This new book by Mikhail Shereshevsky, one of the most respected chess trainers in the world, is about a very important but little-explored topic: associative thinking. How can a modern chess student avoid drowning in the flood of information? The answer is to stop mechanically memorizing moves and turn on your curiosity. Try to create a vivid image of the technique you are studying and remember it as an association!
During a game of chess, we have associations all the time. We are not talking about specific pawn structures, but about more abstract things. What is the best interaction between knight and pawn? Where should the rook be placed – behind the passed pawn or to the side? On which squares should you place your pawns when you have a bishop against a knight? Generations of chess players before us have answered these and similar questions.
Shereshevsky clearly shows that studying the games of great chess players will help you to improve your associative thinking, especially when the comments come from the players themselves. The author pays special attention to such outstanding grandmasters as Ulf Andersson, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen.
As with all of Shereshevsky’s books, this manual offers supreme examples of chess training excellence. Studying this book will improve your understanding of chess enormously and help you on your way to chess mastery.
Mikhail Shereshevsky (1950) is one of the most respected chess trainers and writers in the world. In 2018, he published the best-selling The Shereshevsky Method to Improve in Chess. His magnum opus, Endgame Strategy, is a must-read for ambitious players. It’s been hailed by superstars like Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen as their formative guide to handling the endgame.
This chess book centers around an attempt to introduce analytics to modern chess, which eventually culminates in a chess personality quiz, although this takes part in the third part of the book. The final few chapters are really intended as an aperitif, and accompliment to what has gone before. So in essence, you could view this book as being made up of four parts. In the first part of this book I'll be talking about some of my recent tournaments and what I have learned in regards to my own chess. The characters I've met along the way and what we can learn from them; their mistakes and my mistakes. In the second part I will attempt to prepare you for the third and most important part, the personality quiz, which will hopefully guide the reader towards the necessary steps to make chess improvement.
Beauty in chess manifests itself in different ways!
For chess players who are not sophisticated enough, one of the leading aesthetic criteria is probably the value of the offered piece. An experienced player will primarily value the originality and purity of the idea. It happens that a key to a position is a seemingly discreet move. Situations like these have always impressed me the most.
Firstly, by their mystery: why does one of several apparently equivalent moves turn out to be much stronger than the others? Secondly, a modest move can radically change a well-established position assessment and even change the outcome of the game straight away. Where did the idea for this kind of work come from?
There are two reasons.
Firstly, while browsing chess literature, I have not found a publication focusing on quiet moves, as most often, only three to eight examples are given. Secondly, we have always felt sorry for a person who cannot see beauty, for example of mountains (as these are just rocks) or architecture (as the Eiffel Tower is just iron), etc. The same applies to a large group of chess players, who value only the size of the piece they offered or the victory. However, one can lose a game and feel satisfaction because, for example, they found a stunning quiet move in their game.
Dana Mackenzie celebrates the joy of chess - the ordinary, everyday chess we amateurs play. For this book, he has selected forty of his favorite posts from his award-winning chess blog, including a diverse mix of stories, philosophical musings, chess improvement tips, and game analysis.
In each story, the fun leaps off the page. We attend club nights, team tournaments, and state championships. We are on the road and at the board. We enjoy the company of famous and not-so-famous chess personalities. You will read about the Hook and Ladder Trick and Dana’s personal favorite opening, the Bryntse Gambit, presented here with analysis found nowhere else.
A special chapter is devoted to Mike Splane’s invitation-only chess parties, a monthly ‘meeting of the minds’ for masters and aspiring masters in the San Francisco Bay Area. There was no resting on one’s laurels in this crowd. No matter how well you thought you played, you could expect some tough questions and spirited disagreements.The book continues in the spirit of the blog, preserving a dialogue between author and reader that is rarely found in other chess books, or any books for that matter.
