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.

Chessplayers wishing to improve their performance typically seek to deepen their middlegame understanding or to increase their endgame knowledge. Often, however, the real key to improvement lies not in learning additional ideas and positions, but in developing a more effective thinking process at the board. In The Improving Chess Thinker, acclaimed chess instructor Dan Heisman compares how chessplayers of different strengths ranging from beginner to International Master approach analytical positions. From this, he draws lessons that will help players at each level to avoid typical flaws in their thought process and to move up to the next level. Basing his work on more than four decades of testing volunteers, Heisman offers solutions to difficult practical issues such as deciding how much time to spend on a move; what to do while the opponent s clock is running; and when to stop analyzing a line. In this book, ambitious players will find insight into what s been holding them back, while coaches will find powerful new teaching tools."

Why is it that the human brain so often refuses to consider winning chess tactics? Every chess fan marvels at the wonderful combinations with which famous masters win their games. How do they find those fantastic moves? Do they have special vision? And why do computers outwit us tactically? Forcing Chess Moves proposes a revolutionary method for finding winning moves. Charles Hertan has made an astonishing discovery: the failure to consider key moves is often due to human bias. Your brain tends to disregard many winning moves because they are counter-intuitive or look unnatural. Its a fact of life: computers outdo us humans when it comes to tactical vision and brute force calculation. So why not learn from them? Charles Hertans radically different approach is: use COMPUTER EYES and always look for the most forcing move first. By studying forcing sequences according to Hertans method you will: Develop analytical precision; Improve your tactical vision; Overcome human bias and staleness; Enjoy the calculation of difficult positions; Win more games by recognizing moves that matter. This New and Extended Fourth Edition of Hertans award-winning modern classic includes 50 extra pages with new and instructive combinations. There is a foreword by three-time US chess champion Joel Benjamin, and a special foreword to this new edition by Swedish Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson. Charles Hertan is a FIDE master from Massachusetts with several decades of experience as a chess coach. He is the author of the bestselling Power Chess for Kids series.

Gain the advantage over your opponent with easy-to-remember strategies from one of the world's top chess players!
Strategy - it's the ultimate secret weapon for championship players around the world. Drawing on his considerable experience in tournament play, International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan shows you how to apply flexible strategic principles to every part of your game. Using Seirawan's simple and effective planning and analysis techniques, you'll enter each game with confidence and energy, ready to play forcefully and intelligently - the way you need to play so you can win every time!
Learn to:
Knock your opponent off balance with bold opening moves
Formulate an overall game strategy before the middle game
Interpret the motivation behind your opponent's every move
Position yourself for a winning endgame
Diagrams throughout the book illustrate game positions, and you'll meet history's greatest chess strategies -learning from them move by move!
Whether for reference during practice games or simply for pleasure reading, Winning Chess Strategies is an information packed resource you'll turn to again and again.

This book takes a closer look at the Classic mistakes by amateur players include: 1. Moving a piece too often in the opening. This is one of the mainstays which we think relates at least partly to the desire to create something in the opening, when we would be better advised to focus on simple development. 2. Impatience. Sometimes amateur players are too eager to change something when there really is no need. 3. Overgeneralizing. One of the biggest differences I've noticed when comparing professional play to amateur play is that the former is much more about concrete calculation - you go there, we go here and so on - whereas an amateur player will have a tendency to overgeneralize when thinking about a position, perhaps because they are not used to the basic art of calculation. 4. Cutting variations off too quickly. Amateur players do not extend their calculation far enough, and thus superficiality tends to kick in. These and other mistakes are explained in the book. Of course it should be noted that professional players also make these kinds of mistakes.

Are you bored of playing the same old openings time and time again? Fed up with constantly having to keep up with modern chess theory? Or perhaps you simply wish to play something new and exciting, but cannot decide between the numerous choices available? Don't despair - help is on hand!' In "Dangerous Weapons: The Sicilian", John Emms and Richard Palliser team up to investigate by far the most popular and widely-played chess opening, but in a revolutionary way. They concentrate on fresh or little-explored variations of the open Sicilian, selecting a wealth of ideas and options for both colours. Many of the carefully chosen weapons are innovative, visually shocking, incredibly tricky, or have been unfairly discarded; they are guaranteed to throw even your most experienced opponent off balance. Whether playing White or Black, a study of this book will leave you assured and fully-armed, and your opponents running for cover! "Dangerous Weapons" is a brand-new series of opening books that provide the reader with an abundance of hard-hitting ideas to revitalize his or her opening repertoire.

