In this book Ivan Sokolov presents a set of practical tools that will help you to master the art of sacrifice.
Chess has very strict, but also fairly simple, rules: rapid development, control of the center with pawns or pieces, timely castling and defense of the king, the creation of various weaknesses in the opponent’s position, attacking those weaknesses, and control of open lines. At the same time a player shouldn’t get his queen stuck in the enemy camp, or ruin his own pawn structure. Those who know these rules will succeed. It is necessary for a chess player to know opening and endgame theory, standard combinations and motifs, as well as pawn structures and many other things. A lot of the topics listed demand a very straightforward type of thinking or approach. However it also happens that chess players often discover significant resources which formally exist outside the typical rules of chess. Those who know how to break all the rules and work around those specific guidelines reach the very top. Currently, when thousands of chess books dissect the same standard ideas in great detail, let us remember that first there were those who originally discovered them, implemented them, and made them standard, as well as those who broke the rules and created completely new ones.
Schach mit neuem Schwung, die deutsche Übersetzung der vierten und vollständig überarbeiteten Ausgabe von Silmans legendärem "How to Reassess Your Chess", ist ein moderner Klassiker, in dem Silman sein bahnbrechendes Konzept der Ungleichgewichte auf eine ganz neue Stufe hebt.
Das Buch wendet sich an Spieler mit einer Wertungszahl zwischen 1400 und 2100 und an Trainer, die einen sofort anwendbaren Schachkurs suchen.
In diesem Buch nimmt der Autor den Leser auf eine Reise mit, die das Denken erweitert, die Grundlagen der Ungleichgewichte erklärt, dafür sorgt, dass jedes Detail der Ungleichgewichte verstanden wird und gibt dem Spieler/Schachliebhaber dadurch etwas, von dem er stets geträumt hat, aber immer für unerreichbar hielt: ein positionelles Grundverständnis auf Meisterniveau.
Ein Abschnitt über praktische Schachpsychologie (mit dem Titel ‘Psychologische Streifzüge’) präsentiert nie zuvor veröffentlichte Ideen über psychologische Prozesse, die Spieler aller Spielstärken an der Entfaltung hindern und verrät leicht umsetzbare Tipps und Techniken, die jedem helfen, diese weit verbreiteten geistigen/psychologischen Schwächen zu überwinden.
Hunderte von Partien, die durch anschauliche Erklärungen lebendig werden, und Geschichten, die humorvoll und lehrreich sind, erläutern die Themen des Buches auf persönliche und unterhaltsame Weise.
Wenn Ihnen die positionellen Meisterwerke der Schachlegenden immer unverständlich geblieben sind und Schachstrategie für Sie stets ein Buch mit sieben Siegeln war und Sie glauben, im Positionsspiel ein Bauer und kein Meister zu sein, dann kann Schach mit neuem Schwung Ihr Leben ändern.
Jeremy Silman ist Internationaler Meister und ein Lehrer und Trainer von Weltklasse, der im Laufe seiner Karriere das American Open, das National Open und das U.S. Open gewonnen hat. Er gilt vielen als der führende Autor von Schachlehrbüchern und hat über 37 Bücher geschrieben, darunter Silmans Endspielkurs – Vom Anfänger zum Meister, und Schach, aber richtig! – Die Überwindung des amateurhaften Denkens.
“Secrets of Positional Sacrifice” is the second book, created within the premises of the Nestorović family chess workshop. I would like to mention that the whole family contributed to this book. We are also extremely thankful to our friends, who, thanks to their previous experience, have introduced us to the process of creating chess books, with their invaluable advice and ideas.
Considering the abundance of material regarding this topic that was gathered, we decided to make this book only the first, lower level of the “Positional sacrifice” edition. My father and I worked hard to make sure that the new book will be as interesting as the first one, but also more adapted to the wider audience.
Although the book mostly covers the more recent games, we could not help but include the beautiful creations of “old masters”, that we consider classical today. When it comes to dividing the book into chapters, there were multiple, interesting possibilities, but we opted for sectioning it based on a subject of sacrifice. Hence, there are five chapters within the book: positional pawn sacrifice, exchange sacrifice, piece sacrifice, queen sacrifice and finally, the unavoidable section dedicated to the classics.
