The Path of a Chess Amateur

By David Dowson

This is a book for the amateur chess player. For players graded 20100.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504946728

David Dowson

The author is a professor of chess psychology and has been playing chess for forty years. The author is also a professionally trained artist and has a black belt in tae kwon do.

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2015 David Dowson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/16/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4670-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4671-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4672-8 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Code Symbols as Used in This Book

Introduction

First Things First

Openings to Remember

The Endgames You Should Know

List of Players of Featured Games

Books to Read

Thank you to Chess Base Germany for the use of their fonts.

www.ChessBase.com

Jan Webber

To my supportive partner of twenty-two years, Rachael.

To my mum, who is always there for me.

To Poro Desilva, who kept me sane.

And to Jan Webber.

CODE SYMBOLS AS USED IN THIS BOOK

!   A fine move

!!   A brilliant move

!?   An interesting move

?!   A dubious move

?   An error

??   A blunder

+   Check

#   Checkmate

INTRODUCTION

I have always wondered why it is so difficult to get over the grade of 50 ECF and then turn it into something more substantial.

It’s been a long walk along the path of chess, always hoping, always dreaming that one day I will make it as a chess master. After forty years, I’m still dreaming. What I have learned from other sports is that you have to dare to lose to win. Except with chess, we have an added bonus: We can agree a draw.

Here you are at the latest chess congress. You have playing experience of over twenty years, and you’re still only graded 50–99 or less. So what’s wrong? You have all the latest chess books with all their suggested openings – the Nimzo-Indian, French, Queen’s Gambit, Ruy Lopez, and many more. Written by masters, the books are well above the heads of many players. They say they’re for the club player (improving player), but that could mean anything ECF 145 or higher.

No matter what they say, amateurs just don’t stick to the book moves, mainly because they can’t remember them. But still, we try to learn, getting stuck when our opponent deviates from the book moves or we just cannot remember the line. So I am going to show you the steps that I took to get over 100 and hope that by following the same system,