A first-of-its-kind encyclopedia for chess players, this volume features detailed explanations and invaluable illustrations for new chess players, those intent on improving their games, and anyone who needs to brush up on both the basics and more advanced play. 140 detailed illustrations.
"The Improving Chess Thinker provides representative thought processes from all classes of chess players, highlights the differences between these levels, and provides insight to help players raise their thinking process to the next level. Full of helpful tips and principles, the Improving Chess Thinker is the result of over 40 years of 'think out loud' chess exercises given by one of the country's top chess instructors, Dan Heisman. The range of subjects addressed includes everything from analysis and evaluation theory to time management skills. The instruction and lessons learned will aid players of all levels, from beginner to expert. The practical advice will be useful not only for players striving to benefit their game, but also coaches looking for new powerful teaching tools."--Publisher's description
This is a well-established training manual which encourages the average player to understand how a grandmaster thinks, and even more important, how he works. Kotov tackles fundamental issues such as knowing how and when to analyze, the tree of analysis, a selection of candidate moves and the factors of success.
From Simon & Schuster, Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained is Irving Chernev guide to beginners chess and the basic moves for every player to improve. In this much loved classic, Irving Chernev explains 33 complete games in detail, telling the reader the reason for every single move. Playing through these games and explanations gives a real insight into the power of the pieces and how to post them most effectively.
A comprehensive analysis of chess players' cognition which introduces and reanalyses a number of classic psychological concepts such as apperception and restructuring.
Finding strong moves does not simply depend on how much you know about chess. In fact, greater knowledge often makes choosing a move more complex because it increases the number of directions your mind can take. It’s about the way you think. His many years as a chess trainer have taught grandmaster Joel Benjamin how fundamental failings in their thought process cause his students to make mistakes. Pointing out the moves his students missed was just half the job. He needed to explain why they didn’t arrive at the right move. Analysing your game with a chess engine will not tell you where and why you went wrong. Chess engines represent a different reality: the top computer move isn’t always the right move to play. This book teaches how you can improve the structure and effectiveness of your thinking when sitting at the board. How to look for the right things. If you take the wrong direction at the start of your deliberations, as club players often do, you may be losing before you know it. Joel Benjamin concentrates on a wide array practical issues that players frequently have to deal with. By applying a grandmaster’s train of thought club players will more often arrive at strong moves and substantially improve their game.
Research from the neurosciences and behavioural sciences highlights the importance of individual differences in explaining human behaviour. Individual differences in core psychological constructs, such as intelligence or personality, account for meaningful variations in a vast range of responses and behaviours. Aspects of chess have been increasingly used in the past to evaluate a myriad of psychological theories, and several of these studies consider individual differences to be key constructs in their respective fields. This book summarizes the research surrounding the psychology of chess from an individual- differences perspective. The findings accumulated from nearly forty years' worth of research about chess and individual differences are brought together to show what is known - and still unknown - about the psychology of chess, with an emphasis on how people differ from one another.
Both chess play and psychological research offer rewards to their participants in the form of intellectual satisfaction. It seems to follow that combining these two forms of activity, by carrying out research into chess play, should be a particularly engaging enterprise. In the mid-1980s enough was now known for it to be feasible to tell a reasonably satisfying story by piecing together the accumulated results of experiments on chess. There were remaining gaps in knowledge, but the structure of chess skill had at least become sufficiently evident to exhibit where the gaps lay. Originally published in 1985, this book was an attempt to summarize the progress that had been made at the time, recounting some of the components of the research process while describing how the chessplayer seems to think, imagine, and decide.
This book consists of previously unpublished manuscripts by Vygotsky found in the first systematic study of Vygotsky’s family archive. The notebooks and scientific diaries gathered in this volume represent all periods of Vygotsky’s scientific life, beginning with the earliest manuscript, entitled The tragicomedy of strivings (1912), and ending with his last note, entitled Pro domo sua (1934), written shortly before his death. The notes reveal unknown aspects of the eminent psychologist’s personality, show his aspirations and interests, and allow us to gain insights into the development of his thinking and its internal dynamics. Several texts reflect the plans that Vygotsky was unable to realize during his lifetime, such as the creation of a theory of emotions and a theory of consciousness, others reveal Vygotsky’s involvement in activities that were previously unknown, and still others provide outlines of papers and lectures. The notes are presented in chronological order, preceded by brief introductions and accompanied by an extensive set of notes. The result is a book that allows us to obtain a much deeper understanding of Vygotsky’s innovative ideas.