Chess Movies 2


Book Description

The Pandolfini Chess Library Chess Movies represents a new idea in the Pandolfini Chess Library series. It offers instructional material with every single move diagrammed and explained. Thus a chessboard and pieces are not needed to follow through. This makes it possible to rely solely on the book itself, as one would with a text on tactics and problems, without having to set up the positions. It’s almost as if one is sitting in a movie theater, watching the film roll by, with the narrative carried along by subtitles. But whereas a film seen in the theater just keeps going, here you can “stop” the action and take time thinking about what you’re seeing and what’s being explained to you, as if you were home watching on your own DVD. In this second volume of the Chess Movies series, The Means and Ends, the enthusiast is presented with an assortment of 64 precisely finessed and well-executed endgames from the oeuvres of the world’s foremost chess gladiators. Lasker, Rubinstein, Capablanca, Karpov, Fischer, Anand and other chess gods, offered in stratagem, maneuver, and insightful simplification, provide the subject matter for this newest collection of chess cinema. Taking off from volume 1 of the Chess Movies series, the present volume shows the other end of successful chess play, the actual final moves of winning endgames. Read and watch on, and may all of you play happily ever after.




Chess Movies 1


Book Description

Lights! Action! Chess! Chess Movies represents a new idea in the Pandolfini Chess Library series. It offers instructional material with every single move diagrammed and explained. Thus a chessboard and pieces are not needed to follow through. This makes it possible to rely solely on the book itself, as one would with a text on tactics and problems, without having to set up the positions, even though the present volume, Quick Tricks, contains games of ten full moves or more. It’s almost as if one is sitting in a movie theater, watching the film roll by, with the narrative carried along by subtitles. But whereas a film seen in the theater just keeps going, here you can “stop” the action and take time thinking about what you’re seeing and what’s being explained to you, as if you were home watching on your own DVD. In this first offering of the series, Quick Tricks, the reader (viewer) is provided with a collection 64 neat traps and shots in the opening, illustrations often stemming from the practice of the world’s best players. There’s a variety too, so that you can sample different openings and variations. All you have to do is read the beginning paragraph, sit back in your living room, on your favorite flight, commuter bus or train ride, and pleasure your way through each informative film. It’s also a great way to prepare for upcoming competition. Just find a comfortable chair and spend a few hours watching, learning, and enjoying your way into shape.




Chess in the Movies


Book Description




The Magic of Chess Tactics 2


Book Description

Tactical Fireworks! When released in 2002, the first volume of The Magic of Chess Tactics by FIDE Master Claus Dieter Meyer and German Grandmaster Karsten Müller was extremely popular. It was one of the first books to deal with tactics on high level. Like the first book, intended for advanced (Elo 1800+) players, this second volume puts special tactical motifs and themes under the analytical microscope. Complicated tactics – the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack – require intuition, imagination and precision. The focus in this book is on attacking techniques and transformations. The contents include: Attacking with the Queen and Knight; The Knight on the Attack; Attacking with Bishops of Opposite Colors; Pins; Learn from the World Champions; and Exchanges & Transformations. The reader will find the analysis comprehensive and challenging. Dozens of exercises help reinforce the reader’s understanding of this complex subject matter. So, roll up your sleeves and prepare to ride herd on tactical fireworks and sharpen your tactical skills.




The Defence


Book Description




Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters


Book Description

Increase your skill and understanding of chess with the tactics that have produced unparalleled Russian grandmasters.




Music and Chess


Book Description

A Most Fascinating Journey! It has long been recognized that there are only three major areas of human endeavor which produce prodigies: music, chess and mathematics. This does not occur by happenstance. There are links on many levels. Now, for the first time, Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa examines the yet unexplored relation of chess to music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that is highlighted accordingly. The thesis of this extraordinarily researched book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music. As becomes clear, this relationship has already been introduced by some legendary players such as Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik . Great artists such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Schönberg, to name but a few, have also been fascinated by the very same idea. Surprisingly, this has not been explored in detail so far – only some sporadic articles exist, by authors specializing in either music or chess. There are chapters that address issues which are specialized in chess and music, while others cover related issues of general, social and artistic nature. Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa can be appreciated by readers who have a good, general, though non-specific background, in both fields. That is, no technical knowledge of music is required, with the only prerequisite to fully appreciate the text being the understanding of standard chess rules. The text could be equally enlightening to students of music or mathematics, as an added intellectual insight into these two disciplines. The text is supplemented by many chess diagrams, charts, and over 50 full-color images. So, turn on the music, set up chessboard, get out the calculator and let the author take you on a most fascinating journey that is Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa.




