The Road to Chess Mastery - Softcover

Chess players often reach a certain level and subsequently seem unable to become any stronger. They attain solid and even promising positions without having any well formulated ideas of how to continue the game. They frequently do not understand the strategic requirements of the niceties which go into the building up of a strong position. The Road to Chess Mastery is a collection of 25 games annotated specifically for the purpose of showing how to improve their chess. All phases of chess technique are included: discussions of the basic ideas behind modern openings, explanations of the handling of typical middle game positions, consideration of certain endgames, examples of the kind of technical analysis a chess player must make before deciding on the next move. Through an introduction that explains how the ordinary chess player can improve in the various phases of the game of chess, and in enlightening commentaries far more extensive than space permits in an ordinary annotated game, former World Champion Dr. Max Euwe shows how a chess player should think, by indicating the moves for all but the most obvious moves of each game. By applying what he learns in this work the reader may, indeed, find himself traveling the road to chess mastery.

Dr. Max Euwe was born in Amsterdam, Holland. He received his doctorate in mathematics in 1923 from the University of Amsterdam and taught the subject in a lyceum for many years. During recent years he has worked as adviser in the electronics field. Dr. Euwe became Chess Champion of Holland at age 20, a title he still holds. In 1935 he became World Champion in a match with Alexander Alekhine, a title he held for two years. He is internationally known as a chess theorist and analyst and is the author of more than 70 books on chess. Dr. Walter Meiden is Associate Professor of Romance Languages at Ohio State University. He took his B.A. Degree from the University of Michigan in 1931, an M.A. from Ohio State University in 1933 and his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1945. His experience as a teacher includes a wartime assignment to the United States Naval Academy , 1943-1946, where he instructed in French, Spanish and German. Dr. Meiden first met Dr. Euwe during a trip abroad, a meeting that led to their collaboration on this and other books.