- ISBN13: 9781857445411
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The chess world has been blessed by a number of wonderful strategists, and in Chess Secrets: The Giants of Strategy, Neil McDonald decides upon his selection of the most prominent ones, highlighting the major contributions they have made. McDonald examines their differing approaches and styles, and from Nimzowitsch to Kramnik, how they followed in each other’s footsteps.
Throughout history there have been many famous players who have dazzled the chess world with their swashbuckling approach to opening play. In Chess Secrets: The Great Gambiteers, John Cox picks out his selection of famous gambiteers and studies the mark they made in the sphere of attacking play in the opening. Themes include attacking the opponent’s king, exploiting a lead in development, controlling the centre, as well as the significant enhancement of opening theory through the invention of numerous dangerous gambits.
*Learn from the greats of the game
*Discover how famous chess minds work
*Written in an easy-to-read format
*Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players*
Throughout history there have been many famous players who have dazzled the chess world with their swashbuckling approach to opening play. In Chess Secrets: The Great Gambiteers, John Cox picks out his selection of famous gambiteers and studies the mark they made in the sphere of attacking play in the opening. Themes include attacking the opponent’s king, exploiting a lead in development, controlling the centre, as well as the significant enhancement of opening theory through the invention of numerous dangerous gambits.
*Learn from the greats of the game
*Discover how famous chess minds work
*Written in an easy-to-read format
*Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players*
It is very good book, my son told me so. He finished the book in one week. I think he will read many times more.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
Neil McDonald has been writing some good instructive books lately, but this is in the highest echelon of practical books. He covers nine interrelated aspects of chess strategy in nine chapters, drawing on examples from 5 renowned positional players. In the process he clarifies for the student not just WHAT TO DO, but WHY IT SHOULD BE DONE, and HOW IT RELATES TO OTHER THINGS.
For example, the first chapter is on the rook on the seventh rank — a subject also covered by Nimzowitsch, one of his model players. Then he shows how the strategic giants exploit an open file, in cases where the opponent prevents the posting of a rook on the seventh. Then he expands yet again, to show how the rook can still be a powerful force even if held in check on the open file. Then he expands again, to the pawn structures that permit open files. And so on.
In short, this is the best (and perhaps the only) book on the proper use of the rook in the middlegame that I have ever seen — as a piece on its own, in conjunction with pawn breaks, in combination with minor pieces, and in the transition to the endgame. If there’s another book that does so much to improve a player’s grasp of the rook, I don’t know what it is. It does a good job with pawns, as well. I recently read that the difference between tactical and strategic players is that tactical players like to play with their minor pieces, while strategic players like to play with their rooks and pawns. If so, this is a strategic player’s manifesto.
Very few books have had an immediate and profound impact on how I play the game; this is one of the few. Others include Mihail Marin’s Secrets of Attacking Play and Angus Dunnington’s book on the sacrifice (which still contains the best explanation of weak color complexes I have read). Bravo to McDonald for pouring out so much deep material in such an elegant package!
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
First of all, this is the 2nd chess book i bought, being the 1st one a tactics one. Learned chess playing with chessmaster, learning how pieces moves/openings/tactics. But that was it, the only way i could win was having a tactical oportunity caused by a bad move, which i could convert into material advantage. So, game was just about moving pawns to make opponent pieces go back, exchanging pieces whenever i felt it was good and doing easy-to-spot tactics. But there where moments when i just didnt know what to do, cause none of my moves caused immediate threats and i felt lost in the game.
Then i got this book, which has showed me a whole new game phase i had no clue about. What to do exactly on those moments when there is no immediate threats and where you feel lost on what to do next. What is really valuable of the book is that it points the strategic path as a concept, not something that you should memorize, and the way McDonald does it, analizing games of different eras and showing the plans each player had, is impressive.
I recommend this book to people that are at that point where you feel stuck as an intermediate player, and to people that desire to understand chess a bit more; cause im sure you will realize how important those 9 topics the author covers are.
Enjoy,
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
Useful examples on pawn play or weak square complexes are shown clearly in the older players games, then extremely similar situations are displayed in the games of Kramnik and Karpov. Everyone says study the games of the old masters but this book shows how to do it. I taught scholastic chess from 1986-2002. I wish I had this book available as just a few examples illustrate the heart and soul of positional play.
Excellent material for instructional use.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
This is a nifty little strategic primer, targeted at <1800 USCF (<140BCF) players. Many of the games are well-known and can be found in several other books, but McDonald has done a good job of collecting the most important and easy-to-understand games pertaining to any one of the six or seven themes he covers (rook on the 7th, pawn breakthrough, restraint, etc.) and giving enough verbal explanation so that a reader can understand the underlying logic of the game. I would have liked to have seen Rubinstein included among the giants but it would appear one can’t have everything.
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5