"I had a fantastic position, but I couldn't figure out what to do next!" Sound familiar? If so, then Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans was written for you. The author distills the complexities of mounting an offensive against your opponent's king down to four principles that lie at the root of most successful chess attacks. Novice players and amateurs of intermediate strength will benefit from the explanations of ideas and tips for practical play, all presented in an easy, conversational style. More experienced competitors will appreciate this book as a game collection featuring masterpieces of enterprising play - some of them never before published.

If you want to improve at chess, you must know the characteristics of typical pawn formations. Understanding the pawn structure is a key tool when you are evaluating a position on the board. One simple pawn move can ruin your position or win the game. Post-beginners should know the basic essentials of chess structures and that is what this modern training manual focuses on. Experienced chess teacher Grandmaster Jörg Hickl helps you to recognize the important characteristics of pawn structures, learn how you can and should develop your pieces, identify how you can improve your position and develop a plan of action. This book provides common sense guidance and Jörg Hickl uses practical examples to explain typical structures, strategies and plans. His tips and exercises are both highly enjoyable and to the point.

In this instructive and entertaining book, James Plaskett, very much renowned for his attacking prowess over the chessboard, presents readers with all the necessary skills and belief to launch successful offensives against unwary opponents. Using illustrative games, Plaskett reveals how to convert all types of advantages, such as a lead in development, a better pawn structure or a safer king, into fully blown attacks. Read this book and you will be able to attack with confidence!

Grandmaster Johan Hellsten is convinced that mastering chess strategy - just like chess tactics - requires practice, practice and yet more practice! This outstanding book is a product of his many years' work as a full-time chess teacher, and is specifically designed as part of a structured training programme to improve strategic thinking. It focuses on a wide range of key subjects and provides a basic foundation for strategic play. Furthermore, in addition to the many examples, there's an abundance of carefully selected exercises which allow readers to monitor their progress and put into practice what they have just learned. Following such a course is an ideal way for players of all standards to improve. Although designed mainly for students, this book is also an excellent resource for chess teachers and trainers. An essential course in chess strategyContains over 400 pages of Grandmaster adviceIncludes more than 350 training exercises

Fish and birds and lizards and socks…is there anything Max won’t attack? Watch your ankles and find out in this clever, rhyming picture book about a very naughty kitty cat. Max is a cat. He attacks. From socks to strings to many a fish, attacking, for Max, is most de-lish. But how many of these things can he actually catch? Well, let’s just say it’s no even match.

Understand when, where, and how to attack Features numerous practical examples from top-level play In his celebrated Secrets of Chess Defence, Marin examined the task facing the defender. He now turns his prodigious expertise to the other side of the coin. In this wide-ranging treatise, he discusses many topics including: the balance between attack and defence the premises for initiating an attack advantage in development intuitive sacrifices ...and much more Looks at all aspects of attacking play, from the decision to attack right through to the finish

Why is this repertoire called simple? For the simple reason that the variations are straightforward, easy to remember and require little or no maintenance. International Master Christof Sielecki has created a reliable set of lines for chess players of almost all levels. The major objective is to dominate Black in the opening, by simple means. You don’t need to sacrifice anything or memorize long tactical lines. Unless Black plays something stupid, when tactics are the simplest punishment. Sielecki developed this repertoire working with students who were looking for something that was easy to understand and to learn. Most of the lines he selected are occasionally played by grandmasters, but on the whole they lie outside the mainstream of opening theory. That means that there is hardly any need to monitor theoretical developments. Sielecki always clearly explains the plans and counterplans and keeps you focussed on what the position requires. Ambitious players rated 1500 or higher will get great value out of studying this extremely accessible book.

It's not easy finding a good opening to play against 1 e4, especially if you don't have endless time available to study the latest theoretical developments. If you choose fashionable openings, it's often a necessity to keep pace with modern theory if you want to succeed with Black. This book provides a solution. Neil McDonald advocates his favourite opening - the very popular French Defence - but chooses a repertoire for Black that requires only the minimum amount of move memorization. The lines he selects are very easy to learn and play - perfect for those who are unwilling to be slaves to opening theory. But there's also something here for more experienced players, as McDonald goes on to offer a second repertoire based on counter-attacking lines against 3 Nc3 and 3 Nd2. *An easy-to-learn defence against 1 e4*Provides solutions to all of White's options*Written by a world-renowned expert on the French*Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players English Grandmaster Neil McDonald is an experienced and successful player on the international chess circuit. He is a respected chess coach, who has trained many of the UK's strongest junior players. McDonald is also a talented chess writer and has many outstanding works to his name.

Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what? With this new edition of his award winning book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions and how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan. His teachings are based on the famous “Elements” of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion. He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters. In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding: pawn structure, piece placement, lead in development, open files, weaknesses, space advantage and king safety. You will master the art of converting a temporary plus into other, more permanent advantages. The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises. This new 3rd edition has, besides various corrections and improvements, a new introduction and a brand-new chapter called ‘Total Control’ with new exercises.

In the first completely instructional book ever written on chess openings, National Master and game strategist for Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit Bruce Pandolfini teaches players how to take charge of the game's crucial opening phase. Of the three traditional phases of chess play—the opening, the middle-game and the endgame—the opening is the phase average players confront most often. Unfortunately, though, many openings are not completed successfully, partly because until now most opening instruction has consisted of tables of tournament level moves that offer no explanations for the reasons behind them. Consequently, these classical opening patterns can serve as little more than references to the average player. In Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps, Bruce Pandolfini uses his unique "crime and punishment" approach to provide all the previously missing explanation, instruction, practical analyses, and much, much more. The book consists of 202 short "openers" typical of average players, arranged according to the classical opening variations and by level of difficulty. Each example includes: -the name of the overriding tactic -the name of the opening -a scenario that sets up the tactic to be learned -an interpretation that explains why the loser went wrong, how he could have avoided the trap, and what he should have done instead -a review of important principles and useful guidelines to reinforce each lesson Also included are a glossary of openings that lists all the classical "textbook" variations for comparison and reference and a tactical index. Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps is a powerful, pragmatic entry into a heretofore remote area of chess theory that will have a profound influence on every player's game.