In this book Ivan Sokolov presents a set of practical tools that will help you to master the art of sacrifice.
Spend more study time on what’s really decisive in your games! The average chess player spends too much time on studying opening theory. In his day, World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker argued that improving amateurs should spend about 5% of their study time on openings. These days club players are probably closer to 80%, often focusing on opening lines that are popular among grandmasters. Club players shouldn’t slavishly copy the choices of grandmasters. GMs need to squeeze every drop of advantage from the opening and therefore play highly complex lines that require large amounts of memorization. The main objective for club players should be to emerge from the opening with a reasonable position, from which you can simply play chess and pit your own tactical and positional understanding against that of your opponent. Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins recommend the Old Indian-Hanham Philidor set-up as a basis for both Black and White. They provide ideas and strategies that can be learned in the shortest possible time, require the bare minimum of maintenance and updating, and lead to rock-solid positions that you will know how to handle. By adopting a similar set-up for both colours, with similar plans and techniques, you will further reduce study time. Side-stepping Mainline Theory will help you to focus on what is really decisive in the vast majority of non-grandmaster games: tactics, positional understanding and endgame technique.
Books on chess exercises are usually about tactics. But in most of the positions that you think about during a game, there is no tactical solution. What you are doing most of the time is trying to find a way to improve your position or weaken your opponent’s, by applying strategic rules. Experienced chess trainer Emmanuel Bricard has created a practical exercise manual with carefully selected and tested training positions that teach you how to develop the right plan.
Award-winning author Charles Hertan has revisited the gold mine of Judit Polgar’s games and selected her best and most instructive tactics. They are arranged by theme and presented with helpful explanations and lots of practical advice. You will be inspired by her clever traps, stunning sacrifices and cunning endgame tricks. You will learn from her tactical vision, calculating skills and counter-intuitive ideas. Strike Like Judit is a riveting guide that will help you win more games as you will find killer moves more easily and more quickly.
The Russian grandmaster presents practical and effective recipes against a broad range of annoying variations: 2.a3?, 2.Na3?!, 2.b4?!, 2.b3, 2.Nc3, 2.d3 and many others. Black players will learn how to fight back and throw a spanner in the works when White tries to spoil their game.
John Watson and Eric Schiller provide club-players with solutions to a huge selection of rarely-played or tricky chess openings. They concentrate upon ideas and strategy, with enough analysis to satisfy the needs of practical play.
Opening preparation is essential, but for aspiring players understanding the middlegame is even more important.
The test positions in this instructive book cover the entire spectrum of what a modern club player should know. The reader is invited to find tactical blows, deep strategic manoeuvres, opening traps, standard endgame plans and other principles in action. The solutions rarely involve spectacular fireworks, as is the case in most chess puzzle books. Instead, you may be asked to find a quiet move or a reasoned evaluation. Solving the puzzles in this unusual and entertaining book is a most effective way to improve your chess. It will help you to develop a vital skill: the ability to take practical decision in critical moments.
De la Villa started collecting training material and selected those exercises best suited to retain and improve your knowledge and avoid common errors. In this book the Spanish grandmaster presents hundreds of exercises grouped according to the various chapters in 100 Endgames. Solving these puzzles will drive home the most important ideas, refresh your knowledge and improve your technique. This book contains a massive amount of clear, concise and easy-to-follow chess endgame instruction. The advice De la Villa gives in the solutions is practical and useful. Ideal for every post-beginner, club player and candidate master who wishes to win more games.
London is a universal system, valid against almost any black response and one of the safest for White. It is very popular with club players who want to avoid the more theoretical lines, but it is also played regularly by strong grandmasters
The Tarrasch Defence is one of the most ambitious ways to play against 1.d4. Black immediately fights for the centre, gets a lot of space and develops his pieces without many problems. Former Russian Champion Alexey Bezgodov has more than 30 years of experience with the Tarrasch and is one of the world’s greatest experts. The Art of the Tarrasch Defence is a deeply researched journey into the positional structures, the key moments in the fight for the initiative, the players and the variations.
International Master Luis Bernal has unraveled the Berlin and made it accessible for amateur players. His practical guide is fully up to date, explains typical formations and strategies, and presents new ideas and resources in the old Berlin Wall structures.