You may be happy with your main openings - sorted with the Sicilian and content with the King's Indian - but are you afraid of the unknown? Do you fall to pieces if your opponent plays something strange in the opening? Here's some good news...Beating Unusual Chess Openings is a godsend to those chess players fed up with struggling against all opening moves other than White's main two: 1 e4 and 1 d4. From the respectable (English Opening, Reti and King's Indian Attack) through to the offbeat (Nimzo-Larsen Attack, Bird's Opening) and the totally bizarre (Orang-utan, Grob); everything Black needs to know about facing unusual openings is covered within these pages. Richard Palliser gets to grips with all of White's possibilities, examining their strengths and weaknesses and in turn organizing a reliable and practical repertoire for Black. He discusses the key strategies, tactics and move-order tricks for both sides, arming the reader with enough know-how to face this assortment of chess openings with renewed confidence. *Everything you need to know about facing unusual openings *Written by an openings expert *Ideal for improvers, and club and tournament players

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

The chess world has been blessed by a number of wonderful strategists, innovators of the game with their instructive play and profound teachings. In "Chess Secrets: The Giants of Strategy," Neil McDonald chooses his selection of the most prominent strategists in chess history and highlights the major contributions they made. He examines their differing approaches and styles, and from Nimzowitsch to Kramnik, how they followed in each other's footsteps. A careful study of this book will help you to understand and improve in one of the most crucial elements of the game.
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"Chess Secrets" is" "a brand new series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess study: strategy, attacking play, opening play and gambits, classical play, endgames and preparation. In each book the author chooses and deeply studies a number of great players from chess history who have excelled in a particular field of the game and who have genuinely influenced their descendants.
*An entertaining an instructive guide to chess strategy, from the masters
*Written in an easy-to-read format
*Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players

Arthur Du Fuss, bitter, alone, and ignored by his neighbours, has two secrets: one dies with him when he commits suicide; the other is the vast wealth he amassed through the creation of a cult board game. Now his erstwhile neighbours receive a post-mortem invitation to the offices of a charismatic City lawyer to play a final version of the game; the prize - Arthur's fortune. As they dice with the devil, the game first exposes the fragility of their relationships, and then tears them apart, with tragic and horrifying consequences. But Arthur, too, must pay for his revenge. The old man learns that outstanding debts can still be called in, even when you are dead.

How did Jonathan Hawkins manage to go from being an average tournament competitor to a player on the brink of clinching the Grandmaster title? The secret was knowing what to study and how to learn as efficiently as possible. Focusing his attention firmly on the endgame, Jonathan devised a number of building blocks and identified a number of very important areas of study. The result of his hard work was a meteoric rise through the ranks, as he became firmly established as a prominent GM killer on the English tournament circuit. These pages reveal the secrets of his notebooks for the first time. IM Hawkins presents special material aimed to help you become a much better practical player, one armed with a deeper understanding of key aspects of chess. A careful study of the lessons presented in this book should enable the chess student to gain significant improvement.

Building on his ever creative ideas, Christian Bauer found a way to take a fresh look at the current status of the Alekhine Defense. It's clear that Christian has a definite weak spot for Knights. Surely you will appreciate his best efforts to bamboozle your opponents into self-destruction by using the Alekhine.

