John Bleau

Norway 2014 John Bleau

Now in FAN (Figurine Algebraic Notation) Good books on how to analyze, and how to calculate in particular, are hard to come by. The Turning Points series gives loads of deeply analyzed exercise positions in problem-solution form, culled from important tournaments, in which there was a possible inaccuracy, and challenges the reader to solve them better than the players did. The solutions not only contain the variations and some hindsight, they also point out the positional features that motivate our selection of candidate moves, steer us to the right decisions and guide our calculations. These features are known as the motives. Motives and patterns such as Kings-Floaters-Lines, the Bird's Nest Formation, R+N coordination, the Knight's Collateral Squares and many others will become easily identifiable on the board and the player will be equipped with characteristic ways to react to them. Norway 2014 provides the reader with 147 deeply analyzed positions in problem-solution form and 18 more in the appendices, at a generally very high level of difficulty. The motives range from the most fundamental (Kings-Floaters-Lines) to much more subtle ones like King Side Preponderance, which can clue the player in to highly surprising speculative sacrifices. The Appendices cover:1) Some games and themes referenced in the Problems/Solutions sections2) The Knight's Collateral Squares, which a number of players have said is exceptionally useful3) Internet linksThe book concludes with an extensive index.