Test and Improve Your Chess: Numerical Evaluation and Other Improvement Techniques (Pergamon Chess Series)

vii, 128 pp. The ability to analyse a position properly is one of the most important qualities of a good chess player, yet there are few aspects of the game that the average player seems to find more baffling. Twice U.S. Champion Lev Alburt seeks to clarify the grandmaster's approach to the related processes of calculation and positional assessment. Introducing the reader to a system of numerical evaluation developed originally by players in his native Russia, he goes on to demonstrate the value of the chess graph as an aid both to one's understanding of the game and to one's results. Providing numerous exercises, Alburt concludes with illustrations of the application of his ideas to the search for opening innovations, making special reference to his own great favourite, 'The Benko Gambit.'