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Improve Your Chess - by Learning from the Champions by Lars Bo Hansen
"DRUM ROLL ... announcing one of the very best authors of the past decade, GM Lars Bo Hansen. His four books, from 2005 to 2009, contain more useful comments, more secrets, and more ideas to win more games than anything else I have read, by one author, in ... ever!" - Bob Long, Gilbert & Lange
In this book Lars Bo Hansen shows how chess understanding has evolved and explains how and why a study of the great champions of the past and present will significantly improve your chess. Although modern chess is a highly concrete game where calculation is paramount and principles often appear to take a back seat, Hansen argues that the principles have become implicit at top “you cannot win games only by following Steinitz’s or Nimzowitsch’s principles, but you will certainly lose games if you don’t know these principles!”
“If you want to reach the heights, you should study the entire history of chess. I can’t give any clear logical explanation for it, but I think it is absolutely essential to soak up the whole of chess history.” - Vladimir Kramnik
Hansen shows that pattern recognition - one of the most vital aspects of chess mastery - is built up highly effectively by studying historic games, and cites many examples which will immediately form part of your armoury. Building upon the structure of his acclaimed work How Chess Games are Won and Lost , Hansen also argues that the transitions opening-to-middlegame and middlegame-to-endgame are best understood by studying the games of the great champions.
Throughout the book, the emphasis is firmly on improving your chess, and equipping you to improve your chess further by studying on your own. At the same time, you will enjoy a feast of the most instructive chess games of all time - both classical and modern. The final chapter discusses the future development of chess style.
Lars Bo Hansen is a well-known grandmaster from Denmark. He has won the Danish Championship on two occasions, and represented his country in four olympiads, winning a bronze medal for his individual performance in 1990. His many tournament victories include first prize in the strong Copenhagen Open in both 1997 and 2000. Away from the board, he teaches and lectures on business studies, with a particular focus on marketing, organization and strategy. This is his fourth book for Gambit.
"Lars Bo Hansen presents the reader with a frankly excellent coverage of the developments our game has seen. It's quite difficult to explain the content, because to be honest, there's a bit of everything. I really like this work! There are many excellent observations that Hansen makes throughout and there's also a brilliant final chapter, discussing 'chess in the future' which makes this a very unique work! Some of the best annotations I've seen are here in this book and so I could recommend this to anyone" - GM Stephen Gordon
"Highly recommended. This is Lars Bo's fourth book for Gambit and the most instructive, especially due to the well-chosen game selection ... will help 99% of players get a proper chess education" - GM Sune Berg Hansen, Politiken
"authors that are always worth buying and reading include Jonathan Rowson, John Watson and, as I discovered only a year ago, Lars Bo Hansen ... a remarkable ability to make connections and switches between past and present, practical and theoretical, personal and objective without ever losing the thread of his story. ... another wonderful book which is both extremely valuable to the practical player and very interesting for the philosophers among us." - Arne Moll, Chess Vibes
"the most fascinating part of Improve Your Chess is the last where Hansen forecasts where top-level chess is heading with ever-stronger computer programs having an increasingly strong influence. ... a thought-provoking book" - IM John Donaldson, USA Team Captain
In this book Lars Bo Hansen shows how chess understanding has evolved and explains how and why a study of the great champions of the past and present will significantly improve your chess. Although modern chess is a highly concrete game where calculation is paramount and principles often appear to take a back seat, Hansen argues that the principles have become implicit at top “you cannot win games only by following Steinitz’s or Nimzowitsch’s principles, but you will certainly lose games if you don’t know these principles!”
“If you want to reach the heights, you should study the entire history of chess. I can’t give any clear logical explanation for it, but I think it is absolutely essential to soak up the whole of chess history.” - Vladimir Kramnik
Hansen shows that pattern recognition - one of the most vital aspects of chess mastery - is built up highly effectively by studying historic games, and cites many examples which will immediately form part of your armoury. Building upon the structure of his acclaimed work How Chess Games are Won and Lost , Hansen also argues that the transitions opening-to-middlegame and middlegame-to-endgame are best understood by studying the games of the great champions.
Throughout the book, the emphasis is firmly on improving your chess, and equipping you to improve your chess further by studying on your own. At the same time, you will enjoy a feast of the most instructive chess games of all time - both classical and modern. The final chapter discusses the future development of chess style.
Lars Bo Hansen is a well-known grandmaster from Denmark. He has won the Danish Championship on two occasions, and represented his country in four olympiads, winning a bronze medal for his individual performance in 1990. His many tournament victories include first prize in the strong Copenhagen Open in both 1997 and 2000. Away from the board, he teaches and lectures on business studies, with a particular focus on marketing, organization and strategy. This is his fourth book for Gambit.
"Lars Bo Hansen presents the reader with a frankly excellent coverage of the developments our game has seen. It's quite difficult to explain the content, because to be honest, there's a bit of everything. I really like this work! There are many excellent observations that Hansen makes throughout and there's also a brilliant final chapter, discussing 'chess in the future' which makes this a very unique work! Some of the best annotations I've seen are here in this book and so I could recommend this to anyone" - GM Stephen Gordon
"Highly recommended. This is Lars Bo's fourth book for Gambit and the most instructive, especially due to the well-chosen game selection ... will help 99% of players get a proper chess education" - GM Sune Berg Hansen, Politiken
"authors that are always worth buying and reading include Jonathan Rowson, John Watson and, as I discovered only a year ago, Lars Bo Hansen ... a remarkable ability to make connections and switches between past and present, practical and theoretical, personal and objective without ever losing the thread of his story. ... another wonderful book which is both extremely valuable to the practical player and very interesting for the philosophers among us." - Arne Moll, Chess Vibes
"the most fascinating part of Improve Your Chess is the last where Hansen forecasts where top-level chess is heading with ever-stronger computer programs having an increasingly strong influence. ... a thought-provoking book" - IM John Donaldson, USA Team Captain
- GenresChess
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First published January 1, 2009
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