It took AlphaZero only a few hours of self-learning to become the chess player that shocked the world. The artificial intelligence system AlphaZero had been fed nothing but the rules of the Royal Game when it beat the worlds strongest chess engine in a prolonged match. The selection of ten games published in December 2017 created a worldwide sensation: how was it possible to play in such a brilliant and risky style and not lose a single game against an opponent of superhuman strength? For Game Changer, Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan investigated more than two thousand previously unpublished games by AlphaZero. They also had unparalleled access to its team of developers at DeepMind and were offered a unique look under the bonnet to grasp the depth and breadth of AlphaZeros search. Sadler and Regan reveal its thinking process and tell the story of the human motivation and the techniques that created AlphaZero. Game Changer also presents a collection of lucidly explained chess games of astonishing quality. Both professionals and club players will improve their game by studying AlphaZeros stunning discoveries in every field that matters: opening preparation, piece mobility, initiative, attacking techniques, long-term sacrifices and much more. The story of AlphaZero has a wider impact. Game Changer offers intriguing insights into the opportunities and horizons of Artificial Intelligence. Not just in solving games, but in providing solutions for a wide variety of challenges in society. With a Foreword by former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and an Introduction by DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.

This family-friendly game is packed with cheeky monkeys and other mischievous primates from all around the world for hours of bingo fun. It features such firm favourites as the ring-tailed lemur and the chimpanzee, one of our closest living relatives, as well as more unusual creatures like the mustachioed emperor tamarin and the tiny, carnivorous western tarsier, whose eyes are as big as its brain and whose head can rotate 180 Degrees in either direction. Boasting 64 weird, wonderful and beautiful species, Monkey Bingo is filled with fun facts and glorious illustrations that are guaranteed to delight monkey lovers and novices alike. Mark each species off on your card as it's called and be the first to shout BINGO!

Staying at home doesn't mean that you have be stuck in front of the TV. This is the ultimate companion to help you beat boredom and to embrace your time indoors. Organized by mood, this book is packed with ideas on how to energize yourself, find your purpose, relax and reflect, get creative and connect with the world around you. Whether it's for a rainy day or a weekend indoors, there are over 80 ideas to keep busy and to challenge your mind. Staying at home can be a challenge and this clever book will offer ways to keep you happy and healthy, from putting together a homemade exercise routine using everyday household items to creating your own home silent disco as well as ideas to help you discover a new hobby, such as learning a language or upcycling furniture. There are also tasks to keep you feeling engaged and proactive, with tips on lowering your plastic pollution and ways you can volunteer from the comfort of your home, as well as practical ways to help you stay connected with nature, from making your own bird feeder to star gazing from your window, and creative activities to help reduce stress and worry, such as journaling, colouring and crafting. Staying in is the new going out, and it's so much more fun when you have ideas to keep you busy and entertained. These simple activities are full of tips and tricks to make your time at home as enjoyable as possible. You'll never wonder what you can do with your spare time ever again!

The Samisch King's Indian continues to be one of the fiercely contested openings in chess. White's play is based around an extremely solid centre, and there's the very real possibility of launching a direct attack against the black king; a welcome change because often it is Black who goes gunning for checkmate in the King's Indian. But the Samisch is flexible too; if White wishes he can instead try to strangle Black with his obvious space advantage. It's these features that have made the Samisch such a popular weapon for White both at club level and with the world's elite. World Champions Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik have all utilized the Samisch at one time or another, a testimony to the strong reputation of this opening.
In this book, opening expert John-Paul Wallace presents an up-to-date study of the Samisch and its many offshoots. Using illustrative games, he looks at the traditional main lines, the trendy alternatives and the tricky sidelines, while outlining the typical tactical and positional ideas for both White and Black. A study of this book will allow the reader to begin playing either side of the Samisch with confidence in his or her own games.
*Essential coverage of an aggressive opening
*Written by a Samisch expert
*Ideal for club and tournament players

