When my readers complain, I listen.
They complained about what I left out of Studying Chess Made Easy. In that book I explained that there was a less painful – and more beneficial – way to learn how to play the endgame:
There are some basic endings, with few pieces and pawns, that you can learn perfectly. You can always get the optimum result – a win or a draw – no matter how strong your opponent, I wrote.
And the good thing is there are only about two dozen of these ‘exact’ endgames that you must know. Once you master them, you can spend your scarce time on the more important endgame know-how, techniques.
These are the weapons, such as mismatches and opposition, shoulder blocking and zugzwang, that you use when there are more pieces and pawns on the board. That is, when it’s not yet an exact ending.
The complaint I got from readers?
“You didn’t tell us which exact endgames.”
“And you didn’t say which techniques.”
I also heard from my readers when I wrote What It Takes to Become a Chess Master. They were surprised – and somewhat pleased – to learn that the most important book knowledge was the middlegame techniques called strategic priyomes.
I gave some examples. But there are many other priyomes. Some are more important than others, I wrote.
The complaint from readers?
“You didn’t name the most important priyomes.”
This book will answer those complaints – and some others. It provides 100 specific examples of master trade secrets. It’s the kind of know-how you need to become a master. And it will help you set priorities in determining what you really need to study.
That’s difficult even for great players. Mikhail Botvinnik, for example, decided to study an obscure exact ending before the tournament that made him world champion. It was K+R+BP+RP -vs.-K+R.
Botvinnik felt that it was something he could study so deeply that he could play either side perfectly. He also felt that if he were going to become the world’s best player, he should know how to play this endgame.
But this ending is very, very rare. So let me say it one more time: There is an awful lot of things to study in chess. It’s a classic example of Too Much Information. You have to set priorities.
The first step to becoming a master is to separate the things you could know from what you should know – and from what you must know. In this book I’ve identified 25 examples each of the most valuable things to learn – priyomes, sacrifices, exact endings and endgame techniques.
There are things that every master knows – and it’s where every would-be master can start.