Authors: Murray Chandler. Helen Milligan.
Hardcover, 112 pages
Publisher: Gambit Publications
Publication Date: 2004-09


Reviews :

    With this charming book, children will delight in learning the basic moves of chess - the most popular and challenging strategy game of all. All the rules of chess are clearly explained, step by step, assuming no prior knowledge. The lessons are reinforced by the inventive tales that George is told by his pet alligator Kirsty, self-proclaimed Grand Alligator of chess. Chess is recognized in many countries as a useful tool for developing creative thinking in children. Although chess can be regarded as a rather complex and mysterious game, the rules themselves are straightforward. It doesn't take long to learn how the pieces move, and even children as young as five can enjoy exciting games. They will also thoroughly enjoy outwitting friends and relatives!...

Authors: Ray Cheng.
Paperback, 216 pages
Publisher: Wheatmark
Publication Date: 2007-05-15


Reviews :

   

Raise your chess to the next level with this program of 600 instructive and challenging exercises covering all aspects of the game. This book will sharpen your tactical vision, deepen your positional understanding, and enrich your knowledge of theoretical positions. It will also strengthen your analytical skills, and instill a sound move selection process. Win more games and increase your enjoyment of chess!...

Authors: Murray Chandler.
Hardcover, 127 pages
Publisher: Gambit Publications
Publication Date: 1998-08-01


Reviews :

    This book explains that the best way to beat a stronger opponent (whether a friend, a clubmate, or even Dad) is in the opening stages of the game and shows the 50 most effective opening traps that chess masters use to win games....

Authors: Jeremy Silman.
Paperback, 530 pages
Publisher: Siles Press
Publication Date: 2007-01-31


Reviews :

    For over 100 years, the world's leading chess players and teachers have told their students to study the endgame. Now, for the first time, a revolutionary, richly instructive endgame book has been designed for players of all levels. This is the one and only endgame book you'll need as you move up the ladder from beginner to tournament player and master. Designed to 'speak' to a player in a very personal way, Silman's book teaches the student everything he or she needs to know at his or her current rating level, and builds on that knowledge for each subsequent phase of the player's development. Starting at the beginner's level, all basic mates are clearly and painstakingly explained. After that, the critical building blocks that form the endgame foundation for all tournament hopefuls and experienced tournament competitors are explored in detail. Finally, advanced endgame secrets, based on concepts rather than memorization, are presented in a way that makes them easy to master.The basic keys to a well-rounded endgame education - Opposition, the Lucena and Philidor Positions, Cat and Mouse, Trebuchet, Fox in the Chicken Coup, Triangulation, Building a Box, Square of a Pawn, Outflanking, the Principle of Two Weaknesses - are vital. But equally important is creating a love of the endgame, which is addressed at the end of the book with a look at chess tactics, minor piece domination, and a discussion of the five greatest endgame players of all time - all things that every fan of chess at every level can enjoy. If you have found the endgame to be a mystery, if you have found that your confidence plummets once you reach an endgame, if you have searched for an instructive endgame book that will turn your weakest link - your endgame - into your personal field of power, your search is over. The book is the key to a world of essential ideas, startling beauty, and stunning creativity....

Authors: Murray Chandler.
Hardcover, 128 pages
Publisher: Gambit Publications
Publication Date: 2003-10


Reviews :

    Chess enthusiasts of all ages and levels will find this book an instructive delight. In a simple, easy-to-understand format it explains how to bamboozle your chess opponents using commonly occurring tactical motifs. The illustrative positions, all taken from real games, show the 50 Tricky Tactics that experienced chess master use to win their games. Recognizing frequenly-occuring tactical ideas is vital to success in chess. One of the fastest and most enjoyable ways to improve at chess is by learning these thematic maneuvers. Beginners will benefit from the clear explanation of basic concepts, such as how to utilize a fork, pin, or skewer. Advanced players will delight in the many devious middlegame tricks--some classified here for the first time--which can catch out even grandmasters. "Chess Tactics for Kids make improving easy and fun, and is full of helpful explanations on how to approach chess games with confidence--and success....

Authors: Josh Waitzkin.
Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: 2008-05-20


Reviews :

    Josh Waitzkin knows what it means to be at the top of his game. A public figure since winning his first National Chess Championship at the age of nine, Waitzkin was catapulted into a media whirlwind as a teenager when his father's book Searching for Bobby Fischer was made into a major motion picture. After dominating the scholastic chess world for ten years, Waitzkin expanded his horizons, taking on the martial art Tai Chi Chuan and ultimately earning the title of World Champion. How was he able to reach the pinnacle of two disciplines that on the surface seem so different? "I've come to realize that what I am best at is not Tai Chi, and it is not chess," he says. "What I am best at is the art of learning."

In his riveting new book, The Art of Learning, Waitzkin tells his remarkable story of personal achievement and shares the principles of learning and performance that have propelled him to the top -- twice.