Two great books from the Everyman Chess Library, Starting Out: The King's Indian by Joe Gallagher and Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon by Andrew Martin, brought together in one volume. ----- The King's Indian is one of the most exciting defences in chess and is favoured by ambitious and aggressive players. At the highest level it has been a major weapon for World Champions Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. In this easy-to-read guide, Grandmaster Joe Gallagher goes back to the basics of the King's Indian, studying the key principles of its many variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips, warnings and exercises to help the improving player, while important strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. ----- In Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon Andrew Martin studies this famous opening in a simplistic way, introducing the crucial initial moves and ideas and taking care to explain the reasoning behind them, something that has sometimes been neglected or taken for grantedFew would disagree that the Sicilian Dragon is one of the most exciting, high profile and controversial openings in chess history. Right from the very beginning of the game Black chooses to unbalance the position, thus maximising his or her chances of playing for a win. The positions reached are dynamic and of a highly tactical nature, with both players very often going straight for each other's throats in search of a quick-fire knockout blow. In these razor-sharp encounters, it goes without saying that one slip by either side can prove to be fatal. Because of its aggressive nature, the Sicilian Dragon is very popular at all levels of chess, while it received an ultimate seal of approval when Garry Kasparov used it as his main weapon to beat Vishy Anand in a World Championship match.

Learn and master the fascinating game of Japanese Chess or "Shogi" with this expert guide and chess set. Japanese Chess: The Game of Shogi is the ultimate strategy guidebook for players of any skill level to improve their game and winning strategies. Played by millions around the world, Shogi is the uniquely Japanese variant of chess. It is the only version in which an opponent's captured piece can be dropped back onto the board as one's own. This makes for extremely exciting, dynamic gameplay in which momentum can quickly shift back and forth between players. Trevor Legett, expert player and longtime resident of Japan, gives you all the information you need to play the game, form its basic rules to winning tactics. Also included in this book are: Sample game and commentary Discussion of various opening strategies and game positions Explanation of how to read a Japanese score Fold-out Shogi board Sturdy paper playing pieces Japanese Chess features everything you need to get started playing this challenging and fun game!

Create powerful images while learning the basic principles in photography. My Photography Toolbox will guide the players on how to take stylish photographs. Each card will coach you on the secrets of visual language and will enhance your creativity. This game is perfect for all those who take pictures regularly and would love to improve their skills. It displays 30 visual principles and enables you to play with tools that smartphones or digital cameras don't provide, such as the psychology of forms. Because photography is everywhere, this is a must-have game for its style, easy rules, valuable rewards and ludo-didactic features that allow you to learn while playing in teams or individually. The box includes two games. 1. BE A MASTER: to create an image based on a photography genre and four given rules. 2. REFINE YOUR EYE: to discover the rules in existing photographs. Each has a different goal: make a powerful photograph in less than 20 minutes, or discover the rules of photography connecting images and concepts.

Join Jo-Rosie Haffenden and Nando Brown, the animal trainers from ITV’s Teach My Pet To Do That, as they reveal how any dog can learn new tricks

This simple, practical guide will have you and your pooch mastering the basics of trick training in no time and opening up a whole new world of fun for both of you.

Whether they’re shy and retiring, or love the limelight, there’s something for every type. Trick-training is a great way to get to know your dog better, deepen your bond and help keep them keep fit and stimulated.

Full of hints, tips and photographs and taking you from the very simplest training fundamentals to show-stopping tricks like “Dog Yoga” and “Tidy Your Toys”, the only limit to where you end up is your imagination.

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.

Film magazine Little White Lies invites you to relive 300 movie moments – from the iconic to the downright filthy – in this hilarious new party game for film lovers.   Simply pick a quote and ask your friends to transform it by filling in the blank with a phrase from another classic film. The funniest movie mash-up wins! As seen in Total Film

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 wait is over. Finally it's here...the much anticipated 4th edition of John Watson's Play the French - the must-have book for all French Defence players for over 20 years! Watson's highly acclaimed work presents a repertoire for Black in the French Defence against all of White's recognized options. Just as in previous editions, Watson often arms the reader with not just one, but a choice of two or sometimes even three choices against the main lines. He also provides a thorough grounding on the positional and tactical aspects of the opening, and outlines the typical plans for both White and Black. Watson is renowned for his creativity and expertise in the opening, and once again this edition features an abundance of innovative ideas for Black. Watson also provides an update of many other lines he considered in previous editions. 8 A French Defence repertoire for Black * State-of-the-art coverage of the key lines *Packed with new ideas and critical analysis

By choosing the Fianchetto System against the Grunfeld, White aims to stifle Black's normal piece play. White avoids presenting Black with a target and instead looks to probe Black's sensitive queenside. White's strategy has been used to good effect by Karpov and Kasparov, reason enough to adopt it in one's own games. This new title offers the first complete coverage of this important chess opening and is ideal for King's Indian players looking for a way to meet the Fianchetto. It also includes up-to-the-minute theory from two top-class theoreticians. Grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin is a well-known Ukrainian writer and player, and arguably the worlds' leading expert on the Fianchetto Grunfeld. Alexander Belyavsky is also a Ukrainian grandmaster, who became World Junior Champion in 1973 and won the USSR Championship on many occasions. He has competed regularly and successfully in countless super-grandmaster events.

