The Ultimate Chess Strategy Book Volume 1 Alfonso Romero and Amador Gonzalez de la Nava [lAJi!irB II T I First published in the UK by Gambit Publications Ltd 2008 Copyright © Alfonso Romero and Amador Gonzalez de la Nava 2008 The right of Alfonso Romero and Amador Gonzalez de la Nava to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchas er. ISB N-13: 97 8-1-904600-84-8 ISBN- l O: 1-904600-84-0 DISTRIBUTION: Worldwide (except USA): Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, England. Tel +44 (0)20 8986 4 854 Fax +44 (0)20 8533 5821. E-mail:
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[email protected] .com Website (regularly updated): www.gambitbooks.com Edited by Graham Burgess Typeset by John Nunn Cover image by Wolff Morrow Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Gambit Publications Ltd Managing Director: Murray Chandler GM Chess Director: Dr John Nunn GM Editorial Director: Graham Burgess FM German Editor: Petra Nunn WFM Webmaster: Dr Helen Milligan WFM Contents Symbols 4 Foreword by Veselin Topalov 5 Preface 6 Tests 1-90 7 Solutions 68 Index of Players 206 Index of Openings 207 Symbols + ++ # " 1') ')1 ? '),) +- ± ;j; =+= =+= -+ Ch Cht Wch Wcht Ech Echt Ct IZ Z ECC OL jr tt 1-0 112_1/2 0-1 (n) (D) check double check checkmate brilliant move good move interesting move dubious move bad move blunder White is winning White is much better White is slightly better the position is equal Black is slightly better Black is much better Black is winning championship team championship world championship world team championship European championship European team championship Candidates event interzonal zonal European Clubs Cup olympiad junior event team event the game ends in a win for White the game ends in a draw thc game ends in a win for Black nth match game see next diagram Foreword by Veselin Topalov This first volume of The Ultimate Chess Strategy Book, covering Closed Openings, is a practical book for every chess amateur who wants to improve his knowledge of chess strategy. This is, with out a doubt, a key step in the improvement of the chess-player, in addition to training in calculating variations. The approach of this work is original. It is not only a book with practical exercises . The au thors introduce a critical position (there are 90 in this first volume) and they ask the reader how to continue the game by choosing one of severa l candidate moves. All them are very logical, so it is difficult to find the strongest move and there is a very strict scoring system. As a matter of fact, sometimes we see in the solutions that the protagonists of the model game didn ' t fi nd the best possible move. In the solutions, the authors explain the shortcomings of this and that choice and the suitability of the candidate move, besides providing extensive analysis , giving on some occa sions supp lementary materi