The Four Knights has the distinction of being one of the oldest openings in the history of chess. In a kings pawn opening, both players bring out their knights before contemplating further development. Despite its deceptively peaceful appearance, the Four Knights can lead to wild gambit play as well as calmer positional waters, while adherents include the renowned tactician from Latvia, Alexei Shirov.
In this new book, International Master Jan Pinski delves into the secrets of the Four Knights for the first time, studying the tactical and strategic ideas for both white and black players. Pinski covers both the fashionable main lines and the tricky sidelines, bringing the reader right up to date with the expanding theory.
This book is written by a leading openings expert and covers both Whites and Blacks main options. It is a popular choice for club and tournament players

The Queen's Gambit is one of the great classical openings. All the world champions and elite players have played this opening - most of them for both sides. In this book the highly experienced coach international master Andrew Martin explains the basic ideas behind all the different variations you can encounter after 1 d4 d5 2 c4. This includes the classical defences (such as the Orthodox, the Lasker and the Slav) as well as the weird and wonderful (such as the Albin Counter-Gambit, the Hennig-Schara Gambit and Marshall's Defence). First Steps is a new opening 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 First Steps books are based around carefully selected instructive games which demonstrate exactly what both sides are trying to achieve. There is enough theory to enable the improving player to get to grips with the opening without feeling overwhelmed. If you want to take up a new opening, First Steps is the ideal place to start.

This exceptional book continues the unique project where one of the greatest chess players of our time transforms her personal journey to the top into a roadmap for everyone who ever wanted to better themselves in the game of chess. In this volume, Judit tells the story of her rise from teenage grandmaster to Top Ten superstar.

When should we exchange a piece in the endgame and when should we keep it? Why is it so important? How to make a right choice? Different types of endings and guidance on how to make the correct decision were the subject of my book The Correct Exchange in the Endgame. Two editions were very well accepted by chess players of different levels. I am especially happy that many chess coaches and teachers found it useful for their training programs. The book was announced as a silver winner of the Boleslavsky Award 2016 by the FIDE Trainer's Commission. Many readers and coaches expressed a wish to see more instructive exercises, so together with Thinkers Publishing we decided to make an exercise book. It can be widely used by chess teachers in schools, coaches in chess clubs and all chess players. Trying to solve 120 instructive exercises and then going through the correct solutions, you will certainly improve your decision-making ability and analyzing skills, as well as enrich your knowledge and understanding of the final stage of the chess game.

The most complete treatise on sleight-of-hand coin conjuring, including best traditional methods and modern innovations. Guides you systematically from basic techniques, through integrated tricks to complete routined acts (18 in all). 510 clear illustrations by Nelson C. Hahne. The best manual for amateurs, an encyclopedic source for professionals.

Take the fight to the enemy with this new theatre book for Bolt Action. From the D-Day landings to the final battle for Berlin, this volume gives players everything they need to focus their gaming on these final campaigns in the European Theatre of Operations. Scenarios and special rules offer something for all Bolt Action players, regardless of the armies they collect.

This remarkable book is based on the close observation of the solutions by the Italian Champions to bidding problems. Acute judgements produced astonishing results, which Wladyslaw Izdebski and a leading bridge coach, Wlodzimierz Krysztofczyk, have analysed to create an exhilarating text. No competent bridge player will want to miss the opportunity of following this exciting work.

The second supplement for Stargrave offers a host of new scenarios and rules for gaining political backing as you fight across the ravaged galaxy. The Dahlgren Belt was once a vast asteroid mining operation that supplied the entire sector with rare metals and various elemental fuels. However, the isolation of the last war caused the corporation to wither, and the various outposts and colonies were eventually left to look after themselves. Some became true collectives, or limited democracies, while others have fallen to the rule of gangsters, warlords, and despots. In all cases, the limited resources of air and organic material has made life difficult. In this supplement for Stargrave, the crews must travel from asteroid-to-asteroid, and even down to the system's single, barely inhabitable planet, searching for a man who claims to have discovered a 'big score'. During their journey, players will fight through numerous different environments - including asteroid mines, zero gravity, and even hellish jungle. Captains must curry favour with the various small political factions that hold power in the Belt. Only through a combination of wits, diplomacy, and weapons can players hope to reach the last prospector and gain a share of his claim...

