How can you improve at chess? This is the eternal question asked by players of all levels. Which part of the game should you focus on? How often should you play? Should you change your opening repertoire? What's the best way to learn from your defeats? So many questions ...and yet direct answers are hard to find. It's no wonder aspiring players are left bewildered and in need of direction. In this book grandmaster Nigel Davies provides that direction. He examines the methods used by a number of players who were looking to improve their game, and how they went about achieving their goal. He has drawn heavily on the games and thoughts of players who have been his students over the years and experienced a clear improvement in their play. Finding the path towards improvement can prove difficult without the right guidance. This book will demonstrate the route to take. *A major study of chess improvement *Written by a renowned chess trainer *Tackles all areas of the game

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 Inca Empire's immense territory spanned more than 2,000 miles -- from Ecuador to Chile -- at the time of the Spanish invasion, yet Inca culture remains largely a mystery. The Incas did not leave pictorial codices and documents in their native language as the Maya and Aztec did and they narrated to Spanish chroniclers just a few of the multiple alternative histories maintained by descendants of various rulers. In this classic work, Nigel Davies offers a clear view into Inca political history, economy, governance, religion, art, architecture, and daily life. The Incas has become a classic in its ten years in print; readers and scholars interested in ancient American cultures will relish this new paperback edition.

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 Catalan is a sophisticated and wide-ranging opening system which is popular at all levels of chess. In recent years it has been catapulted into the limelight by Vladimir Kramnik, who has revitalized it with many new ideas and has utilized it with great success against the world's strongest players - on occasion making it look like a forced win for White! In this book, Grandmaster Nigel Davies presents a major study of this important opening. Drawing upon his wealth of personal experience with the Catalan, Davies provides a reliable and dynamic repertoire for White, covers the keys plans for both sides, and tackles crucial modern day issues such as move orders.

The Rules of Winning Chess provides you with the key fundamentals of the game, principles that you can easily learn and remember, and that will help you to achieve both greater understanding and enjoyment of chess.

Chess is a popular and fascinating game, it's good for the mind, and satisfying to play with others, in clubs, or alone, in travel, against a computer, or an app. This new book will take you quickly through the movement of the pieces to good opening strategies, middle game techniques, and how to either finish off or defend against your opponent.

Fueled by falling display hardware costs and rising demand, digital signage and pervasive displays are becoming ever more ubiquitous. Such systems have traditionally been used for advertising and information dissemination, with digital signage commonplace in shopping malls, airports and public spaces. While advertising and broadcasting announcements remain important applications, developments in sensing and interaction technologies are enabling entirely new classes of display applications that tailor content to the situation and audience of the display. As a result, signage systems are beginning to transition from simple broadcast systems to rich platforms for communication and interaction. In this lecture, we provide an introduction to this emerging field for researchers and practitioners interested in creating state-of-the-art pervasive display systems. We begin by describing the history of pervasive display research, providing illustrations of key systems, from pioneering work on supporting collaboration to contemporary systems designed for personalized information delivery. We then consider what the near future might hold for display networks -- describing a series of compelling applications that are being postulated for future display networks. Creating such systems raises a wide range of challenges and requires designers to make a series of important trade-offs. We dedicate four chapters to key aspects of pervasive display design: audience engagement, display interaction, system software, and system evaluation. These chapters provide an overview of current thinking in each area. Finally, we present a series of case studies of display systems and our concluding remarks.

Welcome to Middleware'98 and to one of England's most beautiful regions. In recent years the distributed systems community has witnessed a growth in the number of conferences, leading to difficulties in tracking the literature and a consequent loss of awareness of work done by others in this important field. The aim of Middleware'98 is to synthesise many of the smaller workshops and conferences in this area, bringing together research communities which were becoming fragmented. The conference has been designed to maximise the experience for attendees. This is reflected in the choice of a resort venue (rather than a big city) to ensure a strong focus on interaction with other distributed systems researchers. The programme format incorporates a question-and-answer panel in each session, enabling significant issues to be discussed in the context of related papers and presentations. The invited speakers and tutorials are intended to not only inform the attendees, but also to stimulate discussion and debate.

