Chess book Review

Play the Grünfeld

2008-10-12T20:49:00.001-07:00

Author: IM Yelena Dembo

Estimation Price: RM108

Published: June 2007 EU, May 2007 US

ISBN 9781857445213

Format Paperback: 192 pages

Publisher: Everyman Chess

About the Author

Yelena Dembo was born on December 8th, 1983 in Russia. She lived in Israel and Hungary for several years and now married and live in Athens, Greece.

She is a professional chess player and trainer with students from more than 30 countries. Her first chess book has been published! You can read more about her and chess career here. You can also go through a selection of her best games so far, annotated by her.

You can find her online on various chess servers such as the Internet Chess Club (ICC), Playchess.com, Free Internet Chess Server and World Chess Network, where I play chess and give lessons. If you are interested in my teaching services you can contact me.

About the Book

The Grünfeld is an exciting and dynamic answer to 1 d4, and has become very popular at all levels of chess. A major reason for this is that it has been a long-time favourite of the World's strongest-ever chess player, Garry Kasparov, who used it many times in his numerous World Championship battles. The Grünfeld very much relies on the principles of the hypermodern school of chess: Black allows White to erect an impressive-looking centre on the assumption that in the long run it could prove to be more of a liability than an asset. Play often becomes very complex and tactical, one of the reasons the Grünfeld appeals to ambitious players.

Despite its attractions, some prospective Grünfeld players are discouraged by the necessity of needing to learn numerous different variations in such a complex opening. In Play the Grünfeld, however, opening expert Yelena Dembo circumvents this problem by producing a comprehensive and yet workable repertoire for Black, offering a solution against each of White's tries, whether it's a critical main line or a tricky sideline. After reading this book, you will have the required knowledge and confidence to begin playing the Grünfeld in your own games.

Written by a renowned Grünfeld expert
Covers all of White's main tries
Reveals the tactical and positional ideas for both sides

Reviews:

"In her well-researched book "Play the Grunfeld" the Greek International Master Yelena Dembo recommends the Adorjan gambit, 3...e5 4.dxe5 Nh5, as an equalizing line. Her book, recently issued by Everyman Chess, offers a fresh, succinct look at the aggressive defense from the black side."

Lubos Kavalek
Washington Post

"Although the Grünfeld is not an easy opening to learn, Dembo makes a good case for her repertoire as black, and the reader will generally be well-armed in most lines. This book can carry you a good distance towards mastering this opening."

Carsten Hansen
Chesscafe.com

"Dembo's love of the Grunfeld shines through, and I consider that important if you're pushing a repertoire. It's also clear that she has put a lot of time into analyzing her recommended variations, and the original analysis she often presents will be a welcomed sight to anyone that uses this book. I should also add that Dembo is rather fearless in her assessments. She doesn't hesitate to challenge the words and views of world-class players, and this tough, confident stance will surely make the reader feel secure. "

Jeremy Silman
jeremysilman.com

Source: Everyman Chess

Contents

Part One - The Exchange Variation (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 N c3 d5 4 cxd5 N xd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7)

1 Introducing 7 Nf3 c5

3 Be3 Systems

4 The Fashionable 7 Bc4

5 White's 7th Move Alternatives

6 4 cxd5 Nxd5 without 5 e4

Part Two - 3 Nc3 Without The Exchange

7 The Russian System

8 Qa4+ Systems

9 Bf4 Systems

10 Bg5 Systems

11 The Solid 4 e3

12 Offbeat 4th Move Alternatives

Part Three - White Postpones Nc3

13 The Fianchetto System

14 Angling for a Sämisch: 3 f3

Index of variations

Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters: Fundamentals of the Game Vol 1

2008-10-09T21:51:00.001-07:00

Author: GM Lev Alburt & Larry Parr

Price: RM 86.00

Paperback: 286 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 2003)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0393324524

ISBN-13: 978-0393324525

Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches

Shipping Weight: 12 ounces

Chapter 1. Play Chess in One Hour
Chapter 2. Chessercizes: All the Right Moves
Chapter 3. How to Write Down Chess Games
Chapter 4. Chess Movie: The "Write" Moves
Chapter 5. How to Open a Chess Game
Chapter 6. Chessercizes for Healthy Openings
Chapter 7. Middle game Strategy & Tactics
Chapter 8. Chessercizes for Taut Middlegames
Chapter 9. Endgame Strategy and Checkmates
Chapter 10. Chessercizes for Energetic Endings
Chapter 11. Using a Computer as a Chess Tutor
Chapter 12. Plugging in to U.S. Chess

Index

Product Description
Increase your skill and understanding of chess with the tactics that have produced unparalleled Russian grandmasters.

