One of the best ways to improve your results in chess is to study tactics.
In the present book, you will be challenged more than 200 times with positions taken from the author's popular Chess Life column.
Each set of puzzles contain three easy puzzles, three medium puzzles, and three difficult puzzles.
Working through the puzzles and then carefully playing through the annotated solutions will help you to improve your tactical radar as well as your calculation skills.
Enhance Your Tactical Weapons!
1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combination is the companion volume to Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate. Of course each book can be taken on its own, but together they make a wonderful collection, and cover the full range of tactical chess. And they are now both available in 21st-century editions, using modern algebraic notation.
Reinfeld has arranged his quiz positions so that they fall into orderly chapters, each with a common theme. Still, the degree of difficulty varies widely. Easiest are one move shots, suitable for players starting out. Most difficult are the examples that run seven moves and more; some of these may even stump an ordinary master.
Most of all, this a book of combinative ideas, all designed to enhance your arsenal of weapons. The first step toward mastery is to become familiar with the different types of tactical motifs. The second step is to study a great many examples of these tactical themes. So, the object of this book is to add to your knowledge, to make you a strong chess player, and (last but not least) to delight you with some of the most beautiful moves ever played on the chessboard.
Marshall’s Brilliant Victory
In the spring of 1904, most of the chess world’s elite gathered in the sleepy northwestern Pennsylvania town of Cambridge Springs, where the first great tournament of the twentieth century was to take place. World Champion Emanuel Lasker topped the field. The champions of America (Harry Pillsbury), Russia (Mikhail Chigorin), France (David Janowski) and the Austria-Hungarian Empire (Carl Schlechter) were also playing.
Among the other players in this historic fifteen-round-robin event was a young master from Brooklyn, Frank Marshall. He had some international experience, including defeating World Champion Lasker in their individual encounter at Paris in 1900. However, he certainly was not considered among the favorites at the time. Nevertheless, Marshall finished in first place, two full points ahead of the rest of the field, the only undefeated player.
The story of this great tournament is superbly told by author Robert Sherwood. Each game is deeply annotated, while contemporary sources and rare archival photos nicely supplement the round-by-round account.
With this victory, Frank Marshall took his place among the world-class players of his era. You are invited to join Marshall on his journey in this splendid account of his magnificent triumph in the first major international tournament of the twentieth century.
Every serious trainer must insist on strategy work, because strategy will be a powerful and probably decisive weapon against players who neglected it in their own chess study. That was my motivation to write this book, to present crucial elements and principles of strategy and to reveal its secrets to you, dear reader. After careful study of the book you will be fully equipped with strategic concepts, patterns and definitely you will catch “how it works” in chess game.
– KEY CONCEPTS OF CHESS STRATEGY (Center, Open lines, Bishop pair, Squares, Space)
– PAWN STRUCTURES (Passed pawn, Hanging pawns, Pawn majority, Doubled pawns, Isolated pawns, Backward pawn, Pawn chains, Pawn Islands and weaknesses)
– PRINCIPLES OF CHESS STRATEGY (Harmony, Activity and Initiative, Restriction and Prophylactic play)
From the Foreword by GM Dragoljub Jacimovic: I know that this book has been prepared for a long time, and being familiar with the author’s methodology and the huge number of games from which he selected the most instructive jewels, I truly believe that this work will be an exemplary book worthy of every praise and highly useful to players of different categories
En este nuevo libro el GM paraguayo Zenón Franco Ocampos comenta 54 partidas poniendo énfasis en la parte posicional y en la parte práctica.
Está dividido en cuatro capítulos con diferentes temas estratégicos, al finalizar cada capítulo se proponen ejercicios sobre los temas tratados, de dificultad variada.
El libro tiene una versión previa en inglés, llamada Winning Chess Explained publicada en 2005.
Este volumen contiene correcciones y actualizaciones, es un libro seminuevo.
Se suprimieron algunos ejemplos y se agregaron partidas más recientes, tiene 11 partidas en formato “Jugada a Jugada” y ocho ejercicios “nuevos”.
“¡Primero la idea y después la jugada!” solía comentar Miguel Najdorf, esa frase es la perfecta síntesis de la planificación en el ajedrez.
El campeón de mundo, Magnus Carlsen, hablando sobre descubrir los mejores planes y las jugadas, comentó: “Los mejores jugadores encuentran los planes correctos porque han estudiado esos patrones durante miles y miles de horas”, y enfatizó la importancia de la parte táctica para implementar esos planes.
Este libro trata sobre la planificación en el ajedrez.
The Semi-Slav Defense transcends its classification as a mere defensive response to 1.d4.
It embodies a dynamic and multifaceted system that offers Black not only solidity in defense but also active counterplay and strategic flexibility. Here's why the Semi-Slav is more than just a defense:
Rather than passively defending, the Semi-Slav allows Black to counterattack in the center and on the flanks. Moves like ...e6-e5 and ...c6-c5 often lead to sharp, tactical positions where Black can seize the initiative.
By delaying the development of the knight to f6, Black achieves a solid pawn structure with pawns on d5, e6, and c6. This structure provides a firm foundation for Black's pieces and restricts White's options for pawn breaks.
