There's no denying that the opening is one of the most daunting phases of the game for newcomers to chess. There are literally hundreds of different opening lines, many with unusual sounding names, and some of these go up to twenty or so moves of theory. What is a chess player supposed to do: memorise countless variations? Don't panic In Discovering Chess Openings, John Emms argues that studying openings doesn't have to be hard work at all - indeed, it can be both enjoyable and enlightening. The key to successful opening play is not simply learning lines off by heart; instead it's the understanding of the basic principles, and here the reader is guided through the vital themes: swift development, central control and king safety. An appreciation of these principles and their many offshoots will actually allow readers to recreate and discover opening theory, giving them the opportunity to choose the most suitable lines to play in their games.

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!
Learning chess tactics is fun and one of the quickest ways of improving in chess, and it's even more enjoyable when opponents begin falling for these tricks! Read this book and, with the help of a Grandmaster, any chess player will be ready to unleash the weapons in their chess battles, whoever their opponent is.
>An ideal chess tactics and checkmates guide for the improving player
>Written by a distinguished chess author
>Full of notes, tips, and warnings to help the reader

Many players are attracted to the Dragon Sicilian, but are put off by the fierce mating attacks that White can launch. In the Accelerated Dragon, Black aims for an improved version, saving a move with his queen's pawn. If White tries to ignore the difference, Black's instant detonation of the centre will come as an unwelcome cold shower! The authors show that White's main reply, the Maroczy Bind, is not so fearsome as was once thought Black has many ways to break out, while quite often it is possible to manoeuvre around White's 'binding pawns' and show that they imprison White's pieces as much as they do Black's.

The Petroff Defence is considered as one of Black's most reliable methods of meeting the king's pawn opening. By counterattacking as early as move two, Black avoids the hazards of having to face lines such as the Scotch Opening, the Italian Game and the 'Spanish torture' of the Ruy Lopez. An early breach of a central file together with active piece play for both sides characterizes the Petroff as a typical king's pawn opening.
Until a few years ago, the Petroff opening was favored only by a few top Grandmasters, including Anatoly Karpov and Artur Yusupov. However, the last few years have seen a dramatic rise in its popularity, and it now provides battlefields for many clashes of the modern elite players, including Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Leko, Topalov and England's Michael Adams. This is bound to have a positive effect on its popularity at club level.
In this book, openings experts Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik study the typical plans and tactics for both White and Black in this complex opening. Using illustrative games, the authors provide up-to-date coverage of a line that has experienced a major overhaul in the last decade.
*Written by renowned opening theoreticians
*Ideal for club and tournament players
*All main lines are covered
*Provides everything you need to know to play the opening with confidence

In this book, International Master Byron Jacobs explains the basic elements, strategies, and tactics of the Advance variation of the Caro-Kann Defense. Although this variation has always been popular with competitive players, it has lately received revived attention following its recent adoption by Vishy Anand, Alexei Shirov, and Veselin Topalov, who have used it to win several brilliant games. Inspired by their example, several other leading players have added the variation to their repertoires, and it is now perhaps the most fashionable way of meeting the Caro-Kann at all levels of play.

Hold a galaxy of science-fantasy worlds in your fingertips with the Starfinder Deck of Many Worlds!

Arriving in a new system and curious about who (and what) lives there? Want a unique home planet for your player character?

Simply combine a few random cards from this 110-card deck to generate one of millions of possible worlds, complete with physical statistics, resident creatures, and much more—including intriguing story hooks that spur countless science-fantasy adventures!

This landmark treatise of 1817 formulated the guiding principles behind the market economy. Author David Ricardo, with Adam Smith, founded the "classical" system of political economy, a school of thought that dominated economic policies throughout the nineteenth century and figured prominently in the theories of John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Its foundation of the tenets of diminishing returns and economic rent led to the doctrines known today as distribution theory and international trade theory, and the Ricardian system continues to influence and inform modern economic thought

"How we should think about board games, and what do they do to us as we play them?" Writer and critic Eric Thurm digs deep into his own experience as a board game enthusiast to explore the emotional and social rules that games create and reveal, telling a series of stories about a pastime that is also about relationships. From the outdated gender roles in Life and Mystery Date to the cutthroat, capitalist priorities of Monopoly and its socialist counterpart, Class Struggle, Thurm thinks through his ongoing rivalries with his siblings and ponders the ways games both upset and enforce hierarchies and relationships-from the familial to the geopolitical. Like sitting down at the table for family game night, Board Games is an engaging book of twists and turns, trivia, and nostalgia. Avidly Reads is a series of short books about how culture makes us feel. Founded in 2012 by Sarah Blackwood and Sarah Mesle, Avidly-an online magazine supported by the Los Angeles Review of Books-specializes in short-form critical essays devoted to thinking and feeling. Avidly Reads is an exciting new series featuring books that are part memoir, part cultural criticism, each bringing to life the author's emotional relationship to a cultural artifact or experience. Avidly Reads invites us to explore the surprising pleasures and obstacles of everyday life.

