Many players are serious about their chess but become stuck at a certain playing strength. It's rarely a lack of talent or practice or opening knowledge that holds them back. Usually they get left behind because they don't know how to make best use of the time they have available to study chess. ----- This book addresses this problem and is your self-improvement plan. It shows you how to work on your own games to root out mistakes. It will sharpen your calculation of variations. You will be challenged to find the best middlegame strategy. Endgame technique is also covered in detail. All topics are discussed with numerous examples and puzzles from the games of modern players such as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand. If you want your chess to leap forward it's time to Coach Yourself! ----- * A complete self-improvement programme. --- *All aspects of the game included. ---* Utilizes a structured approach, making the most of your study 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.

Such has been the acclaim for John Watson's ground-breaking works on modern chess strategy and his insightful opening books, that it is only natural that he now presents a strategic opening repertoire.
It is the chess-player's holy grail: a flexible repertoire that gives opponents real problems but doesn't require masses of memorization or continual study of ever-changing grandmaster theory. While this book can't quite promise all of that, Watson offers an intriguing selection of lines that give vast scope for over-the-board creativity and should never lead to a dull draw.
The repertoire is based on 1 d4 and 2 c4, following up with methodical play in the centre. Watson uses his vast opening knowledge to pick cunning move-orders and poisonous sequences that will force opponents to think for themselves, providing a true test of chess understanding. Throughout, he discusses strategies for both sides, so readers will be fully ready to pounce on any inaccuracies, and have all the tools to decide on the most appropriate plans for White.

Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But dont give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point! Swindling is a skill that can be trained. In this book, David Smerdon shows how you can use tricks from psychology to marshal hidden resources and exploit your opponents biases. In a lost position, your best practical chance often lies not in what the computer recommends, but in playing your opponent. With an abundance of eye-popping examples and training exercises, Smerdon identifies the four best friends of every chess swindler: your opponents impatience, their hubris, their fear, and their need to stay in control. Youll also learn about such cunning swindling motifs as the Trojan Horse, the decoy trap, the berserk attack, and window-ledging. So, come and join the Swindlers Club, become a great escape artist and dramatically improve your results. In this instructive and wildly entertaining guide, Smerdon shows you how.

Chess Secrets is a series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess, such as strategy, attack, defence, opening play, endgames, off-board preparation and mental attitude. In each book the author chooses and deeply studies a number of great players who have excelled in such aspects of the game, greatly influenced their peers and inspired all of us. ----- In Giants of Innovation, Craig Pritchett selects five chess legends whose play exemplifies outstandingly innovative attributes. Wilhelm Steinitz established the essential ground-rules for modern positional chess. Emanuel Lasker pioneered a new kind of total all-out battling chess. Mikhail Botvinnik taught us how to prepare and successfully play an entire range of complex modern opening systems. Viktor Korchnoi set particularly high standards in the art of defence and counter-attack. Vassily Ivanchuk, a modern byword for ingenuity and surprise, excels by constant creation. ----- n Great Chess Romantics, Craig Pritchett selects five players, whose chess artistry expresses a deeply personal commitment to the discovery and revelation of great new truths and beauty on the chessboard. Anderssen defined romanticism's inherently dramatic and correct combinational core. Chigorin championed this essence in splendid opposition to an emerging new classical consensus. Reti revealed the extraordinary power of new flank openings. Larsen confounded the overly sober, scientific Soviet schoolI at innumerable turns. In the computer age, Morozevich constantly discovers new depths to chess, while simply oozing exquisite strokes in his best games.

An understanding of Hedgehog structures is an essential component in any chessplayer's knowledge. These structures arise when the black c-pawn is exchanged early on for the white d-pawn (as in the Sicilian Defence). White then adopts a formation with pawns on c4 and e4 and Black curls up in a Hedgehog formation with pawns on a6, b6, d6 and e6. ----- These structures are important as they can arise from an extraordinary variety of openings including the Sicilian Defence, the English Opening and the Queen's Indian Defence. Play is usually highly intricate with White hoping to exploit the natural space advantage while Black remains solid and looks to break out of his or her carapace with the classical thrusts ...b7-b5 and ...d7-d5. ----- Everything you need to know about the Hedgehog systems. --- The structure emphasizes plans and strategies. --- Written by an expert on the opening.

Written especially for beginners, it's the most comprehensive manual available and includes everything from explanations of each piece to orchestrating endgames. In addition to expert advice, simple instructions, and more than 200 easy-to-follow diagrams, novices will find aggressive openings, the top-ten traps and attacks, basic tactical principles, specimen games to learn and crib from, and a test your chess IQ section.

