212 Surprising Checkmates

Deliver the Coup de Grâce! With this instructive manual, players can learn to concentrate on one-, two- and three-move checkmates, focusing on their opponents� last moves and keeping alert to new possibilities, rather than getting blinded by previous calculations. Written by two experienced chess teachers, this volumes first 100 exercises concern checkmates in one move, while the remaining exercises represent game-like positions for checkmates in two and three moves. All are designed to increase a player�s skill and speed analyzing and solving chess problems. This is an updated and expanded version of 202 Surprising Checkmates which was released in 1998.

Seize the Initiative Right from the Start! Are you bored with slow maneuvering in systems such as the the Italian game with d2-d3 and the anti-Berlin? Do you enjoy confrontation in the center and sharp, tactical play? Alex Fishbein shows how the Scotch Gambit can give you exciting yet sound positions where you aim at the enemy king. In the Scotch Gambit, White immediately strikes in the center and attacks the f7-pawn, provoking concessions from Black. An imbalance typically results, where White has attacking chances on the kingside. The Scotch Gambit will help you develop a finer feeling for the initiative and improve your combinational vision. You will also better understand strategic concepts, such as weak squares of one color and pawn structure nuances. Fishbein, an experienced player and author, takes you into a modern grandmaster’s research lab. Here, all ideas are scrutinized and prepared for use against an opponent who is similarly armed with the latest theory and technology. The most critical responses for Black receive special emphasis. Alex Fishbein is an American grandmaster. His peak world ranking was #150. He was competitive in each of his four U.S. Championship appearances, including in 2004 when he won the Bent Larsen prize for the most uncompromising chess. A lifelong 1.e4 player, Fishbein is known for interesting and creative play.

Man vs. Machine Technology continues to advance at a rapid pace. It may sound quaint today, but not so long ago, computers battled humans for supremacy at the game of chess. The challenge of building a computer program capable of defeating the best of human-kind at chess was one of the original grand challenges of the fledgling field of artificial intelligence. On one side were dedicated scientists and hobbyists who invested decades of effort developing the software and hardware technology; on the other side were incredibly talented humans with only their determination and preparation to withstand the onslaught of technology. The man versus machine battle in chess is a landmark in the history of technology. There are numerous books that document the technical aspects of this epic story. The human side is not often told. Few chess players are inclined to write about their man-machine encounters, other than annotating the games played. This book brings the two sides together. It tells the stories of many of the key scientists and chess players that participated in a 50-year research project to advance the understanding of computing technology. “Grandmaster Karsten Müller and Professor Jonathan Schaeffer have managed to describe the fascinating history of the unequal fight of man against machine in an entertaining and instructive way. It evoked pleasant and not so pleasant memories of my own fights against the monsters. I hope that their work gives you as much pleasure as it has given me.” – From the Foreword by Vladimir Kramnik, 14th World Chess Champion

Welcome to Tiger’s Den! Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world chess champion, was one of the deepest thinkers the chess world has ever seen. His handling of complex strategic positions was legendary. Now, for the first time, Russian international master Igor Yanvarjov has put together a superb collection of virtually all the known games played by Petrosian – with both colors – in the King’s Indian Defense and other closely related Indian structures. The author’s objective was, first of all, to reveal the richness of Petrosian’s chess world and to follow the strategic development of the King’s Indian Defense through the prism of Petrosian’s creative work. He does this with the presentation of almost 300 deeply annotated, complete games. Contents include: Preface by Levon Aronian; Foreword by Igor Zaitsev; The Classical Variation; The Sämisch System ; The Fianchetto Variation; The Benoni; Other Systems; Portrait of a Chess Player; Lessons from Petrosian; The Problem of the Exchange; “Furman’s Bishop”; “Pawns are the soul of chess”; Playing by Analogy; Maneuvering Battle; Experiments; Realist or Romantic?; The King’s Indian with Colors – and Flanks – Reversed; Appendix; Index of Tabiyas; ECO/Opening/Tabiya Indexes. This splendid collection of annotated games will not only have enormous appeal to King’s Indian aficionados, but to all chessplayers who wish to expand their understanding of the strategic concepts underpinning the royal game as a whole.

“Success is a collection of problems solved.” – I.M. Pei, Architect In this, his penultimate work, legendary chess instructor Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) explores identifying and dealing with problems on the chessboard. “While working on the games that I have included in this book, I have sought to uncover their core ideas which are important for a chessplayer’s improvement and demonstrate them as vividly as possible. Those may include both approaches to playing out certain typical situations and mastering various positional and tactical ideas, as well as improving technical skills and training an ability to search for decisions and to make them on the basis of the precise calculation of variations. “The last two parts of the book are devoted to the specific forms of training that I routinely use during my lessons: analysis of games in the form of solving a string of consecutive tasks and playing out of certain specially selected positions. “I hope that this book will be of help not only to high-ranking players at whom it is primarily aimed, but also to every reader who is serious about self-improvement and wishes to understand problems that grandmasters and masters face over the board and the ways they solve them; what are the reasons for errors they sometimes commit and how to avoid those mistakes.” – Mark Dvoretsky, from his Foreword

The Polgar Way to Better Chess! Learn Chess the Right Way is a five-volume chess puzzle book series aimed at the novice, beginner and intermediate level player, using the unique methods of the award-winning coach and former world champion Susan Polgar. It introduces the most important checkmate and material-winning tactics, as well as defensive techniques to the new chess player. Each of the five volumes consist of over 500 puzzles. Book 5 focuses on learning how to find the right continuation in critical positions of a chess game. The first part of the book includes learning about “quiet” but powerful moves, including ones that result in “Zugzwang.” Building on the knowledge acquired throughout the entire series, in the second part of this volume, in the “Grand Test,” the reader can practice on familiar patterns with real-game-like situations emphasizing how to gain a significant material advantage or checkmate. With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and coach, international grandmaster Susan Polgar has developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners – Learn Chess the Right Way. Let her show you the way to understanding the most common and critical patterns and let her show you the way to becoming a better player. SUSAN POLGAR is a winner of four Women’s World Championships and the top-ranked woman chess player in the United States. She became the #1 woman player in the world at 15 and remained in the top 3 for over 20 years. In 2013, she received the U.S. Coach of the Year Award and the following year, she was named the Chess Trainer of the Year by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She thus became the first person in history to be accorded both honors. Under her guidance, SPICE chess teams at both Texas Tech University and Webster University have won a combined seven consecutive National Division I Collegiate Chess Championships.

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.

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.