Many players are serious about their chess but become stuck at a certain playing strength. It’s rarely a lack of talent or practice or opening knowledge that holds them back. Usually they get left behind because they don’t know how to make best use of the time they have available to study chess.

This book addresses this problem and is your self-improvement plan. It shows you how to work on your own games to root out mistakes. It will sharpen your calculation of variations. You will be challenged to find the best middlegame strategy. Endgame technique is also covered in detail. All topics are discussed with numerous examples and puzzles from the games of modern players such as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand. If you want your chess to leap forward it’s time to Coach Yourself!

• A complete self-improvement programme.
• All aspects of the game included.
• Utilizes a structured approach, making the most of your study time.

Along with the excitement of competition and the pleasure of social activity that chess brings to our lives, there is also the joy of intellectual challenge. We all want to get better at it. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing our skill and knowledge grow.

The aim of this book is to show you everything you need to be working on to become a better player. Tactics, strategy, and the endgame are covered in detail, and you are offered guidance on subjects such as calculation, analysing your games, and choosing your open-ings.

Don’t expect to understand everything straight away as some of the material is hard: fiendishly hard. It is meant to get you thinking and pushing forwards at the limits of your understanding. But just as the Romans trained with heavier weapons than those used in battle, your task in your own games will seem much lighter after analysing the combina-tions and strategy of the great players.

It’s not my intention to be a lifestyle guru. But we both know that exercise, a balanced diet, and a regular routine during tournaments will be of benefit to your chess. When world champion Magnus Carlsen was asked by an interviewer if he was afraid for his title because an upcoming player was spending sixteen hours a day or more studying chess, he replied laconically: “He should get more sleep.” There are many games by the great Mag-nus presented here, but that is the most useful thing you will learn from him.

I hope that this book will spur you on to devise your own study plan. This will mean making time not only to look at openings, but also to solve chess puzzles, annotate your own games, learn about chess history and the great masters, read books about the end-game, practice calculation by selecting complicated positions to analyse to death, and so on. The more work you put in the better (while remembering Carlsen’s admonition!).