With Weapons of Chess, National Master and highly acclaimed teacher Bruce Pandolfini brings us the most accessible and easy-to-use chess strategy book ever.

Written for beginning and intermediate players, Weapons of Chess is the first encyclopedia of chess strategies that doesn't rely on the usual baffling chess notation. There are no symbolic chess moves, no charts or sequences in chess notation: every move is explained in words.

Arranged alphabetically for easy use and based mainly on pawn formation, the incredibly detailed and thorough entries in this book talk a player through dozens of common strategic dilemmas, such as "doubled pawn," "bishops vs. knights," and "hanging pawn pair." Diagrams illustrate the terms, first showing the basic position and then strategically moving to more complicated versions of it. Players will learn how to formulate plans once they have reached a middlegame, enabling them to make wiser strategic decisions after the first few moves of the game.

Designed for use as a ready reference during actual practice games, and usable without a chess board, Weapons of Chess is a unique and invaluable resource for any developing chess player.

If you have just picked up this book, the chances are that you are the proud owner of a piece of chess software. Whether this is the latest release of a sophisticated database package or a playing program that came free with a magazine, then this book will help you make the most of it.
Even basic chess software packages now usually have numerous interesting features and working out how to use these effectively is no easy task. Many players simply use a playing program to practice against and a database program just for storing and replaying games. Yet there is much more that can be achieved with such packages and this book will show you how the experts do it.
With this book you can: learn powerful techniques for organizing and managing your chess data; discover proven, effective methods to study the middlegame and endgame; learn how to most effectively harness the power of a chess engine; efficiently analyze your own strengths and weaknesses.

Based on his private course for students, America's foremost chess coach and game strategist for Netflix's The Queen's Gambit presents an easy-to-use guide that explains invaluable "inner circle" endgame concepts for players of any level. The endgame has always been a particularly instructive phase of chess play. It provides the perfect opportunity for understanding the potential power of each chess piece in every chess situation-from opening move to checkmate. But the endgame is often viewed as an inaccessible area of play by most players whose experience is limited to watching championship games. Now, Pandolfini changes all of that. With one endgame example per page and covering every endgame category in order of difficulty, Paldolfini walks you through all the basic concepts including: --square of the pawn --critical squares --corresponding squares --other new approaches not mentioned in classic references Featuring a glossary of concepts and diagrams throughout, this volume is the not-so-secret password to a whole new realm of chess play and entertainment for the average player.

Chess Opening preparation is probably the most difficult aspect of chess training, as the possibilities are endless. There is an abundance of training material, and especially adult improvers and regular club players find it challenging to study openings efficiently. International Master Jeroen Bosch gives them all the tools they need to dominate the opening phase of the game. He presents a structured approach to the study of openings and the preparation for a club match or tournament game. Every time-strapped chess improver will love his advice on opening preparation. Instead of studying more hours or memorizing more lines, they will have to start making smart choices.

The a...6 Slav is a relatively new phenomenon in a very popular opening, and over the last few years it has attracted the attention of some top class players: Alexei Shirov, Sergei Movsesian, England's Julian Hodgson, and more recently, world number one Garry Kasparov. In this first ever book solely devoted to the a...6 Slav, Grandmaster and openings expert Glenn Flear delves into the secrets of this complex line. He explains the tactics and positional ideas for both White and Black and presents a comprehensive coverage of the theory, concentrating on all the new wrinkles and discoveries.
* Written by a prominent openings theoretician
* All major lines are covered
* Ideal for club and tournament players

Based on six games played by the "Kasparov generation" of Soviet chess players, America's foremost chess coach and game strategist for Netflix's The Queen's Gambit presents a complete course in intermediate chess logic. The "Kasparov generation" of Soviet chess players is perhaps the best-trained crop of young players ever to come out of the country, holding the world title for 55 of the last 60 years. With the clarity of instruction for which he is renowned, Bruce Pandolfini illustrates such concepts as Light Squares, Time, Attack, Pawn Advances, and Counterattack in six chapters structured around each of the six games. Featuring a Grandmaster Glossary, 101 diagrams, an index, and algebraic notation throughout, this uniquely crafted volume puts the most valuable concepts in world-class chess at the intermediate player's fingertips.

International Master Al Horowitz goes through every major chess opening system and provides just one line of play for White, one line of play for Black, and the reason for each move by White or Black. How to Win in the Chess Openings will not show the reader how to win every game, but it will provide an easy route which will enable the player to get a reasonable, playable position out of the opening with good winning chances, without having to memorize a bunch of opening lines.

The English is a sophisticated opening which is very popular at all levels of chess: from up-and-coming players to World Champions such as Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. It has many attractions, including flexibility and diversity: White can play either aggressively or quietly, and positions are rich in both strategy and tactics.In Play the English, Craig Pritchett provides an active repertoire for White, offering answers to Black's key defences both in the main lines and sidelines. Drawing upon his wealth of experience in this opening from both sides of the board, Pritchett highlights the positional and tactical ideas for White and Black, and the subtle move-order nuances so important in the modern game. This book contains all you need to know to play the English with confidence in your own games.

