Jeremy Silman

For more than 100-years, the best chess players and coaches have advised their students to study the endgame. Now there is a revolutionary endgame book for players of all skill levels. Silman's Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master by the famous author and player Jeremy Silman is the only endgame book you need on the way from beginner to strong tournament player to master. Silman's book speaks to its readers directly and personally and tells chess...

One very important strategy in any game is to develop your pieces as quickly as possible. Once developed, open and closed board positions require very different strategic approaches. Study these differences and find out how to use your knights, bishops, or rooks for greatest success-and how best to get those pieces into play.

So far the course has focused on tactics, but tactics are not the most important element of the game. Begin the first of several lessons on positional play and chess strategy, starting with the rooks. Learn why and how to create an open file and employ your rooks to best advantage. See examples of these mighty pieces at work.

Many people believe openings are the most important part of the game, but as you'll learn in this lesson, this belief is wrong on many levels. Here, you'll encounter a few simple strategies for developing your pieces and getting to the middle of the game. Learn a few opening repertoires to get into the game rather than just memorizing a sequence of moves.

Castling is an excellent strategy, but a castled king is not invincible. Explore some of the patterns that can be used to checkmate a castled king-particularly using square H7. Look at when to sacrifice a bishop, how to use your queen to go on the hunt, and how pieces must work in partnership for success.

This course has covered much ground, and in this lesson, you'll begin putting all the pieces together. Learn to read the board for imbalances, and then discover how to put those imbalances to work. A wealth of examples teaches you to understand "the body language of the board"-a skill that separates the amateurs from the players.

From kings and queens to ordinary workers, from family living rooms and local chess parlors to online gamers around the world, chess is a truly universal pastime. Discover the basics of the game, what each piece is worth and how it moves, and the mathematical notation that allows people to connect across social class, language barriers, and national boundaries.

Continue your study of endgames, especially those involving the king and one or more pawns. Here you'll find out how to avoid-or create-stalemates and draws, as well as the critical techniques for getting pawns to the end of the board-or blocking those dangerous pawn movements.

Build your arsenal of tactical skills by looking for winning patterns on the board. After covering three go-to punches-pins, skewers, and forks-Mr. Silman turns to decoys, double attacks, discovered attacks, and more. Armed with these patterns of play, you now have a major tactical advantage.