Chess Openings Playing Cards

Study of this important book, with dozens of highly instructive and clearly explained games from the greats of chess, will enhance your middlegame skills and will let you understand why pawns are considered to be 'the souls of chess'.

In each of these books the need for understanding is emphasized: there are too many variations for any memory to store. The player must understand the basic principles involved and the typical positions or maneuvers that can arise.

Pocket Encyclopedia of Middlegame is a new learning software for the Pocket PC dedicated to the opening and the middlegame.

Chess Middlegame Combinations, a companion volume to Chess Middlegame Planning, forms the second part of Peter Romanovsky's classic Russian textbook on the middlegame. Now available for the first itme in an English language translation, Chess Middlegame Combinations is written with a view to helping the reader acquire a practical understanding of middlegame techniques as well as an appreciation for the beauty and aesthetics of chess.

This comprehensive study of middle-game theory is a classic unlikely to be superseded. It is a valuable addition to the library of every serious student of chess.

Following on from his successful Understanding Chess Endgames, John Nunn turns his attention to the middlegame - the phase of the chess battle where most games are decided, yet the one that has received the least systematic treatment from chess writers. With the outstanding clarity for which he is famous, Nunn breaks down complex problems into bite-sized pieces.

Publisher: ISHI Press
Author: Ludek Pachman
Year of Publication: 2012 (Reprint) Pages: 185
Notation Type: Descriptive (DN)


Book Description Continuing his major work on strategy and tactics in modern chess, the internationalyl renowned Grandmaster, Ludek Pachman, now turns his attention to the play of the pawns and the achievement of control of the center squares. Though the pawns are the weakest pieces in chess, their importance in determining the character of the attack (and defense) and the development of strategic play cannot be underestimated. Pawns are essential to the protection of important squares and pieces. They are the best means of blockading enemy pawns and when correctly deployed, their advance can open vital files and diagonals, thereby creating weaknesses in the opposite position. Despite its limited power, the pawn has one special advantage over other pieces in that it can be promoted when it reaches the eighth rank; a successful pawn advance can completely change the balance of power and the outcome of a game. Pawns have aptly been described as "the soul of chess." Vital of chess mastery is a basic understanding of the importance of control of the center squares. The effectiveness of the pieces depend upon the strength of their position and center control creates a vital sapatial superiority. The effective play of the pawns and center control have been touched upon on other works, but seldom with the insight and lucidity revealed in this second volume of Pachman's masterwork.