Applying Logic In Chess

One of the world's top chess trainers offers practical advice on an enormous range of topics, including computer use, preparation and psychology. Erik Kislik is originally from California and lives in Budapest, Hungary. He has worked with many leading grandmasters, including assisting World Champion Magnus Carlsen with his opening preparation.

In a follow-up to his best-seller Applying Logic in Chess, Kislik presents a wide range of specific concepts, positional techniques and thinking methods that will help readers play more logical and successful chess. The author has worked with many leading grandmasters, including assisting World Champion Magnus Carlsen with his opening preparation.

Developing plans of action based on positional analysis: weak and strong squares, control of open lines, pawn structure, more. 20 problems.

'If you want to improve at chess, you must know the characteristics of typical pawn formations. Understanding the pawn structure is a key tool when you are evaluating a position on the board. One simple pawn move can ruin your position or win the game. Post-beginners should know the basic essentials of chess structures and that is what this modern training manual focuses on. Experienced chess teacher Jörg Hickl helps you to: - Assess the strengths and weaknesses of pawn structures - Recognize strategic patterns - Identify how you can improve your position - Develop a plan of action The Power of Pawns provides common sense guidance and Jörg Hickl uses practical examples to explain typical structures, strategies and plans. His tips and exercises are both highly enjoyable and to the point.

Garry Kasparov was the highest-rated chess player in the world for over twenty years and is widely considered the greatest player that ever lived. In How Life Imitates Chess Kasparov distills the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a Grandmaster to offer a primer on successful decision-making: how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, devise winning strategies. He relates in a lively, original way all the fundamentals, from the nuts and bolts of strategy, evaluation, and preparation to the subtler, more human arts of developing a personal style and using memory, intuition, imagination and even fantasy. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history. With candor, wisdom, and humor, Kasparov recounts his victories and his blunders, both from his years as a world-class competitor as well as his new life as a political leader in Russia. An inspiring book that combines unique strategic insight with personal memoir, How Life Imitates Chess is a glimpse inside the mind of one of today's greatest and most innovative thinkers.

Mastering Positional Chess is a serious, but entertaining chess instruction book. Daniel started writing it when he realized that his lack of positional understanding was causing him to lose many games.

Jonathan Rowson, author of the highly acclaimed Seven Deadly Chess Sins, investigates three questions important to all chess-players: 1) Why is it so difficult, especially for adult players, to improve? 2) What kinds of mental attitudes are needed to find good moves in different phases of the game? 3) Is White's alleged first-move advantage a myth, and does it make a difference whether you are playing Black or White? In a strikingly original work, Rowson makes use of his academic background in philosophy and psychology to answer these questions in an entertaining and instructive way. This book assists all players in their efforts to improve, and provides fresh insights into the opening and early middlegame. Rowson presents many new ideas on how Black should best combat White's early initiative, and make use of the extra information that he gains as a result of moving second. For instance, he shows that in some cases a situation he calls 'Zugzwang Lite' can arise, where White finds himself lacking any constructive moves. He also takes a close look at the theories of two players who, in differing styles, have specialized in championing Black's cause: Mihai Suba and Andras Adorjan. Readers are also equipped with a 'mental toolkit' that will enable them to handle many typical over-the-board situations with greater success, and avoid a variety of psychological pitfalls. Chess for Zebras offers fresh insights into human idiosyncrasies in all phases of the game. The depth and breadth of this book will therefore help players to appreciate chess at a more profound level, and make steps towards sustained and significant improvement.

“Know Thy Enemy” Sun Tsu, The Art of War Understanding what your opponent is planning to do or trying to accomplish is one of the core skills required to take your game to the next level. Viktor Kortchnoi once wrote, Well, if you do not check what your opponent is doing, you will end up complaining about bad luck after every game. This book consists of four chapters, all associated with the ability to think not only for yourself, but also for your opponent, to put yourself in his place. In this book, renowned author and chess trainer Mark Dvoretsky supplies the reader with high-quality material for independent training. Each chapter starts with a short theoretical section. Then dozens of exercises are given, from easy, even elementary, to difficult. Training your skills in searching for a move and calculating variations will help you at all stages of the game – which is why among the almost 500 exercises, there are opening, middlegame and endgame positions. Finally, the comments in the Solutions are quite detailed. Throughout the book, the author has tried to set forth the logic of the search for a solution, to show how a player can come to the right conclusions at the board. Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources is virtually unique in chess literature. And Sun Tsu would surely have approved...