Chess Self-Improvement (Chess Exercises)

Assess and Improve Your Chess Strength

A treasure-trove of training material for chess-players of all standards.

Zenon Franco, grandmaster and top-level trainer, guides you through 50 top-level games. He challenges you to guess key moves correctly, and poses questions at critical moments. Points are awarded for good answers, and at the end of each game, a score-chart rates your performance.

The games are chosen for their instructive value, and are designed to test every facet of your chess skills. Some are smooth positional crushes, others are violent attacking games, while others are varied struggles demanding great flexibility of thought. In many cases you will need to make the right transition into an endgame and handle the ensuing technical phase with accuracy. Throughout, Franco’s guiding hand will be there, as he has striven to anticipate the pitfalls into which his readers might fall, and to provide appropriate tips and suggestions.

The material in this book represents the pick of the monthly articles that Franco has written for a quarter of a century in Spanish-language magazines, which he has revised and rechecked for this book. The players featured in the 50 games include most of the greats of modern chess.

Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world’s top grandmasters, whom he taught from 1995 to 1999.

"'Feast of chess' is probably a hackneyed phrase in chess book reviews but there is hardly a better way to describe this book." - Phil Hughes, Chess Post

"I found these games just as enjoyable as they were challenging. They stretched my powers without breaking them, and I have already learned a lot - about the game, and about how to study the game. As they say on the NASCAR circuit, this book has a high top end. Put on your seat belts and enjoy the ride!" - Derek Grimmell, ChessCafe

"Verdict: excellent material for enjoyment and training. Highly recommended." - Phil Adams, 3Cs website