Dana Mackenzie is a Ph.D. mathematician who went rogue and became a full-time freelance writer, specializing in popular science and mathematics. As a chess player, he was North Carolina State Champion in 1985 and 1987, is a USCF National Master and Life Master, and for several years was a popular lecturer on a chess instruction website, chesslecture.com. As a professional science writer, he wrote The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be and co-authored The Book of Why, which was named one of the top science books of 2018 by National Public Radio’s Science Friday program.
This book presents forty selected posts (many newly edited and revised) from his blog, which was named ‘Best Chess Blog of 2021’ by the Chess Journalists of America.
Material imbalances are a fundamental part of almost every chess game, yet have not received much attention in chess literature. In this illuminating book, GM Mauricio Flores Rios breaks down this universal topic into categories such as bishop vs knight, opposite-coloured bishops, possessing and playing against the bishop pair, and various scenarios with a queen or rook being traded for a number of pieces.
With meticulously chosen examples, insightful commentary and exercises to test your newfound understanding of all types of material imbalance, Chess Imbalances is an essential tool for chess improvement.
“Chess is the art of analysis” - 6th World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik
Game analysis is almost universally recommended by chess coaches worldwide, but when it comes to analyzing one’s own games, many chess players don’t know where to start or what a good annotation even looks like. Others often neglect the task, not wanting to face their mistakes post-mortem.
Aimed at players of all levels, How To Analyze Your Games is a guide to reviewing and annotating one’s chess games, an absolutely crucial task for the development of any ambitious chess player.
The book contains a collection of model game examples from players of every level, along with a straightforward guide to doing your own game analysis. The idea is to provide real examples of what good annotations look like, hopefully bringing inspiration and motivation for readers to begin to do the work themselves.
Featuring students of the Dojo Training Program with ratings ranging from 0-2400, the book is broken up into four parts (0-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2000, 2000+), with every chapter consisting of five model annotated games of players within a 100-point rating cohort (1100-1200, 1600-1700, etc.) starting from 0-300 and going all the way up to 2400-2500.
The book also contains three instructional chapters, written by Dojo senseis GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, and IM Kostya Kavutskiy:
– How to Analyze Your Games by GM Jesse Kraai: GM Jesse Kraai explains the process of reflecting on and analyzing one’s games.
– David’s Advice For A Reluctant Analyst by IM David Pruess: Advice for newer players or those who have never analyzed their games before, and are intimidated by the prospect.
– Using Engines by IM Kostya Kavutskiy: A technical breakdown on how to most effectively use computers and chess engines for game analysis.
If you’re a chess player looking to get serious about your game, learning to analyze your games is an absolute must!
When Learn from the Legends was published in 2005, the book became an instant classic and Mihail Marin became known as one of the world’s finest chess authors. In Learn from the Legends 2, the Romanian GM shines the spotlight on five more all-time-great players: Leonid Stein, Lev Polugaevsky, David Bronstein, Paul Keres and Lajos Portisch.
Much like the first book, the ambitious student can learn a great deal from studying the legends of yesteryear, aided by the author’s expert insights, while more casual readers will enjoy the biographical and best-games compilation of five wonderful chess players.
We all love the dynamics of chess. Spectacular sacrifices, combinations and attacks on the king never fail to enchant us. But how do we improve our understanding of dynamics? How can we recognize the ‘dynamic energy’ in a position? When can we turn 2+2 into 5, as the legendary tactician Mikhail Tal could? The answers can be found in the Hidden Laws of Chess.
In the first volume of this series, International Master Nick Maatman explored the deeper patterns behind pawn structures. In this second volume, he explains the dynamics of chess by discussing themes such as material imbalance, calculation, and quality versus quantity. He also introduces concepts such as field of vision, the impact of error and the price of a move. These original and well-thought-out ideas are illustrated by a wealth of games from top players past and present, as well as from Maatman's own experience.
Maatman is an experienced chess coach and a graduate in business and philosophy. His books are a rich blend of science, philosophy and practicality. The Hidden Laws of Chess Volume 2: Mastering Dynamics contains plenty of useful advice, instructive chess and carefully selected exercises.
