Kasparov: How His Predecessors Misled Him About Chess


Book Description

Over the past few years the great chess player Garry Kasparov has written five best-selling books praising the contributions to chess made by the previous world champions. The series is called ''My Great Predecessors''. As a reaction to this wonderful series of books, leading chess writer Tibor Károlyi has written this imaginary sixth volume. In gently humorous – but chessically serious – style, the author imagines Kasparov is annotating over 70 of his own lost games, and blaming all these defeats on the bad influence of each of the previous world champions, providing in-depth analysis to show how he was misled by them. The book also serves as a highly instructive, practical chess book – to beat Kasparov, the greatest player of all time, took some pretty special chess, and readers will enjoy learning from this. It is astonishing how the author has managed to find so many games that exhibit uncanny similarities between Kasparov and his predecessors, which makes the content of the book extremely plausible – as if Kasparov himself were writing it. This is a brilliant and totally original chess book that could only have been written by someone with great knowledge of Kasparov and the past world champions.




Chess Lessons from a Champion Coach


Book Description

Lessons, motivation and coaching to make you a better chess player. In an ideal world, any aspiring chess player, at almost any level, would get better with a coach. If that's not possible, having chess champion coach Thomas Engqvist's book at your side is the next best thing. In his series of lessons, Engqvist guides you through not only the most important elements of chess to master but also the psychology, how to marry knowledge with imagination, and how to stay motivated. Suitable for older children through to adults, the lessons are drawn from chess games through history, from the 16th century to Magnus Carlsen and latest Alpha Zero computer chess. It features a range of key players, including Steinitz, Lasker, Nimzowistch, Botvinnik (Soviet chess school), and Fischer. With clear and accessible annotations to give clarity, the games highlight the most important lessons to learn and, just as importantly, how to 'practise' chess. International Master Thomas Engqvist has travelled the world teaching and coaching chess to a very high level for decades – and with this book, he can be your coach too.




300 Most Important Tactical Chess Positions


Book Description

An International Master's instructive guide to essential tactical strategies and positions in chess. A comprehensive book from the Swedish International Master Thomas Engqvist for understanding the most important tactical chess positions in the opening of a game, the middle game and the endgame. It cuts to the chase on the must useful tactical positions at each stage of the game. Knowing the positions is one thing but this experienced coach shows you how to create them, even out of nothing, in the spirit of Tal and Alekhine. It covers other important facets of tactical play, including calculation (how to calculate with the help of stepping stones), attacking play such as defence and counter attack, and even psychological tactics. Each numbered position can be seen as a test-yourself quiz (with answers given below the diagrams) to help cement tactical understanding. Since it's advisable to revise the positions from time to time, this book can be your life-long companion, enabling you to dramatically increase your tactical chess understanding. The perfect guide for players who want to reach a higher level but don't have time to spend hours every week on less productive study.




Magnus Carlsen: 60 Memorable Games


Book Description

Following on from the long success of one of the most important chess books ever written, Bobby Fischer: My 60 Memorable Games, renowned chess writer Andrew Soltis delivers a book on today's blockbuster chess player Magnus Carlsen. Magnus Carlsen has been the world's number one player for more than a decade, has won more super-tournaments than anyone ever and is still in his prime. He is the only player to repeatedly win the world championships in classical, speed and blitz chess formats. This book details his remarkable rise and how he acquired the crucial skills of 21st-century grandmaster chess He will defend his world championship title this autumn and if he wins, it will set a record of five championship match victories. This book take you through how he wins by analysing 60 of the games that made him who he is, describing the intricacies behind his and his opponent's strategies, the tactical justification of moves and the psychological battle in each one.




Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part Two


Book Description

Part two features the play of champions Max Euwe (1935-1937) Mikhail Botvinnik (1946-1957, 1958-1961 and 1961-1963), Vassily Smyslov (1957-1958) and Mikhail Tal (1960-1961). These books are more than just a compilation of the games of these champions. Kasparov's biographies place them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas. All these games have been thoroughly reassessed with the aid of modern software technology and the new light this sheds on these classic masterpieces is fascinating.




Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors


Book Description

More than just a compilation of play from the great chess players of the 1960s and 70s, Kasparov's biographies place these champions in a fascinating historical, political, and cultural context.




Crescendo of the Virtuoso


Book Description

During the Age of Revolution, Paris came alive with wildly popular virtuoso performances. Whether the performers were musicians or chefs, chess players or detectives, these virtuosos transformed their technical skills into dramatic spectacles, presenting the marvelous and the outré for spellbound audiences. Who these characters were, how they attained their fame, and why Paris became the focal point of their activities is the subject of Paul Metzner's absorbing study. Covering the years 1775 to 1850, Metzner describes the careers of a handful of virtuosos: chess masters who played several games at once; a chef who sculpted hundreds of four-foot-tall architectural fantasies in sugar; the first police detective, whose memoirs inspired the invention of the detective story; a violinist who played whole pieces on a single string. He examines these virtuosos as a group in the context of the society that was then the capital of Western civilization. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1999.




Matter and Mind


Book Description

This book discusses two of the oldest and hardest problems in both science and philosophy: What is matter?, and What is mind? A reason for tackling both problems in a single book is that two of the most influential views in modern philosophy are that the universe is mental (idealism), and that the everything real is material (materialism). Most of the thinkers who espouse a materialist view of mind have obsolete ideas about matter, whereas those who claim that science supports idealism have not explained how the universe could have existed before humans emerged. Besides, both groups tend to ignore the other levels of existence—chemical, biological, social, and technological. If such levels and the concomitant emergence processes are ignored, the physicalism/spiritualism dilemma remains unsolved, whereas if they are included, the alleged mysteries are shown to be problems that science is treating successfully.




Artificial Intelligence Illuminated


Book Description

Artificial Intelligence Illuminated presents an overview of the background and history of artificial intelligence, emphasizing its importance in today's society and potential for the future. The book covers a range of AI techniques, algorithms, and methodologies, including game playing, intelligent agents, machine learning, genetic algorithms, and Artificial Life. Material is presented in a lively and accessible manner and the author focuses on explaining how AI techniques relate to and are derived from natural systems, such as the human brain and evolution, and explaining how the artificial equivalents are used in the real world. Each chapter includes student exercises and review questions, and a detailed glossary at the end of the book defines important terms and concepts highlighted throughout the text.




Homo Deus


Book Description

Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus. With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.