This is a well-established training manual which encourages the average player to understand how a grandmaster thinks, and even more important, how he works. Kotov tackles fundamental issues such as knowing how and when to analyze, the tree of analysis, a selection of candidate moves and the factors of success.

Alexander Kotov's trilogy, of which this is the second volume and now available in digital format for the first time, marks a landmark in chess literature. For the first time, a leading player managed to tackle the important elements of chess mastery in a methodical way which all chess players could understand, spiced with insight and colourful observation. Furthermore, his ideas and approach are as relevant to players today as they were when the books were first published. Alexander Kotov was one of the strongest players of the immediate post-war period, twice reaching the Candidates stage of the World Championship. He was also one of the leading Soviet trainers but is primarily remembered for his trilogy of classic works on chess coaching, of which Think Like a Grandmaster, one of the best-selling chess books of all time, was the first volume, and Play Like a Grandmaster the second.

• Learn the calculation secrets of the world's best attacking players • First book from one of the UK's biggest chess stars • Illustrated with a wealth of examples from top-level chess games This first book from one of the UK's top grandmasters is a penetrating and detailed (though engaging and friendly) study of typical games played by the most exciting chess players of the modern era, those that are renowned as 'attacking' players, from Mikhail Tal, pioneering hero of the ultra-modern attacking style, to Magnus Carlsen, teenage leader of the 'new wave' of deadly attackers, via the immortal Bobby Fischer, 'boa constrictor' Anatoly Karpov and 'King Garry' Kasparov. The author has tried to get into the heads of these stellar players, revealing the secrets of how they choose their decisive moves and succeed in delivering such awesome attacks. This inspiring book encourages you to play more imaginatively and copy the grandmasters' thought processes in your own game.

A look at the way in which grandmasters prepare for different aspects of the game and how Soviet training methods can help club or tournament players whatever their standard. Kotov, a Grandmaster, is also the author of Think Like a Grandmaster and Play Like a Grandmaster.

"A British champion discusses the most common causes of disaster in chess"--Cover.

Garry Kasparov was the highest-rated chess player in the world for over twenty years and is widely considered the greatest player that ever lived. In How Life Imitates Chess Kasparov distills the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a Grandmaster to offer a primer on successful decision-making: how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, devise winning strategies. He relates in a lively, original way all the fundamentals, from the nuts and bolts of strategy, evaluation, and preparation to the subtler, more human arts of developing a personal style and using memory, intuition, imagination and even fantasy. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history. With candor, wisdom, and humor, Kasparov recounts his victories and his blunders, both from his years as a world-class competitor as well as his new life as a political leader in Russia. An inspiring book that combines unique strategic insight with personal memoir, How Life Imitates Chess is a glimpse inside the mind of one of today's greatest and most innovative thinkers.