Attacking Chess for Club Players


Book Description

Every chess player loves to attack the enemy King. Your goal is clear, your thinking is concrete, your creativity is in gear and direct victory is just around the corner. Few things in life are better than a conducting a blistering King’s attack! But how good are you actually at attacking? Have you ever analysed your efforts? Looked at calculation errors, missed chances and derailed efforts? Highly experienced chess trainer Herman Grooten finds that many of his pupils overestimate their attacking skills. Their fond memories of successful assaults often obscure the fact that there was a lot of room for improvement in their play. After the immense success of his award-winning classic Chess Strategy for Club Players Herman Grooten has now written an equally accessible primer on attacking chess. He teaches you how to spot opportunities, exploit weaknesses, bring your forces to the frontline and strike at the right moment. Grooten concentrates on training the most valuable skills: visualizing, structuring, anticipating, calculating, memorizing and other mental aspects. This is not just another collection of useful thematic moves but a complete and highly structured course of attacking techniques. With great and fresh examples, clear explanations and many instructive exercises.




Chess Strategy for Club Players


Book Description

Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what? With this new edition of his award winning book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions and how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan. His teachings are based on the famous “Elements” of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion. He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters. In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding: pawn structure, piece placement, lead in development, open files, weaknesses, space advantage and king safety. You will master the art of converting a temporary plus into other, more permanent advantages. The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises. This new 3rd edition has, besides various corrections and improvements, a new introduction and a brand-new chapter called ‘Total Control’ with new exercises.




Attacking Strategies for Club Players


Book Description

Attacking your opponent’s King is not just a short-cut to victory, it’s also one of the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences in chess. If you want to win more games you should become a better attacker. Studying typical attacking motifs and ideas easily brings dividends while you are having a good time. Michael Prusikin presents the prerequisites and the rules for a King attack in a lucid and attractive manner. In 15 thematic chapters he teaches you how to assess the nature of the position, identify the appropriate offensive patterns, find the preliminary moves and conduct your attack in a clear and effective way. Battering rams, pawn storms, deploying your pieces and striking the castled position, obstructive sacrifices, opening up the g-file by sacrificing a Knight on f5, Prusikin demonstrates the most important patterns of attack with lots of clear and well chosen examples. Prusikin next tests your newly acquired insights and your attacking intuition with exercises covering all the themes and motifs. You will find that studying Attacking Strategies for Club Players is both rewarding and entertaining.




Chess Endgames for Club Players


Book Description

Any good chess coach will tell you to study the endgame. Improving your knowledge of the ‘third phase’ in a chess game will bring you many extra half or even full points. After the success of his award-winning classics, Chess Strategy for Club Players and Attacking Chess for Club Players Herman Grooten has now written an equally instructive endgame manual. He teaches you how to understand the themes of an endgame, and find the right moves based on your understanding. International Master Herman Grooten learned about endgames the hard way, as many good players have. Early in his career, he realized there was a lot to be gained in this undervalued part of the game. Building on his experience as a player and coach, Grooten takes an original approach to convey his message: the endgames are divided according to theme, not chess material. This is a novel, but very effective way to learn the ins and outs, since many themes can occur with different material balances. The material is richly illustrated with many examples from practical play, as well as endgame studies, which present the motifs in their purest and most attractive form. The result is a lively and highly instructive guide to the endgame.




On the Origin of Good Moves


Book Description

The way a beginner develops into a strong chess player closely resembles the progress of the game of chess itself. This popular idea is the reason why many renowned chess instructors such as former World Champions Garry Kasparov and Max Euwe, emphasize the importance of studying the history of chess. Willy Hendriks agrees that there is much to be learned from the pioneers of our game. He challenges, however, the conventional view on what the stages in the advancement of chess actually have been. Among the various articles of faith that Hendriks questions is Wilhelm Steinitz's reputation as the discoverer of the laws of positional chess. In The Origin of Good Moves Hendriks undertakes a groundbreaking investigative journey into the history of chess. He explains what actually happened, creates fresh perspectives, finds new heroes, and reveals the real driving force behind improvement in chess: evolution. This thought-provoking book is full of beautiful and instructive ‘new’ material from the old days. With plenty of exercises, the reader is invited to put themselves in the shoes of the old masters. Never before has the study of the history of chess been so entertaining and rewarding.




Complete games collection with his own annotations. Volume I. 1905−1920


Book Description

The fourth world champion Alexander Alekhine has gone down in history not only as the winner of numerous tournaments and matches and the creator of hundreds of chess masterpieces. He is also rightly regarded as one of the most outstanding analysts of all time. Alekhine’s annotations are distinguished by their depth and objectivity, and a clear explanation of the ideas inherent in a position. In this edition for the first time ALL Alekhine’s games with his own annotations have been compiled. At present many of them can be found only in old magazines, and some have not previously been published in English.In the editorial notes the achievements of modern computer analysis have been incorporated.




Attacking 101: Volume #003


Book Description

The goal of the books in this series (Attacking 101: Volume #nnn) is to provide detailed analysis of my own attack games played against lower rated players. The players are all rated in the range of 1700 to 2100. They make the same errors you regularly witness in your games but here you get to see a Chess Master dissect and exploit the moves, show why they are wrong, and how to punish the opponentÔs poor play. This book covers White Openings and has deep coverage of the Center Game and Sicilian Grand Prix (all lines).




Attacking 101 - Volume #004


Book Description

The goal of the books in this series (Attacking 101: Volume #999) is to provide detailed analysis of my own attack games against lower rated players. The players are generally rated in the range of 1700 to 2100. They make the same mistakes you regularly witness in your games but here you get to see a Chess Master dissect and exploit the moves, show why they are wrong, and how to punish the opponent's play. This book covers Black Openings and has deep coverage of the Alekhine's Defense and the Polish (all lines).




Better Chess for Average Players


Book Description

Designed for the typical amateur player who wants to improve his or her chess skills, this clear, straightforward guide provides the extra knowledge and technique that turns a losing player into a winner. The author, a well-known chess teacher and author of a dozen books on openings, coaches the reader through all the fundamentals of attacking, sacrifices, defense, positional play and choosing a move, as well as how to approach the endgame. The crucial processes of assessing the position and choosing a move are examined in depth, and there are helpful sections on how to cope with difficult positions and time-trouble. Several illustrative games, from the annals of the imaginary Midlington Chess Club, add a light touch to this expert practical guide to better chess. Tim Harding is a well-known chess author and captain of the Irish Correspondence Chess Team. He represented Ireland in the 1984 FIDE chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki.




Attacking 101: Volume #001


Book Description

"The goal of the books in this series Attacking 101 is to provide detailed analysis of my own attack games played against lower rated players. The players are all rated in the range of 1000 to 1800 - the types of players you would frequently encounter at your local chess club, local tournaments, online, and at home. They make the same errors you regularly witness in your games but here you get to see a Chess Master dissect and exploit the moves, show why they are wrong, and how to punish the opponent's poor play." -- back cover.