Introduction
Chess is one of the most difficult and beautiful games man has everinvented and played, it has been intriguing people all over the world since ancient times. Chess is a school of strategy and tactics. Thanks to rules that do not find the counterparts in reality around us as well as the need of calculating variants, chess can make players develop abstract thinking and imagination. It is a source of aesthetic experience. Chess let us develop and exercise our intellect and shape our character. It teaches such things as patience, respect for work, knowledge and talent, resistance to failures and the ability to control emotions. It is a school of taking responsibility for decisions. Like every game, chess triggers the will to compete, it lets players eliminate coincidence and allows them to influence the course of events.
Despite some undoubted elements of sports rivalry, chess is also a kind of art. An impressive combination or a beautifully composed study fills fans with admiration and remains in their memory, regardless of their level or advancement in ‘chess craftsmanship’.
The main goal of chess is to checkmate, namely creating a situation in which the attacked king of the opponent cannot hide from the attack, escape from the attacked square or deprive the opponent of the attacking piece. Various ways of checkmating and ways of reaching a checkmating position are the subject of this book. This publication is a unique collection of 1,400 diagrams taken from the practice of chess masters and grandmasters from many countries and different times as well as examples coming from the authors’ own experience.
The degree of difficulty of individual tasks is so varied that every chess player can enjoy solving them, regardless of their skill level. In the book there are simple examples of chess tactics, classic endings, beautiful combinations that have forever gone down in the history of chess; there are also studies, etudes and chess compositions, and it is a reflection of the ideas which are contained in all of them transferred to tournament practice.
The reader can learn a variety of ways of mating, from the simplest one or two moves to mating in 262 moves. The layout of the book has been designed so that the book can be used even without a chessboard in most cases. This publication presents the beauty, richness and variety of possibilities inherent in chess, especially in the last stage of the game when the end is a checkmate.a checkmate while losing a significant number of pieces; yet, it just prolongs the does not influence the final result. In the solutions to those tasks you find continuations,
All presented combinations end with checkmate. The only exception is the last section, in which most of the items are studies and problems. The weaker player may avoid a checkmate while losing a significant number of pieces; yet, it just prolongs the end but does not influence the final result. In the solutions to those tasks you find continuations, which lead to checkmate if the weaker player plays correctly and logically.
The symbols used in commentary should make it easy to check your own ideas with the given solutions.
We hope the book will provide readers with deep satisfaction and it will be a perfect textbook for beginners and entertainment for advanced players as well as a help for chess instructors working with the young adept at chess playing.