There are a lot of interesting ideas presented in the book, applied by world class players, as well as by the less known ones. We kept the analysis of their games simple and easy to follow, and we made sure to include plenty of diagrams and explanations within the text.
Also, the addition to the book are exercises, given at the end of each chapter, which are meant to test the reader’s newly acquired knowledge. Exercises are mainly based on the correct assessment of asymmetric positions, and of course on accurate calculation.
We hope you will enjoy the book, at least as much as my father and I enjoyed writing it, and we have no doubt that our book will improve your chess knowledge and the feeling for positional sacrifice. ~ GM Nikola Nestorović
Pawn play is a fundamental aspect of chess strategy, yet often neglected in chess literature. In this, his second book on pawn play, Super-GM Sam Shankland sheds light on the vital topic of Passed Pawns.
Passed pawns – whether connected, lone or protected – are common occurrences in middlegames and endgames, and your effectiveness in playing with or against them will make the difference between victory and defeat. Just like in his previous book, Shankland breaks down each topic into a series of crystal-clear guidelines to aid the reader.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Pawn Play Bundle
Breaking down the principles of Pawn Play to basic, easily understandable guidelines every chess player should know.
The Russian Boris Spassky was the perfect gentleman. He was a chess genius who became World Champion in 1969. But he was also gracious in defeat after he lost his title to the American Bobby Fischer in 1972 in the Match of the Century.
This biography includes fifty of Spassky’s best games, annotated by former Russian champion Alexey Bezgodov, and a biographical sketch of a few dozen pages, written by Dmitry Aleynikov, the Director of the Chess Museum in Moscow.
Spassky was born in St. Petersburg in 1937; he moved to France in 1976 and returned to Russia in 2010. On his road to the World Championship, he defeated all his contemporaries convincingly in matches, including Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Mikhail Tal, Bent Larsen and Viktor Korchnoi. He lost his first match for the ultimate title against Tigran Petrosian but won in his second attempt in 1969. With his all-round style, fighting spirit and psychological insights, he could beat anybody anytime and, for example, won at least two games versus six other World Champions: Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov.
Alexey Bezgodov is a grandmaster and a former Russian Champion. For New In Chess, he wrote books about World Champion Tigran Petrosian and the chess openings the Caro-Kann and the Tarrasch Defence. Dmitry Aleynikov is the Director of the Chess Museum in Moscow.
Russian International Master Maxim Chetverik has written a strategy textbook containing 75 deeply annotated positional games that show players how to devise plans to handle a number of key strategic themes, such as when to open up the game, how to activate the pawn chain, how to carry out positional sacrifices and many others. Unlike most other textbooks, the strategic plans are viewed as battles where the plans of each player clash, and Maxim analyzes why one plan comes out on top. Also unlike most other textbooks, all example games are drawn from grandmaster play in the 21st century, some played in 2018, and consider the plans right out of the opening stage. This makes the book of particular value to players wishing to better understand the strategies that the openings they play may lead to, bearing in mind the author is an openings expert with ten openings books published. The majority of games are played by elite grandmasters, including Carlsen, Caruana, Anand, Kramnik, Karjakin, Giri, So, Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Nakamura, Gelfand, Svidler, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Leko, J. Polgar, Topalov, Kamsky, Morozevich, Korchnoi and Spassky. Chetverik introduces and illustrates the concepts of macroplan and microplan, which provide a simple structural framework for players seeking to devise plans in their own games. The macroplan is the specific way to achieve the required result (usually, a win), for example, the successful exploitation of a queenside pawn majority. The microplan is a way of solving a local problem that involves several moves, such as transferring a knight from a bad square to a good one. Ideally, a macroplan is a chain of sequential and carefully calculated microplans. This book is largely aimed at strong club players wishing to improve, or their coaches. The recommended Elo range is approximately 1,800 – 2,200, although it may of course be of interest to players a bit lower and a bit higher than this range.