Chess Analytics


Book Description

Analytics The Method of Logical Analysis You are invited to take an instructive journey with one of the most successful chess coaches of our era, Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas. Over 40 critical aspects of the royal game are examined by this experienced, well-respected trainer. Grivas presents almost 240 games, most with complete scores to assist comprehension, illustrating his themes with practical, insightful examples and explanations. And the convenient structure of the book is such that the reader may pick and choose the topics in any order. There is a broad range of the subjects which are covered. You will find well-known subjects like back rank mate combinations, chapters about isolated pawns, strong squares, etc., as well as less commonly presented patterns, such as the chapters �False Guards” or �The King�s Golden Cage.” Topics include: Pinning, Shattered Pawns, the Weak d5-square, Doubled f-pawns, the Double Exchange Sacrifice, the f4 Break, Planning, Opening Diagonals, Small Advantages, Sacrifices for the Initiative, Rook vs. Bishop Pair, Pawns on the Seventh Rank and many more! The guiding principle of these themes is their practical value. This is particularly true in the endgame section where the author deals with structures which occur relatively often but are rarely presented in chess literature. The structure of each chapter is clear and methodical. The concept is explained in a few lines and illustrated in carefully selected, annotated master games. A conclusion with practical hints rounds off each section.




My Best Games of Chess


Book Description

The Genius of Alekhine In chess literature, there have only been a very few chess books that have immediately - and permanently - established themselves as classics. Lasker's Manual of Chess by Emanuel Lasker, Masters of the Chessboard by Richard Réti and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual by Mark Dvoretsky are three that come to mind. There are of course others, among them My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937 by the fourth world chess champion, Alexander Alekhine. The original English edition, published three-quarters of a century ago, used English descriptive notation, contained one photograph, no crosstables and was released in two separate volumes. This new 21st-century edition, presented with modern algebraic notation, has combined both books into a single volume, added more than three dozen archival photographs, crosstables, Alekhine's complete match and tournament records, a foreword by Russian grandmaster Igor Zaitsev, as well as many more diagrams. A comprehensive computer-assisted analytical supplement has also been prepared and is available for download at no extra charge, so that, if you wish, you may compare Alekhine's impressive notes with the preferences of the silicon monster. Whether you feel as if you are revisiting an old friend, or being introduced to this splendid game collection for the first time, you will marvel at how Alekhine's games and works remain in many respects extraordinarily consonant with the modern approach. And you will not fail to be impressed by the genuine genius that is Alekhine.




The Art of Sacrifice in Chess


Book Description

The 21st Century Edition of Spielmann’s Classic Work Austrian Grandmaster Rudolf Spielmann’s The Art of Sacrifice in Chess first appeared in the mid-1930s. It was immediately recognized as a classic, a masterpiece that examined the nature of chess sacrifices. In this modernized, 21st century edition, all of Spielmann’s original work has been preserved. The antiquated English Descriptive Notation has been replaced with modern Figurine Algebraic, and German grandmaster Karsten Müller has added his own notes to Spielmann’s original text. But the German grandmaster has gone far beyond simply inserting clarifying commentary. Müller has virtually doubled the size of the original work by adding eleven new chapters, including: The Greek Gift Sacrifice Bxh2/7+; Disaster on g7; The Achilles’ Heel f7; Strike at the Edge; Destroying the King’s Shelter; Sacrifices on f6; Sacrifices on e6; The Magic of Mikhail Tal; Shirov’s Sacrifices; and The Fine Art of Defense. There are exercises at the end of each new chapter to help you hone your skill of sacrificing. “Grandmaster Karsten Müller’s notes to the original text, along with the new material, brilliantly complements Spielmann’s classic work. A welcome addition to any chessplayer’s library...” – Garry Kasparov