International Chess Master Jeremy Silman tests a player's strengths and weaknesses with 131 problems that cover openings, middlegames (both positional and tactical), and endgames. As a player completes a problem, he or she may then turn to consult Silman's lengthy answer to the problem, which is always detailed yet never dry. Through this process of problem solving, analysis and advice, a player is led to discover the major flaws imbedded in his or her play. Through this same process, a player is also led to an understanding of Silman's system of thinking about the game, and how it differs from many other systems of chess thinking.

Few players have captured the public imagination like the former World Champion Mikhail Tal. With his unique attacking style, he dazzled the chess world on the way to becoming the youngest ever World Champion (at that time) in 1960, winning friends around the world for both his entertaining play and engaging personality. Although Tal's championship reign was brief, he continued to delight his many fans with brilliant sacrificial games until his death in 1992. In this book Grandmaster Joe Gallagher takes a fresh look at Tal's games and career, focusing on the previously neglected period from 1975 to 1992 during which he played some of his most accomplished chess. Despite periodic bouts of ill-health Tal occupied a place in the world's top ten for most of this period, winning any top-class events and securing dozens of wonderful victories, many of which are annotated in detail here. (6 1/4 x 9 1/4, 224 pages, diagrams)

These books are perfect for enthusiastic chess players who are starting out in the game, and who are seeking to understand the basic principles behind these important openings: the Ruy Lopez and the English. Both books are written in a user-friendly style with an abundance of notes, tips, and warnings scattered throughout, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.The authors of these books are very skilled and experienced chess writers, who are used to writing for players of all levels and are renowned for their ability to explain ideas in a lucid and straightforward manner.These books will be especially beneficial to those players who have previously sharpened their chess skills with the earlier books Starting Out in Chess, Tips for Young Players, and Improve Your Opening Play.In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald revisits the basic principles behind the English and its many variations. Throughout this easy-to-read guide readers are aided by a wealth of notes, tips, and warnings from the author, while key strategies, ideas, and tactics for Doth sides are clearly illustrated. This book is ideal for the improving players.

Splendid collection of 99 puzzles, all built around the chessboard. Arithmetical and probability problems, chessboard recreations, geometrical puzzles, mathematical amusements and games, more. Many standard problems with new, interesting twists. You don't need to be a chess player, just know the rules of the game. Solutions.

This book by Grandmaster David Bronstein, one of the most original and influential players of the post-war period, is not a self-tutor in the conventional sense, where the basics of opening, middlegame and endgame play are drily explained. Instead, the author engages in a frank conversation with the reader, discussing how strong players decide on their moves

Most competitive players are very familiar with the idea of a sacrificial checkmating attack, but the positional sacrifice has been strangely neglected. By means of a subtle positional sacrifice, a player can sometimes fundamentally alter the course of a game in his or her favor. In this instructive and entertaining book International Master Neil McDonald demonstrates just how effective well-executed positional sacrifices are. Topics covered include sacrifices to open lines for the pieces, sacrifices as a defensive weapon, the exchange sacrifice, the psychology of sacrifice and much more.

An up-to-date and complete coverage of opening systems beginning with 1c4 written by a Soviet grandmaster and acknowledged expert in this line of play. After an apparently modest beginning the game can take either a strategical or tactical path into the middlegame. Whether you are attacking or defending, "The English Opening" is an attractive choice regardless of your individual style of play.

Many players, of all levels, use their chess study time to concentrate almost exclusively on the openings. Very few players spend much time at all studying endgames and this is almost certainly a mistake. Making a poor move in the opening might leave you with a slightly uncomfortable position. Making a poor move in the endgame can easily transform a win into a draw or even a loss. ----- If you want to make any sort of serious progress at chess it is vital to understand fundamental endgame play. Having an instinctive understanding of which positions are winning, drawing and losing is essential as it enables you to plan your endgame strategies with great confidence, knowing that you are heading for positions that are favourable to you. ----- In this book, Cyrus Lakdawala analyses all the fundamental endgame positions and carefully explains the methods needed to win the favourable ones and draw the unfavourable ones. ----- First Steps is a new 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

Take a look back at the last 12 months of Dungeons & Dragons Discover all there is to know about the latest campaigns, explore legendary locations and brush up on fearsome monsters you might meet on your adventures. With activities, interviews with awesome podcasters and streamers and more epic content, this will keep fans rolling for another twelve months.