The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess

The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess PDF Author: Steve Giddins
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056919350
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 606

Book Description
Many club players think that studying chess is all about cramming as much information in their brain as they can. Most textbooks support that notion by stressing the importance of always trying to find the objectively best move. As a result amateur players are spending way too much time worrying about subtleties that are really only relevant for grandmasters. Emanuel Lasker, the second and longest reigning World Chess Champion (27 years!), understood that what a club player needs most of all is common sense: understanding a set of timeless principles. Amateurs shouldn’t waste energy on rote learning but just strive for a good grasp of the basic essentials of attack and defence, tactics, positional play and endgame play endgame play. Chess instruction needs to be efficient because of the limited amount of time that amateur players have available. Superfluous knowledge is often a pitfall. Lasker himself, for that matter, also studied chess considerably less than his contemporary rivals. Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins have created a complete but compact manual based on Lasker’s general approach to chess. It enables the average amateur player to adopt trustworthy openings, reach a sound middlegame and have a basic grasp of endgame technique. Welling and Giddins explain the principles with very carefully selected examples from players of varying levels, some of them from Lasker’s own games. The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess is an efficient toolkit as well as an entertaining guide. After working with it, players will dramatically boost their skills – without carrying the excess baggage that many of their opponents will be struggling with.

Lasker's Manual of Chess

Lasker's Manual of Chess PDF Author: Emanuel Lasker
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486316815
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Book Description
Great chess master shares his secrets, including basic methods of gaining advantages, exchange value of pieces, openings, combinations, position play, aesthetics, and other important maneuvers. More than 300 diagrams.

Rapid Chess Improvement

Rapid Chess Improvement PDF Author: Michael De la Maza
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781857442694
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
A book for all enthusiastic adult players. Michael de la Maza reveals the secrets of a unique study plan which he used to transform his level of play in just a twelve month period.

Chess Improvement

Chess Improvement PDF Author: Peter Wells
Publisher: Crown House Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785835092
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
Written by Barry Hymer and Peter Wells, Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset is an engaging and instructive guide that sets out how the application of growth mindset principles can accelerate chess improvement. With Tim Kett and insights from Michael Adams, David Howell, Harriet Hunt, Gawain Jones, Luke McShane, Matthew Sadler and Nigel Short. Foreword by Henrik Carlsen, father of world champion Magnus Carlsen. Twenty-first-century knowledge about skills development and expertise requires us to keep such mystical notions as fixed 'talent' in perspective, and to emphasise instead the dynamic and malleable nature of these concepts. Nowhere is this more apparent than in chess, where many gifted players fall prey to plausible but self-defeating beliefs and practices - and thereby fail to achieve the levels their 'natural' abilities predicted. Happily, however, the reverse can be true too; through learned dispositions such as grit, risk-taking, strategic thinking and a capacity for sheer hard work, players of apparently modest abilities can achieve impressive results. Blending theory, practice and the distinct but complementary skills of two authors - one an academic (and amateur chess player) and the other a highly regarded England Chess Olympiad coach (and grandmaster) - Chess Improvement is an invaluable resource for any aspirational chess player or coach/parent of a chess player. Barry and Peter draw on interviews conducted with members of England's medal-winning elite squad of players and provide a template for chess improvement rooted in the practical wisdom of experienced chess players and coaches. They also include practical illustrative descriptions from the games and chess careers of both developing and leading players, and pull together themes and suggestions in a way which encourages readers to create their own trajectories for chess improvement.

Side-stepping Mainline Theory

Side-stepping Mainline Theory PDF Author: Gerard Welling
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056918702
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Book Description
The average chess player spends too much time on studying opening theory. In his day, World Champion Emanuel Lasker argued that improving amateurs should spend about 5% of their study time on openings. These days club players are probably closer to 80%, often focusing on opening lines that are popular among grandmasters. Club players shouldn't slavishly copy the choices of grandmasters. GMs need to squeeze every drop of advantage from the opening and therefore play highly complex lines that require large amounts of memorization. The main necessity for club players is to emerge from the opening with a reasonable position, from which you can simply play chess and pit your own tactical and positional understanding against that of your opponent. Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins recommend the Old Indian-Hanham Philidor set-up as a basis for both Black and White. They provide ideas and strategies that can be learned in the shortest possible time and require the bare minimum of maintenance and updating. They deliver exactly what you need: rock-solid positions that you know how to handle. By adopting a similar set-up for both colours, with similar plans and techniques, you further reduce study time. With this compact and straightforward opening approach, Welling and Giddins argue, club players will have more time to focus on what is really decisive in the vast majority of non-grandmaster games: tactics, positional understanding and endgame technique.

How to Study Chess on Your Own

How to Study Chess on Your Own PDF Author: Davorin Kuljasevic
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056919342
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 541

Book Description
Every chess player wants to improve, but many, if not most, lack the tools or the discipline to study in a structured and effective way. With so much material on offer, the eternal question is: ‘How can I study chess without wasting my time and energy?’ Davorin Kuljasevic provides the full and ultimate answer, as he presents a structured study approach that has long-term improvement value. He explains how to study and what to study, offers specific advice for the various stages of the game and points out how to integrate all elements in an actionable study plan. How do you optimize your learning process? How do you develop good study habits and get rid of useless ones? What study resources are appropriate for players of different levels? Many self-improvement guides are essentially little more than a collection of exercises. Davorin Kuljasevic reflects on learning techniques and priorities in a fundamental way. And although this is not an exercise book, it is full of instructive examples looked at from unusual angles. To provide a solid self-study framework, Kuljasevic categorizes lots of important aspects of chess study in a guide that is rich in illustrative tables, figures and bullet points. Anyone, from casual player to chess professional, will take away a multitude of original learning methods and valuable practical improvement ideas.