So you're a fairly decent chess player. You compete in tournaments, you play on the Internet. But you would love to make that leap to become a chess master. What do you need to know, how much do you have to practise, and how much of the success of the masters is simply a matter of innate talent, superior brainpower or just good luck? This useful book, aimed at all chess players who aspire to become chess masters, shows you what the masters know and you don't. Written by one of our biggest-selling and best-loved chess authors, in his trademark chatty, accessible but always informative style, this book is filled with practical exercises and test games that will reveal the secrets of how to join chess's elite ranks.

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.

Table of Contents

1. Opening 2. The eye of the master 3. Chunks! 4. The best move 5. Practice makes (almost) perfect 6. Men vs. women 7. Style and intuition 8. Errare humanum est 9. Psychological warfare and training techniques 10. The magic bullet? 11. Costs of playing chess 12. Endgame

　

 

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.

Part of Starting Out series, this book revisits the fundamentals of the Reti, examining the key moves and plans for both sides. It explains the reasoning behind key moves and ideas. It is suitable for improvers, club players and tournament players.

Picture a typical scenario in which both players are gunning for each other's kings. Whose attack will break through first? Often it's a case of 'who dares wins', but it's not enough to throw your pieces up the board and hope for the best! To succeed you need to acquire sophisticated attacking and defensive skills. The good news is that they can easily be learned, remembered and put into practice. In this book, Lorin D'Costa presents a comprehensive study of opposite-side castling and the crucial techniques needed both in attack and defence. Studying this book will allow you to approach these frequent situations with confidence.

Calculation is key to winning chess games. Converting your chess knowledge into concrete moves requires calculation and precise visualisation. The bad news: calculation is hard work. You cannot rely on feeling or intuition -- you will have to turn on your brainpower. The good news: you can improve your calculation skills by training.

Set up a position on a chessboard and try to solve exercises without moving the pieces! Grandmaster Ramesh RB is the perfect coach to awaken your chess brain and feed you precisely the right exercises.

This new series provides an ideal platform to study chess openings. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of opening knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to study any chess opening and at the same time improve your general chess skills and knowledge. In this book, Cyrus Lakdawala examines the Caro-Kann, which enjoys a richly deserved reputation as one of Black's most reliable defences. It provides an ideal blend of soundness and dynamism, which allows Black to create counterplay from a solid platform. Lakdawala shares his experience and knowledge of the Caro-Kann, presents a repertoire for Black and provides answers to all the key questions. *Essential guidance and training in the Caro-Kann *Includes a Caro-Kann repertoire for Black *Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study

After the success of his award-winning book Keep it Simple 1.e4 International Master Christof Sielecki is back. His new repertoire based on 1.d4 has a similar profile: variations that are straightforward and easy to remember, and require little or no maintenance. Sielecki has created a reliable set of opening lines for chess players of almost all levels. The major objective is to dominate Black from the opening, by simple means. You dont need to sacrifice anything or memorize long tactical lines. His main concept is for White to play 1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.g3, 4.Bg2, 5.0-0 and in most cases 6.c4. Sielecki developed this repertoire while working with students who were looking for something that was easy to understand and easy to learn. This new 1.d4 repertoire may be even easier to master than his 1.e4 recommendations, because it is such a coherent system. Sielecki always clearly explains the plans and counterplans and keeps you focussed on what the position requires. Ambitious players rated 1500 or higher will get great value out of studying this extremely accessible book.

Genius in the Background introduces brilliant chess that will be unfamiliar to even well-read chessplayers. Twelve chess stars are profiled with examples of their greatest achievements, but these stars are not famous they are geniuses who stay in the background. For example, Pervakov and Afek are not household names but they compose chess studies and puzzles of such elegance and cleverness that they deserve to be famous. Top players such as Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov may be famous names to chess fans, but they did not become World Champions without great help two of their coaches are profiled in this book and provide insights into the education of a chess champion. A broad range of chess is covered by the twelve profiles from openings to endgames, puzzles to training. The common thread is beauty and brilliance that deserves to be better known.

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!

From Simon & Schuster, Chess Traps is I.A. Horowitz's exploration of chess' pitfalls and swindes-both how to set them and how to avoid them. This is a rich storehouse of Chess 'crimes.' Sometimes the villain is thwarted: more often he gets away with his nefarious deeds. But, in either event, the tales, and their telling, will prove to be instructive and vastly entertaining.

Fred Reinfeld-his name is known to almost every chess player in the United States. But his accomplishments? These are not so well known. Reinfeld was one of the strongest players of his time, ranking just below Reuben Fine and Sammy Reshevsky (against whom he had a plus score). He was an accomplished author of some of the best chess books of the thirties and forties. Fred Reinfeld was a respected numismatist, still recognized as a pioneer in the field sixty years later. He was an editor or major contributor to almost every major chess magazine of the thirties through the forties-Chess Review, Chess Correspondent, and Chess Life. This book is the first book on this remarkable man whose works have contributed more to chess than any other author. Many of Reinfeld's comments, ideas, and thoughts are quoted in their original context. Known his own time for the strength of his annotations, many are preserved here for the modern reader. Reinfeld lives!]