Russia's dominance in modern chess was founded on a uniquely successful program of chess instruction. Now this program has been streamlined and adapted for American readers in a pair of books that will help readers develop, step by step, from total novicehood to an enjoyable and competitive recreational level.

Volume 1 covers the fundamentals of the game, from beginning strategies to energetic endgames. Learn from the start not just how the pieces move, but also where and why to move them.

Advance in the game—and have fun doing it—using the techniques that produced a long line of Soviet champions.

About the Author
Grandmaster Lev Alburt is a three-time winner of the US Chess Championship and the author of several books on learning chess. Larry Parr is former editor of Chess Life and the author of many articles on chess play and instruction.

Great is the disappointment to the library patron who browses for a chess instructional and finds only picked-over bones from the pre-Fischer, pre-Kasparov eras. These books by a U.S. champion and a chess magazine editor offer something more. A range of abilities, from novice to entrants in a local tournament, can learn tactics and strategies that improve their play. The authors drop the obsession with "book knowledge" about elaborate openings. More than 98 percent of games, they say, turn on tactical dangers and opportunities about two moves into the future, and for that distance of foresight, the Russian secrets the authors share consist of a series of questions players must ask themselves after each move. "Chessercizes," with hundreds of diagrams, provide practice for analyzing attacking combinations and defenses against them, from opening through endgame, making this a great contemporary resource. Including tips about computer programs.

Review
Quite simply, the quickest way to learn chess the right way. -- Grandmaster Larry Evans, five-time US champion

"Lev Alburt is a brilliant teacher, and his new series written with Larry Parr is his best yet. In fact, it is the best chess instruction I have ever seen, period. Read Lev Alburt, and you will understand the game as never before." - Charles Murray, author of What It Means to Be a Libertarian

"Grandmaster Lev Alburt, a three-time U.S. champion, is the most brilliant and effective chess teacher alive today. He is the only top-echelon player who specializes in teaching chess to beginners and other nonmasters. Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters reveals secrets that will save you years of hit-and-miss reading. You'll be winning in no time!" -Al Lawrence, former executive director, U.S. Chess Federation

A great start for visual learners, December 6, 2001

By	DC Lawyer (Washington, DC USA)

I am a very visual learner. Apparently, so are Russian children. This book is written in the manner that Russian children are taught: a chessboard is laid down, pieces placed, and a question posed, say, checkmate in two. Your job is to figure out how to get there. In the book, the first half is composed of pages of such diagrams, each geared towards either explaining visually how a piece moves, its value in trade, its best positions, etc. It is a great way to learn the game.
The book starts off slowly, explaining how the game works. You then work through various parts of the game: openings, middle moves, and closings. This game really helped me to develop a solid opening.
I have always had trouble with the middle game; this book gives the basics for that. The second volume gives a much more in-depth treatment of the game; openings, closings, and middle game strategy. But this is the book to get for a new player, or for one who always seems to get beaten. I started out losing to the computer on its easiest level, now I still lose, but at least I understand why, heh heh. Seriously, it is written in an understandable manner, and if you're a visual learner, the problem sets are really worthwhile.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Very Informative, Excellent. , March 29, 2005

By	E. J Zapata (Los Angeles, Calif.)

This is one excellent Beginner book; it is unique and very informative. The first 102 pages have a lot of basic fundamental information ALL beginners should learn. Pages 103 to 264 of the book are devoted to Tactics & Strategy theory of The Opening, Middlegame and Endgame-this is the meat of the book. Lev mixes games, theory and teaching diagrams artfully. The diagrams are clear; most ask you a question or two with the answers right there, no flipping pages to the back of the book to hunt for answers. Many answers are very detailed. This is a great study book for beginners. Reading it once is not enough. Good Luck.

Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors: Part 2

2008-10-04T01:31:00.001-07:00

Author: Garry Kasparov

Price: RM150.00

Hardcover: 480 pages

Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (January 1, 2004)

Language: English

ISBN-13: 978-1857443424

Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds

The battle for the World Chess Championship has witnessed numerous titanic struggles that have engaged the interest not only of chess enthusiasts but of the public at large. The chessboard is the ultimate mental battleground and the world champions themselves are supreme intellectual gladiators.