John Nunn's Chess Course

John Nunn's Chess Course PDF Author: John Nunn
Publisher: Gambit Publications
ISBN: 9781906454821
Category : Chess
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Following on from his successful books Understanding Chess Endgames and Understanding Chess Middlegames, John Nunn fleshes out the theory by showing how World Champion Emanuel Lasker handled a wide variety of practical situations. We see how Lasker's play, which his opponents found so unfathomable, was based on logic, extreme pragmatism and a deep understanding of how chess-players think. - Covers topics not usually considered, such as queenless middlegames and manoeuvring - Dissects strategic issues including piece activity, pawn-structure and bishop vs knight - Looks at psychological aspects of chess, such as choosing lines which are most uncomfortable for the opponent - Discusses how to handle inferior positions - Explanations focus on general ideas rather than detailed analysis - Features more than 100 of the most instructive examples from Lasker's career - Concludes with a selection of exercises, with full commentary and explanation Emanuel Lasker from Germany - chess player, mathematician and philosopher - held the world title for 27 years, longer than any other champion. His victories against many of the all-time greats were based on an ahead-of-his-time understanding and had a subtle but profound influence on modern chess thinking.

The Woodpecker Method 2

The Woodpecker Method 2 PDF Author: Axel Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781784831233
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Swedish chess Grandmaster Axel Smith returns with a sequel to his colossal bestseller, The Woodpecker Method, which was on the tactics of the World Champions. For The Woodpecker Method 2, he has found 1002 foundational positional exercises and prepared them for 'woodpecking' - solve the puzzles repeatedly, and boost your positional intuition. The quick explanation of the Woodpecker Method is that you need to solve a large number of puzzles in a row; then solve the same puzzles again and again, only faster. It's not a lazy shortcut to success - hard work is required. But the reward can be re-programming your unconscious mind.

Beyond Material

Beyond Material PDF Author: Davorin Kuljasevic
Publisher: New In Chess
ISBN: 9056918613
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 583

Book Description
In order to win a game of chess you very often have to sacrifice material. Gathering the courage to do so while accurately assessing the potential benefits is a real challenge. The big question is always: what’s my compensation? Generations of chess players grew up with the idea that a sacrifice was correct if the material was swiftly returned, with interest. Almost by reflex, they spent lots of time counting, quantifying the static value of their pieces. But is that really the best way to determine the correctness of a sacrifice? In this book, Grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic teaches you how to look beyond the material balance when you evaluate positions. With loads of instructive examples 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, structures, files and diagonals. Other factors are related to time, and to the way the moves unfold: tempo, initiative, a threat, an attack. Modern chess 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 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.

Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker PDF Author: Taylor Kingston
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1949859010
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 844

Book Description
A Zeal to Understand “I do not accept an absolute limit to my knowledge. I have a zeal to understand that refuses to die.” — Emanuel Lasker, 1919 Among great chess masters, Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) stands unique for the depth and broad scope of his intellect. Most of the game’s world champions have been single-mindedly chess-obsessed, with few outside interests. Lasker, however, was very much a polymath, making major contributions to mathematics and philosophy, plus writing on many other subjects: science, politics, economics, sociology, board games other than chess, etc. All while retaining his chess crown for nearly 27 years, and ranking among the world’s top ten for over four decades. In this book you get a unique look at Lasker himself – both intellectually and emotionally – through a wide-ranging sampling of his works, with an emphasis on chess but also including much on other topics. A partial list: • Lasker’s magazine London Chess Fortnightly (1892-93). • The Hastings 1895 tournament book. • Common Sense in Chess (1896). • Lasker’s Chess Magazine (1904-1909). • A memorial tribute to Pillsbury, from The Chess Player’s Scrapbook (1906). • Full coverage of the 1907 Lasker-Marshall and 1908 Lasker-Tarrasch World Championship matches. • The St. Petersburg 1909 tournament book. • Lasker’s and Capablanca’s books on their 1921 title match. • The discussion of the theory of Steinitz from Lasker’s Manual of Chess. • An examination of Lasker’s endgame instruction and studies by GM Karsten Müller. • Summaries of and extensive excerpts from two of Lasker’s philosophical works, Struggle (1907) and Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar (The Philosophy of the Unattainable, 1919), and his forgotten sociological rarity, The Community of the Future (1940). • A discussion of Lasker’s mathematical works by Dr. Ingo Althöfer of Jena University. • A look at Lasca, a checkers-like game invented by Lasker. You are invited to enter the mind of this wide-ranging, insightful and outspoken intellect. Lasker was not always right, any more than he always won at the chess board, but he was always interesting. About the Editor Taylor Kingston has been a chess enthusiast since his teens. He holds a Class A over-the-board USCF rating, and was a correspondence master in the 1980s, but his greatest love is the game’s history. His historical articles have appeared in Chess Life, New In Chess, Inside Chess, Kingpin among others.