Studies Of Chess

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.

In this book the author assembles the problems and studies that are most effective to improve tactical ability. A player who works their way through this book will undoubtedly see improvements in their own play.

It’s a fact of chess life that if you want to win, you have to put a bit of study in. Every chess player, from near-beginner to experienced tournament player, needs to learn the openings and keep on top of current theory. But studying doesn’t have to be dull. This indispensable book contains foolproof ways to help the information go in... and stay in. Acclaimed chess author Andrew Soltis reveals the key techniques: - Why you can’t study chess the same way you study school subjects - How to acquire the most important knowledge: intuition - The role of memorizing (it’s not a bad thing, despite what people say) - How to get the most out of playing over a master’s game - Adopting a chess hero as a means of learning - How great players study - Computers as a study tool - How to train someone else

Alexey Alexeyevich Troitzky (1866-1942) is considered to have been the greatest composer of chess endgame studies ever. To call him a genius is to trivialize his accomplishments, because there are many geniuses, but few can equal the output of Troitzky. In his lifetime, Troitzky composed more than one thousand chess endgame studies. Nobody really knows how many. In this work, published in 1937, he started an ambitious project to collect all of his creations together and then put them into order according to theme. In this, the first volume of the projected project, Troitzky presented in order endgames which either started with a queen or a rook already on the board or else with a solution that involved promoting a pawn to a queen or a rook. Looking at the section starting on page 259 entitled "Classification of Studies by Themes", one can see the logical ordering of this book. Previous reprints of this work have omitted 72 pages which include the analysis of the two knights vs. pawn endgames which Troitzky proved for the first time leads to a win for the two knights, depending on the position of the pawn. By removing this section, previous editors butchered the work, because many of these compositions end with a position involving two knights against a pawn. In these cases, Troitzky simply writes "And wins". To see how White wins one needs the section on two knights against pawn. Here is the complete work. Nowadays, the great sport has become trying to bust or "cook" by computer analysis the long established problems such as those in this book. However, Troitzky's compositions have stood the test of time more than those of other composers. Computers have a horizon beyond which they cannot see. Thus, endgame composition and analysis is one field where humans can still beat and perhaps will always be able to defeat even the most powerful computers. The problems in this book are truly fantastic. The solutions look impossible. Yet, what seems like many defenses are simply not there. Somehow there are no safe places where the king or queen can escape or there is a knight just in exactly the right spot to give a fork. It is good that the solutions come right after the problems, because nobody could ever solve them if the solutions were put in the back.

Throughout a game of chess, the players must constantly make judgements and decisions that cannot be determined simply by calculation. They must then rely on their positional judgement. Good positional skills are primarily developed by experience, but they can also be learnt. In this book, Carsten Hansen provides a wealth of advice and ideas that will help give readers a helping hand up to new levels of positional understanding. Paramount in this discussion is the player's need to weigh up positional elements at the board, and decide which are most important for the situation at hand. Topics include: the quest for weaknesses, "what is the initiative?", understanding imbalances, the relative value of the pieces, decisions regarding pawn-structures, structural weaknesses, and where and how to attack.

Nowadays, chessplayers spend almost all their free time preparing openings, and rarely spend the time necessary to perfect the vitally important technique of calculating. Regular training in solving and playing out endgames studies is a good recipe for eliminating that shortcoming. This training is directed at developing resourcefulness, fantasy (in chess, these qualities are called "combinative acuity”), and the readiness to sacrifice material, in pursuit of the goal - winning! How do we develop good habits of winning endgame play? There are lots of manuals; but this may be the first in which a famous practical player, a trainer with a world-renowned name, and a study composer who has earned the title of International Grandmaster of Composition, share their views in one and the same book.

Thorough discourse and rigorous analysis, enlivened by wit, offers a classic exposition of the endgame. Commentary, statistics, and more than 400 studies have been completely revised and updated by the author.

Annotation. What does a chessmaster think when he prepartes his next move? How are his thoughts organized? Which methods and strategies does he use by solving his problem of choice? To answer these questions, the author did an experimental study in 1938, to which famous chessmasters participated (Alekhine, Max Euwe and Flohr). This book is still usefull for everybody who studies cognition and artificial intelligence. This title can be previewed in Google Books - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9789053569986.

Jonathan Rowson, author of the highly acclaimed Seven Deadly Chess Sins, investigates three questions important to all chess-players: 1) Why is it so difficult, especially for adult players, to improve? 2) What kinds of mental attitudes are needed to find good moves in different phases of the game? 3) Is White's alleged first-move advantage a myth, and does it make a difference whether you are playing Black or White? In a strikingly original work, Rowson makes use of his academic background in philosophy and psychology to answer these questions in an entertaining and instructive way. This book assists all players in their efforts to improve, and provides fresh insights into the opening and early middlegame. Rowson presents many new ideas on how Black should best combat White's early initiative, and make use of the extra information that he gains as a result of moving second. For instance, he shows that in some cases a situation he calls 'Zugzwang Lite' can arise, where White finds himself lacking any constructive moves. He also takes a close look at the theories of two players who, in differing styles, have specialized in championing Black's cause: Mihai Suba and Andras Adorjan. Readers are also equipped with a 'mental toolkit' that will enable them to handle many typical over-the-board situations with greater success, and avoid a variety of psychological pitfalls. Chess for Zebras offers fresh insights into human idiosyncrasies in all phases of the game. The depth and breadth of this book will therefore help players to appreciate chess at a more profound level, and make steps towards sustained and significant improvement.