Nick Maatman (1995) is an International Master, an experienced chess coach, and a training partner of former Tata Steel winner GM Jorden van Foreest. Maatman became Dutch U20 champion in 2013 and is very active in tournaments, where he has beaten many grandmasters. He is also an acclaimed chess commentator and columnist.
The astounding success of How To Study Chess on Your Own made clear that thousands of chess players want to improve their game — and like to work on their training at least partially by themselves.
The bestselling book by GM Kuljasevic offered a structured approach and training plans. Due to popular demand, Kuljasevic has created a series of accompanying Workbooks with exercises and tools a chess student can use to start his training immediately.
Most workbooks offer puzzles and puzzles only. But Kuljasevic has used his coaching experience to create a broader and more exciting training schedule. Tasks like these will challenge you:
– Solve deep visualization puzzles
– Find a ‘hidden tactic’ – and a mini-plan
– Playing a sharp tactical position – against a friend or an engine, carefully set an appropriate level
– Simulation – study and replay a strategic model game
– Analyze – try to understand a thematic endgame position
Volume 2 is optimized for chess players with an Elo rating between 1500 and 1800 but is helpful for anyone between 1200 and 2000. Volume 1 is for 1800-2100 Elo, and Volume 3 will serve the needs of more advanced club players.
Davorin Kuljasevic is an International Grandmaster born in Croatia. He graduated from Texas Tech University and is an experienced coach. His bestselling book Beyond Material: Ignore the Face Value of Your Pieces was a finalist for the Boleslavsky-Averbakh Award, the best book prize of FIDE, the International Chess Federation.
PRACTICAL CHESS TUTOR - FROM BASIC TO MASTERY 2 is a complete manual of chess strategy for club players, with some introductory tactical themes at the very end of the book. All the crucial elements of strategy are examined in great detail by examining the most instructive classical and modern games (100 games in total).
Strategic themes we focus on are: strong and weak squares, open file, center, exchanging and improving of the pieces, bishop pair, bishop versus knight situations, various pawn structures and formations, prophylactic play etc. I decided to explore strategic themes by presenting model games in their entirety so you could have a whole picture of the developments and see how the game ended once the strategic advantage had been obtained.
I advise you to go through the whole games on a chess board and to invest time and attention to diagram positions. You can try to find the correct move in those situations on your own, having in mind that these positions are strategic in nature so quite often there are multiple good moves (you could even find some improvements over the game moves). Such practice will help you to absorb the ideas and principles much easier!
This manual can be used by students working alone or with fiends, parents who study chess with their children, and of course chess trainers who need carefully prepared material for lectures. Finally, this book can be read as a collection of instructive and entertaining chess games with special emphasis on chess strategy.
Dear readers, the book in your hands is primarily intended for all who are entering the magical world of chess, beginners, children and their parents and of course - adult ambitious improvers. This chess textbook will enable readers to strengthen their knowledge of the chess basics and fundamentals and will help trainers and chess teachers in working with their students.
* The Rules of Chess
* Basic Checkmates and Winning Material
* Essential Endgame Skills
* Tactics and Combinations
* How to play the Opening?
The author has 35 years of experience working with the most promising junior players, many of them becoming chess professionals, Grandmasters and International Masters. As a senior trainer he has gathered a deep knowledge and understanding of *what a diligent improver* should devote his attention to, and is able to guide a prudent reader with a steady hand.
This book is the first one in the series that should bring you great enjoyment and satisfaction in accumulating chess skills and winning many games along the way!
Chess has evolved significantly over the past few years. Talented teenagers are playing better than ever, top players possess even deeper theoretical knowledge and make fewer mistakes, and preparation now demands more time and energy. Consequently, winning against strong opponents has become increasingly challenging. This has taught us that players need to manage their energy levels carefully. Most of the advice in this book remains applicable even when you are tired, though in such cases, it's usually better to play more solidly if you're primarily aiming for a good result. That said, results aren't everything. Interesting games are also important, and we are excited to share them with you in this epic book.
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