Imagine you are a club player who has been given the opportunity to talk at length with a famous Grandmaster. How would you make the most of this opportunity?This book is the much anticipated follow-up to the highly acclaimed and award-nominated L

The most complete collection of chess problems ever published, including 5,334 instructional situations, presented by the world's leading chess teacher

Chess analyzes more than 5,000 unique instructional situations, many taken from real matches, including 306 problems for checkmate in one move, 3,412 mates in two moves, 744 mates in three moves, 600 miniature games, 144 simple endgames, and 128 tournament game combinations. Chapters are organized by problem type. Each problem, combination, and game is keyed to an easy-to-follow solution at the back of the book, so readers can learn as they go. More than 6,000 illustrations make it easy to see the possibilities any position may hold. The book also includes the basic rules of the game and an international bibliography.

Chess is the ultimate book on winning the game."

To improve and succeed, a chessplayer must be able calculate precisely and visualize prospective positions. This is easier said than done. While pondering the next move, a chessplayer frequently keeps “replaying” the same melody in his mind, thus falling into a kind of trance.

This book by Russian grandmaster Konstantin Chernyshov is designed to improve your visualization and calculation skills. With 500 exercises and an additional 250 puzzles, the author provides a vast amount of material to work through for students and coaches of the game. Most exercises require the reader to go through several stages of thought, including visualizing the configuration of the pieces, evaluating the resulting positions, and finally, calculating an accurate continuation.

The regimen suggested by the author will require a disciplined approach by serious chessplayers. The exercises and puzzles start out with easy examples, but they gradually become more difficult. And all are meant to be solved without sight of the board.

As noted by Ian Harris in his foreword:
"Cognitive Chess is designed to train you to visualize the board and correctly calculate sequences in your mind, skills that are essential to problem solving in all phases of the game. Players who train in these areas will certainly see an overall improvement in their game. After all, chess is ultimately a contest between opponents to determine who can “out-calculate” the other."

Cognitive Chess: When you are serious about taking your game to the next level...

Chess Developments provides state-of-the-art openings coverage. Chess Developments focuses on the current trends - concentrating on critical lines, theoretical novelties and powerful new ideas. It offers players of all levels the opportunity to keep up-to-date with current opening theory whilst also expanding and improving their repertoires. In this book, Bryan Paulsen examines key lines in the Semi-Slav Defence, which is hotly debated at both world championship and club level. Paulsen covers the fascinating Botvinnik Variation, the solid Moscow Variation, the razor-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit, the popular Cambridge Springs Defence and the hybrid Queen's Gambit Declined. He studies the most theoretically important and instructive games in recent years, highlighting the main developments and novelties for both sides. Whether playing White or Black, this book provides you with vital knowledge of a popular opening. *Essential coverage and analysis of the Semi-Slav 5 Bg5 *Includes the Botvinnik, Moscow, Anti-Moscow and Cambridge Springs *Packed with key new ideas and critical lines

Do you instinctively know what to do in every type of chess position or are you often uncertain about how to proceed? Wouldn't it be really useful to know the best chess strategies and to recognise when they should be used? In this book Sam Collins examines key games from both the classical and modern eras. He analyses the major strategic ideas that have stood the test of time and notes their considerable influence on his own games. Studying classic examples from great players allows us to create a personal library of standard ideas. This helps us recognize key positions, making it easier to determine the most effective ways to attack and defend. Crucially, it helps us find the right path much more quickly than we would by relying on calculation alone. * An essential guide to chess strategy * Covers opening, middlegame and endgame play * Ideal for players of all levels

Two compelling titles now brought together in one volume! ----- Beating Unusual Chess Defences: 1 e4: Dealing with the Scandinavian, Pirc, Modern, Alekhine and other tricky lines by Andrew Greet. ----- Anyone who plays 1 e4 as White must be prepared not only for Black's main defences but also an assortment of less popular lines. These, when taken together, represent a significant percentage of the replies you can expect to meet when opening 1 e4. Dealing with these slightly offbeat variations is often a daunting task, especially since your opponents are likely to be specialists in these lines and therefore know them inside out. ----- Beating Unusual Chess Defences provides the perfect solution. International Master Andrew Greet gets to grips with each of these tricky openings. He identifies how to exploit their weaknesses whilst avoiding their strengths, thus constructing a practical and dependable repertoire for White. This book covers everything a 1 e4 player needs to know about facing these defences. ----- Beating Unusual Chess Openings: Dealing with the English, Reti, King's Indian Attack and other annoying systems by Richard Palliser ----- 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 theoffbeat (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.

