Grooten, Chess Strategy for Club Players

First find the right plan, then the good moves will follow!

Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what

With this book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on:

how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions
how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan

His teachings are based on the famous Elements of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion. He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters.

In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding:
-- pawn structure
-- piece placement
-- lead in development
-- open files
-- weaknesses
-- space advantage
-- king safety.

You will master the art of converting a temporary plus into other, more permanent advantages.

The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises.

Herman Grooten, is an International Master and a chess coach with over 25 years of experience. Quite a few of his pupils have gone on to become grandmasters, among them Loek van Wely and Jan Werle.

Contents

Foreword by Jan Timman 7

Preface 8

Chapter 1: Steinitz s Elements 9
Chapter 2: The eye of the grandmaster 21
Chapter 3: Thought process and line of thinking 34
Chapter 4: Material advantage 49
Chapter 5: Weakened king position 67
Chapter 6: Passed pawn 81
Chapter 7: Weak pawns 100
Chapter 8: Training experiment 112
Chapter 9: Strong and weak squares 126 Chapter 10: The pawn is lands theory 147
Chapter 11: The pawn centre 161
Chapter 12: The diagonal 180
Chapter 13: Quiz: strong square 206
Chapter 14: The open file 211
Chapter 15: The bishop pair 226
Chapter 16: Con trol of a rank 239
Chapter 17: A piece out of play 253
Chapter 18: Quiz: open file 268
Chapter 19: Harmony and coordination 272
Chapter 20: Lead in development 287
Chapter 21: Centralization 306
Chapter 22: Space advantage 318
Chapter 23: Quiz: space advantage 335
Chapter 24: Solutions 339
Chapter 25: Epilogue 403

Bibliography 408

About the author 409

Index of Players 410