Looking for a new opening? The Veresov could be the one for you! It's a surprisingly tricky system that, in the right hands, can be forged into a powerful attacking weapon. White forgoes the normal queen's pawn opening ideas in favor of speedy development of the queenside pieces. One advantage of this underrated line is that players with the black pieces are less likely to be familiar with all the subtleties here than in a more mainstream opening.
In this book, Grandmaster Nigel Davies arms the reader with a complete repertoire with the white pieces, with the Veresov being the central line. Davies delves into the secrets of the opening, explaining tactical and positional ideas, and highlighting the main plans for both sides.
The Veresov is an aggressive opening repertoire for White; is ideal for club and tournament players; provides a full explanation of the latest theory

Welcome to the proceedings of UbiComp 2004. In recent years the ubiquitous computing community has witnessed a sign- cant growth in the number of conferences in the area, each with its own disti- tive characteristics. For UbiComp these characteristics have always included a high-quality technical program and associated demonstrations and posters that cover the full range of research being carried out under the umbrella of ubiq- tous computing. Ours is a broaddiscipline andUbiComp aims to be aninclusive forum that welcomes submissions from researchers with many di?erent ba- grounds. This year we received 145 submissions. Of these we accepted 26, an acceptance rate of just under 18%. Of course acceptance rate is simply a m- sure of selectivity rather than quality and we were particularly pleased this year to note that we had a large number of high-quality submissions from which to assemble the program for 2004. The broad nature of ubiquitous computing research makes reviewing Ubi- Comp submissions a particular challenge. This year we adopted a new process for review and selection that has, we hope, resulted in all authors obtaining - tremely detailed feedback on their submission whether or not it was accepted for publication. We believe the process enabled us to assemble the best pos- ble program for delegates at the conference. If you submitted a paper, we hope that you bene?ted from the feedback that your peers have provided, and if you attended UbiComp 2004 we hope that you enjoyed the technical program.

Two winning books in one volume. 10 Great Ways get better at Chess by Nigel Davies How can you improve at chess? This is the eternal question asked by players of all levels. Which part of the game should you focus on? How often should you play? Should you change your opening repertoire? What's the best way to learn from your defeats? So many questions ... and yet direct answers are hard to find. In this book Grandmaster Nigel Davies provides that direction. He examines the methods used by a number of players who were looking to improve their game, and how they went about achieving their goal. He has drawn heavily on the games and thoughts of players who have been his students over the years and experienced a clear improvement in their play. Break the Rules!: A Modern Look at Chess Strategy by Neil McDonald In this instructive book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies in depth the key components of successful rule-breaking in chess. As we progress as chess players we quickly learn a set of guidelines which help us to formulate plans, develop typical strategies and recognize key tactics. However, chess is not an easy game, with fixed 'rules' that can be applied to every single position. In fact, blindly following such rules proves to be counterproductive and prevents a player from moving on to the next level, whereas knowing when to 'break' these rules is precisely the skill which separates the best from the rest.

This book constitutes the thoroughly revised proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Network and Operating System Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV '93), held in Lancaster, UK in November 1993.
The 24 papers presented in the volume were carefully selected from more than 100 submissions. In addition, the book contains an introduction by the editors as well as a summary of the discussions that occurred during the workshop and a record of the panel and work-in-progress session. The book is organized into chapters on end system architecture, operating system support, high speed networking, quality of service, protocol issues, resource reservation in heterogeneous networks, and storage servers and multicast.

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 feint-hearted: uncompromising and wild attacking ideas for both colours. This first volume deals with a gambit-style approach for White; the second volume will concentrate on an ambitious black repertoire. All of the opening lines Davies advocates in this book 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 White
*A feast of blood-thirsty chess
*Ideal for the attack-minded player
Nigel Davies is both an experienced Grandmaster and chess trainer. A former British Open Quickplay Champion, Davies is the author of several successful chess books and is highly experienced in chess publishing. Previous works for Everyman Chess include "The Trompowsky "and the highly acclaimed "Play 1 e4 e5!."