This magnificent compilation of chess from the mid-20th century forms the basis of the second part of Garry Kasparov's long-awaited definitive history of the World Chess Championship. Garry Kasparov, who is universally acclaimed as the greatest chess player ever, subjects the play of his early predecessors to a rigorous analysis. This volume features the play of champions Max Euwe (1935-1937) Mikhail Botvinnik (1946-1957, 1958-1961 and 1961-1963), Vassily Smyslov (1957-1958) and Mikhail Tal (1960-1961).

However, this book is more than just a compilation of the games of these champions. Kasparov's biographies place them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

Kasparov''s Fighting Chess 1993-1998

2008-10-04T00:06:00.001-07:00

Author: IM Tibor Karolyi & Nick Alpin

Price: RM 99.00

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Batsford (August 1, 2006)

Language: English

ISBN-13: 978-0713489941

Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Garry Kasparov has dominated the world of competitive chess longer than any other world champion. What better time than now, on the eve of his retirement, to celebrate his unprecedented achievements? The period 1993–1998, covered in this volume, represents one of the richest phases of his career. International Master Tibor Károly has selected some of the finest games of those years, and with the help of today’s computer programs, analyzes them to a depth never before possible—sometimes correcting the errors of earlier analysts. A unique look at the brilliance and versatility of the player many consider the greatest of all time.

Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors: Part 1

2008-09-26T06:29:00.001-07:00

Author: Garry Kasparov

Price: RM150.00

Pages (Books Only): 464

EAN / ISBN / SKU: 9781857443301
Publisher: Everyman Chess

Published Date: August 2003

Weight: 1.00 kg
Dimensions: 3.17cm H x 25.76cm L x 17.68cm W

Product Description
The battle for the World Chess Championship has witnessed numerous titanic struggles which have engaged the interest not only of chess enthusiasts but also of the public at large. The chessboard is the ultimate mental battleground and the world champions themselves are supreme intellectual gladiators.
These magnificent compilations of chess form the basis of the first two parts of Garry Kasparov's definitive history of the World Chess Championship. Garry Kasparov, who is universally acclaimed as the greatest chessplayer ever, subjects the play of his predecessors to a rigorous analysis.

Part one features the play of champions Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894), Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921), Jose Capablanca (1921-1927) and Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935 and 1937-1946).

However, this book more than just a compilation of play of the early greats of chess. Kasparov's biographies of the early champions places them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

Sample of the book.

Blogger Reviews:

Overall i felt that Garry Kasparov's series of books is essentially the history of chess, given through the lives, careers, and games of its greatest players (the world champions) and the best players of the various eras never to have won the world championship. ( Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine in this book, for example.) There are some stereotypes in the players profiles like: Steinitz, the chess theorist, Lasker the psychologist, Capablanca the master of positional play, Alekhine the combinative player. I would like to read more deep insights of the players founded in the power of Kasparov chess knowledge. Value of any chess book is primarily based on its precise in analysis and variation calculation. Furthermore it costs this book to be expensive.

Book Reviews:

Thomas Katsampes (West Saint Paul, MN United States) (From Amazon.com)

My father bought me this book (thanks, Dad!) while I was in California recently. I wanted to share some thoughts with you from my experience as both a teacher and a student of Chess.

I'm about 100-150 pages into it, and I like this book. It's not for the faint of heart, however, and I haven't delved into much of the analysis and variations because I simply don't have the time. However, the book is quite readable, and Kasparov's effort of putting the games in context with a history and description of many of the many players and events surrounding the world champions is a welcome relief from the monotony of page after page of annotations and "informant" symbols found in comparable books of this level.

It should be noted however, that this book is not for junior students. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 1600 (perhaps even 1800), simply because there are other books out there that do a better job of catering to what junior players need to develop their game. That having been said, anyone who simply plays through the games and reads Kasparov's histories of the various world champions and their matches will be amply rewarded.

Some of the features of the book that I like:

(1) at the end of each chapter on each world champ, Kasparov summarizes with comments from other world champions regarding that individual.

(2) the moves to each game are printed in bold face so that it is much easier to distinguish the actual moves from the analysis.

