It is not easy for beginners and intermediate players to learn how to play chess and improve their game. Instead of learning mainly through practice (which could take years) or the study of the games of Masters (it is difficult to reverse engineer something before you reach the necessary level of understanding), this book presents a toolkit of weapons: essential patterns that are necessary to know in order to play well!
What you need to know before reading this book:
* How to use algebraic chess notation
* The ability to visualize at least 4 plies without a board
* Standard tactical devices, such as Counting, Forks, Skewers, Pins
What you will learn in this book:
* Basic patterns that every player must know
* How to improve your game
* How to use Opposition and Critical Squares
* How to recognize the opportunity for simplification
What you will NOT get, and why:
* A complete analysis of each pattern. This is a handbook (where all you need is a position), not a manual (which explains all the ideas involved and how to discover the correct solution)
* Capablanca: nobody can learn to play well merely from the study of a book, it can only serve as a guide, and the rest must be done by the teacher
To be a good chess player, you need both knowledge and the skill to apply that knowledge. They are complementary, either one alone is not enough! If you constantly leave pieces hanging, there is no point in buying another book about openings, middle games, endgames, strategy, or pawn structures - not even this book! Instead, you should focus on improving your skill by doing tactics and visualization exercises. On the other hand, if you are able to avoid these types of simple mistakes, but are often uncertain whether you have an advantage in straightforward positions, this handbook could be helpful in deciding whether to play for a win or for a draw.
When a Knight checks your King in an endgame, do you know the best square to move your King to, in order to avoid being checked in the next four moves? "Look inside" to know.
It is well known that strong players see a position broken down into elementary groups (chunks), each having specific, known characteristics. This is due to the huge number of games they have played, analyzed and retained in memory. As a result, they immediately recognize winning patterns.
This book includes NO puzzles, BUT a selection of 50 patterns chosen from among the essential patterns. These patterns need to be engraved in your mind, so that you recognize them immediately (regardless of which side of the board you are on), without any doubt or hesitation.
They are not endless lists of moves, which would be impossible to remember, but rather positions that occur frequently, that you can learn to recognize without thinking, the way Masters do.
Are all these patterns known? Sure they are, but this is not the point. A GM knows over ten thousand, a CM about 200, but what about you? Can you afford not to know these few key patterns?
Novice and intermediate players are the target of this book, class B (1700 rating or less).
Periodically going through these patterns will help you avoid losses, win more games, and reduce your thinking time. If only one of these patterns was unknown to you (or you were uncertain what to do when you saw it), your learning time will not be wasted. If you already know them all, and have never fallen victim to any of them, then great, play tournaments and enjoy Evelyne Nicod's cat illustrations.
All patterns link to related games, with English comments. Appearance is simple and neat, diagrams start at the appropriate move. An Internet connection is needed.
Enjoy the reading!
Rodolfo Pardi, librarian, instructor and arbiter of Italian Chess Federation
Notice:
Translation from Italian was recently checked, however some minor language errors might still be there, for which I apologize.
To make it easier to read, this book uses algebraic notation with figurines, fine tuned for appearance on Kindle.
What you need to know before reading this book:
* How to use algebraic chess notation
* The ability to visualize at least 4 plies without a board
* Standard tactical devices, such as Counting, Forks, Skewers, Pins
What you will learn in this book:
* Basic patterns that every player must know
* How to improve your game
* How to use Opposition and Critical Squares
* How to recognize the opportunity for simplification
What you will NOT get, and why:
* A complete analysis of each pattern. This is a handbook (where all you need is a position), not a manual (which explains all the ideas involved and how to discover the correct solution)
* Capablanca: nobody can learn to play well merely from the study of a book, it can only serve as a guide, and the rest must be done by the teacher
To be a good chess player, you need both knowledge and the skill to apply that knowledge. They are complementary, either one alone is not enough! If you constantly leave pieces hanging, there is no point in buying another book about openings, middle games, endgames, strategy, or pawn structures - not even this book! Instead, you should focus on improving your skill by doing tactics and visualization exercises. On the other hand, if you are able to avoid these types of simple mistakes, but are often uncertain whether you have an advantage in straightforward positions, this handbook could be helpful in deciding whether to play for a win or for a draw.
When a Knight checks your King in an endgame, do you know the best square to move your King to, in order to avoid being checked in the next four moves? "Look inside" to know.
It is well known that strong players see a position broken down into elementary groups (chunks), each having specific, known characteristics. This is due to the huge number of games they have played, analyzed and retained in memory. As a result, they immediately recognize winning patterns.
This book includes NO puzzles, BUT a selection of 50 patterns chosen from among the essential patterns. These patterns need to be engraved in your mind, so that you recognize them immediately (regardless of which side of the board you are on), without any doubt or hesitation.
They are not endless lists of moves, which would be impossible to remember, but rather positions that occur frequently, that you can learn to recognize without thinking, the way Masters do.
Are all these patterns known? Sure they are, but this is not the point. A GM knows over ten thousand, a CM about 200, but what about you? Can you afford not to know these few key patterns?
Novice and intermediate players are the target of this book, class B (1700 rating or less).
Periodically going through these patterns will help you avoid losses, win more games, and reduce your thinking time. If only one of these patterns was unknown to you (or you were uncertain what to do when you saw it), your learning time will not be wasted. If you already know them all, and have never fallen victim to any of them, then great, play tournaments and enjoy Evelyne Nicod's cat illustrations.
All patterns link to related games, with English comments. Appearance is simple and neat, diagrams start at the appropriate move. An Internet connection is needed.
Enjoy the reading!
Rodolfo Pardi, librarian, instructor and arbiter of Italian Chess Federation
Notice:
Translation from Italian was recently checked, however some minor language errors might still be there, for which I apologize.
To make it easier to read, this book uses algebraic notation with figurines, fine tuned for appearance on Kindle.
