The Grand Chessboard


Book Description

Bestselling author and eminent foreign policy scholar Zbigniew Brzezinski's classic book on American's strategic mission in the modern world. In The Grand Chessboard, renowned geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski delivers a brutally honest and provocative vision for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. The task facing the United States, he argues, is to become the sole political arbiter in Eurasian lands and to prevent the emergence of any rival power threatening our material and diplomatic interests. The Eurasian landmass, home to the greatest part of the globe's population, natural resources, and economic activity, is the "grand chessboard" on which America's supremacy will be ratified and challenged in the years to come. In this landmark work of public policy and political science, Brzezinski outlines a groundbreaking and powerful blueprint for America's vital interests in the modern world. In this revised edition, Brzezinski addresses recent global developments including the war in Ukraine, the re-emergence of Russia, and the rise of China.




The Chessboard and the Web


Book Description

From a renowned foreign-policy expert, a new paradigm for strategy in the twenty-first century In 1961, Thomas Schelling’s The Strategy of Conflict used game theory to radically reenvision the U.S.-Soviet relationship and establish the basis of international relations for the rest of the Cold War. Now, Anne-Marie Slaughter—one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers from 2009 to 2012, and the first woman to serve as director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning—applies network theory to develop a new set of strategies for the post-Cold War world. While chessboard-style competitive relationships still exist—U.S.-Iranian relations, for example—many other situations demand that we look not at individual entities but at their links to one another. We must learn to understand, shape, and build on those connections. Concise and accessible, based on real-world situations, on a lucid understanding of network science, and on a clear taxonomy of strategies, this will be a go-to resource for anyone looking for a new way to think about strategy in politics or business.




Predator at the Chessboard


Book Description

Chess tactics explained in English: the website www.chesstactics.org in book form. This volume is the first in a two-part set. The two books together contain over a thousand examples organized in unprecedented detail. Every position is accompanied by a commentary describing a train of thought that leads to the solution; these books thus are the ideal learning tool for those who prefer explanations in words to long strings of notation. This first volume provides an introduction to tactics and explains forks and discovered attacks. (Book II covers pins and skewers, removal of the guard, and mating patterns.) A hardcover version is also available.




Epic Battles of the Chessboard


Book Description

A collection of fifty games spans more than a century of chess play, from McDonnell v. Labourdonnais in 1834 to Matanovich v. Rossolimo in 1951




Masters of the Chessboard


Book Description

Réti's "Other” Classic Ask most chessplayers about the works by Richard Réti, and most will quickly reply Modern Ideas in Chess. His Masters of the Chessboard will be a distant second and that is unfortunate, because in many ways Masters is more comprehensive and instructive than its better-known predecessor. He packs it with advice, even for beginners. Opening theory is a priority. Réti tells the student to understand "the basic idea” of each opening, and goes into considerable detail as he explains each of the popular lines of the day, including, of course, his own Réti Opening. Some of the finest parts of the book are the mini-essays, most of them on openings, but also on rook endgames. It's remarkable that Réti manages to do this without going into long variations. This practical approach is also evident when he deals with positional themes. For example, Masters can be appreciated as almost a primer on the subject of how to turn the two bishops into a significant advantage. As noted by American grandmaster Andy Soltis in his Foreword, this entire book is "wonderfully instructive.” And now it is available in a 21st-century edition, with figurine algebraic notation, with many diagrams and photos added.




The King's Chessboard


Book Description

“Masterfully told.”—School Library Journal A great story for children learning mathematical concepts, The King’s Chessboard tells the story of a wise man who refuses the king’s reward for completing a favor. When the king insists the man accept a reward, the man proposes a deal: He will take a payment of rice equal to each square on the king’s chessboard—doubling the amount he receives with each day. This quickly empties out the royal coffers. . . . A Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies and Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children




The Pawn on the Chessboard


Book Description

Ir�ne N�mirovskyLe Pion sur l'�chiquierSet in France during the economic crisis of the nineteen-thirties, Le Pion sur l'�chiquier is an unflinching portrait of a man for whom life has lost all meaning. Son of a dying steel magnate whose investments crashed, Christophe Bohun works in an International News Agency and lives together with his dying father, wife, mistress and son, in dilapidated grandeur. At a time of external hardship, he appears to have everything and value nothing. Where his father was driven by a ruthless passion for high finance and his teenage son is eaten up with suppressed anger, N�mirovsky presents us with an anti-hero whose bleak interior life is an object lesson in alienation and emotional numbness.




Counterplay


Book Description

"Chess gets a hold of some people, like a virus or a drug," writes Robert Desjarlais in this absorbing book. Drawing on his lifelong fascination with the game, Desjarlais guides readers into the world of twenty-first-century chess to help us understand its unique pleasures and challenges, and to advance a new "anthropology of passion." Immersing us directly in chess’s intricate culture, he interweaves small dramas, closely observed details, illuminating insights, colorful anecdotes, and unforgettable biographical sketches to elucidate the game and to reveal what goes on in the minds of experienced players when they face off over the board. Counterplay offers a compelling take on the intrigues of chess and shows how themes of play, beauty, competition, addiction, fanciful cognition, and intersubjective engagement shape the lives of those who take up this most captivating of games.




Kings of the Chessboard


Book Description

In his well-known entertaining style, the author takes us through the fascinating history of the World Champions of Chess. A striking and beautiful book full of anecdotes, stories and thrilling games played by the titans of our royal game. It is a book you can read time and again and will surely find a treasured place on your bookshelf!




Murder at the Chessboard


Book Description

Compiles puzzles that require deductive reasoning as readers must analyze the clues, alibis, and testimonies presented to solve mysteries including "Death of a Con Man", "Halloween Horror", and "Gunfight at the OK Motel".