Joel Benjamin: Liquidation on the Chess Board

New In Chess, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-90-5691-825-5, 336 Seiten, 3. erweiterte Auflage 2019.

Mastering the Transition into the Pawn Ending. New, extended edition of CJA Chess Journalists of America Best Book Award winner.

Pawn endings do not arise out of nowhere. Before emerging as endgames with just kings and pawns, they 'pre-existed' in positions that still contained any number of pieces. Liquidation is the purposeful transition into a pawn ending. It is a vital technique that is seldom taught. Strange, because knowing when and how to liquidate can help you win games or save draws.

In this book, former US Chess Champion Joel Benjamin teaches you all you need to know about successfully liquidating into pawn endgames. He focuses on the practical aspects: what to aim for and how to get there. When to start trading pieces and how to recognize favorable and unfavorable liquidations.

Enter a fascinating world of tempo play (triangulation, zugzwang and opposition), breakthroughs, king activity, passed pawn dynamics, sacrifices and counter-sacrifices.

- Exercises will test your growing skills.
- This is a ground-breaking, entertaining and instructive guide.
- This New and Extended 3rd edition presents 50 new examples, besides other additions and corrections.

Joel Benjamin is one of the most prominent faces in the history of US chess. At thirteen years of age he broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever national master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. Perhaps most famously, in 1997 he hit the headlines when he became the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter.



Reviews:
- Winner of the 2015 Best Book Award of the Chess Journalists of America (CJA)
- Shortlisted for the English Chess Federation 2015 Book of the Year Award


"Benjamin has managed to create an excellent guide to a difficult theme that has been badly served in chess literature (..) If you are really serious about improving your chess, you should work on your Benjamin!", IM Frank Zeller, Schach.

"Entertainment is never far away (..) The material, which feels very fresh, provides an impressive series of easily digestible lessons.", Sean Marsh, CHESS Magazine (UK).

"Strongly recommended (..) In transitions into pawn endgames a lot can be gained and a lot can be lost.", Schach Magazin 64.

"Well written and thoroughly researched. The selected examples have a strong practical value (..) This is an instructive work for players at any level above beginner - but it's not a dry endgame manual. The games contain some beautiful ideas and overall I found the book very entertaining.", GM Daniel King, creator of the Power Play DVD series.

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