Sacrifice and Initiative in Chess

Author: Ivan Sokolov
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056914774
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
lThe sacrifice is one of the most beautiful, rewarding and complex aspects of chess. During a game the decision to give up material in order to get an advantage is probably the most difficult one a player has to take. Often, you have to burn your bridges without being able to fully calculate the consequences. Risks and rewards are racing through your mind, fighting for precedence while the clock keeps ticking. Now is the moment, because after the next move the window for this opportunity may be closed. In this book Ivan Sokolov presents a set of practical tools that will help you to master the art of sacrifice. By concentrating on the aim you are trying to achieve, rather than on the opening you are playing or the piece you might be going to sack, he teaches you how to come to a reasonable risk assessment and how to trust your intuition. There is a separate part on seizing the initiative without actually giving up material. Ivan Sokolov has written an entertaining and instructive guide, packed with useful advice and lots of practical examples.

The Art of Sacrifice in Chess

Author: Rudolf Spielmann
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 193649079X
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
The 21st Century Edition of Spielmann’s Classic Work Austrian Grandmaster Rudolf Spielmann’s The Art of Sacrifice in Chess first appeared in the mid-1930s. It was immediately recognized as a classic, a masterpiece that examined the nature of chess sacrifices. In this modernized, 21st century edition, all of Spielmann’s original work has been preserved. The antiquated English Descriptive Notation has been replaced with modern Figurine Algebraic, and German grandmaster Karsten Müller has added his own notes to Spielmann’s original text. But the German grandmaster has gone far beyond simply inserting clarifying commentary. Müller has virtually doubled the size of the original work by adding eleven new chapters, including: The Greek Gift Sacrifice Bxh2/7+; Disaster on g7; The Achilles’ Heel f7; Strike at the Edge; Destroying the King’s Shelter; Sacrifices on f6; Sacrifices on e6; The Magic of Mikhail Tal; Shirov’s Sacrifices; and The Fine Art of Defense. There are exercises at the end of each new chapter to help you hone your skill of sacrificing. “Grandmaster Karsten Müller’s notes to the original text, along with the new material, brilliantly complements Spielmann’s classic work. A welcome addition to any chessplayer’s library...” – Garry Kasparov

Essential Chess Sacrifices

Author: David LeMoir
Publisher: Gambit Publications
ISBN: 9781904600039
Category : Chess
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Sacrifices are an essential part of chess. Those who never consider sacrificing will miss countless opportunities and find that promising positions repeatedly slip away. Players who do not appreciate their opponents' sacrificial possibilities will be unable to see danger signs, and find themselves on the wrong end of too many king-hunts. Rather than merely cataloguing the various possibilities and providing examples, LeMoir discusses the possible follow-ups to the sacrifices, the defensive options against them, and the positional factors that might suggest whether the sacrifice will be sound or unsound. There are many important types of chess positions that can only be played well by those who understand the thematic sacrifices that are possible.

Winning Chess Middlegames

Author: Ivan Sokolov
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 905691751X
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Book Description
AWARDS: Shortlisted for the Guardian Chess Book of the Year Award Runner-up for the English Chess Federation 2009 Book of the Year Award CHESS Magazine: Best Books of 2009 Back in Print! Ever wondered why grandmasters take only seconds to see what’s really going on in a chess position? It’s all about structures, as Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explains in this groundbreaking book. ‘Winning Chess Middlegames’ addresses the often ignored but extremely important topic of pawn structures, divided into four main types: doubled pawns, isolated pawns, hanging pawns and pawn majorities. With its highly accessible verbal explanations and deep analyses of top-level games, this book helps you to solve the basic problems of the middlegame: space, tension and initiative. Club players studying this book will:greatly enhance their middlegame skills, develop an accurate feeling as to which particular positions suit their style and acquire new strategic and practical opening knowledge. Ivan Sokolov explains matters profoundly, honestly and objectively including lots of inside stories from top-level chess, neither sparing his colleague grandmasters nor himself in his comments. With a foreword by British Grandmaster Michael Adams.

Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov

Author: Anatoly Karpov
Publisher: Batsford Books
ISBN: 1849941009
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
• One of the world's greatest chess players reveals the secrets of how he plans his play • Packed with invaluable information on how to mobilise your forces, avoid threats and win the game • Illustrated with a wealth of annotated examples from the author's own games The legendary Anatoly Karpov has won over 250 Grandmaster tournaments, many more than any other player in chess history, and his games are characterised by his gradually and patiently pushing an opponent back to the wall, before finally finishing him off with a deadly blow. In this unique book, aimed at ordinary club players, Karpov gives a wealth of tips on how to incorporate this dramatic style of play into your own repertoire, through careful planning and evaluation of positions: looking at the fire-power of your forces, being aware of threats to your own king and how to safeguard it, and careful control of open lines. As he says himself: 'Finding the right plan is the key to success'. Warmily and accessibly written, but with Karpov's usual air of authority, this book makes you feel like you are spending an evening with the man himself, and will help you to absorb a little bit of the Karpov magic.

