Why We Lose At Chess

The main reason why we lose at chess is no big secret: we all make unnecessary mistakes! But simply acknowledging this fact isn't enough to help us improve. The big question is, how can we eliminate these mistakes from our game, or at least keep them to an absolute minimum? Colin Crouch tackles this vital subject face-to-face. Drawing upon his considerable experience, he looks back at critical moments within games where mistakes are made, and examines how we can recognise the danger signs and avoid making impulsive decisions. The reader is constantly challenged by exercises, which provide perfect training for real over-the-board battles. Essential training to eliminate mistakesAdvice on how to improve calculation and assessmentIncludes over 50 carefully planned exercises.

Updated edition of a chess classic analyzes what went wrong in losing games. Focus includes Internet and email play, computer chess, and face-off between Kasparov and Deep Blue.

At last, a book that teenagers want to read! Do you ever wish: you were older you had more money? you looked different? Do you ever feel, "No one understands me!" Do you ever wonder, "Will I fall in love?" Do you ever ask, "Am I normal?" If you answered "yes" to half of the above, you will find this book very helpful!

Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric, once rated the strongest European chess player outside of Russia, has pursued a long and distinguished chess career. This highly acclaimed collection of over 100 of his best games, including classic wins against world champions and other top players such as Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Keres, Korchnoi, Larsen, Najdorf, and Reshevsky, now appears for the first time in English.The title of the book 'I Play Against Pieces' reflects Gligoric's thoroughly objective approach to chess, which has always been characterised by great clarity and logic, resulting in a wealth of model games. The fact that these games, replete with instructive tactics and strategies, are classified under openings will particularly benefit readers interested in the study of Queen's Pawn Openings as White and the King's Indian Defence and Ruy Lopez as Black of which Gligoric was a true connoisseur.

Written by a Grand Master, this guide isolates basic elements and illustrates them through Master and Grand Master games, breaking down the mystique of strategy into easy-to-understand ideas.

When was the last time you won a perfect game? A game that wasn’t tainted by inferior moves? Every chess player knows that smooth wins are the exception, that play is often chaotic and positions are frequently irrational. The road to victory is generally full of bumps and misadventures. Welcome to the world of imperfection! Chess books usually feature superbly played games. In Winning Ugly in Chess you will see games where weird moves are rewarded. Cyrus Lakdawala knows that playing good chess is all very well, but that beating your opponent is better. He demonstrates the fine art of winning undeserved victories by: -- miraculously surviving chaos -- throwing vile cheapos -- refusing to resign in lost positions -- getting lucky breaks -- provoking unforced errors and other ways to land on your feet after a roller-coaster ride. Lakdawala shows how you can make sure that it is your opponent, not you, who makes the last blunder. If you’d rather win a bad game than lose a good one, then this your ideal guide. The next time ‘the wrong player’ wins, you will be that player!

“A bravura performance…An entertaining book” (Kirkus Reviews) about the dramatic 2016 World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, which mirrored the world’s geopolitical unrest and rekindled a global fascination with the sport. The first week of November 2016, hundreds of people descended on New York City’s South Street Seaport to watch the World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. By the time it was over would be front-page news and thought by many the greatest finish in chess history. With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship had been waged among those who grew up playing chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the direct assistance of Putin. Carlsen, meanwhile, had expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and the first move of the tournament he played was called a Trompowsky Attack. Then there was the Russian leader of the World Chess Federation being barred from attending due to US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel being called on to make the honorary first move in sudden death. That the tournament even required sudden death was a shock. Oddsmakers had given Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It would take everything he had to retain his title. Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted unique access to the two-and-half-week tournament and watched every move. The Grandmaster “is not the usual chronicle of a world-championship chess match….Butler offers insight into what it takes to become the best chess player on the planet...A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical battle for territory and power” (Booklist).