Endgame Corner


Book Description

A “Must” Addition to Your Library There are already many endgame books, so why this one? Well, most books deal with elementary endgames, or are very advanced and contain few exercises. But you have only really learned something when you can execute it at the board, with the clock ticking. And solving exercises is very close to this scenario. The authors present 450 endgame exercises designed to improve your understanding of endgame theory and sharpen your endgame expertise. Starting with the chapter “Specific Positions to Know,” they take you on a journey with just the right mix of practical advice and theoretical knowledge. Endgame Corner is detailed, well-researched, informative and in-depth, with both authors sharing their experiences, recent games and new examples... I really like this material and hope that you will as well. If you are fascinated by endings, or feel the need to improve this part of your game, this book is a “must” addition to your library. – From the Foreword by Wesley So About the Authors German grandmaster Karsten Müller hosts the popular ChessBase series Endgame Magic, and American grandmaster Alex Fishbein writes an endgame column for the American Chess Magazine. They are two of the world’s renown endgame experts. They were the editors of the fifth edition of the best-selling Dvoretsky Endgame Manual and they also collaborated on the Fasttrack Edition of DEM5.




Endgame Corner


Book Description

A "Must" Addition to Your Library There are already many endgame books, so why this one? Well, most books deal with elementary endgames, or are very advanced and contain few exercises. But you have only really learned something when you can execute it at the board, with the clock ticking. And solving exercises is very close to this scenario. The authors present 450 endgame exercises designed to improve your understanding of endgame theory and sharpen your endgame expertise. Starting with the chapter "Specific Positions to Know," they take you on a journey with just the right mix of practical advice and theoretical knowledge. Endgame Corner is detailed, well-researched, informative and in-depth, with both authors sharing their experiences, recent games and new examples... I really like this material and hope that you will as well. If you are fascinated by endings, or feel the need to improve this part of your game, this book is a "must" addition to your library. - From the Foreword by Wesley So




Understanding Minor Piece Endgames


Book Description

Understanding = Mastery! Knowing the abilities and limitations of the minor pieces is very valuable for mastering the secrets of the royal game, and this can be studied best in the endgame. It is essential to understand the management of the long-range bishop, albeit confined to one color, as well as the short-range, ubiquitous knight. This book is the second volume in the authors’ acclaimed Understanding Endgames series. It follows a dual philosophy, like their previous work, Understanding Rook Endgames. It deals with seven-piece minor-piece endings in some detail. These endgames are often so deep that pre-tablebase analysis almost always contained errors. Many new discoveries are revealed here. In addition, the authors emphasize the important five- and six-piece endings every club player should know. But to really understand minor piece endings, these theoretical positions are of course not enough. Sub-chapters on the principles of each material configuration have therefore been added. Understanding Minor Piece Endgames will take you a long way to mastering these important endings. “Having had the pleasure to preview this book, I can tell you that you are in for a treat. Careful study of this book will benefit your chess immensely...” From the Foreword by GM Jacob Aagaard




Chess Evolution


Book Description

A multinational team of chess grandmasters analyze the most important recent games, using their world-class skill and powerful computers. This volume is essential to anyone interested in the most up-to-date and highest quality opening theory.Tournaments covered are the World Cup, Dortmund, the World Team Championship, Russian Super Final, Biel and more...Contributors in this issue include: Naiditsch, Maze, Sedlak, I. Sokolov, Miton, Bacrot, Jobava and Predojevic. All chess grandmasters, most of them in the top 100 in the world.




How to Play Chess Endgames


Book Description

In this companion volume to Fundamental Chess Endings, M�ller and Pajeken focus on the practical side of playing endgames. They cover all aspects of strategic endgames, with particular emphasis on thinking methods, and ways to create difficulties for opponents over the board. Using hundreds of outstanding examples from modern practice, the authors explain not only how to conduct 'classical' endgame tasks, such as exploiting an extra pawn or more active pieces, but also how to handle the extremely unbalanced endings that often arise from the dynamic openings favoured nowadays. All varieties of endgames are covered, and there are more than 200 exercises for the reader, together with full solutions. Major topics include: * Basic Principles and Methods * Activity * Schematic Thinking * The Fight for the Initiative * Prophylaxis and Preventing Counterplay * The Bishop-Pair in the Endgame * Domination * The Art of Defence * Typical Mistakes * Rules of Thumb




The Corner


Book Description

The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known--and cautiously avoided--by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood. David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad. Through the eyes of one broken family--two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough, Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the country and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades, and the welfare system have accomplished so little. This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.




