Chess for dummies

Laying the groundwork for champion chess

Gaining chess know-how

Game time: putting your chess foot forward

Getting into advanced action

The part of tens.

Laying the groundwork for champion chess

Gaining chess know-how

Game time: putting your chess foot forward

Getting into advanced action

The part of tens.

Introduction -- About this book -- What's new in this edition -- Conventions used in this book -- Foolish assumptions -- How this book is organized -- Icons used in this book -- Where to go from here -- pt. I. Laying the groundwork -- 1. Tackling the chess basics -- Chesstacular! The basics of the game -- Chessboard chatter : bringing home a board and chess set -- Piecemeal : putting the pieces on the board -- 2. Greeting the pieces and their powers -- Mimicking a castle : the rook -- Showing off slender curves : the bishop -- Flaunting her pointy crown : the queen -- Donning a buggy crown : the king -- Galloping in an L-formation : the knight -- Scooting around as the army's runt : the pawn -- 3. Getting to know the elements of chess -- Hogging the board : space -- Getting the most bang for your buck : material -- Positioning men in good time : development -- Protecting the head honcho : king safety -- Working your pawn structure -- 4. Looking out for the king : check, stalemate, and checkmate -- Check 'em out : attacking the enemy king -- Stuck in a rut : stalemate -- No escape for ye king : checkmate -- pt. II. Gaining chess know-how -- 5. Tactics and combinations in hand-to-hand combat -- Knowing your tactical game plan -- Combining moves to speed your progress -- 6. Sacrifices : when it's better to give than to receive -- Sacrificing for an edge in development : the gambit -- Giving up a bishop -- Immediate gratification : the temporary sacrifice -- A strategic move for the patient : the permanent sacrifice -- 7. Mastering mating patterns -- Beware the unprotected back rank : back rank mates -- Pair the heavy and the light : queen and pawn mates -- Mount her royal highness : queen and knight mates -- Create a steamroller with the bishop and rook -- 8. Building pattern recognition -- Analyzing chess positions and looking ahead -- Picking up on pawn formations -- Eyeing the endgame patterns -- 9. Recognizing pawn formations -- Exploring the powers of pawn formations -- Getting the bishop involved : the fianchetto -- Varying the Sicilian : the dragon -- Exercising your pawns' flexibility : the Scheveningen -- Building the stonewall -- Creating a megafortress at the center : the double stonewall -- Matching color to center squares : the closed English -- Winging it with the Nimzo-Botvinnik -- 10. Making special moves -- Capturing a pawn at your side : en passant -- Boosting your pawns' powers : promotion time -- Guarding your king and putting a rook in motion : castling --

pt. III. Game time : putting your chess foot forward

11. Selecting your strategy : the principles of play

Aiming for the center

Exchanging pieces

Doing more with less : the minority attack

Controlling key squares to lock up an advantage

Holding back the pawns : the blockade

12. Coming on strong in the opening

Developing your pieces

Attacking your opponent's pieces

Getting ahead with your opening moves

Exploring common opening moves

13. Making headway during the middlegame

When you reach the middlegame...

Formulating a middlegame plan

Attacking during the middlegame

14. Exiting with style in the endgame

Putting the endgame into perspective

The general winning endgame strategy

Pawn and king endings

Rook endings : the oh-so-common tricksters

Bishops and knights : minor piece endings

pt. IV. Getting into advanced action

15. Competition play and necessary etiquette

Practice makes perfect : joining a club first

U.S. tournament basics

Tournament chess around the world

Going long distance : correspondence chess

Miss (or Mister) Manners : tournament etiquette

16. Hitting the Net with computer chess

Computers versus humans

Chess-playing computer programs

Chess databases

Electronic chess instruction

Playing chess online

17. Got notation? Reading and writing about chess

Keeping track of the pieces

Writing the moves of a game

Accounting for ambiguities (which knight, for Pete's sake?)

Commenting on a game after the fact

Reading newspaper diagrams

pt. V. The part of tens

18. The ten most famous chess games

Understanding the games

Adolf Anderssen versus Lionel Kieseritzky : the immortal game

Adolf Anderssen versus J. Dufresne : the evergreen game

Paul Morphy versus Duke Karl of Braunschweig and Count Isouard

Wilhelm Steinitz versus Kurt Von Bardeleben

Georg Rotlewi versus Akiba Rubinstein

Stepan Levitsky versus Frank Marshall

Emanuel Lasker versus José Raúl Capablanca

Donald Byrne versus Robert J. Fischer

Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov versus the world

19. The ten best players of all time

Kasparov, Garry (1963- ), Russia

Capablanca, José Raúl (1888-1942), Cuba

Fischer, Robert James (1943- ) , United States

Karpov, Anatoly (1951- ), Russia

Morphy, Paul (1837-84), United States

Lasker, Emanuel (1868-1941), Germany

Steinitz, Wilhelm (1836-1900), Austria

Alekhine, Alexander (1892-1946), Russia

Botvinnik, Mikhail (1911-95), Russia

Talk, Mikhail (1936-92), Latvia

Honorable mentions

The strongest players never to be world champion

pt. VI. Appendixes

Appendix A. A glossary of chess

Appendix B. Other chess resources

Beginner's chess books

Chess equipment

Informative Internet resources

U.S. places, people to see, and games of interest.