The Queen's Indian is a dynamic and flexible way to meet 1 d4, and it leads to complex and intricate positions rich in ideas both sides. Such is the high regard for the Queen's Indian that virtually all the world's top players have utilized it at one time or another. In this book Andrew Greet presents a complete repertoire for Black. He reveals his secrets, offers answers against all of White's possibilities, and highlights the principal tactical and positional plans. This book tells you everything you need to know to play the Queen's Indian with confidence.

Among the many treasures of the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, are hundreds of chess and other games pieces dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries ce. Intricately crafted in a rich variety of materials, including ivory, wood, ceramic, glass, jade and agate, these tiny objects are of enormous historical and artistic significance. They not only mark the evolution of familiar games into their modern forms, but also evoke the imperial palaces, military camps and herders' tents in which they were played over many centuries, from the Sasanian period through the Islamic era in Central Asia, Iran, present-day Iraq and northern India. The chess pieces include both early figural sets and the more abstract forms that later became popular throughout the Islamic world. Dice, pachesi sets and a medieval Arabic treatise on chess complete the collection.

"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.

Schach: das Spiel der KAnige, der GroA meister, der Superklugen. Aber auch ein Spiel mit eigentlich ganz enfachen Regeln. "Schach fA1/4r Dummies" ist mehr als eine bloA e EinfA1/4hrung in die Grundregeln. Lassen Sie sich zeigen, wie Sie die verschiedenen Spielphasen ErAffnung, Mittel- und Endspiel erfolgreich gestalten. Erfahren Sie Wissenswertes A1/4ber Computer- und Turnierschach. Lassen Sie sich von legendAren Partien und berA1/4hmten Spieler faszinieren. Dieses Buch begleitet Sie vom blutigen AnfAnger bis zum ausgebufften Turnierspieler.

Have there been times during a game when you have tried to calculate like mad, but can find no rhyme or reason to your lines? Have you ever felt that the computers suggestions in your post-mortem analysis make no sense to you? Ever felt like the man with a hammer, suspecting that the world may not be made up entirely of nails after all? In Positional Play Jacob Aagaard shares his simple three-step tool of positional analysis that he has used with club players and famous grandmasters to improve their positional decision-making. Working from the starting point that all players who aspire to play at international level have a certain amount of positional understanding, Aagaard lays out an easy-to-follow training plan that will improve everyones intuition and positional decision-making.

Fed up with having to learn so much opening theory? Struggling to keep up with all the latest developments? Then this book may well be the answer to all your problems! Grandmaster John Emms offers a new arsenal of opening weapons with which to attack to your unaware opponents. Starting with the move 1 e4, the reader is armed with systems against all possible black defences. In each case learning ideas is more important than memorising long variations, so this repertoire should be ideal for players who don't have the luxury of being able to spend countless hours studying theory. Each line is easy to learn and play, but will they will still pose your opponent with difficult problems to solve over the board. *All possible defences to 1 e4 are covered *Written by a battle-hardened 1 e4 player *Ideal for club and tournament players

Magnus Carlsen is arguably the strongest player of all time. His dominance is such that every loss comes as a shock. They remind us that even he has his weak moments. In fact, identifying the root causes of his losses holds valuable lessons for all players. Cyrus Lakdawalas search starts with a series of Magnus wins and draws to give the reader a feel for how incredibly difficult it is to beat him. The World Champions arsenal is awesome: a superlative ability to calculate, near-perfect intuition, probably the best endgame technique ever, a wide and creative opening repertoire, a willingness to unbalance the position almost anytime, and last but not least: his unparalleled will to win. How to Beat Magnus Carlsen has a thematic structure, which, together with Lakdawalas uniquely accessible style, makes its lessons easy to digest. Sometimes even Magnus gets outplayed, sometimes he over-presses and goes over the cliffs edge, and sometimes he fails to find the correct plan. And yes, even Magnus Carlsen commits straightforward blunders. Lakdawala explains the how and the why. Its wonderful to have a World Champion who is not just incredibly strong, but who is also happy to experiment and take risks. Thats what makes Magnus Carlsen such a fascinating chess player. And thats why he is the hero of this book. There is no doubt that Carlsen has examined all his losses under a microscope. If he benefits from this process, then so will we.

