Chess Training Pocket Book II: 320 Key Positions for players of all levels

208 Pages·2008·8.34 MB·English

by  Lev Alburt

Chess Training
Pocket Book 0
Lev Alburt U Al Lawrence
ZOI3
Foreword
t:
o elements combine to make a strong chess player
ffective thinking skills and appropriate knowledge.
Let's compare an aspiring club player with his idol, the
chess master. The master can normally see farther and more
clearly, and he knows more about all stages of the game.
But our club player can close these twin gaps through
training and learning. The great world champion Emmanuel
Lasker, our longest-reigning chess king, famously suggested
that he could train any reasonably intelligent person to be a
chess master. But very few of us have the opportunity to study
with a world champion.
Luckily, we have books. Our book is designed to sys
tematically reinforce the knowledge you already have and to
fill the gaps in your chess knowledge, all the while training
you for the real thing-the game you want to win.
Chess thinking
This book will test, train, and sharpen your chess think
ing skills. You'll learn how to:
• Spot tactics;
•See clearly several moves ahead (and to know how
far ahead you should look);
• Evaluate positions accurately.
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This book will give you many additional thinking tips as
well. All together, it will teach you to "think like a grand
master.''
Chess knowledge
The book also addresses the second key element of suc
cess-knowledge. It will reinforce your existing knowledge
of many positions and ideas, and it will give you critical in
formation you still need to master. All knowledge is not
equal. Isolated bits of information must be built through
stages into an understanding of high-order rules and princi
ples. In chess terms, this book will tum what you already
know into your active knowledge, ready to use when you're
actually playing.
Don't be discouraged when you're stumped! Your not
being able to solve some of the exercises is part of the au
thors' plan, indicating gaps in your chess education. You'll
take the first step to bridge these gaps by studying the solu
tions and explanations to the positions that stymied you.
The content
This book is the sequel to the best-selling Chess Training
Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions and Ideas, first
published in 1997. There have been no revolutionary
changes in chess during the past 11 years. The themes, mo
tifs, and ideas in this book will be chiefly the same as those
in its predecessor. We present the same deflections to dis
cover, back-rank weaknesses to exploit, in-between moves to
reveal, minority attacks to organize, and so forth-illus
trated, of course, by a different set of instructive positions.
Some positions in this book have been selected from
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21st-century games; some are classics, carefully assessed by
grandmaster Alburt and colleagues, and literally thousands of
his students-and found to be particularly effective. Some
are lesser-known but valuable lessons from tournament play.
Some are from grandmaster games, including Alburt's own,
some from games of club players (including Lev Alburt's
students). Each diagram-distilled from thousands of
games!-holds something special, important and useful to
you in a real game. All have been selected for their instruc
tive value and have been carefully checked.
While it is a volume of grandmaster Alburt's Compre
hensive Chess Course: from beginner to master and beyond
series, this pocket book by itself contains the major portion
of all practical chess knowledge. It is designed to save you
thousands of hours you'd otherwise need to spend playing
and studying.
So read the introductory chapters, and then simply open
the book to any page-and have fun. Remember, it's not that
important to solve a position the first time you see it, al
though you should, of course, try. What is important is that
the position becomes part of your active knowledge, a piece
of cognition you can apply when appropriate-a helpful
friend for life.
Please let us know your comments and suggestions by
emailing [email protected].
-GM Lev Alburt, New York City, July 1, 2008
-Al Lawrence, Wallkill, New York, July 1, 2008
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Table of Contents
Foreword ........................................................ 4
Chess Notation ......... .. .... .. ... . .... .. ... .. ..... .. .. ....... 8
Chess Symbols .............................................. 10
Chapter One
Getting the most fron1 this book ...................... 11
Chapter Two
Tactics: the dirty dozen .................................... 29
Chapter Three
The 320 key positions ...................................... 33
Chess Clubs & Chess Equipment .................. 194
Index of Games ............................................. 196
Index of Themes ........................................... 200
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Chess Notation
Chess players around the world use "notation," a univer
sal system for reading and writing chess. It's easy to
learn, and once you know it, you 'II be able to decipher
quickly any book or newspaper article on chess.
The vertical columns of squares that run up and down
the board are called files and are lettered. The horizontal
rows of squares that run sideways are called ranks and are
numbered. The intersection of a file and rank gives a square
its name. Let's look at a board that gives the "address" of
every square:
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To make writing and reading chess fast, each piece is as
signed a single letter. In English, we use the abbreviations
on the right:
* King - K
'iW Queen Q
.i.. Bishop= B
-
Knight N
~
i. Rook - R
•
Pawn the file it's on
We number each set of White and Black moves. So, the
moves 1. e4 d5 mean that, on his very first move, White
pushed the pawn in front of his king forward two squares.
Then Black pushed the pawn in front of his queen ahead two
squares in response. Captures are normally marked with an
"x." So the notation 2. exd5 means that White captured the
pawn. But you may see notation that doesn't bother with the
"x," as in "2. ed5." That's okay too.
Some other examples: Qh5 means the queen moves to h5.
Castling short is written 0-0, while castling long is 0-0-0. If
you get to play b8(Q)+ (another way to write the same move
is b8=Q+ ), it means that you promoted your b-pawn to a
queen and gave check. May all your moves be so powerful!
Another special convention: Although the word "ex
change" means to trade, "Exchange" (with a capital "E")
means the trade of knight or bishop for a more-valuable
rook. A player who manages this trade "wins the Exchange."
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Chess svmbols
+- Whik has a decisive advantage.
± White has a clear advantage.
:t: Whi1L' has a slight advantage.
The chances are equal.
+ Black has a slight advantage.
+ Black has a clear advantage.
-+ Black has a decisive advantage.
1' A very good move
A good move
') A weak move
?? A hlunder
I'> An interesting or provocative move,
often involving some risk
'?! A dubious move
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Chapter One
Getting the most from this book
T
he diagrams in this book are arranged four on each
left-hand page. Their solutions appear on the facing,
right-hand page. All 320 positions have been care
fully selected and arranged, but not in a way that will give
you clues on what theme or tactical device should be em
ployed to find the best move, or even how difficult your
task may be.
The main purpose of this book, after all, is to train you
for real chess competition. In a serious game, no one will
announce that you can win a rook by use of a pin, or that
there is an elementary mate-in-one. In fact, in some of
these positions-as in actual chess games-there are no
tactics involved, and no outright win (or even draw) pos
sible. Your job is to find the best move under the circum
stances-which may mean choosing between a number of
equally good moves.
Using hints
When approaching a position, think for a few minutes
and decide on a move-and then look on the right-hand
page, but only at the title of the solution (often a hint), and
at the text in italics, if there is some, below it. Imagine
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