Yuu wants nothing more than to forget the mistakes of her past. The Gods have other plans. Once a renowned strategist and general, five years ago Yuu made a mistake that cost her everything. Now she is on the run, royal bounty hunters snapping at her heels. But what if there was a way to get back what she lost, a way to bring back a murdered prince? Every century, the gods hold a contest to choose who will rule from the Heavenly Jade Throne. Each god chooses a mortal champion, and the fate of all existence hangs in the balance. On a battlefield full of heroes, warriors, assassins, and thieves can Yuu survive long enough to learn the rules of the game, let alone master it? Pawn's Gambit is a stand alone story set in the award-winning Mortal Techniques universe. It's a wuxia adventure filled with heroes, gods, spirits, and magic.

Steven Bauer always thought chess was just a game... Until the sultry brunette in the little black dress did her best to incinerate him. Yesterday, he was just an ordinary guy. Today, he is the White Pawn, a combatant in a nightmarish game of chess where people are the pieces, and the world is at stake. To survive the deadly Black Queen, Steven must pull together the rest of his Pieces. The Knight, a grieving teenage boy caught up in a web of gang violence. The Queen, a young woman at death's door, her body ravaged by leukemia. The Bishop, a disgraced priest haunted by visions of the Game. The Rook, a suicidal drunk reeling atop a storm-ridden skyscraper. But Steven isn't the only one looking for his team, because the Black Queen already has her Pieces assembled... Pawn's Gambit is the first book in The Pawn Strategem, a new contemporary fantasy series from author Darin Kennedy (The Mussorgsky Riddle).

Presents the story behind the self-learning artificial intelligence system with its stunning chess skills

A story of the IRA.

Chess owes its strategic depth to pawns, which take many roles in the chess struggle. In this text, an experienced grandmaster explores the pawn's multi-facted nature, and provides the reader with a range of pawn-play concepts.

This book tackles fundamental questions such as: 'How should pawns be used to fight for the centre?' and 'How does the central pawn formation affect planning for both sides?' These issues are central to understanding chess. Marovic discusses central pawn-structures and their impact on play both in the centre and on the wings. He begins by surveying how the pawn's role in controlling the centre has been developed over the last 150 years, and how this has led to the refinement of concepts suchas the 'dynamic' backward pawn and the positional exchange sacrifice. The bulk of the book is devoted to discussions of the main type of centre: Open Centre; Closed/Blocked Centre; Fixed Centre; and in particular the Mobile/Dynamic Centre.

There was a time when the Kings Gambit was the favorite chess opening of every attacking player. In the glory days of Paul Morphy it was considered almost cowardly to play anything else. Legends such as Spassky and Bronstein kept the flame burning in the 20th century, but its popularity faded, as many players are wary of sacrificing a pawn for long-term compensation. There are honorable exceptions whose games prove that this ancient weapon can still draw blood: Morozevich, Short, Zvjaginsev and ex-US Champion Yury Shulman are world-class players who attack with the Kings Gambit.