Solving studies is well established as an effective method of chess improvement. In Practical Chess Beauty one of the world's greatest study composers shares his finest creations.Fire your imagination, gain a greater appreciation of chess geometry, and develop a finer feeling for the pieces' potential by trying to find the ideas hidden in the hundreds of studies in this book. Or simply wonder at some of the most stunning chess moves ever conceived.

Chess, the ancient strategy game, meets the latest, cutting-edge philosophy in this unique book. When 12 philosophers weigh in on one of the world's oldest and most beloved pastimes, the results are often surprising. Philosophical concepts as varied as phenomenology and determinism share the page with a treatise on hip-hop chess tactics and the question of whether Garry Kasparov is, in fact, a cyborg. Putting forth a remarkable array of different views on chess from philosophers with varied chess-proficiency, Philosophy Looks at Chess is an engaging read for chess adherents and the philosophically inclined alike.

"This book is a training and improvement program for amateur chess players"--Introduction.

Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw – or sometimes even steal the full point! Swindling is a skill that can be trained. In this book, David Smerdon shows how you can use tricks from psychology to marshal hidden resources and exploit your opponent’s biases. In a lost position, your best practical chance often lies not in the computer’s best moves, but in playing your opponent – however bad the evaluation! With an abundance of eye-popping examples and training exercises, Smerdon identifies the four best friends of every chess swindler: your opponent’s impatience, their hubris, their fear, and their need to stay in control. You’ll also learn about such cunning swindling motifs as the Trojan Horse, the decoy trap, the berserk attack, and ‘window-ledging’. So, come and join the Swindlers’ Club, become a great escape artist and dramatically improve your results. In this instructive and wildly entertaining guide, Smerdon shows you how.

The upgraded 2024 edition of a modern classic

An updated edition of Paul Keres' classic endgame instructor, designed specifically for practical players with over 500 extra diagrams to facilitate learning and memorisation of critical lines of endgame play. It is an essential practical book, for all chess players, from one of the world's greatest grandmasters. Keres remained an elite grandmaster throughout his life and is widely regarded as one of the s strongest ever players not to have won the world chess champion. His book is a comprehensive guide to the precise handling of all basic endgame positions. It features logical step-by-step explanations of procedures required to obtain the best possible results from frequently occurring queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn endings. It includes commentaries on the final stages of selected tournament games, which demonstrate the art of favourable transposition from complex to clear-cut endgames.

300 practical endgame situations, ranging from very simple to masterpieces by Capablanca, Reti, Tarrasch, Lasker, more.

Chess is developing faster now than ever before in history, and the appearance of strong chess computers has changed the way players think. In the past many positions would have been rejected on principle as impossible to defend, and even the best players would shy away from capturing material if it meant that they would have to face a difficult defense. This attitude has changed, and today's top players are not afraid of walking a very fine line in defense.This book gives practical advice on various methods of defense, offering readers the chance to test and train with 200 challenging examples. While not for the faint-hearted, this book will help the reader greatly improve in this vital part of the game.

In the course of a game of chess, questions continually arise that test a player's reasoning skills. Questions such as: - "Who has the better position?"- "Should I resolve the tension in the center?"- "How can I improve the placement of my pieces?"In this long-awaited extension of the classic Best Lessons of a Chess Coach, the reader is invited to take a seat in the classroom of a renowned chess teacher, and learn how to answer such questions while experiencing the beauty, logic, and artistry of great chess games. When Sunil Weeramantry lectures on the games of top grandmasters, one can imagine making decisions alongside them. When he lectures on his own games, one can also experience the personal excitement, disappointment, and satisfaction of a well-contested game of chess. The cumulative effect of studying these lessons is to give the aspiring player a wide range of tools with which to win.