the complete book of chess strategy is an amateur's dream come true! Due to the overwhelming amount of strategic and tactical ideas in chess, students of the game buy dozens of chess books but still find it impossible to isolate the key points. Seeing the problems his students faced, Mr. Silman has created the first comprehensive strategic guide in dictionary form. Now all aspects of chess strategy, tactics, basic opening and endgame ideas, and even psychology are painlessly accessible to players of all degrees of strength. Each concept is listed alphabetically, accompanied by a clear, easy-to-absorb explanation and an example.

Studying has never been easier! Take this book to work, on vacation or, if you're a serious competitive player, to all your tournaments.' The world's best players make regular use of this information. With everything presented in simple, easy-to-understand language, Grandmaster techniques can finally become your technique too?

Introduction:

Years ago I heard a student lament that he wasn't able to read a chess book and digest its lessons in a proper way - he couldn't understand what the book was really trying to teach him.

I thought a lot about his complaint. It finally dawned on me that the vast majority of books are so filled with soulless rhetoric that it would take a genius to sift through the all the glittering rocks to find that one tiny bit of gold that may or may not be floating somewhere in its pages.

Positions and moves won't teach you much without carefully chosen words to fill in the gaps. Sadly, that's what most chess books are made of - positions and moves with little or no proper explanation.

One day I noticed another student diligently writing in a notebook. He explained that he would take the salient points of his studies and my lessons and write them down in a simple, easy to understand form. This way he could go to a tournament and review this material before his games. No digging was necessary, no hard work, just instant facts and strategies waiting at his fingertips.

This book is a more detailed version of that extremely practical notebook. All aspects of basic strategy and tactics are presented in a simple, easy to absorb manner. You look at the information you want to learn, it tells you what you need to know and gives you a quick illustration, and then you move on to the next fact.

I have presented the material in four parts: The Opening, The Middlegame, The Endgame, and Practical Matters. All the information in these sections is presented in alphabetical order so you can access it immediately.

Finally, I have added quizzes at the end of each section so you can test yourself and see if you really understood the material.

This book was written for players in the class "E" (pre-tournament or beginning tournament) through class "A" (experienced tournament) categories. It gives advice about chess psychology, tells you how to handle different types of structural problems, gives you the basics on all major openings, provides instruction for would be attackers, and...well, you name it, I've tried to address it!

My intention in writing this book is to help players who have nowhere else to turn, so let me know if I have succeeded in answering your questions. If I've overlooked some important subject, write to me (care of Siles Press) and I will add it to a future edition.

Jeremy Silman March 1998

Content:
xv Introduction

xvii Symbol Legend

xix Chess Notation

003 Basic Opening Strategy

004 Castling

005 Development

006 Financhetto

007 Opening Systems

101 Preparation

103 Reversed Openings

107 Opening Quizzes

111 Attack against the Enemy King

178 Blockade

181 Candidate moves and Imbalances

183 Centralization

184 Closed and Open Positions

188 Compensation

189 Counterplay

191 Defensive Strategy

192 Entombed Pieces

195 Initiative

197 Material Advantage

202 Minority Attack

206 Minor Pieces

220 Mysterious Rook Moves

222 Open Files

229 Overprotection

231 Pawn Center

233 Pawn Chain

235 Pawn Structure

255 Pawn Tension

257 Perpetual Check

259 Piece Activity

261 Plan

263 Principle of two weaknesses

265 Prophylaxis

267 Queenside Pawn Majority

270 Restriction

271 Space

272 Squares

273 Static versus dynamic advantages

276 Support points

279 Trading Pieces

280 Traps

281 Middlegame Quizzes

285 Bishop and wrong rook pawn

287 Cat and mouse

292 Exchanging

295 Minor pieces in the endgame

297 Passed pawns in the endgame

302 Queen and minor piece fights

304 Stalemate

306 Using the king

317 Using the rooks

337 Endgame Quizzes

335 Blunder

338 Draw offer 340 Point count 343 Psychology

345 Time Pressure

347 Quizzes on Practical Matters

349 ANSWERS TO QUIZZES