With a narrative that combines heart-stopping martial arts wars and tense chess face-offs with life lessons that speak to all of us, The Art of Learning takes readers through Waitzkin's unique journey to excellence. He explains in clear detail how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning is what separates success from failure. Waitzkin believes that achievement, even at the championship level, is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process. Rather than focusing on climactic wins, Waitzkin reveals the inner workings of his everyday method, from systematically triggering intuitive breakthroughs, to honing techniques into states of remarkable potency, to mastering the art of performance psychology.

Through his own example, Waitzkin explains how to embrace defeat and make mistakes work for you. Does your opponent make you angry? Waitzkin describes how to channel emotions into creative fuel. As he explains it, obstacles are not obstacles but challenges to overcome, to spur the growth process by turning weaknesses into strengths. He illustrates the exact routines that he has used in all of his competitions, whether mental or physical, so that you too can achieve your peak performance zone in any competitive or professional circumstance.

In stories ranging from his early years taking on chess hustlers as a seven year old in New York City's Washington Square Park, to dealing with the pressures of having a film made about his life, to International Chess Championships in India, Hungary, and Brazil, to gripping battles against powerhouse fighters in Taiwan in the Push Hands World Championships, The Art of Learning encapsulates an extraordinary competitor's life lessons in a page-turning narrative....

Authors: Mark Dvoretsky.
Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
Publication Date: 2008-10-01


Reviews :

    This book is aimed first of all at helping strong players complete themselves. This ensures that it will overflow with exceptionally complex analyses and exercises, which will be difficult for even the leading grandmasters to handle. But even amateur players will find something of interest in it. How can it not be interesting to peek – perhaps not as an owner, but at least as a guest – into the world of high-level chess, to see with one’s own eyes what sort of problems chess “pros” have to wrestle with (successfully or not), and how far from being complete even their play is? The many exercises presented in this book differ greatly from one another in their level of difficulty: some are fairly simple and accessible. It makes sense to take a stab at solving the tougher exercises, too; then later, once you have seen the answer, you will have a better grasp of your own abilities, strength and weakness. And finally: the analyses presented in this book include a multitude of most impressive passages, unusual and spectacular moves and combinations – and chessplayers of almost any grade can certainly find enjoyment in beauty. Readers who become familiar with this book will soon see, no doubt, that side variations are often analyzed in far more detail than is necessary to follow the course of battle in the game under discussion. Why would the author do this? Because, first of all, to give an objective assessment of all, or nearly all, the previously existing commentaries, written by other annotators. But chiefly because many of these side variations are interesting and educational in and of themselves, and create supplementary exercises. Look at them simply as lyrical digressions; don’t worry if they seem unconnected to the main theme. Where possible, the author has tried to lay out the principles, methods and rules, ideas and techniques that lie behind the moves.The book was also designed as a practice book, to test and underscore the reader's newly acquired knolwedge. This book takes it place next to the author's classic "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" as being one of the great books of the modern era, a book from which the serious student may take his or her knowledge and understanding of complex middlegame ideas to the next level....

Authors: Patrick Wolff.
Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Alpha
Publication Date: 2005-05-03
Edition: 3

Reviews :

    Don’t make a move without it.

Written by a U.S. Chess Champion, International Chess Grandmaster, and longtime instructor, this book includes information for both novice and expert, including over 400 illustrated chessboards and photos; over 20 pages of detailed answer key notes; a completely new chapter on new evidence about chess and its impact on brain power; a guide to the art of chess collectibles; and more.

• Foreword by Larry Evans, former International Grandmaster and author of 20 highly acclaimed chess books and a popular monthly advice column in Chess Life

• Strong sales for previous editions
• For the beginner or the champ, and for young and old
• Author has a high profile in the chess community
...

Authors: Isaac Lipnitsky.
Paperback, 250 pages
Publisher: Quality Chess UK LLP
Publication Date: 2008-11-01


Reviews :

    Questions of Modern Chess Theory is the lost masterpiece of Soviet chess literature. It was written by a two-time Ukrainian Champion, and published in the Soviet Union in 1956. Russian experts say it is one of the most influential chess books of the 20th century, yet it has never been published in English. Questions of Modern Chess Theory has been edited to make it useful for the 21st century and is now accessible for the first time to an English-speaking audience. Isaac Lipnitsky was a major player on the Soviet chess scene just after World War Two, strong enough to take the scalps of Keres, Smyslov and Petrosian....

Authors: John Watson.
Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Gambit Publications
Publication Date: 2008-11-25


Reviews :

    For many chess-players, opening study is sheer hard work. It is difficult to know what is important and what is not, and when specific knowledge is vital, or when a more general understanding is sufficient. Tragically often, once the opening is over, a player won't know what plan to follow, or even understand why his pieces are on the squares on which they sit.

In this highly-acclaimed and popular series, John Watson helps chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. He explains not only the ideas and strategies behind specific openings, but also the interconnections of chess openings taken as a whole. By presenting the common threads that underlie opening play, Watson provides a permanent basis for playing openings of any type.

This third volume focuses on the English Opening while also drawing together many threads from the first two books in a wide-ranging discussion of general opening topics. Particularly in the context of reversed and analogous forms of standard structures, we understand why certain ideas work and others don't, and experience the concept of 'Cross-Pollination' at work in even more varied forms than seen in the first two volumes....