Building and maintaining a chess opening repertoire can be a demanding task - for a start there are an enormous number of different lines to chooses from. There's a strong temptation amongst aspiring players to opt solely for tricky lines in order to snare unsuspecting opponents, but this approach has only short term value. As you progress and your opponents become stronger, very often these line don't stand up to close scrutiny and suddenly you are back to square one with no suitable opening weapons. ----- In these two books, brought together now for the first time in one volume, John Cox and Neil McDonald solve the perennial problems by providing the reader with strong and trusty repertoires with white pieces based on the popular opening moves of 1d4 and 1e4. ----- The recommended lines given here have stood the test of time and are regularly employed by Grandmasters. ----These books are written in Everyman Chess's distinctive Starting Out style, with plenty of notes, tips and warnings throughout to help the reader to absorb ideas.

The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence provides a battleground for one of the key conflicts in chess: structure versus activity. Black voluntarily accepts a weak pawn formation but in return obtains easy development and excellent piece activity. This is a line that finds favour with aggressive, attacking players who are confident in their tactical ability. The idea of playing ...e5 in the Sicilian is an old one but the modern Sveshnikov treatment was developed in the 1970s, since when it has featured in the repertoires of numerous elite players. It is currently experiencing great popularity due to the fact that it was Magnus Carlsen's choice in his World Championship Match against Fabiano Caruana in London 2018. Carlsen's success with the line was a significant factor in his eventual victory in the match. Since then he has continued to use the Sveshnikov with great success. In Opening Repertoire: The Sveshnikov leading chess author Cyrus Lakdawala guides the reader through the complexities of this dynamic variation 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. * A complete repertoire for Black in the Sicilian Sveshnikov. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method.

Ideal for those wanting to understand the basics of the Ruy Lopez. The Ruy Lopez is one of the most famous of all chess openings. It has a long and distinguished history and has been played by virtually all of the strongest Grandmasters: Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand ' the list goes on! From very early on White activates pieces, takes the initiative and sets about building a dominant centre. In this user-friendly book, author John Shaw goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Ruy Lopez and its many variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips, warnings and exercises to help the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. * User-friendly design to help readers absorb ideas * Concentrates on the key principles of the Ruy Lopez * Ideal for the improving player

If like most chess players you have a limited amount of time that you can spend studying, but you still want to push for an advantage with White, then the Trompowsky is a great choice. The Trompowsky, 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, has not been as deeply investigated as many of the main lines, and it is an attacking opening that is tricky for Black to face. As well as providing an attacking repertoire for White with the ambitious Trompowsky Attack, the author also covers 2.Bg5 against the Dutch Defence, as well as the Pseudo-Tromp, 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5.

The Sicilian Defence is Blacks most ambitious and popular defence to 1 e4. Finding a suitable weapon against it has taxed many a grandmasters brain. Should White dive into the labyrinth of mountainous theory and complications, in which the player who knows the latest theoretical wrinkle is likely to prevail, or should White abstain and instead head for the more tranquil waters of the various Anti-Sicilians on offer? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in-between! In this book, Grandmaster Nigel Davies tackles the Open Sicilian head on, but still develops an easy-to-use system for White based upon the fianchetto of the kings bishop. Davies arms the readers with an impressive repertoire which enables them to face the Sicilian Defence with renewed confidence.
*Covers all Blacks possible Sicilian defences
*Ideal for club and tournament players
*Written by an experienced openings expert

"I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. The way to this happiness I have tried to show in this book." -- Author's Preface
While there are many chess instruction books available, few have achieved the lofty stature of the present volume. Fewer still have been written by a legendary International Grandmaster whose pedagogical skills rivaled the chess prowess that enabled him to demolish opponents at the board. An immediate success upon its first publication, "The Game of Chess" has become one of the game's enduring classics, considered by some critics the finest book ever written on the game.
Part of its success stems from Dr. Tarrasch's unorthodox approach to teaching chess: "I employ quite another method and one analogous to that a mother uses to teach her child to talk. I play with the beginner from the very start in that I put before him simple positions and from them explain the fundamentals of chess. It is the intuitive method of instruction. In this way the pupil learns chess quite easily, of that I am convinced."
To make it easier for the beginning student, Dr. Tarrasch also reverses the order in which the game is usually taught. Instead, he begins with the End-Game, since "obviously it is easier for the beginner to deal with a few men than the entire thirty-two." Then follows the heart of the book, an important and extensive discussion of the Middle Game. Analyzing the most important parts of hundreds of games, Tarrasch presents a comprehensive treatment of combination play, an aspect of chess for which he was especially renowned. Finally, he deals with the most complex part of the game -- the Opening -- and offers enlightening comments on many historically important variations.
Illustrated with over 340 diagrams and including 12 complete games, "The Game of Chess" remains one of the standard texts, a careful reading of which will improve the game of any player.