Introduction -- About this book -- What's new in this edition -- Conventions used in this book -- Foolish assumptions -- How this book is organized -- Icons used in this book -- Where to go from here -- pt. I. Laying the groundwork -- 1. Tackling the chess basics -- Chesstacular! The basics of the game -- Chessboard chatter : bringing home a board and chess set -- Piecemeal : putting the pieces on the board -- 2. Greeting the pieces and their powers -- Mimicking a castle : the rook -- Showing off slender curves : the bishop -- Flaunting her pointy crown : the queen -- Donning a buggy crown : the king -- Galloping in an L-formation : the knight -- Scooting around as the army's runt : the pawn -- 3. Getting to know the elements of chess -- Hogging the board : space -- Getting the most bang for your buck : material -- Positioning men in good time : development -- Protecting the head honcho : king safety -- Working your pawn structure -- 4. Looking out for the king : check, stalemate, and checkmate -- Check 'em out : attacking the enemy king -- Stuck in a rut : stalemate -- No escape for ye king : checkmate -- pt. II. Gaining chess know-how -- 5. Tactics and combinations in hand-to-hand combat -- Knowing your tactical game plan -- Combining moves to speed your progress -- 6. Sacrifices : when it's better to give than to receive -- Sacrificing for an edge in development : the gambit -- Giving up a bishop -- Immediate gratification : the temporary sacrifice -- A strategic move for the patient : the permanent sacrifice -- 7. Mastering mating patterns -- Beware the unprotected back rank : back rank mates -- Pair the heavy and the light : queen and pawn mates -- Mount her royal highness : queen and knight mates -- Create a steamroller with the bishop and rook -- 8. Building pattern recognition -- Analyzing chess positions and looking ahead -- Picking up on pawn formations -- Eyeing the endgame patterns -- 9. Recognizing pawn formations -- Exploring the powers of pawn formations -- Getting the bishop involved : the fianchetto -- Varying the Sicilian : the dragon -- Exercising your pawns' flexibility : the Scheveningen -- Building the stonewall -- Creating a megafortress at the center : the double stonewall -- Matching color to center squares : the closed English -- Winging it with the Nimzo-Botvinnik -- 10. Making special moves -- Capturing a pawn at your side : en passant -- Boosting your pawns' powers : promotion time -- Guarding your king and putting a rook in motion : castling --
pt. III. Game time : putting your chess foot forward
11. Selecting your strategy : the principles of play
Doing more with less : the minority attack
Controlling key squares to lock up an advantage
Holding back the pawns : the blockade
12. Coming on strong in the opening
Attacking your opponent's pieces
Getting ahead with your opening moves
Exploring common opening moves
13. Making headway during the middlegame
When you reach the middlegame...
Formulating a middlegame plan
Attacking during the middlegame
14. Exiting with style in the endgame
Putting the endgame into perspective
The general winning endgame strategy
Rook endings : the oh-so-common tricksters
Bishops and knights : minor piece endings
pt. IV. Getting into advanced action
15. Competition play and necessary etiquette
Practice makes perfect : joining a club first
Tournament chess around the world
Going long distance : correspondence chess
Miss (or Mister) Manners : tournament etiquette
16. Hitting the Net with computer chess
Chess-playing computer programs
Electronic chess instruction
17. Got notation? Reading and writing about chess
Keeping track of the pieces
Writing the moves of a game
Accounting for ambiguities (which knight, for Pete's sake?)
Commenting on a game after the fact
Reading newspaper diagrams
18. The ten most famous chess games
Adolf Anderssen versus Lionel Kieseritzky : the immortal game
Adolf Anderssen versus J. Dufresne : the evergreen game
Paul Morphy versus Duke Karl of Braunschweig and Count Isouard
Wilhelm Steinitz versus Kurt Von Bardeleben
Georg Rotlewi versus Akiba Rubinstein
Stepan Levitsky versus Frank Marshall
Emanuel Lasker versus José Raúl Capablanca
Donald Byrne versus Robert J. Fischer
Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov versus the world
19. The ten best players of all time
Kasparov, Garry (1963- ), Russia
Capablanca, José Raúl (1888-1942), Cuba
Fischer, Robert James (1943- ) , United States
Karpov, Anatoly (1951- ), Russia
Morphy, Paul (1837-84), United States
Lasker, Emanuel (1868-1941), Germany
Steinitz, Wilhelm (1836-1900), Austria
Alekhine, Alexander (1892-1946), Russia
Botvinnik, Mikhail (1911-95), Russia
Talk, Mikhail (1936-92), Latvia
The strongest players never to be world champion
Appendix A. A glossary of chess
Appendix B. Other chess resources
Informative Internet resources
U.S. places, people to see, and games of interest.
