The author focused in his first volume of pure chess calculation on middlegames. Romain has carefully selected 496 positions, which arose in real games in the recent past. He separated the exercises into 11 different categories, covering both tactics and strategy, attack and defence. This book is a fantastic training tool for any player to improve his level of chess thinking.
Most tactics and training books are good for boosting your calculation ability, but they do not teach you how to calculate. This is the difference I want to make with my own books, by arranging the exercises in different categories so that the thinking process more closely resembles the one we have during a game. Level 1 of my new series consists of learning how to checkmate your opponent. The first three chapters are a rather classical tactics training, then things get harder. In Chapter 4, you have to trap your opponent's king; in Chapter 5, you have to win by eliminating the defender in your opponent's position; in Chapter 6, by using a decisive double threat and in Chapter 7, with an unexpected winning sacrifice. Chapter 8 consists of a few other problems which required short instructions. You should go through the book chapter by chapter. The complexity of the examples increases throughout the book, and you shouldn't skip a category if you consider it too easy. The book covers the full thinking process you should have when trying to mate your opponent, or when the situation of your opponent's king may tempt you to look further in a mating direction. As with all training, there is a warm-up, a tough phase, a break, a relaxing phase, then another tough phase, and respecting the pedagogical order of the book will make sure that you derive the maximum benefit from it, and are 100% ready for Level 2. After you have completed all 276exercises in the book you won't let your opponent's king escape when it shouldn't. Reading it should pay off quickly in terms of results! And this is exactly what I wish you.
Charles Hertan, an experienced chess coach from Massachusetts, has made an astonishing discovery: the failure to consider key winning moves is often due to human bias, since your brain tends to disregard many winning moves because they are counter-intuitive or look unnatural. Charles Hertan?s radically different approach is: use COMPUTER EYES and always look for the most forcing move first! By studying forcing sequences according to Hertan?s method you will develop analytical precision, improve your tactical vision, overcome human bias and staleness, and enjoy the calculation of difficult positions. By recognizing moves that matter, you will win more games!
The author focused in his first volume on middlegames, now his attention was drawn to endgames. Romain has carefully selected more than 496 positions, which arose in real games in the recent past. He separated the exercises into 11 different categories, covering both tactics and strategy, attack and defense. This book is a fantastic training tool for any player to improve his level of chess thinking.
Have there been times during a chess game when you have calculated for half an hour, only to find that most of what you were thinking was of little use? This book will offer you practical advice and an effective training plan to think differently and make decisions far more efficiently. Thinking methods such as Candidates, Combinations, Prophylaxis, Comparison, Elimination, Intermediate Moves, Imagination and Traps are explained, with a carefully selected series of exercises.
Nowadays, chessplayers spend almost all their free time preparing openings, and rarely spend the time necessary to perfect the vitally important technique of calculating. Regular training in solving and playing out endgames studies is a good recipe for eliminating that shortcoming. This training is directed at developing resourcefulness, fantasy (in chess, these qualities are called "combinative acuity”), and the readiness to sacrifice material, in pursuit of the goal - winning! How do we develop good habits of winning endgame play? There are lots of manuals; but this may be the first in which a famous practical player, a trainer with a world-renowned name, and a study composer who has earned the title of International Grandmaster of Composition, share their views in one and the same book.
Every chess player wants to improve, but many, if not most, lack the tools or the discipline to study in a structured and effective way. With so much material on offer, the eternal question is: ‘How can I study chess without wasting my time and energy?’ Davorin Kuljasevic provides the full and ultimate answer, as he presents a structured study approach that has long-term improvement value. He explains how to study and what to study, offers specific advice for the various stages of the game and points out how to integrate all elements in an actionable study plan. How do you optimize your learning process? How do you develop good study habits and get rid of useless ones? What study resources are appropriate for players of different levels? Many self-improvement guides are essentially little more than a collection of exercises. Davorin Kuljasevic reflects on learning techniques and priorities in a fundamental way. And although this is not an exercise book, it is full of instructive examples looked at from unusual angles. To provide a solid self-study framework, Kuljasevic categorizes lots of important aspects of chess study in a guide that is rich in illustrative tables, figures and bullet points. Anyone, from casual player to chess professional, will take away a multitude of original learning methods and valuable practical improvement ideas.
It’s a fact of chess life that if you want to win, you have to put a bit of study in. Every chess player, from near-beginner to experienced tournament player, needs to learn the openings and keep on top of current theory. But studying doesn’t have to be dull. This indispensable book contains foolproof ways to help the information go in... and stay in. Acclaimed chess author Andrew Soltis reveals the key techniques: - Why you can’t study chess the same way you study school subjects - How to acquire the most important knowledge: intuition - The role of memorizing (it’s not a bad thing, despite what people say) - How to get the most out of playing over a master’s game - Adopting a chess hero as a means of learning - How great players study - Computers as a study tool - How to train someone else