Chess players are known to be obsessed by openings. However, world champions have recommended that up-and-coming players should actually begin by studying the endgame first. This is because only by studying simplified positions can one fully develop an understanding of how chess pieces work - both in isolation and with each other. It is also the endgame where the true depth and subtlety of chess is revealed. In this instructive and entertaining book, renowned endgame expert Steve Giddins selects 50 of the finest examples of endgame play in the history of chess. Giddins examines each example in great detail and uses them to demonstrate the essential principles of high-quality endgame play. This book is full of essential guidelines and tips which all players should follow if they want to become a successful endgame player.

This entertaining and instructive book uses the author's own tried and tested training methods and is ideal for any player in the 100-160 BCF (1400-1900 ELO/USCF) grading range.

Attacking your opponents king is not just a shortcut to victory, its also one of the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences in chess. If you want to win more games you should become a better attacker. Studying typical attacking motifs and ideas easily brings dividends while you are having a good time. Michael Prusikin presents the prerequisites and the rules for a King attack in a lucid and attractive manner. In 15 thematic chapters he teaches you how to assess the nature of the position, identify the appropriate offensive patterns, find the preliminary moves and conduct your attack in a clear and effective way. Battering rams, obstructive sacrifices, pawn storms, striking at the castled position, sacrificing a knight on f5, Prusikin demonstrates the most important patterns of attack with lots of clear and well-chosen examples. Next, Prusikin tests your newly acquired insights and your attacking intuition with exercises covering all the themes and motifs. You will find that studying ATTACKING STRATEGIES FOR CLUB PLAYERS is both entertaining and rewarding.

It's been said that "tactics are 99% of chess." This third volume of the Comprehensive Chess Course teaches you the basic tools of winning chess with instructive and memorable examples. Grandmasters Alburt and Palatnik thoroughly explain hundreds of key positions arranged by difficulty and designed to sharpen tactical recognition and vision in your own games. Nothing is left to chance in this work. All materials have already shown their worth in Russian chess instruction.

GM Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course brings English readers the once strictly guarded and time-tested Russian training methods, the key to the 50-year Russian dominance of world chess. Comprehensive Chess Course takes you from beginner to master.

The Nimzo-Indian Defence (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4) and the Queen's Indian Defence (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6) are two classic systems for Black to meet 1 d4. They are popular at all levels and have been played by virtually every world champion. They enable Black to gain a firm foothold in the centre at an early stage and White is not permitted the easy space advantage that occurs with many other defences to 1 d4. Black does not seek to engage White in immediate battle but postpones conflict for the middlegame when an understanding of themes and plans will be paramount. In Opening Repertoire: The Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian Defences, highly experienced chess author and coach Nigel Davies guides the reader through the complexities of these two lines and carves out a repertoire for Black. He examines all aspects of these complex systems and provides the reader with well-researched, fresh, and innovative analysis. Each annotated game has valuable lessons on how to play the opening and contains instructive commentary on typical middlegame plans. * A complete repertoire for Black against 1 d4. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method.

In this stimulating book for players of all ages, Garry Kasparov selects the best chess combination from recent grandmaster play and presents them in a test-yourself format that everyone will enjoy. Whether you are a beginner discovering chess tactics for the first time or a master seeking to brush up on your skills, this book is sure to be a useful addition to your chess armoury. The cream of recent chess combinations . Dozens of fascinating chess positions . Suitable for novice and master alike. Written by the world's finest attacking player Since defeatingAnatoly Karpov for the world championship in 1985 Garry Kasparov has successfully defended his title on no less than five occasions, thereby establishing himself as the greatest player of all his generation, if not of all time.

The Sicilian Taimanov (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6) is a very flexible Black system in the Sicilian Defence developed by Mark Taimanov. It is characterised by the development of the g8-knight on e7, often along with a quick ...b7-b5. The Taimanov often leads to tense, dynamic position which are ripe in counterattacking possibilities. In Opening Repertoire: The Sicilian Taimanov, highly experienced chess author and coach Nigel Davies guides the reader through the complexities of the Taimanov and carves out a repertoire for Black. He examines all aspects of this highly complex opening and provides the reader with well-researched, fresh, and innovative analysis. Each annotated game has valuable lessons on how to play the opening and contains instructive commentary on typical middlegame plans. There are also suggestions for countering White's "anti-Sicilian" tries thus creating an entire repertoire to meet 1 e4. * A complete repertoire for Black against 1 e4. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method. * All key variations analysed in detail.

