The Royal Chess Couple is a combined attempt to introduce the various traits of the most significant piece with the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Following a short historic review of the development and metamorphoses of each piece over time, the reader is offered 240 positions (480 in total) from tournament practice as well as from the magic world of chess composition. In each position a royal piece plays either a crucial offensive or defensive role. These positions are subdivided into 60 themes, four positions per theme, arranged by their increasing difficulty. The reader may use the positions as training challenges to improve his understanding and playing skills or just to enjoy playing through them. In either case he will learn to appreciate the characteristic qualities of each piece alone and in collaboration with other pieces.

Former Russian Champion Alexei Bezgodov explains for a wide range of players how they can employ the skills of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian to deal with adversity in their own games. The aim of this book is to help amateur players to improve the standard of their defensive play. In many training programs a serious analysis of the art of defense is missing. That is why most club players are much better at attacking than at coping with difficult positions. This book will point the way to finding creative solutions and save lots of points. Written by former Russian Champion Alexei Bezgodov, on a subject that has been neglected in many training programs: defense.

Learn sure-fire tactics and combinations from one of the worlds 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 possiblychange 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 worlds chess legends to work for you. Choose from the double attack, the pin, the skewer, deflection, the cor, 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 historys 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.

Gain the advantage over your opponent with easy-to-remember strategies from one of the worlds top chess players! Strategy is the ultimate secret weapon for championship players around the world. Drawing on his considerable experience in tournament play, International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan shows you how to apply flexible strategic principles to every part of your game. Using Seirawan's simple and effective planning and analysis techniques, you'll enter each game with confidence and energy, ready to play forcefully and intelligently the way you need to play so you can win every time! Learn to: Knock your opponent off balance with bold opening moves; Formulate an overall game strategy before the middle game; Interpret the motivation behind your opponents every move; Position yourself for a winning endgame; Diagrams throughout the book illustrate game positions, and you'll meet historys greatest chess strategieslearning from them move by move! Whether for reference during practice games or simply for pleasure reading, Winning Chess Strategies is an information packed resource you'll turn to again and again.

Which side stands better? How much better? Why? Most chess players rely on loosely knit, unstructured methods to evaluate chess pieces and positions. They learn positional principles which often lead to inaccurate evaluations and faulty decisions about how to proceed. This ground-breaking book by best-selling chess author Dan Heisman addresses the evaluation and understanding of how static features affect the value of the pieces in a given position. Now in its fourth edition, emphasis is placed on the static evaluation of each piece’s value and its role in the overall position rather than the assessment of a specific position, but Heisman’s approach can also be applied to help evaluate entire positions by helping to answer the questions who stands better, by how much, and why?

The fifth volume of the Grandmaster Repertoire – 1.e4 series provides a top-class repertoire against the Alekhine, Scandinavian, Pirc and Modern Defences, plus various offbeat alternatives Black may try. Negi’s latest work continues the winning formula of his previous books: the 1.e4 repertoire is founded on established main lines and turbo-charged with the innovative ideas of a world-class theoretician, making this an essential addition to the library of every ambitious player.

In Technical Decision Making in Chess former World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand discusses his path to decision making in endgames and positions where one side possesses a structural or material advantage. This investigation into a top Grandmaster’s technical understanding will illuminate difficult parts of the game that many players find elusive. Concepts like the “Zone of one mistake” are certain to be a revelation to many.

In Decision Making in Major Piece Endings former World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand discusses his path to decision making in endgames involving rooks or queens, as well as the often neglected “4th Phase.” Countless games are decided by good or bad technique in such endgames, so readers are certain to benefit from the insights of a world-class Grandmaster on this vital topic.

There is no easier way to win a game of chess than by luring your opponent into a devious trap. Similarly, there's nothing worse than being the one on the receiving end. Tricks, traps and swindles lie in wait everywhere, especially so in the opening phase of the game, and many battles can be won or saved simply through learning and mastering the most important ones. In this instructive and fun book, Gary Lane looks back through chess history and at modern times to create a list of his own favourite tricks and traps. Selecting from hundreds of contenders, Lane examines a variety of factors in order to decide which ideas are most worthy of inclusion. Discover the stories behind the most cunning tricks and traps of all time; how you can utilize them to score easy wins; and how you can avoid being tricked yourself.

Positional chess remains a mystery to many and yet an understanding of the finer points of the game so often makes the difference between two equally matched players. Improve your positional play and you will see chess in a totally new dimension! In this unique book, International Master Jacob Aagaard selects many original examples of positional chess, the créme de la créme of those that he uses for training and study. Aagaard also delves deeply into the ideas of positional evaluation and analysis.

Chess Secrets is a series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess: strategy, attack, opening play and gambits, classical play, endgames and preparation. In each book the author studies a number of great players from chess history who have excelled in a particular field of the game and who have undeniably influenced those who have followed. In The Giants of Power Play, Neil McDonald selects five players who have excelled in the field of 'power play' - the art of putting opponents under constant pressure. The methods of doing so are numerous, including gaining rapid development in return for material to build up an initiative, preparing powerful opening ideas in advance, or even developing completely new opening systems. McDonald examines the contributions made by each player, their differences in approach and style, and from Morphy to Topalov, how they followed in each other's footsteps. A study of this book will help you to enhance your skills in one of the most crucial elements of the game.

Being able to solve puzzles and combinations is one of the principal components of a successful chess player. But how can one improve on such an important skill? How can one acquire combinational vision? The answer lies within the pages of this book! Experienced chess writer Jacob Aagaard explains how tactical intuition and ability develops and uses pattern recognition to improve the readers tactical ammunition. Is also no secret that the continued practice of puzzles and combinations helps to sharpen the chess brain, and here there is a wealth of exercises and problems to solve accompanied by the full solutions and explanations. This book is a must for the serious competitive player.