The opening is reaching its end, and we must make a pivotal decision:
- What shall our middlegame strategy be?
- Do we seek an active plan to profit from our strengths and highlight the opponent’s weaknesses?
- Or do we adopt prophylaxis, attending to our own position’s shortcomings and hindering the opponent’s plans?
- Alternatively, are there any ready-made plans that we know from other games that can be tailored to fit our position?
The authors present 90 ‘multi-choice’ tests where the reader faces this task. In detailed solutions, they explain the best solution, and why other possibilities are less convincing. We develop a feel for how the decision is made, while painlessly building our ‘repertoire’ of plans in typical positions.
All the examples in this book arise from Queen’s Pawn or Flank Openings, and are arranged by opening and level of difficulty. Many are drawn from games by virtuoso strategists such as Karpov and Petrosian. In all cases, the game is annotated in full, so we see the consequences of the critical decision, while also appreciating the finer points of some of the most instructive games in chess history.
About the Authors
Grandmaster Alfonso Romero comes from Spain and was runner-up in the 1984/5 European Junior Championship. He has represented his country in several Olympiads, winning an individual bronze medal at the 2002 event. He wrote Creative Chess Strategy for Gambit.
Amador Gonzalez de la Nava is a FIDE Master. He is also from Spain, and is a chess teacher and writer.
Reviews
“It is in the realm of judgment and understanding that players progress up the ladder. One area that is especially difficult for many players is ‘closed positions’. Those positions have become the bread and butter of generations of titled players and the bane of aspiring folks in clubs. Ultimate Chess Strategy Book: Vol. 1 attends to the problem with a firmly guiding hand. … the solutions section makes the exercise much more complete. An explanation as to why or why not a move is made is clearly outlined by a player of GM strength. The remaining portion of the game after the critical position is delivered with some notes that help to hinge back to the critical position.” — Bill McGeary, www.chessville.com
“After studying this book you will not become a Grandmaster, but you will surely gain a lot of playing strength. An ideal training book for the ambitious player who wants to increase his knowledge of strategy!” — Martin Rieger, www.freechess.de
“For players of lower and medium ability, at whom the book is primarily aimed, one of the most difficult aspects of the game is the transition from opening to middlegame, when a plan has to be drawn up that meets the needs of the position. The majority of the 90 test positions presented here fall into that category and are thus helpful for developing the planning side of one’s game.” — Alan Sutton, En Passant