How to use this book I thought long and hard about the best way to structure this Workbook. My idea was to make a book with additional exercises for readers of my earlier books Thinker's Chess Academy Volumes 1 & 2 (TCA1 and TCA2 for short) while working with these books, plus material for really interested and ambitious readers to maintain and broaden the skills they have already learned. That's not an easy task, as it means combining rather basic material with really sophisticated exercises without making it boring for the advanced readers or too hard for readers still on TCA1 level. My idea is to mix the two parts. Readers still on the lower level should work through the chapters Quick Test 1, Quick Test 2 etc and after Quick Test 10 go over to the chapters Advanced Lesson 1, Advanced Lesson 2 and so on. Advanced readers can use each chapter's Quick Test as a kind of warm-up test under time pressure, for example setting a time of 10 seconds for each mate in 2 or whatever you may think is right for you. After the Quick Test you go ahead with the following Advanced Lessons chapter. The hardest part of the book is called "Master Class". In these chapters you'll find really difficult exercises such as unusually long combinations or checkmates. Not every reader is ambitious enough or has enough time to work very hard on his chess. That's quite understandable and nothing to be ashamed of. You can enjoy chess very well without being a strong tournament player. You could just entertain yourself by playing through interesting combinations. In this case don't try too hard to solve the Advanced Lessons or Master Class exercises. Have a look to make yourself familiar with the position, than look at the solution and enjoy the surprising combinations. You won't learn as much as you would by racking your brain to crack the hard nuts. But some knowledge and experience will certainly rub off and increase your understanding of chess. I hope this book will help you to work towards your goals and let have you fun with chess. Thomas Luther, September 2022

Proper handling of Bishops in the Endgame is an important feature in today's chess and a must for every chess player who wants to climb the world's chess hierarchy. This book deals with all important themes and ideas on the world of Bishop endings.

The official story of the 2020 Candidates Tournament began on November the 11th, 2019 with the signing of a contract between FIDE and the Russian Chess Federation detailing the hosting duties of said tournament in Ekaterinburg from the 15th of March to the 5th of April, 2020. At that point no one could have even imagined how difficult the road to that tournament would be nor how unexpected the outcome. Yet the significance of the actual numbers in this dramatic epic is hard to overestimate which is why the author will attempt to play the role of chronicler and try to describe as accurately as possible the key moments of this historic event. Vladimir Tukmakov was our close observer, author and wrote a historically important book on the first part of the Candidates 2020.

"Bobby Fischer...The precision and energy that he played with is unmatched in the history of chess." Magnus Carlsen, World Chess Champion Nearly 30 years since his last chess game, Bobby Fischer's fame continues to grow. Appearing in Hollywood movies, documentaries and best-selling books, his life and career are as fascinating as they ever were and his games continue to generate discussion. Indeed, with each new generation of computer, stunning discoveries are made about moves that have been debated by grandmasters for decades. International Grandmaster Andrew Soltis played Fischer and also reported, as a journalist, on the American's legendary career. He is the author of many books, including Pawn Structure Chess, 365 Chess Master Lessons and What it Takes to Become a Chess Master.

The Two Knights Defence is one of the trickiest tactical openings around. If White initiates complications with either 4 Ng5 or 4 d4, play becomes extremely sharp and gambits and counter gambits abound. Anyone who enters the murky waters of the Two Knights Defence must be well prepared for the mind-boggling complications that ensue. In this book, openings theoretician Jonathan Tait guides the reader through both the well-trodden paths of the main lines plus the less fashionable side variations of this most complex opening. Using illustrative games, Tait studies the key ideas and tactics for both Black and White.
*Up-to-date coverage of a controversial opening
*Written by a Two Knights Defence expert
*Ideal for club and tournament players

It took AlphaZero only a few hours of self-learning to become the chess player that shocked the world. The artificial intelligence system AlphaZero had been fed nothing but the rules of the Royal Game when it beat the worlds strongest chess engine in a prolonged match. The selection of ten games published in December 2017 created a worldwide sensation: how was it possible to play in such a brilliant and risky style and not lose a single game against an opponent of superhuman strength? For Game Changer, Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan investigated more than two thousand previously unpublished games by AlphaZero. They also had unparalleled access to its team of developers at DeepMind and were offered a unique look under the bonnet to grasp the depth and breadth of AlphaZeros search. Sadler and Regan reveal its thinking process and tell the story of the human motivation and the techniques that created AlphaZero. Game Changer also presents a collection of lucidly explained chess games of astonishing quality. Both professionals and club players will improve their game by studying AlphaZeros stunning discoveries in every field that matters: opening preparation, piece mobility, initiative, attacking techniques, long-term sacrifices and much more. The story of AlphaZero has a wider impact. Game Changer offers intriguing insights into the opportunities and horizons of Artificial Intelligence. Not just in solving games, but in providing solutions for a wide variety of challenges in society. With a Foreword by former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and an Introduction by DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.