Together in one volume for the first time are Graeme Buckley's Multiple Choice Chess and Multiple Choice Chess Volume Two. Are you realising your chess potential? Multiple Choice Chess International Master Graeme Buckley helps you to find out. Through a series of instructive games where you must work out the next move and the tactics and strategies surrounding it, you can assess your own chess strength. In his second volume, Buckley repeatedly poses the question 'What would you do here?' The reader is invited to step into a grandmaster's shoes, work out all the relevant tactics and strategies of the game and select a move out of a possible four choices. A scoring system has been devised which can assess your playing strength according to the answers you give. It's as simple as that!

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. The Four Knights is an opening with a long and distinguished history. Despite its deceptively quiet appearance, it can lead to extremely sharp play - for example in the Belgrade Gambit - as well as more strategic battles in the main lines. In this book, Cyrus Lakdawala invites you to join him in examining the many different variations of the Four Knights. He shares his experience and knowledge, studies the typical plans and tactics for both sides, offers repertoire options and provides answers to all the key questions. *Essential guidance and training in the Four Knights *Also covers Three Knights and Anti-Petroff lines *Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study

Are you fearless in your approach to chess openings? Do you like to attack your opponents from the very beginning? Are you happy to take calculated risks? Do you loathe trivial positional chess? Do you feel the need to sacrifice pawns early in the game? Are you a Gambiteer? If the answer to these questions is 'yes!' then this is the book for you!
In his two-volume "Gambiteer "series, opening expert Nigel Davies produces a complete opening repertoire which is certainly not for the faint-hearted: uncompromising and wild attacking ideas for both colours. Whilst the first volume dealt with a gambit-style approach for White, this second book concentrates on an ambitious Black repertoire. All of the opening lines Davies advocates lead to positions of open warfare, where sharp, tactical play completely dominates dreary, positional subtleties. Are you ready for the battle? Then cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!
*A complete opening repertoire for Black
*A feast of bloodthirsty chess
*Ideal for the attack-minded player

The Caro-Kann is a reliable yet at the same time dynamic answer to White's most popular opening move, 1 e4. It has the seal of approval of numerous leading Grandmasters including Vishy Anand, Evgeny Bareev and Alexey Dreev, as well as former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, who has utilized it with great success throughout his illustrious career. One of the attractions of the Caro-Kann is that it suits a variety of different styles; it can lead to wild tactical battles as well as quiet, positional play. In Play the Caro-Kann, Jovanka Houska presents the reader with a concise and trustworthy repertoire within the opening, providing a solution against all of White's main possibilities. Houska examines the important tactical and strategic plans for both sides, arming the reader with enough information to begin playing the Caro-Kann with confidence in his or her own games. *A complete repertoire against 1 e4 *Written by a Caro-Kann expert *Ideal for improvers, and club and tournament players

Everyone who has read a newspaper recognizes Jumble "RM", the clever and humorous scrambled word game. Featuring a series of scrambled words coupled with a cartoon and riddle, these puzzles are a national tradition.

- Carried daily in nearly 500 major newspapers around the world

- Enjoyed by millions of readers

- Mentioned in hit televisions shows Friends, Seinfeld, and The Simpsons

Check out this new eclectic collection of Jumbles "RM", pulled straight from our puzzle files. These Jumbles "RM" relate to a wide variety of subjects including:

- Family

- Shopping

- Entertainment

- Food

- Work

Poker players make mistakes. All the time. And the mistakes they make are predictable and exploitable. The problem is, most people don't know what these mistakes are! No longer. In this book, the highly experienced professional player and leading poker coach, Alexander Assassinato Fitzgerald identifies and analyzes the 100 BIGGEST mistakes that poker players make. Your opponents are certainly perpetuating these errors but you may be making some of them too. This book shows you how to identify and fix these leaks in your own game and also how to exploit the other players who are making them. If you can avoid the 100 biggest mistakes that poker players make then you will be 99% of the way towards NL Hold'em excellence. Over a period of 15 years, Alex Fitzgerald has taught literally thousands of poker students. He understands better than anyone the typical mistakes that are made and how to exploit them. He also has a gift for clear and simple explanations. When Alex tells you something - it is easy to remember.