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 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

The Sicilian Taimanov (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6) is a very flexible Black system in the Sicilian Defence developed by Mark Taimanov. It is characterised by the development of the g8-knight on e7, often along with a quick ...b7-b5. The Taimanov often leads to tense, dynamic position which are ripe in counterattacking possibilities. In Opening Repertoire: The Sicilian Taimanov, highly experienced chess author and coach Nigel Davies guides the reader through the complexities of the Taimanov 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. There are also suggestions for countering White's "anti-Sicilian" tries thus creating an entire repertoire to meet 1 e4. * A complete repertoire for Black against 1 e4. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method. * All key variations analysed in detail.

Everyman Chess's Starting Out series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming players. These books are distinguished by their easy-to-read layout, the lucid explanations of the fundamentals, and the abundance of notes, tips and warnings to help the reader absorb vital ideas. Now brought together in one volume are...Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern by Joe Gallagher. The very closely linked Pirc and Modern Defences are dynamic systems that are favoured by ambitious, counter-attacking players. Black plays very much in a hypermodern fashion, allowing White to build an unopposed pawn centre with the idea of plotting its eventual downfall. In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Joe Gallagher goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Pirc/Modern and its numerous variations. In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Joe Gallagher goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Pirc/Modern and its numerous variations. Starting Out: The Modern by Nigel Davies.In this book, Davies studies the Modern by going back to basics, introducing the key moves and ideas, and taking care to explain the reasoning behind them - something that has often been neglected or taken for granted. The Modern Defence is a dynamic, ambitious and universal opening, one that can be used against virtually every system White can play. Black's provocative strategy is based upon allowing White to construct an imposing pawn centre in the anticipation that a well-timed strike will bring about its downfall. Both sides can play for high rewards, albeit at some risk: White can hope to succeed with a direct attack or to squash Black with a space advantage, while Black will aim to destroy White's centre and mop up the remains. All in all this can lead to intriguing battles in which one slip from either side is often fatal..

The Modern Defence is a dynamic, ambitious and universal opening, one that can be used against virtually every system White can play. Black's provocative strategy is based upon allowing White to construct an imposing pawn centre in the anticipation that a well-timed strike will bring about its downfall. Both sides can play for high rewards, albeit at some risk: White can hope to succeed with a direct attack or to squash Black with a space advantage, while Black will aim to destroy White's centre and mop up the remains. All in all this can lead to intriguing battles in which one slip from either side is often fatal. In this book, Nigel Davies studies the Modern by going back to basics, introducing the key moves and ideas, and taking care to explain the reasoning behind them - something that has often been neglected or taken for granted.Everyman Chess's "Starting Out" series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming players. These" "books are distinguished by their easy-to-read layout, the lucid explanations of the fundamentals, and the abundance of notes, tips and warnings to help the reader absorb vital ideas. "Starting Out" opening books are ideal for enthusiastic chess players who have little experience of the openings in question and who wish to appreciate the essential principles behind them. *Written by a renowned Modern expert*All the main lines are covered*Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players

The Queen's Gambit Declined is one of the central pillars of chess opening theory. Virtually every world champion has played the opening with both the white and black pieces and it is a great favourite at all levels in chess. The reason for its enduring popularity is that it is rich in the classic strategic themes. Either side can end up with an isolated d-pawn, White can pursue a queenside initiative while Black counters on the other wing or White can attempt to build a powerful centre that Black hopes to undermine. ----- The Move by Move series provides an ideal format for the keen chessplayer to improve their game. While reading you are continually challenged to answer probing questions - a method that greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of chess 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 chess while providing the best possible chance to retain what has been learnt. ----- * Everything you need to know about the Queen's Gambit Declined . --- * The Q and A approach emphasizes plans and strategies. --- * Written by an expert on the opening.

