Mastering Chess Positional Play Techniques - Strategies for Winning Games | Improve Your Chess Skills for Tournaments & Casual Play

It's still early November. Yet I'll be surprised if a better chess book is released in 2013 for the advance club player than Techniques of Positional Play by Valeri Bronznik and Anatoli Terekhin.This is not a book for novices. Nor is it an introduction to the principles of positional chess. This is instead an excellent primer on the development of positional chess technique.The very first technique is an excellent example: how to use a duo of wing pawns to paralyze the enemy knight. Ten examples follow. The next technique explores other ways of dominating knights with another eight examples.This book is an English translation and adaptation of a Russian classic from FM Anatoli Terekhin. IM Bronznik has done a very effective job of organizing the book. The forty-five techniques are presented in ten chapters:1.Restricting the enemy pieces2.Creating breathing space for your pieces!3.The clash between pawn formations4.The rook pawn - an underrated fighter5.Techniques in the fight for an open file6.Some aspects of piece exchanges7.Working with the king8.Developing and activating the pieces9.Along the diagonals10.Other methodsThere's also a small collection of practical exercises.There is a brief introduction to each technique. Most are priyomes, so many also include an introductory diagram. A priyome, you ask? It's a Russian word for essential positional patterns.For club players to improve, middlegame and endgame understanding is essential. If you work through the examples in this book with a chessboard in front of you, your chess technique is sure to be enhanced.Strongly recommended for all advanced club and tournament players!