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 Modern Chess Planning
By Efstratios Grivas Grandmaster Efstratios Grivas lives in Athens and is also an International Arbiter and Organizer. He has represented his country on a great many occasions, winning an individual gold medal at the 1989 European Team Championship and an individual silver medal at the 1998 Olympiad. He is a FIDE Senior Trainer and an experienced writer. This is his sixth book for Gambit.
Good planning is central to good chess. A plan gives meaning to manoeuvres and tactical devices, forming a coherent whole that brings us closer to our goals. The modern understanding of chess planning has evolved considerably since the days of the "grand plan", whereby a player might even try to map out the whole course of the game. Nowadays, top-class players appreciate that the opponent's ideas also deserve respect, and our own plans must take them into account too. Modern grandmasters plan with great purpose but also flexibly, ready to adjust or even change direction completely when the situation demands it.
Grivas provides 75 superb practical examples where it is important to make the right plan. Once the critical position is reached, he guides you through the options and challenges you to find the right path. Detailed solutions are provided, with a full discussion of the pros and cons of the various options.
Grivas opens the book talking a little about plans, how to find the right plan, and how they fit into top class games. Then he shows a nice example that had a big impact on him in his early years. Next are 75 test positions, each position having its own page. The first 50 are from Grivas's own games, while the last 25 are from other strong players/tournaments. The moves of the game are given up to the point of the test position which is shown by a diagram. Here there is paragraph, "Judgement", which tells a little about the position. For example "After a colourless middlegame, White has exploited an inaccuracy by Black to obtain a superior endgame. This claim is based solely on White's better pawn-structure (weak isolated black d-pawn)." After this, three different plans are outlined. Now it is the reader's choice to choose the correct plan.
Each plan in the position is given a different score based on the strength of the chosen move. The answers not only explain the winning plan, but also show why the others were not best. After completing the tests in the book you can add up your scores and see your performance according to the chart included.
The experience gained from working on the wide range of positions included will be sure to develop a more professional approach towards planning in chess as well as significantly help the reader find the best plans faster in his or her own games. Highly recommended. |
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