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.
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.
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.
Calculation is key to winning chess games. Converting your chess knowledge into concrete moves requires calculation and precise visualization. The bad news: calculation is hard work. You cannot rely on feeling or intuition – you will have to turn on your brainpower. The good news: you can improve your calculation skills by training. Set up a position on a chessboard and try to solve exercises without moving the pieces! Grandmaster Ramesh RB is the perfect coach to awaken your chess brain and feed you precisely the right exercises. ‘After only a month of intensive training with Ramesh, I could sense a seismic shift in both the precision of my calculation as well as my general level of sharpness,’ says GM Daniel Naroditsky. GM Ramesh is one of the world’s most successful coaches. He has trained many of India’s top talents at all stages of their development on their journey to become International Masters and Grandmasters. Ramesh understands what mistakes players can make while calculating. He knows that the best move in a specific position may be the opposite of what your intuition is urging you to play. And he serves you the exercises to correct these misconceptions and start finding the right solutions. Every chess player will benefit from the hundreds of exercises in this book. Coach Ramesh will take your calculation skills from a club player’s level to grandmaster level.
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.
Today’s young players have benefited greatly from working with chess computers. There is little doubt that advanced software and electronic training programs have significantly contributed to the rise of the overall standard of play. But there is a downside as well. Many young chess players see the computer as the ultimate answer to nearly everything. They think that computer analysis is the best and fastest way to find the truth in any position on the board. Inevitably, those players have gradually stopped thinking and analysing for themselves. The prominent Russian chess trainer Alexander Kalinin argues that what you need to make real progress is not more computer input, but increased understanding. To fully digest all available data and to discover the ultimate secrets of chess you must dislodge your decision making from your addiction to the computer and (re)develop the habit of using your own brain. Kalinin helps players seeking the master title by showing how concrete knowledge leads to improved decisions at the board. He stresses the essence of the classics and the importance of human interaction in reaching analytical mastery. Kalinin provides a wealth of training material. The vast majority of his examples has never been published before. He reveals the mistakes he himself made as a candidate master and mostly uses games of players who themselves are on the road to chess mastery.
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!
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.
