John Bartholomew Recommended Books

The legendary Mikhail Tal was the finest ever exponent of attacking chess. His all-out sacrificial style took him all the way to the World Championship title. Dogged by ill-health, Tal's reign was a short one, and he was never able to regain his crown, but Tal remained an outstanding player right up to his death in 1992. His departure has taken away one of the chess world's most charismatic figures; a player who excited chess passions wherever he went. In this, his last book, written together with Russian sports journalist Iakov Damsky, Tal shows how to unleash devastating attacks in all kinds of positions.

There is much published on chess tactics, strategy, openings and endings, but little on how to come up with imaginative solutions through logical thinking and evaluation. This book is dedicated to that task and provides over 700 'fresh' positions, incorporating a variety of schemes of thought for the reader to solve. The examples emphasise the power of logical and resourceful thinking, quick wit and imagination. In each chapter the author presents little-explored concepts, such as progressive and reciprocal thinking, to help the reader achieve decisive results and to make fewer mistakes in calculation.The material has been accumulated by the author over many years as a trainer and will be of great benefit to competitive players seeking to improve their methods of thinking.

A book for chess players who want to build their skills on solid foundations. Yusupov guides the reader towards a higher level of chess understanding using carefully selected positions and advice. This new understanding is then tested by a series of puzzles.Artur Yusupov was ranked No. 3 in the world from 1986 to 1992, just behind the legendary Karpov and Kasparov. He has won everything there is to win in chess except for the World Championship. In recent years he has mainly worked as a chess trainer with players ranging from current World Champion Anand to local amateurs in Germany, where he resides.

The chess instruction establishment claims that all you need to do is concentrate on the characteristics of a position. Stick to some rules of thumb and good moves will pop up more or less automatically. But that is not how it works, finds International Master Willy Hendriks. Chess players, both weak and strong, don't first make a plan before looking at candidate moves. Trial and error is a very common and in fact highly effective way to get to the best move. In his journey into the chessplaying mind, Hendriks uses recent scientific insights in the working of our brain. He raises a number of intriguing questions: Can you, too (whether you are talented or not), become a grandmaster? Why does a chess trainer's advice often sound like a horoscope? Can you find strong moves by ticking off a todo list? Is it possible to reach master level without ever making a plan? Presents a wealth of valuable, nononsense training material. In this refreshing, entertaining and highly instructive book, Willy Hendriks shows how you can travel light on the road to chess improvement!"

International Master Jonathan Hawkins was a relatively slow starter in the world of chess. Learning the game at the age of eight, he was a keen junior who won a number of local tournaments. But by his own admission, ‘by the time I was in my mid-teens my age-to-playing-strength ratio was distinctly average.’He started to study chess very seriously in his late teens and achieved a rapid rise through the ranks. He became a FIDE Master in 2008 and earned the title of International Master in 2010. 2011 brought Jonathan two Grandmaster norms. One of them was earned at the super-strong British Championship, in which he outscored numerous Grandmasters to share third place.How did Jonathan Hawkins manage to go from being an average tournament competitor to a player on the brink of clinching the Grandmaster title? It took just three years for him to become a FIDE Master, an International Master and to achieve his first two Grandmaster norms.The secret was knowing what to study and how to learn as efficiently as possible. Focusing his attention firmly on the endgame, Jonathan devised a number of building blocks and identified a number of very important areas of study. The result of his hard work was a meteoric rise through the ranks, as he became firmly established as a prominent GM killer on the English tournament circuit.These pages reveal the secrets of his notebooks for the first time. IM Hawkins presents special material aimed to help you become a much better practical player, one armed with a deeper understanding of key aspects of chess.A careful study of the lessons presented in this book should enable the chess student to gain a significant improvement in both performance and rating.