It's spring, and a young bunny's fancy turns to love. And good thing his best friend, the lamb, is there to help him woo his beloved. Straight from the collection of John Derian, the artist and designer whose work with printed images of the past transports the viewer to another time and place, Easter Greeting is a nineteenth-century chromolithographic postcard imbued with the sweetness and sentimentality that makes Victoriana so appealing. As you piece it together, you might just find yourself in a newly lifted mood, wondering if our innocence isn't irretrievably lost after all. Featuring: 1,000 full-color interlocking pieces Art print with puzzle image Finished puzzle is 18 7/8 x 26 3/8"

These slot-together building cards are creative fun for all the family Turrets, ramparts, portcullises, arrow-slit windows, walls, roofs, flags and more - create your own medieval masterpiece. Each box contains 64 cards (105 x 69 mm) in a variety of graphic designs. Clever paper engineering allows you to slot the cards together, building up and out in whichever way you like! Also included is a short booklet, with information on the architecture of castles and suggestions of card building methods. The instructions tell you how to build a castle, or you can let your imagination run riot and design your own! Renowned illustrator Paul Farrell has designed these cards in a cool, graphic style - turning the image of a castle into a work of art.

Many players, of all levels, use their chess study time to concentrate almost exclusively on the openings. Very few players spend much time at all studying endgames and this is almost certainly a mistake. Making a poor move in the opening might leave you with a slightly uncomfortable position. Making a poor move in the endgame can easily transform a win into a draw or even a loss. ----- If you want to make any sort of serious progress at chess it is vital to understand fundamental endgame play. Having an instinctive understanding of which positions are winning, drawing and losing is essential as it enables you to plan your endgame strategies with great confidence, knowing that you are heading for positions that are favourable to you. ----- In this book, Cyrus Lakdawala analyses all the fundamental endgame positions and carefully explains the methods needed to win the favourable ones and draw the unfavourable ones. ----- First Steps is a new 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

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

Bent Larsen was one of the most influential chess players of the 20th century. He was a four-time Candidate for the World Championship and the first westerner to seriously challenge the Soviet Union's post-war dominance of the game. Larsen was admired by fans for his creative and combative style. He was a risk-taker who always sought complex positions. He felt completely at home in defense and was an opportunistic attacker. While other grandmasters would shy away from offbeat openings, Larsen would embrace and develop them. In this book, former American Open Champion Cyrus Lakdawala studies his favourite Larsen games and examines Larsen's skills in the key areas of attack and defense, initiative, exploiting imbalances, accumulating advantages and endgame play. He demonstrates clearly how we can all improve by learning from Larsen's play. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practicing of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of 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 improve your chess skills and knowledge. *Learn from the games of a chess legend*Important ideas absorbed by continued practice*Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study

This 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 practicing 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. The Pirc Defense is a dynamic counter-attacking option for Black. The initial strategy is to allow White to construct an impressive-looking pawn center, but the plan is to attack this center later on with both pieces and pawns, with the ultimate aim of destroying it completely. This ambitious and provocative approach by Black carries some risk but it can often lead to rich rewards, and the Pirc has always been popular among players who are aiming for more than just dry equality. In this book, Grandmaster Nigel Davies invites you to join him in a study of the Pirc Defense and its many variations. He shares his experience and knowledge with the opening, provides repertoire options for Black, offers answers to all the key questions and tells you everything you need to know about playing the Pirc Defense. *Essential guidance and training in the Pirc *Written by a renowned Pirc expert *Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study

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...

Pattern recognition is one of the most important mechanisms of chess improvement. Realizing that the position on the board has similarities with something you have seen before helps you to quickly grasp the essence of that position and find the most promising continuation. Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition supplies a wealth of essential, yet easy-to-remember building blocks for your chess knowledge. In 40 short, well-defined and practical chapters, experienced chess trainer Arthur van de Oudeweetering presents hundreds of examples of surprising middlegame themes. To test your understanding he provides exercises for every chapter. After working with this book, an increasing number of positions, pawn structures and piece placements will automatically activate your chess knowledge. As a result, you will find the right move more often and more quickly!

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).

The third in a series about home video games, this detailed reference work features descriptions and reviews of every official U.S.-released game for the Neo Geo, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, which, in 1989, ushered in the 16-bit era of gaming. Organized alphabetically by console brand, each chapter includes a description of the game system followed by substantive entries for every game released for that console. Video game entries include historical information, gameplay details, the author's critique, and, when appropriate, comparisons to similar games. Appendices list and offer brief descriptions of all the games for the Atari Lynx and Nintendo Game Boy, and catalogue and describe the add-ons to the consoles covered herein--Neo Geo CD, Sega CD, Sega 32X and TurboGrafx-CD.

