M. Ashley: THE MOST VALUABLE SKILLS IN CHESS
159 Seiten, kartoniert, Gambit, 1. Auflage 2009,
 
From the basic moves to winning your first games – and beyond
New user-friendly ebook feature: each diagram is also a link to a lichess analysis board of that position!
 
"Ashley has a way of talking about the game that engages his audience." - Rick Kennedy, ChessVille
 
Assuming no knowledge of chess beyond the rules, Maurice Ashley guides you on an inspirational journey through the world of chess tactics. He brings the pieces to life by examining their fundamental characteristics, and shows how their powers can be put to use to win pieces or give checkmate - the building-blocks upon which all chess skills are based.
Ashley writes: “the approach is unique because it is basically me: the way I teach, the way I talk about chess, the way I think. You’ll find my love for the martial art aikido in these pages, as well as my ridiculous love for sports, story-telling and teaching.” But his approach is not just entertaining: teams under Ashley’s guidance have won nine national junior championships. His charismatic teaching methods are the stuff of legend - and are to be the subject of a movie. This book makes his ideas and material available to all: teachers and students alike.
He has been called the Tiger Woods of chess. In 1999, Maurice Ashley became the first African-American to qualify for the elite Grandmaster title, an achievement that was widely reported in the international media, including Time magazine, USA Today, New York Times, Sports Illustrated and The Times (London). Ashley is one of the highest-profile figures in American chess, and has commentated on the game for ESPN and Channel Four Television (UK). He sees chess as playing a role in helping at-risk youth, and has coached a number of junior teams to victory in national championships, most famously the Raging Rooks of Harlem. In 2003 he was named Grandmaster of the Year by the US Chess Federation.
 
"Ashley presents a very novel approach to teaching beginners the basics of the game. It's clear a lot of time and thought have gone into the material presented and it's great to see a really entertaining book for beginners in the shops" - GM Stephen Gordon
"Especially produced for learners, though the average club player may also benefit, if utilizing it as a refresher course" - Bab Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad
"this book is not only about explaining the utter basics, but also about having fun with chess and with analysing chess games. And that's just why Ashley's book is so nice. He wants his readers to enjoy chess ... And this, of course, is the most valuable skill of all." - Arne Moll, ChessVibes
"The seven basic skills really are quite basic but they are explained through a generous helping of diagrams and there are simple test positions to assess one's progress and understanding." - Alan Sutton, En Passant
 
"I know my chess juniors have always reacted well to his commentaries, spoken in a way that suggests he's reporting from a worldwide cataclysmic event. Fans of his audio style will be delighted to hear that the same sort of approach is applied to his written work too, albeit it in slightly lesser force." - Sean Marsh, MarshTowers
"American grandmaster Maurice Ashley has a florid, persuasive style of writing which turns the learning of basic ideas into good fun." - John Saunders, British Chess Magazine
Introduction
When I was first asked to do a beginner's book, I felt a bit uneasy. It seemed to me that I had nothing to add to the numerous quality books already in print. Just to slap my name and grandmaster title onto the same old rehashed material seemed boring, and in some way, a bit dishonest. It took a long time for the ideas you now hold in your hands to hit me over the head and insist that they be written. I can't say that all the material is entirely origbut the approach is unique because it is basically me: the way I teach, the way I talk about chess, the way I think. You'll also find in these pages my ridiculous love for sports, story-telling and teaching.
But most of all, you'll find my love for chess. Writing this book for beginners forced me to look very closely at little things about the game. This process led to pleasurable discovMy friends seemed bewildered when I called them up in delightful amazement to tell them how I had just discovered for the first time that a nearby king can only attack a bishop from one square. I could hear them thinking, "Maurice, you're a grandmaster. Surely there's some complicated opening variation you should be studying."
Yes, maybe. But chess is built on those tiny observations that grandmasters not only love to notice but find a way to use magically in their games. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trivial-sounding realizations add up to grand awareness and sudden insight. Complimoves and ideas come from a thorough understanding of the simple ones. It's no wonder that the great Cuban World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca, whose style seemed as effortless as stroking a cat, insisted that students first study the endgame. Forget about memorizing openings, he insisted, for they go out of fashion fairly quickly. But the intrinproperties of the pieces won't change for as long as we have chess as we know it.
This book is a primer on tactics that goes from the basic to the complex. Part 1 covers the basic skills every chess-player should have at his or her fingertips. Each position is meant to serve a long-term purpose. Make sure you understand each diagram before going on to the next. And, when you are all done, I hope you go through it once more. Trust me: it pays to refresh your fundamentals. Eventually you'll see that the crazy jungle of tactical ideas is not so crazy after all.
The second part of the book covers five of the greatest games ever played. More than just entertainment, they are meant to teach you how the basic skills you learnt in Part 1 come together to make real works of art. Do not be fooled by the years in which these games were played. Works of art, like the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo, are timeless.
At the beginning of any new journey, there is a sense of anticipation and excitement. I hope that's why you came to chess, and why you picked up this book. It is my wish that I'll be able to enhance those feelings, and open a door to a world of wonder that I experience continually whenever I look at a chessboard. And I hope, most of all, that this book is an inspiring first step on the thousand-mile journey that is chess.
 
Gewicht:300 g
Hersteller: Gambit
Breite 17,2 cm
Höhe  24,6 cm
Erscheinungsjahr    2009
Autor: GM Maurice Ashley
Sprache: Englisch
Auflage 1
ISBN-13 - 9781904600879
Seiten :159
Einband: kartoniert
 
INHALT:
 
005 Symbols
006 Introduction
Part 1: The Basic Skills
007 1 The Hunters
007 Long-Range Pieces
007 The Queen
010 The Rook
014 The Bishop
016 Short-Range Pieces
016 The Knight
022 The King
026 The Pawn
029 Exercises
031 2 Crowd Control
031 Liberty or Death
036 A Tale of Two Positions
038 Exercises
040 3 Float Like a Butterfly
041 The Landmine Exercise
047 Give-Away Chess
048 Exercises
050 4 Dollars and Sense
050 Up or Down
051 Table of Values
053 Cinderella
057 The Officers
060 Exercises
062 5 Wall Street
062 Fair Trades
066 Bad Trades
067 Proper Sequencing
071 Exercises
073 6 Homeland Security
073 The TRIP Method of Defence
073 Take
074 Run
077 Interpose
079 Protect
091 Exercises
092 7 Regicide
092 The Bear Hug
095 Quad Mates
097 Back-Rank Mate
101 Exercises
Part 2: The Fabulous Five: The Skills in Action
104 Paul Morphy - Duke of Brunswick / Count Isouard, Paris 1858
112 Wilhelm Steinitz - Curt von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
121 Mikhail Botvinnik - Milan Vidmar, Nottingham 1936
126 Donald Byrne - Robert Fischer, New York 1956
133 Bent Larsen - Boris Spassky, Belgrade 1970
138 Solutions to Exercises
154 Glossary
157 Dedication
157 Acknowledgements
158 Index of Games