(3) The analysis itself is insightful, and from what I have been able to ascertain, seems to be generally accurate. Of course, one should expect some errors as with any book. I'm not as much interested in variations and lines of analysis as I am in chess wisdom--general observations and maxims which I can put to immediate use--which is why I think that Bronstein's tournament book of Zurich 1953 is perhaps the greatest book on Chess ever written---certainly in the top 5.

(4) The language used in On My Great Predecessors is very well-thought-out and it's clear the writer took the time to express his thoughts precisely.

My chief reservation regarding this book is that it's difficult to tell what parts of the book Kasparov himself wrote (apart from the numerous "-G.K." quotes). I would like to think that Kasparov himself did a large part of the writing and analysis, or failing that, that he at least reviewed the analysis. It seems that the latter is true, although it's hard to confirm to what extent Kasparov himself was actually involved in the preparation of the text. It would have been nice if Kasparov's involvement had been clarified somewhere in the book. From the opening chapter where the author gives a one- or two-paragraph summary of each world champion, the author uses first person ("I see my style as...") when describing Garry Kasparov, suggesting that this paragraph (and perhaps that entire chapter) was written by Kasparov; however in the rest of the book the author attributes numerous quotes, including game analysis quotes, to Kasparov.

A comparatively minor issue is to what extent computers were involved in the analysis. A computer double-check is a good thing to have; however, anyone can load crafty or Chess Tiger on his PC and get good analysis from these 2600+ computer programs. In fact, the latest versions of Shredder are now over 2800! So when I buy chess books, I'm not looking for computer analysis but rather the insight---in English, not Informant symbols---which is unique to world-class players writing these books. However, it would have been good to see at least a blurb as to how computers were used in the analysis (e.g. what program, version, hardware, etc.).

In summary, from what I've seen so far, the book is destined to become a part of any Chess library, as important as the ECO's or ECE's. Once the whole three-volume set is out, it will probably become a standard reference work. I look forward to future volumes and editions.

How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

2008-09-26T05:53:00.001-07:00

A Book Every Chess Players & Business People Must Have!! While there's nothing much to do during the month of Ramadhan, I was listening to this audiobook. It also changes my game plan & preparation.

I recommend to one of my friends who was doing business. After listening to it, to his amazement he found out new ways on how to expand his businesses thank to this book. He's not a chess player but by taking the ideas behind which is decision making & insightful. He'd made the correct choice. CHECKMATE!!!

Garry Kasparov – How Life Imitates Chess

Author: Gary Kasparov

Price: RM 69.00 (softcover)

RM 115.00 (hardcover)

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (September 30, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1596913886

ISBN-13: 978-1596913882

Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches

Shipping Weight: 8 ounce

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In his 22-year reign as Grandmaster, Garry Kasparov faced more than a few tough choices under the heat of chess competitons. This is a man who knows a thing or two about making smart decisions, and since his retirement in 2005, Kasparov has put his powerful strategic thinking to work in business and politics, showing that a simple reliance on instincts can guide you through even the most complex challenges. With no shortage of wit or eloquence, he's answered our hardest questions about what factors can make or break a decision-making moment. --Anne Bartholomew

By S. Isom (Review from amazon.com)

I picked this up after being impressed by Kasparov on "Sixty Minutes" a few weeks ago. I wonder if those "publishers weekly" people actually read the book! This isn't really a business book, it's a thinking book. I'm not a chess player but those were the most interesting sections of the book, in that I agree. It's unfair to take out a few inevitable platitudes and ignore the other 95% of the book. There are dozens of business examples, although they aren't explored in depth. But the book isn't case studies. It's about the process of making decisions and finding a way to improve that method in ANY situation. Read the Table of Contents above, which is more than the PW reviewer probably did!

(My favorite sections were "Man vs Machine" on his games against computers and a great story about being beaten at a video game by a little kid. And the "Attacker" sections about taking the initiative.)

This isn't a book of simple tips you can take to work tomorrow if that's what you are looking for. It is full of stories and insights about thinking and peak performance. Kasparov is a chess player, politician, and obviously a history buff, so naturally most of his examples come from those worlds.
(Which are more interesting than most business stories anyway.) In fact, that's exactly what he says at the start, where he says it's up to each person to develop a "personal map". He doesn't pretend to be a businessman or try to make many direct comparisons to chess and business. He learned from chess and explains how.