Trying to keep those mental muscles in shape? Search no further! Here's a book with hours and hours of IQ-busting fun to challenge your brain strength and test the very depths of your gumption. These innovative, witty, and utterly outrageous brainbusters engage your reasoning power while honing your problem-solving skills. Beginning with easier puzzles, then getting progressively more difficult, this tantalizing collection will increase brain power with each puzzle you conquer. Need help? Don't worry--we've added a special "Solutions" section that gives a detailed answer to each brainbuster. This ingenious volume offers more than 180 puzzlers including:

• An archaeologist walking along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea finds an old Roman coin. On one side is the face of Julius Caesar and the date is 44 BC. On the other side is an olive tree. The archaeologist says," The coin is counterfeit." How does she know?
• What is the probability that if you cut a straight stick at two arbitrary places, you can make a triangle with the three pieces?
• At Disney World a canal joining two lakes passes over a road on an aqueduct. When a boat goes across, does it increase the load on the aqueduct?

Having learned that a dangerous contagion is hidden inside prototype biotech bound for mass production, the heroes must storm a dangerous manufacturing facility to prevent the spread before it starts! They eventually trace the source of the mind-controlling fungus to a seemingly quiet hospice, where a representative of the local planetary government is visiting. If the heroes don't prevent this agent from carrying the infestation back to their employer, an entire planet could fall! Unfortunately, the heroes' task is complicated by the return of a hidden faction looking to reclaim the PCs to dissect their minds! "The Cradle Infestation" is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 9th-level characters. This adventure continues the Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the players unravel the machinations of insidious aliens who have infiltrated galactic society. This volume also includes an examination of the biology and society of the floating barathus, a catalog of biotech gear, and a selection of new and mystifying monsters. Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

Prove your logical and arithmetical prowess by solving the exceptionally tricky problems in Mensa's Most Difficult Number Puzzles. This full-colour book features a huge variety of numerical conundrums that are certain to test even the most adept of puzzlers. Some puzzles – such as sum skyscraper and calcudoku – will test your mental maths, while others – such as touchy and bridges – will provide a trial for your logical and lateral thinking. Are you up to the fiendish challenge?

The characters, villains, and starships of the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path come alive on your tabletop with this collection of more than 100 creature and starship pawns, designed for use with the Starfi nder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop science fantasy RPG. Printed on sturdy cardstock, each of these double-sided pawns slots into a size-appropriate plastic base from the Starfi nder Pawns Base Assortment, making them easy to mix with traditional metal or plastic miniatures. With dozens of distinct images, the Starfi nder Attack of the Swarm! Pawn Collection depicts the enemies and allies from all six adventures of the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path. * Fate of the Fifth * Huskworld * Hive of Minds * The Last Refuge * The Forever Reliquary * The God-Host Ascends

'A classic.' Frank Keating, Guardian 'Unputdownable.' The Face Following the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, Britain found itself in the grip of a new sporting obsession. Snooker, or 'Coronation Street with balls', was suddenly big business and 1986 was set to be a crucial year. In one corner was Barry Hearn and his Romford Mafia - Davis, Taylor and Griffiths - and in the other were the bad boys - Higgins, White and Knowles - threatening the game's good name, and its earning potential. For one year, Gordon Burn travelled with this snooker circus, from Hong Kong and China to out of season resorts in the North of England and the season's finale in Sheffield. With unprecedented access to the leading players and personalities involved, Pocket Money affords a unique snapshot into an extraordinary time and place.

Viewed as the key to self-knowledge and inner peace in Eastern traditions, a mandala is a symbolic spiritual image which, when meditated on, can bring about profound inner transformation. This book offers a perfect way to combine contemplation with creativity, helping us to ease anxieties and insecurities, bring about change, and regain our personal balance - both through colouring in these mandalas and through meditating on them afterwards. Each mandala offers a place of refuge you can visit to recharge and reconnect with your essential self. The imagery ranges from the dove of peace, the rose of pure love and the floating lotus of the East to dolphins at play. There is an introduction putting the symbolism and imagery of the mandalas in context, as well as a directory of the mandalas in full colour at the back of the book.

