Also, this book can serve you as an inspiration to investigate a bit deeper in the areas of strategy, planning and tactics learning chess in the “good, old way” unpolluted by the excessive engine usage. Finally, you can simply browse through the material and enjoy solving numerous riddles, studies and puzzles, picking up bits of chess wisdom along the way.

We hope that you will find as much enjoyment reading this book as we experienced ourselves editing it for your pleasure.

224 Seiten, gebunden,  1. Auflage 2022

This book is not just for girls and women, however. Any chess player can learn from these games and discover female chess history, both from the famous players in the past right up to the present day.

How have these games been selected?

It is at this point I can mention the real reason - my UK Girls chess project called ‘She Plays To Win’ (SPTW).

This group has officially been going since April 11 th 2020. I had the idea even a few years before, but I was not sure how it could be set up. The unfortunate events of worldwide lockdown provided the answer, as the switch to being online allowed me to offer zoom lessons for UK girls as well as weekly girls tournaments on the Lichess server. I do this for free and parents have never paid anything to get involved.

Each week I cover a top female player and we analyse the game. Over the past year I have built up a large collection of games and tactics, which I felt could be published. It is the most up to date collection about women’s chess covering a variety of ages and levels.

After nearly two years, I have nearly 500 girls across the UK signed up, and a further 200 girls in our new beginners programme. I hope this is just the beginning.

After all, on our official website www.sheplaystowin.co.uk the tagline reads ‘Every Girl in the UK should play and learn chess - the educational benefits are huge’.

I can announce that I personally will not take a penny from this book, as 10% of the proceeds from sales will go directly to the She Plays To Win charity in order to further the SPTW UK girls chess projects.

So not only can you benefit a lot from this book personally, your purchase will benefit UK girls chess immensely.

Lorin D’Costa

484 Seiten, kartoniert,  1. Auflage 2022

The goal with this book training series is to create a training material that makes it possible to use spaced repetition on a large number of puzzles on an even level.

This book includes:

• 1000 of the highest user-appreciated puzzles out of a database of 2,1 million puzzles.

   

• A methodical approach to tactics training to gain flow

   

• A tracking table to follow your progress

   

• For chess players rated between 1200 to 1600 FIDE

   

To do this I have used the Lichess puzzle database. It contains 2,132,989 chess puzzles that are rated and tagged. This has given me the opportunity to select puzzles of the same difficulty throughout this book. In this way, you should not experience that you run your head against the wall, but that you reach a good flow while solving. The Lichess data suggest that there is a good correlation between puzzle-solving abilities by puzzle rating) and chess-playing ability.

This is not science but can be used as a guide. I plan to make two books (one book on the opening/middlegame and one on the endgame) for each step with 1000 puzzles in each. If I succeed, the Tactical Ladder series will be 16 books and contain 16.000 puzzles. I have decided to make the intermediate books (1400-1600 FIDE rating) first and then we will see how it goes. This will, to my knowledge, be the largest chess puzzle collection ever published in print (if I succeed). It will also give the reader a chance to find a book that fits perfectly, not too hard, not too easy.

Puzzle selection

The book contains 10 chapters with 100 puzzles in each. Each chapter has a specific theme, while the last chapter is a test with mixed puzzles. The Endgame books will focus on the motifs that occur in the relationship between the pieces, e.g. tactical patterns that occur in Rook endgames. The middlegame and opening books will focus more on specific motifs like forks, pins, skewers, attacking the castled king, and so on. In order to sort out bad puzzles, I have used the Lichess data.

To sort out bad puzzles I have used the Lichess data. The user upvotes and downvotes each puzzle after each try. The puzzle is then given a popularity rating and only the best-rated puzzles have been used for this book.

The Solutions

The solutions given to the puzzles are without any explanations, variations, and annotations. The solutions are “only moves”, which means that you need to find them in order to solve the puzzles correctly. You might find other solutions, but one of your variations should match the solution given in the book.

If you are searching for a book with explanations and guidance, this series is not for you.

The Proposed Method

It is suggested that you solve each chapter 3 times. The best method is to write down the solution on paper and check the solutions afterward

The book includes a tracking table where you can fill out your results. Aim for scoring 90/100 puzzles or 90 % in each chapter. I suggest that you give 1 point for having found the full solution, and ½ point if you write the correct move but do not write down the full solution.

209 Seiten, kartoniert, 1. Auflage 2022

Neu daran ist, daß der Spieler nicht nur Aufgaben erhält, sondern auch Wert darauf gelegt wird, daß der Zusammenhang zwischen der Lösung (dem Kombinationstyp) und dem zugrundeliegenden Stellungstyp erkannt wird: Der Spieler soll nicht nur die richtige Lösung finden, sondern auch verstehen lernen, warum sie richtig ist.

Die gestellten Aufgaben sind unterschiedlich schwierig. Durch einen Vergleich des eigenen Ergebnisses mit dem optimalen Resultat kann jeder Schachfreund seine individuelle Stärke einschätzen und Schwachpunkte systematisch verbessern.

Schachtaktik im Selbststudium verwandelt Frust in Erfolg!

Lernen Sie spielend: bauen Sie das Schachbrett auf und das Buch daneben und los geht’s!

Klassifizieren Sie mit diesem bewährten Lehrbuch Ihre Spiel­stärke.