Eat delicious snacks and game-friendly meals in between dice rolls and encounters with this easy-to-follow RPG themed cookbook perfect for every game group. Feed your gamer group with this collection of 75 game-friendly bar bites, finger foods, and easy-to-share meals. With recipes from the passable Goodberries Baked Cheese-wrapped dates to the one-handed Dragon on a Stick Easy-Eat Meat Skewers to the player-favorite Inspiration Points Peanut Butter White Chocolate Pretzels, this cookbook has you covered for any game night adventure. Complete with easy-to-follow recipes and the wit and wisdom of the authors of A Dragon Walks into a Bar and Dungeonmeister, this book will hit the spot for hungry fighters, spellcasters, and anyone else at the table. Additional recipes include: -Goblintzes-Cheese Blintzes -Genasi's Delight-Masala Peanuts -Remarkably Movable Rods-Candied Bacon -The Picked Pocket-Hamburger Stuffed Rolls -Healing Words-Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting -Shards of Elemental Chaos-Candy Bark -Hex Grid Cookies-Map-Based Sugar Cookies

Gain the advantage over your opponent with easy-to-remember strategies from one of the world's top chess players!
Strategy - it's the ultimate secret weapon for championship players around the world. Drawing on his considerable experience in tournament play, International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan shows you how to apply flexible strategic principles to every part of your game. Using Seirawan's simple and effective planning and analysis techniques, you'll enter each game with confidence and energy, ready to play forcefully and intelligently - the way you need to play so you can win every time!
Learn to:
Knock your opponent off balance with bold opening moves
Formulate an overall game strategy before the middle game
Interpret the motivation behind your opponent's every move
Position yourself for a winning endgame
Diagrams throughout the book illustrate game positions, and you'll meet history's greatest chess strategies -learning from them move by move!
Whether for reference during practice games or simply for pleasure reading, Winning Chess Strategies is an information packed resource you'll turn to again and again.

* Are you a social or recreational poker player? * Would you like to improve your game and win a bit more often? * Do you have 30 minutes a day to spare? Then this is the book for you. There is a lot of material available for players trying to improve their poker game. However, much of the advice is rather advanced. It can be complicated and not always easy to implement at the table. Winning Poker in 30 Minutes a Day is different. It keeps the advice simple and direct and enables you to learn the basics of winning at no-limit hold'em with the help of over 30 appropriate and creative exercises. The aim of this book is not to turn an already very good player into an expert. The aim is to take a regular Joe (or Jane) and make him or her good enough to beat social and recreational games. Poker is a lot more fun when you are winning and this book will give you the tools to enable you to win.

I look one move ahead...the best!A", Siegbert Tarrasch Chess is a wonderfully rich and complex game, but ultimately the goal can be simply defined as finding the best move, time after time. If you are able to do this, you will win your games. However, the million dollar question is: how can we give ourselves the very best chance of doing so? Per Ostman is convinced that there are three key elements that we require: first and foremost, a structured move-by-move thinking process; second, the desired skills to execute this process; and finally, traditional chess knowledge we can build upon. Ostman examines these three vital building blocks which form the basis of what we need to master. He describes in detail a clear thinking process he has developed over several years as a chess teacher, a process to guide us in our ultimate search to find the best move. *Improve your chess by structured move selection *Numerous examples to illustrate clear thinking processes *Covers calculation, planning and attacking skills *Includes opening, middlegame and endgame play

Rogue Stars is a character-based science fiction skirmish wargame, where players command crews of bounty hunters, space pirates, merchants, prospectors, smugglers, mercenary outfits, planetary police and other such shady factions from the fringes of galactic civilisation. Crews can vary in size, typically from four to six, and the character and crew creation systems allow for practically any concept to be built. Detailed environmental rules that include options for flora, fauna, gravity, dangerous terrain and atmosphere, and scenario design rules that ensure that missions are varied and demand adaptation and cunning on the parts of the combatants, make practically any encounter possible. Run contraband tech to rebel fighters on an ocean world while hunted by an alien kill-team or hunt down a research vessel and fight zero-gravity boarding actions in the cold depths of space - whatever you can imagine, you can do.