Winning Chess Manoeuvres: Strategic Ideas that Masters Never Fail to Find [Paperback]

A wonderful goldmine of strategic ideas that anyone should know who wishes to improve at chess. New in Chess deserves praise for commissioning this work. The Azeri Grandmaster aims to help the reader increase their own stockpile of strategic ideas, such as the queen and bishop battery or the many typical ways in which a blockade may be broken. Both highly original and highly instructive (..) I give this one five out of five stars and recommend that anyone who is serious about improving at chess purchases this book and works through it. I learned so much new from this book! A treat of a history book, a deep source of chess knowledge and a collection of ideas to cherish and to return to time and again. Fascinating maneuvers and amazing counter play ideas. Guliev shows that (grand)masters are standing on the shoulders of the greats from the past. With interesting lessons about the art of the exchange, the positional sacrifice, how to make a plan when you have double pawns, etc. Guliev also points out in which situations you have to do exactly the opposite of what one would expect. When a chess master finds a winning strategic idea it is seldom by accident. An amateur, staring at a position on the chess board is often fumbling in the dark, his head spinning with a multitude of general rules and vague notions. The master's approach is concrete. He knows how and where to look, because he has studied the games of other masters.
Sarkhan Guliev presents a wide range of strategic manoeuvres that have been repeatedly employed by great chess players. He shows how masters generate ideas from the games of other masters: positional sacrifices, amazing counterplay concepts, unorthodox exchanges, winning with h2-h4, overcoming a blockade, the advantages of double pawns, the e5 pawn wedge, the uses of the queen-bishop battery, and much more.