Mastering Positional Sacrifices

Author: Merijn van Delft
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056918842
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 783

Book Description
Most chess games of beginners and post-beginners are decided by fairly straightforward tactics. Anyone who wants to progress beyond this level and become a strong club player or a candidate master, needs to understand that somewhat mysterious-looking resource, the positional sacrifice. International Master Merijn van Delft has studied and loved positional sacrifices for as long as he can remember. This non-forcing tool is not just a surprising and highly effective way of creating a decisive advantage during a game. Positional sacrifices are also instruments of superior beauty. Van Delft has created a unique thematic structure for all types of positional sacrifices. He shows the early historical examples, explains which long-term goals are typical for each fundamental theme and presents lots of instructive modern examples. He then concentrates on those sacrifices that have become standard features of positional play. Solving the exercises he has added will further enhance your skills. Playing a positional sacrifice will always require courage. Merijn van Delft takes you by the hand and not only teaches the essential technical know-how, he also helps you to recognize the opportunities when to take the plunge. Mastering Positional Sacrifices is bound to become a modern-day classic.

Beyond Material

Author: Davorin Kuljasevic
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056918613
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 604

Book Description
Giving up material is one of the most difficult decisions a chess player has to take. But the reality is that winning a game very often requires you to make that choice. The nagging question is always: what about my compensation? The old school used to relate compensation to ‘correctness’. A sacrifice was correct if the material was swiftly returned, if possible with interest. Generations of chess players spent lots of time counting, quantifying the static value of their pieces almost by reflex. In this book, Grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic teaches you how to look beyond the material balance when you evaluate positions. With many instructive fragments he shows how the actual value of your pieces fluctuates during the game, depending on many non-material factors. Some of those factors are space-related, such as mobility, harmony, outposts, weaknesses, structures, squares, files and diagonals. Other factors are related to time, and to the way the moves unfold: tempo, initiative, a threat, an attack. Modern club players need to be able to suppress their need for immediate gratification. In order to gain the upper hand you often have to live with uncertain compensation. With the help of many fascinating examples, Kuljasevic teaches you the essential skill of taking calculated risks. After studying Beyond Material, winning games by sacrificing material will become second nature to you.

The Double Queen's Gambit

Author: Alexey Bezgodov
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056916122
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
Alexey Bezgodov provides a complete chess opening repertoire for Black against 1.d4. After replying with 1…d5, the former Russian Chess Champion advises you to take up the Double Queen’s Gambit and play 2…c5! against both 2. c4 and 2. Nf3. In The Double Queen’s Gambit Black’s attitude is as active and ambitious as that of White in the Queen’s Gambit. This ambition may seem premature at first sight, but many strong grandmasters have already successfully played this system. After thoroughly investigating and analysing this opening, Bezgodov has gained a lot of experience in practical grandmaster play. The system not only turned out to be playable but also brought him success, and not just because of its surprise value. Bezgodov’s conclusion is that there is no clear and compelling way for White to reach an advantage. The fresh ideas and the clear explanations in The Double Queen’s Gambit may change your view on modern chess opening theory. Bezgodov provides dozens of exercises to test your understanding of his system.

Forcing Chess Moves

Author: Charles Hertan
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056914650
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
Charles Hertan, an experienced chess coach from Massachusetts, has made an astonishing discovery: the failure to consider key winning moves is often due to human bias, since your brain tends to disregard many winning moves because they are counter-intuitive or look unnatural. Charles Hertan?s radically different approach is: use COMPUTER EYES and always look for the most forcing move first! By studying forcing sequences according to Hertan?s method you will develop analytical precision, improve your tactical vision, overcome human bias and staleness, and enjoy the calculation of difficult positions. By recognizing moves that matter, you will win more games!

Bullet Chess

Author: Hikaru Nakamura
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1936490366
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
Chess in the Fast Lane! Can anyone play a decent game of chess in one minute? Surprisingly, the answer is "Yes" as this unique book reveals. "Bullet” chess, where each player has one minute for the entire game, has attracted thousands of followers since it was popularized on the internet a decade ago. In this book the authors discuss the relationship between the position on the board and time on the clock, the techniques and dangers of "pre-moving,” bullet openings, the importance of the initiative and consistent strategy, and how endings are different in bullet chess. The authors also explore the psychology of bullet chess and the most common causes of tactical oversights and blunders. The many examples illustrate the principles of bullet chess and how they may even apply to blitz chess and time scrambles in standard chess. Most of all, bullet chess is shown to be entertaining and addictive, and not at all as random as it first appears.