Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 2: Winning Material
By Susan Polgar
5/5
()
About this ebook
Read more from Susan Polgar
Learn Chess the Right Way!: Book 1: Must-know Checkmates Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 3: Mastering Defensive Techniques Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 1: Test and Improve Your Tactical Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A World Champion's Guide to Chess: Step-by-Step Instructions for Winning Chess the Polgar Way! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 5: Finding Winning Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 4: Sacrifice to Win! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rich as a King: How the Wisdom of Chess Can Make You a Grandmaster of Investing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sofia Polgar: Amazing Artist - Dangerous Tactician Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarlsen-Anand 2013: Match for the World Chess Championship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Learn Chess the Right Way
Related ebooks
Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 4: Sacrifice to Win! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pawn Power in Chess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Endgames You Must Know: Vital Lessons for Every Chess Player Improved and Expanded Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power Chess for Kids: Learn How to Think Ahead and Become One of the Best Players in Your School Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simple Chess: New Algebraic Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Train Your Chess Pattern Recognition: More Key Moves & Motives in the Middlegame Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Power Chess for Kids: More Ways to Think Ahead and Become One of the Best Players in Your School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 100 Endgames You Must Know Workbook: Practical Endgame Exercises for Every Chess Player Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catastrophes & Tactics in the Chess Opening - Volume 1: Indian Defenses: Winning Quickly at Chess Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Basic Chess Openings for Kids: Play like a Winner from Move One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForcing Chess Moves: The Key to Better Calculation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essential Endgames Every Tournament Player Must Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players: The Tactics Workbook that Also Explains All Key Concepts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My First Chess Opening Repertoire for Black: A Ready-to-go Package for Ambitious Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 2: Test and Improve Your Positional Intuition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Attack and Counterattack in Chess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1001 Chess Endgame Exercises for Beginners: The Tactics Workbook that also Improves Your Endgame Skills Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChess Pattern Recognition for Beginners: The Fundamental Guide to Spotting Key Moves in the Middlegame Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elementary Pawn Endgames: a Beginners' Study Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Endgame Patterns You Must Know: Recognize Key Moves & Motifs and Avoid Typical Errors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Back to Basics: Tactics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Knight: The Cunning Cavalry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChess Fundamentals: Algebraic edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4: Ambitious Ideas and Powerful Weapons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Games & Activities For You
1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners: The Tactics Workbook that Explains the Basic Concepts, Too Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiz Master: 10,000 general knowledge questions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best F*cking Activity Book Ever: Irreverent (and Slightly Vulgar) Activities for Adults Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Chess: Chess Masterclass Guide to Chess Tactics, Chess Openings & Chess Strategies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles (Over 1,000 Illustrations) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/530 Interactive Brainteasers to Warm Up your Brain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPercy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Serial Killer Trivia: Fascinating Facts and Disturbing Details That Will Freak You the F*ck Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nightingale: A Novel by Kristin Hannah | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How To Beat Anyone At Chess: The Best Chess Tips, Moves, and Tactics to Checkmate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Star Wars: Book of Lists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Kill a Mockingbird: A Novel by Harper Lee (Trivia-On-Books) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Everything Lateral Thinking Puzzles Book: Hundreds of Puzzles to Help You Think Outside the Box Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBored Games: 100+ In-Person and Online Games to Keep Everyone Entertained Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlimited Memory: Moonwalking with Einstein Steps to Photographic Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Into the Dungeon: A Choose-Your-Own-Path Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Kill an Earworm: And 500+ Other Psychology Facts You Need to Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorites, and Forgotten Games Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThinking, Fast and Slow: By Daniel Kahneman (Trivia-On-Book) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of Nature Activities: A Year-Round Guide to Outdoor Learning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Learn Chess the Right Way
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5buen libro, recomendable para enseñar niños y no tan niños
Book preview
Learn Chess the Right Way - Susan Polgar
Solutions
Introduction
Ever since I was four years old, I remember the joy of solving chess puzzles. I wrote my first puzzle book when I was just 15, and have published a number of other best-sellers since, such as A World Champion’s Guide to Chess, Chess Tactics for Champions, and Breaking Through, etc.
With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and trainer, I have developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners – Learn Chess the Right Way. By understanding the most common and critical patterns, it will help you improve much quicker.
In this series of Learn Chess the Right Way, I will show you the most effective way to learn and improve through pattern recognition.
Volume 2 is all about winning material
exercises. In each of the first six chapters a certain piece captures an enemy piece (in chapter 1 – The Queen, in chapter 2 – The Rook, and so on). In chapter 7, you will get no hint about which piece should be moved. In chapters 8-12, the most common and important chess tactics (such as decoy, fork, pin, discovery and skewer) are introduced. Finally, in chapter 13, in addition to the previously mentioned patterns, you will need to figure out which tactical pattern to use to win material, including concepts like trapping a piece
or intermediate move.
In some examples it will be White to move, while in others you will have to try to find the winning move for Black. Also please note that under each diagram you will be able to record the amount of time it took you to solve each puzzle. As you go through and solve the puzzles again, your speed recognizing the winning material patterns should improve.
In chess, pattern recognition is a very important part of playing better chess. Therefore, my suggestion is to try to solve the puzzles multiple times, or until you feel that you can recognize the correct solutions within a minute per page (4 puzzles). Initially you may want to set up the pieces on the chess board as shown in the diagrams (make sure every piece is exactly as shown!), but by the second time around I would surely recommend to try to solve the puzzles just from the diagram.
Wishing you enjoyment as you embark on the road to Learning Chess the Right Way!
Susan Polgar
July 2016
Chapter 1
Captures with the Queen
In this chapter, the main hero
is the queen. The queen can move and capture diagonally or in a line direction. We shall see examples of how the queen can capture an opponent’s valuable pieces. But first, it is essential to understand the relative value of the different pieces:
Queen = 9
Rook = 5
Bishop or Knight = 3
Pawn = 1
The king can never be captured (removed from the board) and has no relative value.
When the king is attacked and cannot escape, it is checkmate, as we learned in volume 1 of this series. When the king is attacked and can escape, it means you gave a
White or Black to move
In the example above, if it is White’s turn, the correct capture is Qxc6 to simply win the queen. If it is Black’s turn, the answer would be similar with Qxc3.
In the next example, White can choose between capturing the black queen or knight.
White to move
When thinking about your next move or capture, it is always essential to try to foresee your opponent’s best next move, possibly a recapture. In the position above, capturing Black’s queen on g5 would be a mistake, as it would miss out on a much better choice. After 1. Qxg5, Black would respond with 1…hxg5, which means that you just traded queens without any material gain. On the other hand, by playing 1.Qxa2, White wins material (a knight) without losing anything.
Black to move
In the position above, Black can capture White’s queen or rook. Here, even though the queen is the more valuable piece, it is the rook (on a4) that should be captured. Capturing 1…Qxe3 would be a blunder as it allows checkmate in one with 2.Ra8.
In some of the exercises ahead, you may be able to win only
a pawn, but typically that is better than winning nothing. You may also find some puzzles in this chapter where one side is in check. Remember, you do not necessarily need to move your king. It is possible for you to capture the piece that just checked you.
Have fun, and good luck solving the next 20 puzzles!
White to move
(1)
1. ______
Time:
______
(2)
1. ______
Time:
______
(3)
1. ______
Time:
______
(4)