Now available from New in Chess

Planning Move by Move

“Planning is of crucial importance in chess and yet this is an area that has not been well discussed or explained to ambitious players who wish to improve. A very well known saying in chess is “Better a bad plan than no plan at all”. Playing without a plan – effectively staggering from one move to the next – is a recipe for disaster. It is essential to have some kind of idea of what you are trying to achieve and how to go about it.

However, planning is not a straightforward matter. A good plan might be very short, lasting just two or three moves. Another plan might require almost an entire game to implement. A plan can be highly ambitious and complex or somewhat modest and simple. In chess, as in life, circumstances can change quickly and when they do, new plans are needed. How is a player expected to juggle all these different concepts while dealing with the immediate problems posed by the opponent’s most recent move?”

Chess Logic in Practice-IM Kislik,E

“Chess-players understand that it is vital to play logically, but often lack the methods needed to do so. In this book, renowned trainer Erik Kislik presents a wide range of specific concepts that will help them succeed. These include positional techniques, thinking methods, and modes of play to adopt when either better or worse.

Just the list of chapter titles shows how original Kislik’s presentation is. They include:

• Painfully Slow Moves
• Focal Points
• Reciprocal Logic
• Fighting against Centralized Pieces
• When Playing a Bad Move Wins a Good Game
• A Chronically Weak King

Throughout, the discussion is illustrated by a mass of examples from both recent elite chess and the play of Kislik and his students, showing how his themes cut across all levels of chess. After the book’s two main sections – Thinking Concepts and Positional Concepts – comes a section of exercises, again with a strikingly original theme: our task is simply to assess each position.”