* 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 these are the books for you. ----- In this two volume book, published together for the first time, opening expert Nigel Davies produces a complete repertoire which is certainly not for the fainted-hearted: uncompromising and wild attacking ideas for both colours. The first volume deals with a gambit style approach for White; the second volume concentrates on an ambitious Black repertoire. All of the opening lines Davies advocates in Volume 1 lead to positions of open warfare, where sharp, tactical play completely dominates dreary positional sacrifices. In Volume 2, Davies produces an ambitious and uncompromising repertoire for Black. His two main choices are the Albin Counter Gambit and the Schlieman Gambit, the pick of the crop having been tried and tested by some of the World's most inventive players.

The Reti Opening has been a popular choice at all levels of chess for many years and is a favourite among hypermodern players who like to control the centre with pieces. Yet there remains a dearth of published material on this subject ...until now. In The Dynamic Reti, Grandmaster Nigel Davies redresses the balance and advocates a repertoire for White based on this refined opening. Davies outlines the typical ideas and tactics for both White and Black, and studies both the fashionable main lines and the tricky sidelines. This is essential reading for chess players who are already familiar with the Reti and for those who are looking for a sophisticated new opening weapon. *A dynamic repertoire for White *Full explanation of the most important thematic ideas *Ideal for club and tournament players

There is no doubt that playing the Open Games is one of Black's most reliable and yet aggressive ways of meeting White's favourite opening move, 1 e4. Experts also agree that playing these fundamental openings is a crucial step in the development of a chess player, while moving up to the highest level it provides the battleground for countless duals between the likes of World number one Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. It's true that some Black players are put off by the seemingly endless number of variations they can be faced with, as White can choose a between the King's Gambit, Vienna Game, Scotch Opening, Bishop's Opening and a number of wild and offbeat gambits. However, in "Play 1 e4 e5"! Nigel Davies provides a complete answer to this perennial problem by offering a concise and practical repertoire for the Black player, whilst crucially including a dependable defence to the Ruy Lopez - White's most popular attacking try in the Open Games. Davies is the perfect choice for this subject, having been battle-hardened by years of international competition in these openings.
*A complete defence to 1 e4
*Written by a 1 e4 e5 expert
*All of White's tries are covered
*Includes White's main weapon, the Ruy Lopez
Nigel Davies is both an experienced Grandmaster and chess trainer. A former British Open Quickplay Champion, Davies is the author of several successful chess books and is highly experienced in chess publishing. Previous works for Everyman Chess include "Alekhine's Defence" and "The Trompowsky,"

From relative obscurity to one of White's favorite queen's pawn openings, the rise in popularity of the Trompowsky Attack over the last decade or so has been quite staggering. Even the World number one Garry Kasparov has tried his hand at this dynamic opening. The Trompowsky is an ideal weapon for club and tournament players. From as early as move two White stamps his authority on the game and gives Black difficult problems to solve. Grandmaster Nigel Davies presents readers with up-to-date coverage of this ever-expanding opening. Using model games for both White and Black, he studies the key strategies and tactics associated with the Trompowsky.

The Grunfeld Defence is a dynamic and popular counterattacking weapon for Black against queen's pawn openings. Former World Champion Bobby Fischer and current world number one Garry Kasparov head a long list of grandmasters that have utilised this opening with continued success. In this book, grandmaster and renowned chess teacher Nigel Davies explains the key ideas and tactics for both White and Black. Using illustrative games, Davies guides the reader through both the fashionable main lines and the tricky side variations, and provides his opinion on all the crucial questions arising from this opening. *Up-to-date coverage of one of Black's most important defences *Strategies and tactics revealed for both sides *Written by an experienced chess teacher and author Nigel Davies is both an experienced grandmaster and chess trainer. A former British Open Quickplay Champion, Davies is an author of several successful chess books and is highly experienced in chess publishing. This is his second book for Everyman Chess; his first was Alekhine's Defence.