For over 100 years, the world's leading chess players and teachers have told their students to study the endgame. Now, for the first time, a revolutionary, richly instructive endgame book has been designed for players of all levels. This is the one and only endgame book youll need as you move up the ladder from beginner to tournament player and master. Designed to "speak" to a player in a very personal way, Silman's book teaches the student everything he or she needs to know at his or her current rating level, and builds on that knowledge for each subsequent phase of the players development. Starting at the beginners level, all basic mates are clearly and painstakingly explained. After that, the critical building blocks that form the endgame foundation for all tournament hopefuls and experienced tournament competitors are explored in detail. Finally, advanced endgame secrets, based on concepts rather than memorization, are presented in a way that makes them easy to master. The basic keys to a well-rounded endgame education -- Opposition, the Lucena and Philidor Positions, Cat and Mouse, Trebuchet, Fox in the Chicken Coup, Triangulation, Building a Box, Square of a Pawn, Outflanking, the Principle of Two Weaknesses -- are vital. But equally important is creating a love of the endgame, which is addressed at the end of the book with a look at chess tactics, minor piece domination, and a discussion of the five greatest endgame players of all time -- all things that every fan of chess at every level can enjoy. If you have found the endgame to be a mystery, if you have found that your confidence plummets once you reach an endgame, if you have searched for an instructive endgame book that will turn your weakest link -- your endgame -- into your personal field of power, your search is over. The book is the key to a world of essential ideas, startling beauty, and stunning creativity.

Learn sure-fire tactics and combinations from one of the world's top chess players
Attack? Defend? Swap pieces? Tactics are the watchdogs of strategy that take advantage of short-term opportunities to trap or ambush your opponent and quite possibly change the course of a game in a single move. Why play in a fog, only hoping that your opponent will blunder when International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan can show you how to put the tactics of the world's chess legends to work for you. Choose from the double attack, the pin, the skewer, deflection, the decor, x-rays, windmills and many more time-tested tactics.
Using classic board situations arranged in chapters by tactical themes, Seirawan teaches you how to:
Plan your entire game from the very first move
Think ahead, step-by-step, anticipating every obstacle your opponent can throw your way
Position yourself for the smashing combination and endgame you've always dreamed of
Board positions from actual games played by history's great chess tacticians are provided throughout. Review tests for each topic let you track your improvement. In no time you'll be playing better, with more confidence than you ever thought possible.

An easy-to-understand guide to chess strategy -- conceptual planning -- has always been the amateur's dream. This book makes that dream a reality. This comprehensive guide in dictionary form, the first of its kind, makes all aspects of chess strategy quick, easy, and painlessly accessible to players of all degrees of strength. Each strategic concept is listed alphabetically and followed by a clear, easy-to-absorb explanation accompanied by examples of how this strategy is used in practice. Such great World Champions as Steinitz, Capablanca, Petrosian, Fischer, and Karpov have used these strategies in virtually all of their games. Now you can arm yourself with their weapons. As you incorporate these weapons into your own play, they will enrich your appreciation of the game and lead you to one beautiful victory after another.

"Mr. Silman has become the leading chess writer in America. My students swear by his work". -- John Watson, International Chess Master, author of Play the French

"The Amateur's Mind is eminently readable and instruction-rich. Jeremy Silman never disappoints those who seriously wish to improve their game". -- Joel Benjamin, International Grand Master, 1987 U.S. champion

Most amateurs possess erroneous thinking processes that, elusive and difficult to eradicate, remain with them throughout their lives. These chinks in their mental armor bring about stinging defeats and reversals.

To address the most common of these problems, Mr. Silman has recorded the thoughts of his students while they play actual games, analyzed these thoughts, and catalogued the most typical misconceptions that arise. He then dispels these misconceptions and repairs the chinks in the player's armor with sage advice, rules of conduct and strategy, and psychological insights.

The Amateur's Mind takes the student on a journey through his or her own mind, gathering newfound knowledge and strength along the way. It's a mind-opening guide for all beginning and intermediate tournament-level players.

How to Reassess Your Chess is the popular step-by-step course that will create a marked improvement in anyone's game.

In clear, direct language, Silman shows how to dissect a position, recognize its individual parts and ultimately find the move that conforms to the needs of that particular situation. By explaining the thought processes that go into a master's choice of move, the author presents a system of thought that makes advanced strategies seem clear, logical and at times even obvious.

How to Reassess Your Chess offers invaluable knowledge and insight that cannot be found in any other book.

Many players are attracted to the Dragon Sicilian, but are put off by the fierce mating attacks that White can launch. In the Accelerated Dragon, Black aims for an improved version, saving a move with his queen's pawn. If White tries to ignore the difference, Black's instant detonation of the centre will come as an unwelcome cold shower! The authors show that White's main reply, the Maroczy Bind, is not so fearsome as was once thought Black has many ways to break out, while quite often it is possible to manoeuvre around White's 'binding pawns' and show that they imprison White's pieces as much as they do Black's.

International Chess Master Jeremy Silman tests a player's strengths and weaknesses with 131 problems that cover openings, middlegames (both positional and tactical), and endgames. As a player completes a problem, he or she may then turn to consult Silman's lengthy answer to the problem, which is always detailed yet never dry. Through this process of problem solving, analysis and advice, a player is led to discover the major flaws imbedded in his or her play. Through this same process, a player is also led to an understanding of Silman's system of thinking about the game, and how it differs from many other systems of chess thinking.