Chess Strategy for Club Players - Herman Grooten

AWARDED: ChessCafe 2009 Book of the Year!
These are some of the comments posted by ChessCafe voters:
-- "My only vote goes to Herman Grooten's masterpiece, a class of its own"
-- "It's superb and I think Nimzo might now rest in peace. It's the new standard of middlegame strategy for all club players!"

SHORTLISTED: The Guardian 2009 Chess Book of the Year

Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what?

First find the right plan, then the good moves will follow!

With this book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on:
how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions
how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan

His teachings are based on the famous "Elements" of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion. He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters.

In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding:
-- pawn structure
-- piece placement
-- lead in development
-- open files
-- weaknesses
-- space advantage
-- king safety

You will master the art of converting a temporary plus into other, more permanent advantages.

The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises.

Herman Grooten, is an International Master and a chess coach with over 25 years of experience. Quite a few of his pupils have gone on to become grandmasters, among them Loek van Wely and Jan Werle.