How to use this book
I thought long and hard about the best way to
structure this Workbook. My idea was to make a book with additional
exercises for readers of my earlier books Thinker’s Chess Academy
Volumes 1 & 2
(TCA1 and TCA2 for short) while working with these books, plus
material for really interested and ambitious readers to maintain and broaden
the skills they have already learned.
That’s not an easy task, as it means combining rather
basic material with really sophisticated exercises without making it boring for
the advanced readers or too hard for readers still on TCA1 level. My idea is to
mix the two parts.
Readers still on the lower level should work through
the chapters Quick Test 1, Quick
Test 2 etc and after Quick Test 10 go over to the chapters Advanced Lesson 1, Advanced Lesson 2 and so on.
Advanced readers can use each chapter’s Quick Test as
a kind of warm-up test under time pressure, for example setting a time of 10
seconds for each mate in 2 or whatever you may think is right for you. After
the Quick Test you go ahead with the following Advanced Lessons chapter.
The hardest part of the book is called “Master Class”. In these chapters
you’ll find really difficult exercises such as unusually long combinations or
checkmates.
Not every reader is ambitious enough or has enough
time to work very hard on his chess. That’s quite understandable and nothing to
be ashamed of. You can enjoy chess very well without being a strong tournament
player. You could just entertain yourself by playing through interesting
combinations. In this case don’t try too hard to solve the Advanced Lessons or
Master Class exercises. Have a look to make yourself familiar with the
position, than look at the solution and enjoy the surprising combinations. You
won’t learn as much as you would by racking your brain to crack the hard nuts.
But some knowledge and experience will certainly rub off and increase your
understanding of chess.
I hope this book will help you to work towards your
goals and let have you fun with chess.
Thomas Luther, September 2022
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- You may think such checkmates are a piece of cake and too easy. But you’ll see that some are not as simple as you may think.
- And always remember: here in the book it’s written in big letters, “Mate in up to two moves”. In the game, though, there’s no such writing on the board and you have to see the mate yourself, preferably a few moves ahead.
- Therefore it’s important that you know as many mate patterns as possible. I hope I can show you some that you did not know already or that you would not always recognize in a game.
- Please take this training seriously; an important part of the road to playing better chess.
