Chess strategy for club players pdf

In fact, it is very important to familiarize yourself with the basic chess strategy right from the beginning. Having steady tactics and chess strategy foundation will help you build a good chess understanding and improve as a player.

Chess strategy will teach you how to develop a position, how to identify and use in your favor the small pluses in a game. It will help you develop a healthy playing style and understand what to look for in the middlegame, once the opening phase is over. One of the things you have to understand right from the start is that the center of the board is of utmost importance.

In most cases, the side who controls the middle of the board better will keep a small advantage. This happens for a few reasons. On the other hand, a piece placed on the side of the board will have fewer and significantly less active squares to control or jump on. However, not all pieces need to be placed in the middle of the board in order to control it.

Some can do this from afar and be equally effective. To understand this better, think for example about knights.

They are short-range pieces and need to be well-placed in order to control important squares. They are long-range pieces and can usually do the same job most of the time even better! They cooperate better between each other, but can also be brought faster on the side they are needed on. In the same manner, the defending side will do so easier with central pieces. Be constantly on the look for better squares for your pieces and try to improve their position throughout the whole game.

Controlling the center and developing your pieces towards it is an important guideline, but you should not stop there. Usually, better, more active squares will become available for your pieces during a game and it is up to you to spot them and bring your pieces on them. In this sense, there are several ideas to keep in mind. Knights are strong on central squares, but they also need certain stability, which is usually provided by pawns. In this game, black used the bad position of the white queen and light-squared bishop with the move Nh5!

The idea is to occupy the square f4 with a gain of tempo, but this is not everything. White also needs to parry the threat of Ng3 with a double attack, as the f2 pawn is right now pinned by the black bishop on b6. Rooks are best placed on open or semi-open files.

If there are no such files in the position, they could be placed behind the central pawns, offering them support. White has just played Rab1, activating his rook by occupying the only semi-open file he has available in this position. He has done so with a gain of time, as now black will have to defend the pawn on b7.

This is another example of chess strategy for improving the rooks in the middlegame:. At the same time, the rook on d1 hits on the black pawn on d6, forcing his opponent to always keep an eye on it. His other rook has been placed on c1 — not an open file, but an important one, whatsoever. Author Herman Grooten. Sample Pages. Choose your edition selectedValues[attributeOption].

As low as. We ship to more than countries Expert customer service Money-back guarantee. With this book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on: how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan His teachings are based on the famous "Elements" of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion.

He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters. In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding: -- pawn structure -- piece placement -- lead in development -- open files -- weaknesses -- space advantage -- king safety -- exploiting small advantages.

The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises. Silman's Reassess Your Chess - Silman's book lays a good foundation for middlegame plans as a function of imbalaces. Nunn's Understanding Chess Middlegames - Nunn discusses different typical middlegame concepts with compelling, modern examples. Rios' Chess Structures: A Gandmaster Guide - Rios breaks down numerous basic pawn structures, showing you exactly how they should be treated.

Endgames are more suited to careful study than any other aspect of chess. Many fundamental endgames are likely to occur identically in multiple games for a typical player. Muller and Lamprecht's Fundamental Chess Endgames - This encyclopedic work is my go to resource when I need to review a specific endgame.

Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual - Dvoretsky's exhaustive manual explains the most critical endgame position in exhaustive detail. Nunn's Chess Endgames Vol. Shereshevsy's Endgame Strategy - This widely acknowledged classic dedicates chapters to key endgame topics such as the two bishops, the 3 vs.

Muller's How to Play Chess Endgames - Muller's book reads very much like a modern take on Shereshevsky's book; it's a very good take. Game Collections. Game collections are some of the most popular chess books. Many are outstanding reads, but it's hard to single out game collections as being more or less instructive. However, the following two books will go a long way to help novice players understand the general trends, logics, and motivations that go into each move of a chess game.

Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move - Chernev breaks down 33 classic master games from move 1 to the end. Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move - Nunn's book is clearly conceptually similar to Chernev's, but Nunn explicitly addresses complex, dynamic games that are more representative of modern chess.

Studying chess patterns only goes so far. The rubber must meet the road. Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what? With this new edition of his award winning book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions and how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan.