Modern Chess Strategy


Book Description

The use of the queen, the active king, exchanges, pawn play, the center, weak squares, more. Often considered the most important book on strategy. 298 diagrams.




Modern Chess Analysis


Book Description

Chess analysis is nearly as old as the game itself, with many of the pioneering works by the giants of chess history being devoted to the analysis of positions, openings and endings. Personal computers and powerful chess software are having a profound effect on chess analysis and theory - most grandmasters use them extensively. However, this book does far more than explain methods for computer-assisted analysis. Readers will develop a deeper understanding of the strengths and limitations of the human mind, and a greater understanding of many areas of chess while working through the examples that Robin Smith presents. The many topics in this wide-ranging book include: Schematic thinking; Dynamic play vs. quiet manoeuvring; Fortresses; King Hunts and 'King Drift'; The Problem of Exchanging; Interactive Analysis.




Questions of Modern Chess Theory


Book Description

In English for the first time. Written by a two-time Ukrainian Champion, and published in the Soviet Union in 1956, this is one of the most influential chess books of the 20th century.




Modern Chess Preparation


Book Description

Opening, middlegame and endgame are the three universally recognized stages of a game of chess, but what about the art of preparation? Winning starts with planning before the game, teaches legendary chess trainer Vladimir Tukmakov in this enlightening and entertaining work on a neglected subject. Exploring and understanding, prior to the game, the strengths and weaknesses of your next opponent and being aware of your own strong points and shortcomings, are a key to success. Tukmakov describes how planning has become a systematic process, how methodical preparation works, and which critical steps you have to take. The role of the computer in preparing for a game has grown tremendously, and Modern Chess Preparation explains how it is used by top players to get organized for success. But you will also learn the limitations on the use of chess engines and databases and how disastrous it can be to overly respect them and rely on them. A separate chapter is devoted on how to prepare for all-important games, games that will decide a tournament, a match or a even an entire career. Modern Chess Preparation is about more than just opening preparation. It also teaches you how to immerse yourself in order to find the best approach to the game. With powerful anecdotes and many instructive high-level games, Tukmakov explains how, as a competitive chess player, you can organize your homework, focus your efforts, and arrive at a viable game plan. Vladimir Tukmakov is a chess grandmaster and a former national champion of Ukraine. In his active career he won many tournaments as well as gold medals in international team competitions. He is universally acknowledged as an outstanding chess trainer and coach. ,




The Spanish Origin of the Checkers and Modern Chess Game. Volume III.


Book Description

Since 1987 we have defended in articles that the Spanish queen Isabella I of Castile (Isabel la Catolica) was the new chess queen (dama) on the chessboard. Other publications were in 1990, 1994, 1997, and 2004. And of course, Marilyn Yalom studied our book during her visit to the National Library in The Hague (Holland) before she wrote Birth of the Chess Queen in 2004. In her book one cannot see that in 1987, 1990, and 1994 we already published material about Isabel la Catolica (Isabel I of Castile) being the new powerful dama or chess queen on the chessboard. In other words we can state here that we have been studying Spanish history and its chess literature for over 30 years. Since 2003 we have also known the development of the new bishop in chess."




The Poem Scachs d’amor (1475). First Text of Modern Chess.


Book Description

The Obres e Trobes (the first book printed in Spain in 1474 in Valencia) is an art competition held on March 25 of that year. There are many poets who have poems and couplets in this art competition, and we find three poets among them, writers of scachs d'amor: Francesc Castellvi, Bernard Fenollar and Narcis de Vinyoles. The Obres e Trobes is considered to be the first literary work printed in Spain of which the only known copy in the world is preserved in the University Library of Valencia. It consists of 60 leaves without foliation and signature and is written in Roman letters on paper with hand and star watermark. The three poets, as we see, already knew each other. Seeing the relationship they had with King Ferdinand and knowing his passion for the game of chess, there may be another thing they thought about around 1475. It was time to change the figure of the queen and bishop on the chessboard and inform the King by means of their poem in the form of a manuscript."




A World of Chess


Book Description

With more than 400 illustrations, and detailed maps, this immense and deeply researched account of the history of chess covers not only the modern international game, derived from Persian and Arab roots, but a broad spectrum of variants going back 1500 years, some of which are still played in various parts of the world. The evolution of strategic board games, especially in India, China and Japan, is discussed in detail. Many more recent chess variants (board sizes, new pieces, 3-D, etc.) are fully covered. Instructions for play are provided, with historical context, for every game presented.




Chess Words of Wisdom


Book Description

Chess Words of Wisdom is made up of the crucial information mined from over 400 chess books (plus hundreds of magazine articles, vides, DVDs, web sites and various other sources) all condensed into this one remarkably complete and "one-of-a-kind " chess book. Chess Words of Wisdom quotes, paraphrases and summarizes the teachings of hundreds of experts, masters, IMs, GMs and eve a few scientists, scholars and generals. Essentially, all of the wisdom from these important sources is in this one book! Chess Words of Wisdom is a digest of hundreds of years of chess knowledge from the greatest chess minds in history. This is the must-know information for the well-schooled chessplayer at all levels, from beginner to master. Chess Words of Wisdom is unique in that it is all text. There are no diagrams or analysis at all in the book. There is not a single game in the entire book! Instead, the book is jam-packed with essential chess knowledge... in plain English! If you want to learn, if you want to thoroughly understand chess, Chess Words of Wisdom is for you. Chess Words of Wisdom is about "understanding" chess. There are no frills, cartoons or nonsense of any kind in it... just intense, cover-to-cover, concentrated chess instruction in the form of verbal explanation. This is an ideal textbook for chess teachers, coaches, trainers and all serious students of the game. It is for players of all strengths who are enthusiastic about understanding and mastering the game of chess. A 534-page one-of-a-kind chess book, it belongs in every serious chessplayer's library. It contains all of the useful, practical, information from over 400 chess books (plus many other sources). As a result, it contains more helpful information than certainly any other chess book in history. This is one-volume treatise covers nearly all of the essential concepts in chess. "All you need to know about everything that matters!" (New In Chess Magazine) "Kudos! Just glanced through your book which displays an enormous amount of research and chess erudition. Looking forward to some enjoyable reading..." (the late Larry Evans, U.S. grandmaster, author, journalist, and five-time U.S. Chess Champion) "...it's definitely unique in its verbal approach, which is particularly useful especially to adults learning the game." (Jennifer Shahade, author, journalist, two-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion and FIDE Woman Grandmaster)




The Chess Amateur


Book Description




Chess Metaphors


Book Description

How the moves of thirty-two chess pieces over sixty-four squares can help us understand the workings of the mind. When we play the ancient and noble game of chess, we grapple with ideas about honesty, deceitfulness, bravery, fear, aggression, beauty, and creativity, which echo (or allow us to depart from) the attitudes we take in our daily lives. Chess is an activity in which we deploy almost all our available cognitive resources; therefore, it makes an ideal laboratory for investigation into the workings of the mind. Indeed, research into artificial intelligence (AI) has used chess as a model for intelligent behavior since the 1950s. In Chess Metaphors, Diego Rasskin-Gutman explores fundamental questions about memory, thought, emotion, consciousness, and other cognitive processes through the game of chess, using the moves of thirty-two pieces over sixty-four squares to map the structural and functional organization of the brain. Rasskin-Gutman focuses on the cognitive task of problem solving, exploring it from the perspectives of both biology and AI. Examining AI researchers' efforts to program a computer that could beat a flesh-and-blood grandmaster (and win a world chess championship), he finds that the results fall short when compared to the truly creative nature of the human mind.