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.

Who is the most outrageous - Lady Bunny or Divine? Who is the funniest - Coco Peru or Lily Savage? Enter the world of huge hair, sparkling make-up, glitter galore, fake eyelashes and ... the fine art of the tuck and tape, with Game of Queens! Pitch queen against queen from across the carnival court of drag, from the female impersonators who pioneered drag performance in the 1970s up to the superstars of the scene today.

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.

For most chess-players, opening study is sheer hard work. It is hard to know what is important and what is not, and when specific knowledge is vital, or when a more general understanding is sufficient. Tragically often, once the opening is over, a player won't know what plan to follow, or even understand why his pieces are on the squares on which they sit. John Watson seeks to help chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. In his previous books on chess strategy, he explained vital concepts that had previously been the domain only of top-class players. Here he does likewise for the openings, explaining how flexible thinking and notions such as 'rule-independence' can apply to the opening too. Watson presents a wide-ranging view of the way in which top-class players really handle the opening, rather than an idealized and simplified model. This volume, focusing on queen's pawn openings, is a book that will make chess-players think hard about how they begin their games. It also offers both entertainment and challenging study material in openings such as the Nimzo-Indian, King's Indian and the entire Queen's Gambit complex.

Not all mines are filled with opportunities for wealth-some contain even greater opportunities for danger! The Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Deadly Mine Multi-Pack features two maps that combine to form a massive sprawling mine complex. This line of gaming maps provides ready-to-use and captivatingly detailed fantasy set pieces for the busy Game Master. The next time your players are ready to explore a long-lost mine, this map has you covered! This set includes two flip mats, each measuring 24" x 30" unfolded, and 8" x 10" folded. A Flip-Mat's coated surface can handle any dry erase, wet erase, or even permanent marker. Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, Pathfinder Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal!

Here, in a single compact handbook, are all the rules for the myriad forms of pocket billiards. Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book is complete with detailed instructions on how to play everything from Basic Pocket Billiards to Cut-Throat, together with the rules for tournament games such as Nine Ball and Rotation, and Snooker and Carom games.
These are the official rules of billiards from the Billiard Congress of America. A very helpful chapter for the beginner includes professional tips on basic techniques and strategies. Also included are a glossary of billiard terms and a summary of BCA billiards champions.
The Billiard Congress of America is a non-profit 501(c)(6) trade organization, dedicated to achieving a united, growing, prosperous and highly regarded billiard industry through its leadership. It enhances the success of its members and promotes the game of billiards through educational, marketing and promotional programs, annual industry trade shows, tournaments and other programs designed to make pool everybody's game. For more info, see BCA-Pool.com.
The Billiard Congress of America is located in Colorado Springs, CO.

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.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln There's no escaping the fact: if you want to win chess games, you have to attack at some point. Many players are happy solving combinations in winning positions, when the hard work is already done, but the key to a successful attack undoubtedly comes much earlier. No-one can attack effectively if they haven't prepared properly, and yet planning in chess can be a difficult technique to master, even for experienced players. This book provides a solution. Using an abundance of illustrative games and examples, Gary Lane answers the questions which constantly puzzle players of all levels. Where are my opponent's weaknesses? Do I have enough pieces in the attack? When should I strike? Do I need to sacrifice? Should I cash in or continue to attack? Read this book, discover the answers and attack with confidence! *An essential guide to attacking chess*Introduces easy-to-learn techniques*Focuses on planning and strategy

The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular openings of all time. It is a frequent guest in the games of players around the world from novice to Grandmaster. As a result of the increased power of analysis engines the theory of the Ruy Lopez has greatly expanded. Lines that did not exist years ago have been fully developed, supported with extensive analysis, and incorporated into the repertories of top players. Despite this exponential growth in theory, I believe that when armed with sound knowledge it is possible to pose certain practical problems for Black. The purpose of this book is to provide you with detailed and clear explanations of the intricacies of the Ruy Lopez.

