terça-feira, 20 de janeiro de 2009

USCFSales.com Weekly Newsletter, January 21 - 27, 2009


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Issue #106
January 21 - 27

Welcome to the USCFSales.com weekly newsletter. You can keep up-to-date with new product releases, read reviews of selected products, and follow the latest news from the U.S. Chess Federation. Plus, try your hand at solving our weekly puzzle. Enjoy!

Here & There
at ChessCafe.com

Central Pawns
While studying Efstratios Grivas book Practical Endgame Play: Mastering the Basics, Karsten Mueller had some doubts concerning one of the examples. In this month’s Endgame Corner, he hands the microphone over to Grivas who came up with a corrected version.

Piece Safety
This month Dan Heisman looks at the five ways to make a piece safe and makes some strong generalizations about each that should prove helpful if analysis fails to reveal which is best in a given situation.

Rule Changes
As promised last month, Geurt Gjissen outlines the major changes to the Laws of Chess that will go into affect as of July 1, 2009, but will they really result in banning babies from the playing hall?

Book Notes

In Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 3, John Watson focuses on the English Opening and helps chess players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. He explains the ideas and strategies behind the opening as well as the interconnections of chess openings taken as a whole.

In the revised second edition of Let’s Play Chess, you will find the rules, the logic, some of the culture and history, and the basic principles of good chess play. You will see how chess players think about their moves. The stress is on understanding, not memory and there are plenty of diagrams for almost every idea.



Our January $9.95 Sale is a great way to experience big savings on some great books. We have no less than nine volumes of Chess Informant discounted more than $26.00 and a dozen other best selling titles all available for just $9.95!

Reviews in Brief

Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 3
by John Watson

The first volume focused on king’s pawn openings and the second investigated queen’s pawn openings and the structures to which they lead. This third volume covers the English Opening and related structures. The author also promises a fourth volume “devoted to a selection of the remaining chess openings,“ including subjects such as choosing an opening, opening preparation, and how to study openings.

Watson states that the English is “wonderful grounds for the study of positional ideas that encompass the entire range of chess practice.” He discusses the ideas and principles of play from the very first moves “in order to explain the elementary properties of the English Opening” and notes that the opening lends itself to a “broader conceptual approach” that allows for an increased role of verbal explanation.

However, this book will appeal to more than just beginner players, because the complexity of the material increases as Watson delves deeper into particular positions. He writes that the relative scarcity of the opening in practice has allowed him to present much more up-to-date material and original analysis than in previous volumes and that his objective is to appeal to both the beginner and those “familiar with a good deal of theory.”

The publication of this series is a bellwether event in chess publishing, and all players should avail themselves of the opportunity to read these books.

 

 

Multiple Choice Chess 2
by Graeme Buckley

Multiple Choice Chess 2 presents twenty games, arranged by theme, among five chapters: Mating Attacks, Attack is the Best Form of Defense, A Crossfire of Bishops, Rooks and Pawns vs. Minor Pieces, and Endings Made to Look Easy. IM Buckley starts off with the opening moves and then invites the reader to work out the next move from up to four candidates in each position.

What follows is an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of each choice with an evaluation in points for each one. Bonus points are awarded for ideas and variations, tactics and strategies found within the explanations. At the end of each game a scoring table is provided to measure your results. This is a very practical series for improvement.

 

New Catalog Additions

1/20: Let’s Play Chess
1/19: Mastering the Chess Openings, Vol. 3
1/14: Questions of Modern Chess Theory (restock)
1/8: New York 1924
1/1: January Competition Special
1/1: January Scholastic Special
12/31: January $9.95 Sale
12/24: Kaissiber 33
12/16: ChessBase Magazine #127 (DVD)
12/14: Power Play 8: Knights and Bishops (DVD)
12/13: New In Chess Magazine, 2008/8


Weekly Puzzle

 

Quote of the Week


White to Move/Solution Below

 

To have strong tactics we must have strong strategy on one side and accurate calculation on the other.

Garry Kasparov,
How Life Imitates Chess


Monthly Specials January 2009

For the January Competition Special, we are pleased to offer How to Get the Edge against the Gruenfeld by Konstantin Sakaev for the incredible USCF member price of $9.95! - a savings of $17.00!

The author uses complete games to illustrate contemporary ideas in a system forged by Bronstein and Geller and used with deadly precision by Spassky. Sakaev is a leading theoretician and his analyses offer a unique insight into the theory of the Gruenfeld.


For the January Scholastic Special, we are pleased to offer a great book to improve your tactical skills: Chess School 3:  More Advanced Combinations  for the incredible USCF member price of $9.95! - a savings of $15.00!

From many years of experience in teaching young players and observing the successful work of trainers, it has been found that an essential training exercise for improvement in the calculation of variations is the solving of specially selected positions.

These Specials of the Month are good from January 1 - January 31, 2008. Orders may be placed online, by mail or by phone. These Specials of the Month may be withdrawn at any time and are good only while supplies last.


New at Chess Life Online

Just a month before his big match, Gata Kamsky is warming up in a super grandmaster tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Corus Chess 2009. Also, the number one article in Best of Chess Life Online 2008 is “Tulsa Fight Club” by GM Jesse Kraai. Judges praised Kraai’s prose style, metaphors and his passionate defense of choosing chess as a career.

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Puzzle Answer: 20.Nf6! 1-0 Filippov-Volzhin, Gistrup 1996 (Source: Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 3)

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