Following on from the enduring success of one of the most important chess books ever written, Bobby Fischer: My 60 Memorable Games, and the recently released Magnus Carlsen: 50 Memorable Games, celebrated chess writer Andrew Soltis delivers a book on Fabiano Caruana, the Grandmaster set to rival current world champion Magnus Carlsen. This book details Caruana's remarkable rise from chess prodigy to one of the best chess player in the world, exploring how he acquired the skills of 21st-century grandmaster chess over such a short period of time. This book dives into how he wins by analysing 60 of the games that made him who he is, describing the intricacies behind his and his opponent's strategies, the tactical justification of moves and the psychological battle in each one.

Initially things looked gloomy for Bobby Fischer. Because he had refused to participate in the 1969 US Championship, he had missed his chance to qualify for the 1970 Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca. Only when another American, Pal Benko, withdrew in his favour, and after the officials were willing to bend the rules, could Bobby enter the contest. And begin his phenomenal run that would end with the Match of the Century in Reykjavik against World Champion Boris Spassky. Fischer started out by sweeping the field at the 23-round Palma Interzonal to qualify for the next stage of the cycle. In the Candidates Matches he first faced Mark Taimanov, in Vancouver. Fischer trounced the Soviet ace, effectively ending Taimanovs career. Then, a few months later in Denver, he was up against Bent Larsen, the Great Dane. Fischer annihilated him, too. The surreal score in those two matches, twice 6-0, flabbergasted chess fans all over the world. In the ensuing Candidates Final in Buenos Aires, Fischer also made short shrift of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, beating the hyper-solid Armenian Tiger 6"-2". Altogether, Fischer had scored an incredible 36 points from 43 games against many of the worlds best players, including a streak of 19 consecutive wins. Bobby Fischer had become not just a national hero in the US, but a household name with pop-star status all over the world. Jan Timman chronicles the full story of Fischers sensational run and takes a fresh look at the games. The annotations are in the authors trademark lucid style, that happy mix of colourful background information and sharp, crystal-clear explanations.

From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home. From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London's story across cheerful coloured tiles. But those Monopoly streets live and breathe - they don't just illuminate our history. They open up whole new ways of thinking about it. The mobs have taken to our streets. The overlords have taken them back. Wars have spilled out into them. Lovers have snuck around them, and fires have raged through them. In a city of rags and riches, where folk hero Dick Whittington believed the streets were paved with gold, anything could happen - and everything has. You may think you know the history of London. You don't. Or at least, not entirely. This is the story of the capital as you've never, quite, heard it before.

No-Limit Hold'em is an extremely complex game that is difficult to learn and even more difficult to teach. Many authors have produced works on this topic which are either too simplistic or far too complex to be of any practical use. Hunter Cichy has a unique ability to present advanced concepts in a manner that any committed student can understand and implement. ----- In this cutting-edge work, Hunter outlines a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to poker analysis. His philosophy is built around the five key elements of poker theory: ----- * pot odds --- * implied odds --- * pot equity --- * fold equity --- * minimum defense frequency. ----- Hunter examines each of these topics in depth and explains how they interact. By combining optimal opening ranges with clear explanations of math and game theory, Hunter presents a powerful strategy that is easy to implement and difficult to exploit. ----- A careful study of the approach outlined in Advanced Concepts in No Limit Hold`em will undoubtedly take your game to a higher level.

Part magical university, part museum, part tourist attraction, the great Collegium of Artistry had flourished in Felstad's final days. Under the leadership of the seemingly immortal Malcor the Mad, the vast complex expanded, with new wings being built wherever they would fit, including up and down the rock face, and even buried within the mountain itself. Visitors called it one of the architectural wonders of the world; the students, who often got lost in its endless tunnels, simply called it 'The Maze'.

With a titanic crash, an immense ice shelf tears free from the mountains that that loom above Frostgrave, revealing the lost Collegium, and the race for its secrets begins. The Maze is known to have contained many rare and unique treasures, and who knows what may have survived...

This new, expanded supplement for Frostgrave contains a host of new adventures, treasures, and creatures to challenge players. It also includes its own, unique campaign and experience system, as well as information about several of the mythical lost schools of magic.