Brought together in one volume, two Everyman Chess classics: Can you be a Positional Chess Genius ? and Can you be a Tactical Chess Genius? Test your tactical chess skills with a quiz book with a difference! Grandmaster James Plaskett, a player of distinguished tactical ability, has carefully assembled an abundance of chess puzzles to test players of all levels. At the beginning of each chapter the puzzles are relatively easy, worth five points for a correct solution. However as you move on they become more and more difficult, soon becoming worth ten points and eventually 15. If you get stuck, do not despair as help is at hand! You can ask a grandmaster to obtain the guidance you need. However, use this option carefully, as it will cost you some of your hard-earned points. You can also obtain points for finding the basic idea of the solution without necessarily working out all the refinements. Either on your own or with friends, this book will provide hours of brain-teasing enjoyment. Test your positional chess expertise with a quiz book with a difference! International Master and experienced chess teacher Angus Dunnington has carefully assembled an abundance of positional chess puzzles to test players of all levels. At the beginning of each chapter the puzzles are relatively easy, worth five points for a correct solution. However as you move on they become more and more difficult, soon becoming worth ten points and eventually 15. If you get stuck, do not despair as help is at hand! You can 'ask a grandmaster' to obtain the guidance you need to help solve the puzzles. However, use this option carefully, as it will cost you some of your hard-earned points. You can also obtain points for finding the basic idea of the solution without necessarily working out all the refinements. Either on your own or with friends, this book will provide hours of brain-teasing enjoyment.

Canvas crunch time! Whose impasto impresses the most? Was Monet the greatest painter, or does Manet's brushwork beat them all? Who was the greatest Renaissance wonder? Pit thirty-two Old Masters against each other in a trump card battle encompassing hundreds of years of amazing art history and learn about the greatest artists ever to have lived!

Test your 00s knowledge with this awesome trivia card game! Too soon to get nostalgic about the 2000s, noughties, aughts or whatever we're supposed to call them? Of course not: this is the decade that gave us cheap downloads and not-so-cheap iPods. Whether you preferred Love Actually or Avatar, Kanye or The Killers, this ultimate quiz card pack will make you nostalgic for the good times when socialising was all about MySpace and the Motorola Razr.

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. Thisnew edition inlcudes two new chapters: The Modern Age, and a chapter on Indies and Mobile CRPGs. The new modern age chapter will cover, among other topics, Kickstarter/FIG crowdfunded projects such as Torment: Tides of Numenera and Pillars of Eternity. It'll also bring the book up to date with major games such as Dragon Age, Witcher, Skyrim. Expanded info in first chapter about educational potential of CRPGs. Color figures will be introduced for the first time. Key Features gives reviews of hundreds of games across many platforms. comprehensive book covering the history of computer RPGs. comprehensive index at the back, letting you quickly look up your favourite titles

Mike Sexton began playing poker at the age of 13 and became a full-time professional player in 1977. He moved from North Carolina to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1985 and won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 1989. In his four decades as a poker professional Mike excelled as a poker player, poker businessman and was one of poker's premiere ambassadors for 25 years. He was instrumental in the creation of partypoker in 2001 and was a key player in the launch of the World Poker Tour in 2002, an event that changed the world of poker forever. Mike can be credited with the creation of two mega events in the poker world: the Tournament of Champions of Poker in 1999 and the partypoker Million in 2002. Along with Vince van Patten, he was a commentator on the WPT from its inception. Mike was recognized as Poker's Top Ambassador at the Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Awards gala in 2006. That same year, he won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, collecting $1 million in prize money - half of which he donated to charity. In 2009, he was thrilled to receive poker's greatest honor - induction into the Poker Hall of Fame. And, if that weren't enough, in 2016 he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Poker Awards. In this book Mike recounts his personal experiences and gives his take on some of poker's legendary characters over the past 40 years. If you enjoy poker, are fascinated by the development of the game and enjoy compelling poker, golf and gambling adventures, then you'll love Life's A Gamble.

