SECRETS OF POSITIONAL CHESS (Drazen Marovic)
224 pages
(248 mm by 172 mm).
£9.50/$14.95/€12,85
How can one determine if a piece is weak or strong? Or if a
square is weak or strong? These are the principal questions that grandmaster
and trainer Drazen Marovic addresses in this important book. By
discussing carefully-chosen games and positions, Marovic explains how to
recognize good and bad features of positions, and how to make use of one's
advantages and exploit the opponent's weaknesses. One repeatedly sees
'weaknesses' that are unexploitable (and therefore are not weaknesses at all),
possibilities of surrendering certain squares in order to gain more important
ones, and material sacrifices to exploit major weaknesses. Topics include:
outposts; strength and weakness on files and diagonals; vulnerabilities on the
first and second ranks; static weakness and attack; and characteristics of the
pieces.
Drazen Marovic is a grandmaster from Croatia, who has
won medals as both player and trainer for various national teams. His pupils
include Bojan Kurajica, World Under-20 Champion in 1965, and Al Modiahki of
Qatar, the first Arabian grandmaster. Marovic has a wealth of experience as a
writer, editor and television commentator on chess. He is currently the trainer
of the Croatian national team. This is his third book for Gambit. His two
previous books discussed various aspects of pawn play, and have been warmly
received by the chess-playing public: see Understanding Pawn Play in Chess and
Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess.
Download a pdf file with a
sample from the book.
"...excellent for anyone who wishes to improve their chess
or who just enjoys playing over great games." - John Pugh, Chess
Post
"Publication quality is excellent. Clear annotations and
analysis help ensure the reader understands the material with minimal
confusion. Oversize, frequent diagrams and 224 opaque pages and make this book
a pleasure to read. This material in the book is of value to a broad audience
and wide rating range, adding value to any chess library. Highly recommended
with a rating of 4 peaches." - Mark Hoshor, Georgia Chess
"As in his previous works, Marovic's deep knowledge shines
through and he makes welcome use of classics and not just recent games. This
work looks at many important positional principles, such as the weakness of the
second rank or the use of rooks on semi-open files, but it is a rather old
fashioned form of primer. However, the club player who takes time to study its
many themes, and hundreds of well-explained examples, should significantly
boost the depth of their positional understanding memory bank, which can but
help in their own games." - Richard Palliser
"Secrets of Positional Chess is one those chess books
that may very well be destined to become a mainstay on the shelf of any novice
to intermediate player looking to improve his game." - Chess Country
"Secrets of Positional Chess is an excellent book
that is well written, clear and full of instructive examples of play at the
highest levels." - Michael Blake, IECG
"Verdict: a very interesting and instructive read, and a
fantastic resource for players and coaches. Good value for money. Highly
recommended." ***** - Phil Adams, 3Cs website
"... for a feast of further instructive examples including
demonstrations of power and co-ordination among pieces and pawns, I can
recommend GM Drazen Marovic's Secrets of Positional Chess." - GM Paul
Motwani, The Scotsman
"The publisher Gambit again has expanded its list of
esteemed books-for-learning with a convincing work. Secrets of Positional
Chess is highly recommended for every ambitious player." -
Schachmarkt
" I really recommend this book. It is also terrific for
chess trainers. A great book for players with positional weaknesses." -
Jürgen Brustkern, Rochade
"If you play through the games Marovic writes about, your
positional feel and understanding will be much better." - Thomas Schian,
Rochade
"Marovic is the author of a few highly praised books on the
soul of chess... but here he seeks to show how players deal with positional
strengths and weakness. Numerous games and game fragments are used to provide
insights... there is also an excellent section dealing with the good and bad
points of the various pieces" - Bab Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad
"The book is recommended for everyone who wants to improve
their chess strategy. The book is very suitable for all standards of player. I
also recommend the book for trainers of chess." - Jerzy Konikowski,
Fernschach International
"The text demonstrates the great experience of the writer as
a chess trainer, and the learner can without reservation follow his
well-founded knowledge and insight into positional play." - Dr. W.
Schweizer, Rochade
"The Croatian GM explains well 'How to exploit strengths and
weaknesses on the chessboard', as the subtitle says; therefore the book is
recommended." - Dr Erik Rausch, Rochade
Gambit books by Marovic: Dynamic
Pawn Play in Chess, Secrets of Chess
Transformations, Secrets of Positional
Chess, Understanding Pawn Play in
Chess. |
