Test Your Chess With Daniel King

Assess your chess strength with this test-yourself guide. In this instructive and entertaining book, based on the author's Chess Monthly column, Grandmaster Daniel King invites you to sit alongside the leading players in the world and predict their moves. Points are awarded - or deducted - depending on how successful you are.

Chess enthusiasts can sit down with 20 of the world's top players to answer the question posed by this instructive and amusing guide. Grandmaster Daniel King based How Good is Your Chess? on his popular Chess Monthly column. His easy-to-follow, test-yourself guide asks readers to predict their opponent's moves; points are awarded (or deducted) according to the readers' degree of success. In addition to helping players to judge their standard of play, it presents opportunities for improvement by providing a look at complete games and the chance to work out and study the plans and ideas of the experts. Algebraic notation used throughout

Grandmaster and renowned chess coach Zenón Franco provides a training course designed to help all aspiring players to improve their chess. During each lesson, you are invited to play a 'game' in which you try to find the best moves at all the important moments. Points are awarded for selecting the best moves - and are deducted for selecting blunders! At the end of each lesson there is a points scale to indicate how well you have 'played'. This means you are able to accurately measure your progress as you work through the book. Readers are tested in all aspects of chess: attack, defence, counterattack, tactics, structures, strategy, endgames and so on. Following this interactive course of lessons is an ideal way to improve your game. A structured course of chess trainingIncludes 40 deeply annotated exercise gamesIdeal for both chess students and trainers

Hardly anyone paid attention when Sultan Khan arrived in London on April 26, 1929. A humble servant from a village in the Punjab, Khan had little formal education and barely spoke English. He had learned the rules of Western chess only three years earlier, yet within a few months he created a sensation by becoming the British Empire champion. Sultan Khan was taken to England by Sir Umar Hayat Khan, an Indian nobleman and politician who used his servant’s successes to promote his own interests in the turbulent years before India gained independence. Sultan Khan remained in Europe for the best part of five years, competing with the leading chess players of the era, including World Champion Alexander Alekhine and former World Champion Jose Raoul Capablanca. His unorthodox style often stunned his opponents, as Daniel King explains in his examination of the key games and tournaments in Khan’s career. Daniel King has uncovered a wealth of new facts about Khan, as well as dozens of previously unknown games. For the first time he tells the full story of how Khan, a Muslim outsider, was received in Europe, of his successes in the chess world and his return to obscurity after his departure for India in 1933.

Even in the Sicilian Defense, one of the most popular and well-developed chess openings, it is possible to surprise your opponent at move four! With the Kalashnikov Variation, Black immediately forces the opponent to make a difficult decision. It all starts with a Black pawn, kicking White's knight off the central d4-square. This push will lead the game into turbulent waters where your rapid development, attacking options, sound pawn structure and superior preparation will leave your opponent bewildered. Grandmaster Daniel King knows what it takes to play the Sicilian with success, and his articulate explanations and practical approach to playing and learning will help you score your own Sicilian victories. This course is a repertoire for Black, focusing on the most important lines. In addition, there is a selection of well-annotated master games demonstrating key strategic concepts in practical settings. Once you hear about the Bad Bishop Bounce, Liberation Station, and The Trojan Horse, you will be eager to introduce them into your own games. The book also explains how to punish the sidelines you are most likely to face in club and online play, often allowing you to reach a superior position straight out of the opening! This complete repertoire includes answers to all possible alternatives for White after the moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5.

This new edition of a classic title will seduce a huge range of readers, from novice to intermediate players. Computer-generated artwork recreates the chessboard, pieces and moves in a wholly original way. Readers will improve their game with graded puzzles, and can brush up on the fascinating history of chess, with features on great players and legendary matches.

'New (4th) and improved edition of an all-time classic The good news about endgames is: • there are relatively few endings you should know by heart • once you know these endings, that's it. Your knowledge never goes out of date! The bad news is that, all the same, the endgame technique of most players is deficient. Modern time-controls make matters worse: there is simply not enough time to delve deep into the position. Jesus de la Vila debunks the myth that endgame theory is complex and he teaches you to steer the game into a position you are familiar with. This book contains only those endgames that: • show up most frequently • are easy to learn • contain ideas that are useful in more difficult positions. Your performance will improve dramatically because this book brings you: • simple rules • detailed and lively explanations • many diagrams • clear summaries of the most important themes • dozens of tests.

Written by Grandmaster Daniel King, How To Win At Chess introduces each piece and its moves, explains key principles such as check and how to open a game, before exploring tricks such as forks, pins and skewers. With a fresh, contemporary new design, it's packed with graded test positions and training exercises to help young players improve their game as they progress through the book. What's more, readers can brush up on the fascinating history of chess, with features on legendary matches and the greatest players, including the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen. Chess has been revolutionized in recent years - thanks to the success of Netflix's world-beating The Queen's Gambit, the rise of chess streaming on Twitch, the desire for self-improvement during lockdown, and the global appeal of Magnus Carlsen, the youngest player ever to top the world rankings - and its newfound popularity with young and old alike shows no sign of waning.