The Grunfeld Defence is is a combative reply to 1 d4 which has been favoured by many world champions including those two legends of the game, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. It is an opening in the hypermodern style, in that Black generally allows White to build a strong centre early on in the expectation of being able to undermine it in the middlegame play. Opening Repetoire: The Grunfeld Defence book cuts through the dense theory that surrounds this opening and establishes a straightforward repertoire is based around consistent strategies and concepts. It has all the information necessary to enable the reader to begin playing the Grunfeld with confidence. There are also "Grunfeld-type" suggestions to counter White systems based on the English and Reti openings. In Opening Repertoire: The Grunfeld Defence, Nigel Davies guides the reader through the complexities of the Grunfeld 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 against 1 d4. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method.

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

If you want to improve your middlegame play, you will have to develop a FEEL for positions. Thats what Boris Zlotnik has been stressing during his long and rich trainers career. Clicking through concrete variations (a popular pastime in the computer era) is not enough. To guide your thinking during a game you should be able to fall back on a reservoir of typical ideas and methods. That is exactly what this book offers you: Zlotniks legendary study material about the middlegame, modernized, greatly extended and published in the English language for the first time. As you familiarize yourself with the most important strategic ideas and manoeuvres in important basic opening structures, you will need less time to discover the clues in middlegame positions. You will find it so much easier to steer your game in the right direction after the opening has ended. Zlotniks Middlegame Manual is accessible to a wide range of post-beginners and club players. It is your passport to a body of instructive material of unparalleled quality, collected during a lifetime of training and coaching chess. A large collection of exercises, carefully chosen and didactically tuned, will help you drill what you have learned. With a foreword by Fabiano Caruana.

A supplement for Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age, giving players rules for creating elite units of warriors known as battlesworn and charting their progress from battle-to-battle.

In the horror and chaos of battle, the outcome can often hang on the briefest of moments. It is at these times that the actions of one unit can make the difference between victory and defeat. Wise kings know this, and realize that it is often prudent to hold back their best units until they can make the greatest difference. These elite units, called the 'battlesworn', are more than just powerful combatants, they are symbols of the glory and honour of a kingdom. All young warriors hope to one day join their ranks and add their oathmarks beside those legendary fighters.

This supplement for Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age contains rules for adding elite units to your armies and charting their progress from battle to battle. Will they grow even more powerful as they gain renown, or be broken in the face of tremendous odds, perhaps someday to be reformed when their kingdom needs them most? Also included are rules for rivers and boats as well as campaigns, featuring all-new scenarios that will give your battlesworn the chance to lead their kingdom to new heights of power and prestige.

The Fun Way To Serious Bridge is for anyone who wants to learn and understand the fundamentals of the mind-stimulating and challenging game of bridge -- and enjoy every minute of it! Harry Lampert combines his skills as a bridge player and teacher with his artistic talents to bring you a totally new FUN way to learn the game. The magic of his superb cartoons and simple, informative language will help you to absorb the principles of serious contract bridge -- and remember them. You'll laugh and learn every step of the way from opening bids to strip and end plays. Whether novice or seasoned social player, this unique book will make good bridge a simple "trick." You'll learn all about:

* Opening bids, suit bids, response and no trump bids, and how to force bids
* Competition and the reasons and ways behind it
* Big hand bidding such as Blackwood Convention, grand slam force and Gerber Convention
* Patterns of play including how tricks are won, the finesse, establishing a long suit, when to pull and delay trumps and entries.
* Defensive and advanced play -- plus much more!

Regarded as one of the best ever written on the topic of signaling in the game of bridge, this book will help you defend better regardless of your experience or skill level. It explains several ways to describe your holding which are commonly used by experts but not generally known.

It compares new methods with old, including the pros and cons of upside-down versus standard signaling. It explains how to draw inferences, not only from partner's signals, but also from what he fails to do. Even if you are an expert and think there is nothing about defensive signals you don't already know, you will probably see a few situations you haven't thought about and discover how other experts handle them.

Originally published in 1995, this book has been unavailable for more than 20 years.