Amateur chess players have a new weapon in the battle to improve their game. Based on the famous, formerly secret "From Beginner to Master" course of study developed over decades in the Soviet Union, the Comprehensive Chess Course provides students with all the essential information they need to learn chess and then to improve their skills steadily and efficiently. The contents of this book and its companion volume 2 (sold separately) include every diagram and every problem, and leave little to chance. The Course is filled with what has worked well in practice in Russian classrooms and teaches all the rules of chess, all the fundamentals, and how to visualize the board and pieces—the prerequisite for success in chess.

Thirty years ago, Roman Pelts was my chess teacher in Odessa, Russia. Later he assembled all knowledge essential for becoming a stronger player in this Comprehensive Chess Course. The techniques used in the Course proved to be a success for me as well as for generations of chessplayers in Russia and later in Canada and the United States. Now, the Course can help you learn chess the correct way to realize your chess potential fully. - Grandmaster Lev Alburt, three-time U.S. Champion

The third volume of the complete, easy-to-use program for teaching and self-study of the Comprehensive Chess Course, the famous, once-secret Russian method of chess learning and training. Grandmaster Lev Alburt is the three-time U.S. chess champion. Referred to as the "grandmaster of chess teachers," he has worked with students of all strengths and ages and has spent years translating the secret Soviet chess lesson plans used to produce a long line of Russian world champions. The volumes of the Comprehensive Chess Course, of which this is the third, are the result. His co-author is Grandmaster Sam Palatnik, a former captain of the Ukrainian squad that recently won the world team championshipahead of the United States and Russia.

This chess classic has been praised by players and teachers alike. Lev Alburt, Grandmaster of Chess and three-time US chess champion, presents and analyzes the attack and defense of the king, with hundreds of game illustrations, dozens of problems and exercises, and instructive explanations and solutions. These practical exercises take the reader from beginner to tournament-strength chess player. Illustrated

A series of chess lessons which take the mystery out of long-term planning in chess. Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player is the fifth volume in Grandmaster Lev Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course series. Endorsed by world champion Garry Kasparov as revealing "the once-secret Russian method of chess training," this uses only materials and techniques that worked well in the former USSR. It contains hundreds of strikingly beautiful positions arranged by difficulty and designed to sharpen tactical recognition and vision. Nothing is left to chance in this work. All materials have already shown their worth in Russian chess instruction.

Nothing more clearly separates chess master from chess wannabe than winning endgame play. Accurate opening play can be satisfying, and combinations in the middlegame are exciting. But for most chess players, victory is the real finish line. And the endgame is the last lap of the race.Depending on whether or not you command the necessary endgame knowledge, you can spoil hours of planning, or you can enjoy the victory you've spent the whole game earning. You can even pull yourself out of the steely jaws or a "certain" defeat The best news is that you don't need to memorize thousands of positions, but only a few carefully selected ones. Combine these with the clear and concise explanations in Just the Facts and you have the key to chess mastery. Just the Facts is the seventh and final volume of the best-selling Comprehensive Chess Course, the series that brings English readers the once strictly guarded and time-tested Soviet training methods, the key to the 50-year Russian dominance of the chess world.