The Polgar Way to Better Chess!
Learn Chess the Right Way is a five-volume chess puzzle book series aimed at the novice, beginner and intermediate level player, using the unique methods of the award-winning coach and former world champion Susan Polgar. It introduces the most important checkmate and material-winning tactics, as well as defensive techniques to the new chess player. Each of the five volumes will consist of over 500 puzzles.
Volume 4 is all about exercises where you have to make a “sacrifice” for a material gain or even checkmate.
In each of the first five chapters, a certain piece is being sacrificed to checkmate the enemy King (in chapter 1 – The Queen, in chapter 2 – The Rook, and so on). In chapters 6-10, you will get no hint about which piece should be sacrificed. However, you will know what the target is, to win a Queen, or Rook etc.
In chapter 11, there will be no hints whatsoever. The goal is simple: sacrifice one of your pieces to either checkmate or gain material. Many of the examples are built on skills (such as forks, discoveries or pins) learned in volumes 1 and 2 of this series. In most of the puzzles, you will need to think 2-3 pairs of moves ahead in order to find the correct solution.
With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and coach, international grandmaster Susan Polgar has developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners – Learn Chess the Right Way. Let her show you the way to understanding the most common and critical patterns and let her show you the way to becoming a better player.
SUSAN POLGAR is a winner of four Women’s World Championships and the top-ranked woman chess player in the United States. She became the #1 woman player in the world at 15 and remained in the top 3 for over 20 years. In 2013, she received the U.S. Coach of the Year Award and the following year, she was named the Chess Trainer of the Year by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She thus became the first person in history to be accorded both honors. Under her guidance, SPICE chess teams at both Texas Tech University and Webster University have won a combined six consecutive National Division I Collegiate Chess Championships.
Learn Chess the Right Way is a five-volume chess puzzle book series aimed at the novice, beginner and intermediate level player, using the unique methods of the award-winning coach and former world champion Susan Polgar. It introduces the most important checkmate and material-winning tactics, as well as defensive techniques to the new chess player. Each of the five volumes consist of over 500 puzzles.
Book 5 focuses on learning how to find the right continuation in critical positions of a chess game. In the first four books of this series, the reader was introduced to all the most important, basic elements of chess tactics to win material or to checkmate.
The first part of this book includes learning about special, more advanced themes such as “Zugzwang,” “Intermediate Moves,” and “Pawn Power.” Building on the knowledge acquired throughout this book series, in the second part of this volume, the reader can practice on familiar patterns. However, just as in the real game situation, there will be no hint which patterns to look for.
The goal is simple. Find a way to either checkmate or gain material. In most of the puzzles, you will need to think 2-4 pairs of moves ahead to find the correct solution.
SUSAN POLGAR is a winner of four Women’s World Championships and the top-ranked woman chess player in the United States. She became the #1 woman player in the world at 15 and remained in the top 3 for over 20 years. In 2013, she received the U.S. Coach of the Year Award and the following year, she was named the Chess Trainer of the Year by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She thus became the first person in history to be accorded both honors. Under her guidance, SPICE chess teams at both Texas Tech University and Webster University have won a combined seven consecutive National Division I Collegiate Chess Championships.
In Volume 3, you will be introduced to 500 must-know defensive techniques. Each chapter will start with a few introductory examples and explanation about to what to look for in the puzzles that follow.
In chapter 1, the task is to move an attacked piece. In each puzzle, there is only one good solution by moving the attacked piece to a safe square. In chapter 2, one of the kings is in check. The goal is to find the correct response. In chapter 3, a piece is attacked, but has no good square to which to move. So, rather than moving the attacked piece(s), you will need to look for a way to protect it with another piece.
In chapter 4, we focus on defensive ideas against a direct checkmate threat. In chapter 5, one side “defends” by counter-attacking. In chapters 6 and 7, you will be introduced to the game-saving techniques of drawing by stalemate or perpetual check. In chapter 8, the task is to catch a pawn that is about to promote. In chapter 9, a certain piece is about to get “trapped.” The task is to prepare for the attack and avoid material loss. Finally, in chapter 10, you can practice solving a variety of defensive ideas, with the goal to avoid or minimize material losses or being checkmated.
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British Chess Magazine (May 2024)
In the phase of the game, the endgame, strange things happen. Material advantages don’t bring home the expected fruits, wins vanish, draws slip away, and frustrations build. Why is it that when things are supposed to be simpler, they become slippery and nearly impossible to handle with any kind of accuracy? And why do players such as Rubinstein, Capablanca, Andersson, Karpov, and Carlsen seem able to drum up resources out of nothing, make the lives of their opponents miserable, and win things that looked drawn and draw things that looked lost? Many factors are at play, but an accurate assessment of the remaining resources, both present and latent, allows these players to make better plans and maximize the potential for a positive outcome.
In this book, experienced authors, IM Lakdawala and FM Hansen, look at this phenomenon and help the reader better “read” the positions to understand what measures are needed in a given position.
Along with numerous practical examples, and endgame studies with practical application, there are also many exercises for the student to work through, either on their own or with a coach.