Many club players think that studying chess is all about cramming as much information in their brain as they can. Most textbooks support that notion by stressing the importance of always trying to find the objectively best move. As a result amateur players are spending way too much time worrying about subtleties that are really only relevant for grandmasters. Emanuel Lasker, the second and longest reigning World Chess Champion (27 years!), understood that what a club player needs most of all is common sense: understanding a set of timeless principles. Amateurs shouldnt waste energy on rote learning but just strive for a good grasp of the basic essentials of attack and defence, tactics, positional play and endgame play endgame play. Chess instruction needs to be efficient because of the limited amount of time that amateur players have available. Superfluous knowledge is often a pitfall. Lasker himself, for that matter, also studied chess considerably less than his contemporary rivals. Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins have created a complete but compact manual based on Laskers general approach to chess. It enables the average amateur player to adopt trustworthy openings, reach a sound middlegame and have a basic grasp of endgame technique. Welling and Giddins explain the principles with very carefully selected examples from players of varying levels, some of them from Laskers own games. The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess is an efficient toolkit as well as an entertaining guide. After working with it, players will dramatically boost their skills without carrying the excess baggage that many of their opponents will be struggling with.

This is a major event in chess publishing. Two German endgame experts have produced a masterful one-volume encyclopedia which covers all major endgames. This, the first truly modern single-volume endgame encyclopedia, supersedes all previous works of this type by being far more accurate and readable. This is no dry reference work; throughout the work, the authors emphasize the practical elements of endgame play: principles, rules of thumb and thinking methods. They also provide a feast of detailed analysis for those looking to study the endgame in depth. Unlike previous books of this type (the most recent of which is now eight years old), Fundamental Chess Endings makes full use of endgame tablebases and the analytical engines that access these tablebases. As a result, where previous authors could only make educated guesses, in this book, the authors can often state the definitive truth, or get much closer to it. Throughout, the emphasis is on the general principles that can be extracted from detailed theory, making Fundamental Chess Endings both an ideal endgame reference work and a book that can profitably and enjoyably read from start to finish. With new time controls meaning that competitive games are played to a finish, it has become especially important that chess-players understand the main endgame principles. Fundamental Chess Endings sets the mark for which all others will aim.

This book describes the intense rivalry-and collaboration-of the four players who created the golden era when USSR chess players dominated the world. More than 200 annotated games are included, along with personal details-many for the first time in English. Mikhail Tal, the roguish, doomed Latvian who changed the way chess players think about attack and sacrifice; Tigran Petrosian, the brilliant, henpecked Armenian whose wife drove him to become the world's best player; Boris Spassky, the prodigy who survived near-starvation and later bouts of melancholia to succeed Petrosian-but is best remembered for losing to Bobby Fischer; and "Evil" Viktor Korchnoi, whose mixture of genius and jealousy helped him eventually surpass his three rivals (but fate denied him the title they achieved: world champion).

A book for chess players who want to build their skills on solid foundations. Yusupov guides the reader towards a higher level of chess understanding using carefully selected positions and advice. This new understanding is then tested by a series of puzzles.

In this book Grandmaster Vladimir Tukmakov describes his experiences as captain of national and club teams. He coached also individuals players such as Karpov, Korchnoi, Eljanov, Giri and So, to name some. To improve and grow, every chess player needs to address the issues that prevent him from moving on to a higher level. Collaboration with an experienced mentor can greatly accelerate the player's creative growth and improve his results. In this book the author give the reader a close-up opportunity to witness his coaching experiences with the chess stars.

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. The Queen's Gambit is easily the most talked-about chess opening since the immensely popular Netflix TV series of the same name became a hit. The screen adventures of Beth Harmon have inspired thousands to start playing the Royal Game but didn't offer any information on this highly popular chess opening. This book fills that gap. German Grandmaster Michael Prusikin presents a solid but dynamic opening repertoire for Black against the Queen's Gambit. He wants you to understand rather than memorize what is important. His primary focus is on explaining the relevant pawn structures and the middlegame ideas behind the lines he recommends. Prusikin deals with every single variation of the Queen's Gambit in a way that is highly accessible for club players but at the same time surprisingly effective and concise: the Catalan, Tartakower, Carlsbad, London, Colle, Veresov, and all the others. As a bonus, the FIDE Senior Trainer also provides responses to openings such as the Bird, Reti, and Nimzo-Larsen. It may seem unlikely, and yet it is true: in less than 200 pages, Countering the Queen's Gambit has Black covered for really every first move except 1.e4! To test your newly acquired insights in the tactical motifs and strategic ideas of the Queen's Gambit, you are invited to solve 36 exercises in carefully selected key positions from actual games.

"Chess Openings" explains the principles which underlie correct opening play and shows how they can be developed to produce strong positions for attack and defense in different situations. Mike Basman consolidates these lessons by investigating five classic openings--the Queen's Gambit, Giuoco Piano, Nimzo-Indian, Morra Gambit, and Sicilian Dragon--which together can be used to form the basis of a formidable opening repertoire.