Luther: Chess tactics and chess strategy

Fundamental chess knowledge with GM Thomas Luther

In this volume, FIDE Senior Trainer and Grandmaster Thomas Luther continues the course on chess tactics that he began with the book Introduction to Elementary Tactics. A test with 50 problems from all over the world allows the reader to see where he stands. The most important tactical motifs are then continued with the diversion towards and away from the opponent, pieces in the trap, X-ray attack and draw and checkmate combinations.

The course not only covers tactics, but also introduces chess strategy, which often leads to the application of tactics in the first place. The reader receives an easy-to-understand introduction to the most important elements of strategy:

Weak squares, backward and isolated pawns, double pawns, pawn structures, pawn breakthroughs, outposts, open lines and how to create them that allow penetration into the opponent's position. In particular, the attack of a rook or rooks on the 7th or 8th row is the interface between tactics and strategy and is explained in detail and deepened with tasks.

This combination of tactics and strategy sets the book apart from the usual tactics training books. The reader is given a crash course in the strategic elements that Nimzowitsch formulated in his famous book "My System" and that every chess fan who wants to play successfully should know.

Solution diagrams for all tasks make it easy for even less experienced players to solve or follow almost everything from the page. In the text and in the solutions, the reader receives a lot of useful advice for his game and, among other things, for analyzing his games.

313 pages, paperback, 1st edition 2022