Filtres

Checkmate ends the game – that’s an undeniable fact. Yet one sometimes gains the impression that players who gleefully and unashamedly play for the attack are treated as a joke by their colleagues. Launching a successful attack is a skillful business that often demands great creativity. And like most themes in chess, this is a skill that can be honed and polished. In this second DVD in the Power Play series, Grandmaster Daniel King looks at attacking play and asks, what makes for a successful attack? At the end of the DVD you can test your attacking and defensive skills by examining a series of specially selected test positions. The Power Play series is suitable for anyone looking to improve their chess, but also provides ready-made lessons and exercises for a trainer.  Video running time: 4h 56min

You think you have seen enough checkmating combinations? I find it staggering how many checkmates are missed (by both sides) in games by the top players, let alone by us mortals. Recognising the early outlines of mating patterns is a vital skill, not just for an attacker, but for a defender too: surviving wave after wave of threats can be discouraging for your opponent. Very often we see these checkmates when they are put before our eyes: on a puzzle page in a chess magazine, for example. But then we must ask ourselves, why do these kind of mating combinations occur time and again in games – at all levels? In an actual game, when we are distracted by other factors – positional, strategic, tactical and psychological, not to mention our old friend time pressure – it is all too easy to miss these mating combinations. No one stands behind us whispering ‘Stop! It is mate in 3’ (unless you are cheating and someone has flicked on Fritz.) Moreover, these critical moments often occur late in the game – generally near the time control. Therefore it is vital that we are able to recognise these patterns – quickly! There is no excuse: now is the time to revise and rehearse those mating patterns.

What is a squeeze? When you take control of a game, deprive your opponent of counterplay and slowly squeeze the life out of your opponent. The motto of the squeeze could be: “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” from The Art of War, Sun Tzu, Chinese general, born c. 500 BC This DVD will help you to recognise when a squeeze is possible and how to execute it.

The Hedgehog is not just an opening, it is a system. A system that can be used against 1 c4, against 1 e4 and also 1 d4. Some players, such as the Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Andersson, appear to play very little else with the black pieces. Black’s pieces curl up behind a row of pawns on the third rank and invite White to attack – at which point they spring out from behind the barricades to give the aggressor a nasty shock. The Hedgehog can easily transform into a tiger... This is modern chess.