I found a lot of it useful because it makes you aware of how lazy most of us are when it comes to things like being impulsive, or over-cautious, and unprepared even for important moments. I'm not in the "boardroom" but I've owned my own business and I'm interested in using these ideas. Not with Kasparov's over-the-top rigor maybe, but you don't have to want to be a world champion to learn from one.

For sample of other reviews, click here.

From Barnes Review.

Questions for Garry Kasparov

Amazon.com: Why do you think decisiveness is such an elusive skill for people to master? Are there simply too many choices? What’s a good first step for negotiating your options?

Kasparov: It’s true that today we are faced with greater complexity in almost every aspect of our lives, from global competition in the business world to more options for entertainment. The connected world has flooded us with a limitless supply of data, and equally limitless choices. One of the problems this has created is that it creates the illusion, or delusion, that we can achieve perfection in our decisions by accumulating more information. It’s too easy to blame faulty decisions on imperfect information, but information is always limited in some way, as is the time available to make our decisions. Forget perfection! Decisiveness comes from the courage to trust your instincts. The more you trust, the more you’ll build up that intuition and the more accurate it will become, creating a positive cycle.

Before you lay out your options, what we might call considering your next move, you have to have a solid understanding of the present. Evaluation is more important than calculation. Rushing into narrowing things down to a list of options is itself a form of making a choice -- and if you do that, you can prematurely rule out important possibilities. Stop looking ahead for a moment and examine the current state of affairs. Good decisions come from a solid understanding of all the factors that come into play. Once you have tuned your evaluation skills and learned to put the options on hold for a moment you’ll often find that difficult decisions become obvious.

Amazon.com: Taking a holistic view of your career, do you recall the moment you identified your talent for thinking strategically? Is it possible for you to separate that sense of yourself from your identity as a chess champion?

Kasparov: In the world of competitive chess, or any sport for that matter, everything is relative. Your results tell you about your talent. How can you identify a talent that goes untested? That’s one reason I’m so passionate about trying new things and about encouraging others to leave their comfort zones. I was fortunate in that my status as world champion brought me into contact with world leaders, top executives, authors, and other luminaries. I very much enjoyed these exchanges, learning about these other worlds. It also gave me the chance to share my own thoughts, something I’ve never been shy about doing. I’m sure they had to humor my impetuousness on occasion! But often they encouraged me and I discovered I had a knack for making unusual connections, a way of seeing the big picture that wasn’t limited to the chessboard.

Until my retirement from chess in March 2005 it would have been nearly impossible for me to separate myself from my chess identity--other than love for family and friends. But since then I have moved into several entirely different worlds. I’m at the table as a politician, or writing editorials, or lecturing about strategy and intuition in front of business audiences. My former chess career still precedes me in these settings, but they aren’t humoring me anymore! Actually, the biggest step was working on this book, which forced me to consider the mechanics of my own mind beyond chess. I had to ask myself if I really had something to offer and then figure out how to express it concretely. The positive reactions of my lecture audiences also helped in this regard.

Amazon.com: Playing chess competitively no doubt requires huge reserves of passion, patience, and discipline. For those readers who haven’t experienced the kind of rigorous training that competitive chess imparts, can you recommend some good ways to practice strategic thinking?

Kasparov: We all do it every day, the difference is that it takes discipline to become aware of it. In the book I ask the reader to consider all the significant decisions they made that day, that week. You don’t have to be a chess player or an executive to benefit from improving your decision- making process. We make hundreds of decisions just to get through each day. A handful are important enough to keep track of, to look back on critically. Were they successful? Why or why not? We can train ourselves, which is really the only way.

Amazon.com: Did you ever find during a particularly difficult match that it was hard to prevent your emotions from clouding your decision-making ability? What was your strategy for coping with stress or anxiety in that kind of situation?

Kasparov: Emotion is a critical element of decision-making, not a sin always to be avoided. As with anything it is harmful in excess. You learn to focus it and control it the best you can. I’m a very emotional person in and out of chess so this was always a challenge for me. When I sat down at the board against my great rival, Anatoly Karpov, it was a special occasion. I knew it, he knew it, and we both knew the chess world was paying special attention. We had such a long and bitter history that it was impossible not to bring it to the board with us every time we played.

On some occasions this anxiety created negative emotions like doubt. More often it generated greater creative tension, greater supplies of nervous tension, which is a chess player’s lifeblood.

