BOOST YOUR CHESS 3: Mastery

Author: Artur Yusupov

Quality Chess (2011)

304 pages

$24.95

 

Reviewed by John Donaldson

 

The sixth volume in former World Championship Candidate Artur Yusupov’s series to take club players to master level is just out. BOOST YOUR CHESS 3: Mastery continues building on the knowledge acquired in the earlier books with lots of explanatory prose and examples followed by exercises to solve. The subject matter covered in this volume includes:

 

1 Attacking the king in the center 8

2 Realizing an advantage 20

3 Counterplay 34

4 Knight endings 44

5 The English Opening 56

6 Hanging pawns on c3-d4 70

7 Counter-attack 82

8 Rook against pawn 92

9 The technique of calculating variations 100

10 The Reti Opening 110

11 The passed pawn in the middlegame 122

12 Prophylactic thinking 134

13 Bishop against knight 146

14 Defense 158

15 Candidate moves 170

16 Combinational vision 180

17 The King’s Indian Defense 190

18 Queenside pawn majority 204

19 Central pawn majority 216

20 Pawn storms 228

21 The initiative 240

22 The Grünfeld Defence 254

23 The elimination method 266

24 Knight against bishop 276

Final test 287

 

Yusupov doesn’t just offer combinations and tactics to solve.  Take a look at the position reached in Gelfand - Karpov, Vienna 1996 after 22 moves:

 

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.g3 Bb7 4.Bg2 e6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Re1 d5 8.cxd5 exd5 9.d4 Na6 10.Bf4 c5 11.dxc5 Nxc5 12.Rc1 a6 13.a3 Re8 14.Nd4 Bd6 15.Bxd6 Qxd6 16.Qd2 Rad8 17.Red1 g6 18.Qf4 Qxf4 19.gxf4 Kf8 20.e3 Rd6 21.b4 Ne6 22.Nce2 Re7

 

Clearly White is better but how does he proceed? Yusupov shows that the stereotyped plan of doubling on the d-file starting with 23.Rd2 leads to nothing as does the aggressive 23.f5.

 

The correct idea is…

 

23.a4!

 

White still has to create a second weakness. The a6-pawn is a good target, since it can also be attacked by the light-squared bishop. With the move in the game White is preparing a4-a5 to fix the pawn on a6.

 

23…Nd8 24.a5 Bc6

 

Weaker is 24…b5, because Black can then get absolutely no counterplay.

 

25.Nc3 Be8 26.Bf1 bxa5 27.bxa5

 

White has a clear advantage.

 

BOOST YOUR CHESS 3: Mastery will prove quite useful for coaches looking for high quality material. Players from 1800 to 2400 working on their own will also find it an excellent study guide, with those at the low end finding the entire book helpful and stronger players using it to fill in gaps in their understanding.

 

Click to buy (or get more information about):

 

BOOST YOUR CHESS 1: The Fundamentals

BOOST YOUR CHESS 2: Beyond the Basics

BOOST YOUR CHESS 3: Mastery