Test your Opening, Middlegame and Endgame Play - VOLUME 2

Zenon Franco guides readers through 50 top-level games, challenges them to guess key moves correctly, and poses questions at critical moments. Points are awarded for good answers, and at the end of each game, a score-chart rates the reader's performance. This material has never appeared in the English language before, and represents the pick of monthly articles that Franco has written for a quarter of a century in Spanish-language magazines, revised and rechecked for this book.

For all chess-players, from beginners to world champions, from kids to seniors, delivering checkmate is the greatest thrill the game has to offer. The ability to spot checkmates is a vital skill - and this easy-to-use book shows you how it is done. With the help of Grandmaster John Nunn, you will be ready to shock your next opponent with a deadly checkmate, whether in a school match, a club tournament - or even a championship game!

This book provides a wealth of puzzle positions to test just about every facet of your tactical skills. The puzzles in this book have been selected by analysing games new and old in search of original puzzle positions. It is very unlikely that even seasoned solvers will recognise many of these positions. Emms, by allying his skills with those of powerful computers, has also made every effort to ensure that the solutions are sound, and that there are no unmentioned alternative solutions.

Tactical skills are paramount in chess. More than anything else, a player's ability to find tactical solutions determines how successful he is over-the-board. No endgame scheme, opening idea or strategic plan, however brilliant a concept it may be, is of any value unless it is accurately calculated and implemented.

The best way to develop tactical skills is to practice them by tackling new and challenging positions. This book provides a wealth of chess puzzles to test just about every facet of your tactical ability. It is very unlikely that even those who have read many other chess puzzle books will recognize more than a handful of these positions. Franco has searched recent events and used powerful computers to seek out previously unpublished puzzles, and has also drawn extensively upon Latin American sources that he has been scouring for brilliant examples over the last three decades.

Following the pattern of Gambit's hugely successful Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (by John Emms), the book begins with 100 relatively easy positions suitable for novices, and ends with 100 extremely tough puzzles, which provide a mind-bending challenge even for grandmasters. There are 1001 puzzles in all, including themed sections and graded tests, all with detailed computer-verified solutions and verbal explanations of the main instructive points.

There is no better way to improve your tactical ability than by working out winning combinations in positions taken from Grandmaster games. In this final - and most challenging! - part of his best-selling three-volume course in chess tactics, Russian chess teacher Livshitz provides a wealth of test-yourself positions identified under recurring combinational themes such as diversion, interference, X-ray attack and many more!

Winning Chess Puzzles For Kids Volume 2 is a fun and instructive workbook for children ages 7 to 13. Full of imaginative drawings, it combines standard chess problems with a variety of insightful chess-related puzzles. Slightly more advanced than Volume 1, its aim is to further develop a student's tactical skills.

This book, with 155 problems and full solutions, has been designed to interest any chess enthusiast, whatever his knowledge of chess composition may be. Loyd, White, Klett, Shinkman, Havel, Wurzburg, Kohtz, Kochelhorn and Heathcote are all represented, as are some lesser-known but equally brilliant composers. Several interesting themes explored.