Chess players often reach a certain level and subsequently seem unable to become any stronger. They attain solid and even promising positions without having any well formulated ideas of how to continue the game. They frequently do not understand the strategic requirements of the niceties which go into the building up of a strong position. The Road to Chess Mastery is a collection of 25 games annotated specifically for the purpose of showing how to improve their chess. All phases of chess technique are included: discussions of the basic ideas behind modern openings, explanations of the handling of typical middle game positions, consideration of certain endgames, examples of the kind of technical analysis a chess player must make before deciding on the next move. Through an introduction that explains how the ordinary chess player can improve in the various phases of the game of chess, and in enlightening commentaries far more extensive than space permits in an ordinary annotated game, former World Champion Dr. Max Euwe shows how a chess player should think, by indicating the moves for all but the most obvious moves of each game. By applying what he learns in this work the reader may, indeed, find himself traveling the road to chess mastery.

Excellence and the highest levels of performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games have always been an object of fascination to both scientists and lay people. Only during the last 20 years have scientists studied these levels of performance in the laboratory in order to identify their mediating mechanisms. Contrary to the common belief that innate talents are the critical factors for exceptional performance, investigators have found that acquired skills, knowledge, and physiological adaptations in response to intense practice are the primary mechanisms, mediating the highest levels of performance. This is the first and only book to examine how elite performers effect their exceptional accomplishments. The world's leading researchers on expert performance and creative achievement review theories and recent findings from many different domains of expertise on how experts optimize improvement in their performance and eventually attain excellence. Elite performers are shown to have engaged in deliberate-practice activities specifically designed to improve their performance from an early age. By age 20 they have often accumulated over 10,000 hours of practice! The essential elements of deliberate practice, such as specific goals to improve performance, successive refinement through repetition, feedback and instruction, are explicated for different domains. Although the content of practice tasks will necessarily differ from domain to domain, investigators have found invariant characteristics for the optimal duration of practice sessions, maximal amounts of daily practice, the length of intense preparation (around 10 years), and ages of peak performance. Some of the book's chapters extend the review to the acquisition of everyday-life skills such as reading, to the performance of teams of experts, and to the development of creative achievement, geniuses, and artistic child prodigies. The book concludes with commentaries by several outstanding scientists in psychology, education, and history of science who discuss the generalizability of presented ideas and raise issues for future issues. EXTRA COPY...It could be said that striving for excellence is what characterizes humanity, or perhaps what characterizes humanity at its best. Why do so few individuals ever reach the highest levels when so many start out on the Road to Excellence? In this book, the world's foremost researchers of expert performance in domains as diverse as sports, medicine, chess, and the arts explore the similarities and differences in the extended and strenuous Road to Excellence taken by the successful individuals in each domain. Their findings will intrigue and inspire readers who are themselves driven to achieve or who simply want to better understand the processes involved.

One of the greatest chess legends of all time, Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935), is best known for founding the Hypermodernism school of chess, which emerged after World War I to challenge the chess ideologies of traditional central European masters. This first full-scale biography of Nimzowitsch chronicles his early life in Denmark, his family and education, and his fascination with the game that would become the focus of his life. Also included are explorations of his tournament games and records, his dispute with influential chess teacher Siegbert Tarrasch, and his role in the development of Hypermodern Chess. With detailed accounts of nearly 450 games and the only narrative of Nimzowitsch from 1914 to 1924, a period formerly cloaked in mystery, this volume offers the most thorough profile available of one of chess's greatest innovators.

Wittgenstein used the concept of language games to refer to all forms of linguistic expression in practical contexts and to the myriad ways in which signs are used in language. He used the term to specify speaking as an activity and to relate it to a form of life. Wittgenstein was well aware that his proposal for “language games” did not solve the central problems of language. Until today, the essential characteristics of the concept remain unspecified. The contributors in this volume analyze the reasons for the difficulties in understanding the concept and propose new essential characteristics and contents, by examining language games such as certainty and error, belief, strategy, and their linguistic foundations.

Increase your chess knowledge within the year! In this book, Andrew Soltis analyzes 365 key chess games in an easy way for busy people. In this book, 365 of the most instructive short games of chess are analyzed, step by step, by well-respected author Andrew Soltis. Arranged as daily lessons, this book is perfect for chess players who would like to reach the next level of skill but can't devote hours and hours each day to study. Learn to feel confident with each tactic – each game features test-yourself quizzes (with answers at the back of the book) to help cement understanding, as well as chess diagrams for those who learn visually. Challenging tactics are revisited in later games to help you recognize when they occur and how chess masters use them to their full advantage. With this book, Andrew encourages you to learn to think like a chess master within the year. From Castling to Zugzwang, learn something new everyday!