Chess Calculation Training: Volume 1-Middlegames

Calculation is the engine of practical chess, and this is the first volume of a dedicated training series built to sharpen it. The focus here is the middlegame: the moments where seeing one move further, or spotting the move you would never normally consider, decides the game.

The book is organised as a graded course of themed exercises rather than a prose treatise. After a warm-up, the chapters each train a distinct skill — punishing poor piece coordination, finding the unexpected blow, holding up under pressure, landing a devastating attacking move, uncovering the quiet but killer positional move, and spotting the resource you missed. Later chapters push into evaluation and decision-making, where you must judge whether an opportunity is real and then choose correctly between competing candidates.

Working through the positions without moving the pieces — visualising to the end before committing — is the intended method, and the difficulty rises as you progress. A special closing section adds tougher, mixed material for players who want to be stretched.

This is a workout, not light reading. It rewards players who are willing to sit with a position and calculate hard, and is best suited to committed club players and above. Two further volumes extend the same training to endgames and beyond.

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This ebook is a part of Bundle: Chess Calculation Training