Der bewährte Ratgeber garantiert Einsteigern und Vereinsspie­lern eine wesentliche Verbesserung der eigenen Spielstärke.

184 Seiten, deutsch, kartoniert, In 15.aktualisierter Auflage 2022, Erstauflage 1992

Diese Grundlagen werden zunächst anhand von einfachen, instruktiven Beispielen erläutert, so dass im Anschluss daran die komplexeren, rechenintensiven Übungen bearbeitet werden können. Diese Aufgaben sind durchaus anspruchsvoll und die Zielgruppe dafür besteht aus ambitionierten Vereinsspielern.

Der Autor, der Internationale Meister Atila Gajo Figura, ist seit seiner Jugend als Vereinstrainer aktiv. Aktuell ist Atila als Privattrainer verschiedener, sehr talentierter Jugendlicher und leistungsorientierter Spieler aller Altersgruppen aus Deutschland und der Schweiz tätig.

Er war mehrfacher Deutscher Jugendmeister und Berliner Pokalsieger, Berliner Meister 2018, sowie Berliner Meister im Chess 960. Neben weiteren Meistertiteln besitzt er den Titel des Internationalen Meisters, sowie Wettkampferfahrung in der 1. Bundesliga sowie 2. Bundesliga.

Atila hat neben der C-Trainerlizenz des Deutschen Schachbundes auch die B-Trainerlizenz erworben. Zudem hat er sein Masterstudium beendet (Technischer Umweltschutz).

191 Seiten, deutsch, kartoniert, 1. Auflage 2022

Der Autor vertritt die Meinung, dass man zuerst etwas wirklich verstehen sollte, ehe man es übt. Infolgedessen geht er konsequent der Taktik auf den Grund und stellt die wesentlichen Zusammenhänge ausführlich und anschaulich dar. Nach all den eindrucksvollen Einsichten, die das vorliegende Werk bietet, schadet am Ende ein wenig Übung nicht. Daher wurde dieser geschätzte Klassiker nun mit einem speziell auf die Didaktik des Hauptteils zugeschnittenen Übungsteil ergänzt.

Die über 200 zusätzlichen Übungen mit ausführlichen Erläuterungen lassen sich sowohl nach Motiven als auch gemischt lösen.

In diesem Buch gibt es zahlreiche Diagramme - hingegen so wenig Varianten wie möglich -, so dass der Leser es spielend ohne Schachbrett lesen kann. Kaum vorstellbar, dass dieses Buch Ihre taktischen Fähigkeiten nicht wesentlich verbessert oder, wie der Autor sagen würde:

In jeder Taktik wohnt ein Zauber inne - und lernen kann man diesen Zauber auch!

358 Seiten, deutsch, kartoniert,  1. Auflage 2022

Magnus Carlsen’s Middlegame Evolution allows the reader to celebrate the brilliance of the highest-rated chess player in history while learning from his example. With insightfully annotated games, Sokolov takes us inside the mind of a chess genius.

GM Ivan Sokolov is a Yugoslav and twice Dutch Champion with decades of experience of elite chess. His peak rating was over 2700, and his extensive list of scalps includes Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand.

280 Seiten, gebunden, englisch, 1. Auflage 2021

In particular:

• How does one evaluate certain moves to be better than others?
• How does one improve their feel of the game?

   

This book will tackle this woefully underexplored aspect of chess: the logic behind the game. It will explain how chess works at a fundamental level.

Topics include:

• What to think about when evaluating a position.
• How to formulate and execute plans.
• How to generate and make use of the initiative.

   

The reader also has plenty of opportunities to test their decision-making by attempting 270 practical exercises. These are mostly designed to develop understanding, as the justification of the moves is more important than the actual correct answer.

Joshua Sheng is an International Master with one Grandmaster norm from Santa Monica, California. He tied for first in the 2016 North American Junior Chess Champion- ships and placed third in the 2019 U.S. Junior Chess Championships. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2021. Joshua has been a serious chess coach for many years, and this is his first book.

Guannan Song is a FIDE Master with one International Master norm from Canada. His notable achievements include winning the Canadian Youth Chess Championships and scoring bronze at the North American Junior Chess Championships. He has represented Canada on the international stage at the World Youth Chess Championships and the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 2021. Guannan is an experienced chess coach and the author of Practical Chess Puzzles: 600 Posi- tions to Improve Your Calculation and Judgment (with FM Dachey Lin and IM Edward Song)

256 Seiten, kartoniert, englisch, 1. Auflage 2021

This emphasizes the fundamental importance of having a clear understanding of how to build up and execute an attack. Every chess player loves to attack. Directing one’s forces towards the enemy king, probing to create weaknesses and ultimately crashing through with a brilliant sacrifice is always a thrilling experience. However, attacking play must always be based on sound principles and carried out in a forceful and logical manner. This is not always a straightforward task.

In this book, the highly experienced author and grandmaster Neil McDonald guides the reader through all the complexities of attacking play. Topics include:

• Attacking a king trapped in the centre.
• Exploiting weaknesses to develop an attack.
• Preventing reinforcements from rescuing the king.

   

Neil McDonald became a grandmaster in 1996 and a FIDE trainer in 2017. He is a regular coach of the England Junior team at international events. Neil has written numerous books on openings, endgames, tactics and strategy as well as biographies of famous players. He lives in Gravesend in Kent, England.

368 Seiten, kartoniert, englisch, 1. Auflage 2021