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

You are one of the thirty Knights Templar who awoke on Friday, 13 October 1307, only to find themselves wanted criminals and branded heretics by the King of France. Abandoned by the Vatican and sent away early in the morning, you must leave Paris on a day of reckoning and try to find your way across a dark, mythic Europe to a mystical utopia where you can rebuild! Heirs to Heresy starts as a historical-fantasy roleplaying game, but is heavily influenced by Gnosticism, European Folklore, esotericism, and the myths and legends that surround the Templars. The game will ask you to craft the secrets of the Templar treasure, the enemies, and mysteries they will face, as your Knights undertake a mystical journey to the center of themselves along the road to Avallonis. The mechanics are a blend of narrative, storytelling rules, and classic adventure-gaming inspired roleplaying rules that work to create rich aspect-driven characters. As Templar Knights, your skill at arms is unquestionable, but it is the potential access to gnostic spells, unique powers, or intensely powerful faith sets you apart from your comrades. Can you tap into your potential, guarding the mysterious Templar treasure on this last quest you will take for the order and find the answer to the burning question: are the Templars Heirs to Heresy?

The ultimate guide to the blockbuster Assassin's Creed game franchise. This richly illustrated guide is the definitive guide to the blockbuster Assassin's Creed game series. Packed with information on characters, technology, locations, historical settings, storylines, organisations, and backstory, this guide encompasses the whole franchise to date and is essential reading for fans and newcomers alike.

Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse is a skirmish-scale miniatures game of survival horror. It pits players against each other in a nightmarish near-future where the dead have returned to life and are feasting on the living.

Players build their own factions, representing desperate civilians, military personnel, or hardened survivors, and must explore, scavenge, and fight in order to survive another day. Rival gangs are only one of the dangers they face - mindless zombies wander the streets, driven by insatiable hunger and drawn by the sound of combat!

A gang's ability to scavenge is as vital as their combat ability, and players must ensure that they have the resources to survive in this hostile world. Scenarios and campaigns allow you to develop your gang, gain experience and recruit new henchmen to build up your strength or replace the inevitable casualties of the zombie apocalypse.

For those needing to grasp the fundamentals of sound bidding and play, Ron Klinger's BASIC BRIDGE is the answer. GUIDE TO BETTER ACOL BRIDGE is intended for the large majority who are ready to advance beyond the basics. While GUIDE TO BETTER ACOL BRIDGE emphasises better bidding, each chapter contains examples of play, which highlight areas of winning declarer technique and defence. At the end of each section, a revision test enables the reader to measure the rate of progress. The book can be used by teachers conducting courses, or as a self-teacher.

The Modern Defence is not a solid opening. In fact, on some level maybe it's not an opening at all. It's the Wild West of chess opening theory, a safe haven for true chess lovers who are just spoiling for a fight. The structures that can result are almost unlimited in their variety and the potential for dynamic piece play is also huge. You need real passion to play it, and also the ability to work hard at the board. But it's also played at the very top: even the names Carlsen and Kramnik occur sometimes in these pages! This book is primarily intended for players who want to play the position after 1.e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 for Black. However, and inevitably for the computer age, there is also a strong focus on chess truth. That means there are also some recommendations for White that are not yet well-known in mainstream opening theory, and that the book has something to offer everyone.

Video games are a complex, compelling medium in which established art forms intersect with technology to create an interactive text. Visual arts, architectural design, music, narrative and rules of play all find a place within, and are constrained by, computer systems whose purpose is to create an immersive player experience. In the relatively short life of video game studies, many authors have approached the question of how games function, some focusing on technical aspects of game design, others on rules of play. Taking a holistic view, this study explores how ludology, narratology, visual rhetoric, musical theory and player psychology work (or don't work) together to create a cohesive experience and to provide a unified framework for understanding video games.

In the first of a potential new series Florian Richter presents colour profile models of every ship on both sides in this epic battle. In a change to previous paper soldier titles, these ships can be cut straight out of the book to create the British, French and Spanish fleets.

Because of television, the game of choice for most new poker players is no-limit Hold'em. This has led to changes in the game. With so many players trying to emulate their TV heroes, they tend to play too many weak hands, call too many bets with marginal to poor holdings, and try to make too many big bluffs. Today's skilled player must learn to adapt to these changes in this complex game. This book covers all aspects of the smaller, fixed buy-in, no-limit hold'em games from understanding your opponents to learning about pot odds. Included are topics seldom written about such as finding the proper amount to bet, how to manage your mental game, bankroll considerations, and how to beat the rake. Also introduced is "The Matrix Theory: " a unique tool for understanding just what hands you should play and how they should be played depending on a matrix of considerations few think about. If you are looking for the most comprehensive guide to fixed buy-in cash games, you need this book!