Usually when you are under stress there is a good reason for it. Learning not to get anxious about things beyond your control is a separate issue. So don’t fight stress, use it! Channel that nervous energy into solving the problems. Sitting around worrying isn’t going to achieve anything and the loss of time will often make the problem worse. Even in the worst case, mistakes of action teach you much more than inaction. Forward!

Amazon.com: If you could choose five people, living or dead, to play you in chess, who would they be?

Kasparov: Don’t you know I have retired as a chess player? Well, I will go with you to the middle with two and a half opponents.

4th world chess champion Alexander Alekhine (d. 1946) was my childhood chess idol. The book of his collected games was my constant companion. He was a player of limitless imagination and combativeness. Some aspects of his pre-WWII-era chess would be considered antique today, but his talent is timeless. Just sitting at the board with him to analyze and share ideas would be like a youthful dream made real.

My next player requires a change of date as well, since I am now retired. In the period of 2001-2002 I felt I deserved a rematch against Vladimir Kramnik, who took my title in 2000. I was still the top-rated player in the world, the obvious top challenger. So I would choose a 16-game match against Kramnik--in 2002.

Last on my list is a chessplayer who is most definitely dead. Even if chess has by now passed it by, I would take a tiebreaker match against Deep Blue. I won our first match; the machine won the second. Then IBM made sure there would be no chance for a rematch. This time everything would be out in the open, no black boxes. Of course chess machines are considerably stronger today. It would still be pleasant to gain revenge and set the record straight.

CONTENTS

Opening Gambit
The secret of success
Why chess?
A map of the mind
Better decision-making cannot be taught, but it can be self-taught

Part 1
Chapter 1 – The Lesson
Personal lessons from the World Champion
Becoming aware of the process

Chapter 2 – Strategy
Success at any speed
“Why?” turns tacticians into strategists
An ever-expanding example
Play your own game
You cannot always determine the battlefield
A frequently changed strategy is the same as no strategy
Don’t watch the competition more than you watch yourself
Once you have a strategy, employing it is a matter of desire

Chapter 3 - Strategy and Tactics at Work
Element of surprise
A genius for development
Sticking with a plan
Confidence and the time factor
Never give in – never, never, never

Chapter 4 – Calculation
Calculation must be focused and disciplined
Imagination, calculation, and my greatest game

Chapter 5 – Talent
Recognizing the patterns in our lives
The power of fantasy
Fantasy can cut through fog
Developing the habit of imagination
Be aware of your routines, then break them

Chapter 6 – Preparation
Results are what matter
Inspiration versus perspiration
Preparation pays off in many ways
Turning a game into a science
Targeting ourselves for efficiency

Part II
Chapter 7 – M-T-Q: Material, Time, Quality
Evaluation trumps calculation
Material, the fundamental element
Time is money
When time matters most
The third factor: Quality
What makes a bad bishop bad?
Putting the elements into action
Double-edged evaluation
Personal return on investment
MTQ on the home front

Chapter 8 – Exchanges and Imbalances
Freezing the game
The search for compensation
The laws of thermodynamics, chess, and quality of life
Strategy on the browser battlefield
All changes comes with a cost
Overextending our reach

Chapter 9 – Phases of the Game
Know why we make each move we make
Improving the product
Art is born from creative conflict
Make sure a good peace follows a good war
Eliminating phase bias
Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight

Chapter 10 – Attacker’s Advantage
The aggression double-standard
The initiative rarely rings twice
An attacker by choice
The transition from imitator to innovator
The will to attack

Part III
Chapter 11 – Question Success
The gravity of past success
Competition and anti-complacency tactics
In favor of contradiction
The difference between better and different

Chapter 12 – The Inner Game
The game can be won before you get to the board
The storm before the calm
Don’t get distracted while trying to distract
Breaking the spell of pressure
Staying objective when the chips are down
Pretenders to the crown and fatal flaws

Chapter 13 – Man vs. Machine
Enter the machines
And a child shall lead us
Kasparov V. Deep Blue
If you can’t beat’em, join’em
Staying out of the comfort zone

Chapter 14 – Intuition
We know more than we understand
Intuition versus analysis
How long is long enough?
The perils of ignoring a trend

Chapter 15 – Crisis Point
One single moment
Detecting a crisis before it’s a crisis
Learning from a crisis
A final chess case study: The Crisis in Seville
Must-win strategy
Errors on both sides
Keeping a grip on the title