Fundamental Chess Endings


Book Description

This is the first truly modern one-volume endgame encyclopaedia. It makes full use of endgame tablebases and analytical engines that access these tablebases; where previous authors could only make educated guesses, Muller and Lamprecht have often been able to state the definitive truth, or get much closer to it. New time-controls involve competitive games being played to a finish in one session, so it is especially important that chess-players understand the key endgame principles. This book provides comprehensive assistance for any players wishing to study the endgame. In addition to a feast of detailed analysis, the authors emphasize the practical side of endgame play, describing rules of thumb, principles, and thinking methods. Fundamental Chess Endings is both the ideal endgame reference work, and a book that can profitably and enjoyably be read from start to finish. Book jacket.




Computer Games


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Computer Games Workshop, CGW 2013, held in Beijing, China, in August 2013, in conjunction with the Twenty-third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 2013. The 9 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 15 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to computer games. They discuss six games that are played by humans in practice: Chess, Domineering, Chinese Checkers, Go, Goofspiel, and Tzaar. Moreover, there are papers about the Sliding Tile Puzzle, an application, namely, Cooperative Path-Finding Problems, and on general game playing.




Understanding Queen Endgames


Book Description

The Daunting Domain of Queen Endgames Explained! Knowing the abilities and limitations of the powerful queen is very valuable for mastering the secrets of the royal game, and this can be studied best in the endgame. Queen endgames are very difficult, if only for purely mathematical reasons – the queen is the most mobile peace in chess, and the amount of possible options is incomparably higher than in any other type of endgames. This book follows a dual philosophy as in the three previous works by the same authors: Understanding Rook Endgames, Understanding Minor Piece Endgames and Understanding Rook vs. Minor Piece Endgames. The 7-piece endings are dealt with in great detail. They are often so complex that pre-tablebase analysis almost always contains errors. Many new discoveries are revealed here. But to really understand the fight of a queen against a queen or minor pieces with rooks, these theoretical positions are of course not enough. So subchapters on the principles of each material configuration have been added. All in all, this fantastic book is already on my (very short) “must study” list for chessplayers of different levels, including the top ten! I want to thank the authors for the courage which is required just to start working on such a complex topic, as well as for the very high quality of their work, which will endure for decades to come and will be very useful for many future generations of chessplayers. – from the Foreword by Vladimir Kramnik,14th World Chess Champion




The Magic of Chess Tactics


Book Description

Chess is 99% tactics. So to be a good chess player, you have to spend a lot of your training time on tactics. Although basic tactics are explained in a number good books, complicated tactics the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack require intuition, imagination and precision. The Magic of Chess Tactics helps you develop these qualities. Aimed primarily at aspiring chess players from club to master level who seriously want to improve their chess understanding, The Magic of Chess Tactics provides examples selected for both their entertainment and instructional value as well as detailed explanations and exercises. Claus Dieter Meyer, chess author and FIDE Master, is a well-known analyst and professional chess trainer. Karsten Muller is an International Grandmaster and co-author, along with Frank Lamprecht, of the highly acclaimed Secrets of Pawn Endings and œFundamental Chess Endings. "I have come to realise that there are basically two types of chess tactics. First, simple kinds of combinations you need to know when you start to play chess. I still believe they are the basis of everything. Things that computers see in a half-second. But the book is not about them. For those simple tactics, old Koblentz books are more than enough. This book is about *complicated* chess tactics, the kind you sometimes need hours of analysis just to discover the truth of the position. It's hard to see and calculate perfectly on the board; one needs intuition, imagination and precision. "It's not easy to develop these qualities but I believe that the present book, full of examples and high quality analyses, will help you achieve that objective. Welcome to the magical world of tactics!" From the Foreword by Alexei Shirov