from modern grandmaster chess, McDonald examines how to avoid stereotypical thinking, how to exploit typical thinking patterns, and how to confuse and beat opponents with surprising ideas.
The Ruy Lopez (also known as the Spanish Game) is an extremely
popular opening and one of the oldest in the history of chess. It
has been played by virtually all the greats of the game, providing
the battle scene for many world championship clashes involving the
likes of Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik. Now, for the first
time in many years, Grandmaster Glenn Flear investigates the main
line of the Lopez, outlining the crucial ideas and tactics for both
White and Black. Using illustrative games, Flear studies the
fashionable and theoretical variations, plus the tricky sidelines.
This book is perfect for those wishing to play the positions with
either color.
Ian Nepomniachtchi, challenger to Magnus Carlsen's World Championship title in 2021, is an outstanding chess talent. "Nepo" as he is universally known is a fascinating player and this book assesses his career and analyses his original and creative style in great depth with numerous deeply annotated games. Nepo is one of the very few players in the world to hold (at least prior to the match) a plus score (four wins to one with six draws) against Carlsen in classical chess. Nepo and Carlsen are peers and first started playing each other in the Under-12 category of the World Youth Championship in 2002. In that event, Nepo edged out Carlsen on tie-break. At that time he out-rated Carlsen by 100 points and was generally considered to be the more promising of the two prodigies. Nepo is a fascinating player who loves open and irrational positions and excels when on the attack. Unsurprisingly, he cites Mikhail Tal as his all-time favorite player and says Tal is the player who has exerted the greatest influence on him. As with that great Latvian genius, Nepo thrives on anarchy and chaos and has frequently got the better of Carlsen in games with mind-boggling complications. He is also lethal when he has the initiative. Nepo has steadily climbed the world rankings and his finest achievement was his victory in the 2020/2021 Candidates' tournament with 81/2/14 points (+5-2=7) which gave him the right to challenge Carlsen for the world title.
The Advance Variation is a popular and direct way of meeting the
ultra-solid French Defence. Very early on in the game White opts to
fix the pawn structure and establishes a genuine space advantage,
upon which he later hopes to mount a serious attack. This method of
playing against the French Defence has become a firm FAVORITE
amongst uncompromising Grandmasters such as Alexei Shirov,
England's Nigel Short and the rising star in Russia, Alexander
Grischuk.
The Bb5 Sicilian is a logical and practical weapon against Black's
most popular defense to 1 e4 and is an excellent choice for White
players who are fed up of constantly trying to keep abreast of the
latest developments in the Open Sicilian.
"Playing at Chess is the most ancient and the most universal game among men, for its original is beyond the memory of history." Benjamin Franklin penned these words as an introduction to his famous essay "The Morals of Chess." Franklin's approach to the game was in distinct contrast to his predecessors, who seriously advocated all the subtle treacheries of the art of poor sportsmanship with the sole end of attaining victory. To Franklin, however, the game of chess was not mere idle amusement but a sport reflective of life itself-"for life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain and competitors or adversaries to contend with"-which requires the utilization of all the finest mental and moral qualities of which man is capable. This volume reproduces Franklin's celebrated essay and includes an analysis of everything Franklin ever had to say about chess. The second part of the book contains an extensive bibliography of chess in America to the year 1859. The two sections of the volume combine to form an essential sourcebook for the historian of American chess. |
You may like...
Hero of the Pre-War Olympiads…
Dmitry Kryakvin, Galina Petrova-Matisa
Hardcover
R855
Discovery Miles 8 550
Endangered Animals Bingo - Learn About…
Magma Publishing Ltd, Marcel George
Game
R535
Discovery Miles 5 350
They Came to Slay - The Queer Culture of…
Thom James Carter
Paperback
|