CHESS

CALCULATION
TRAINING
Volume 1

Middlegames

by

Romain Edouard

www.thinkerspublishing.com
Managing Editor
Romain Edouard

Assistant Editor
Daniël Vanheirzeele

Software
Hub van de Laar

Proofreading
Adam Emerson, Roger Emerson

Graphic Artist
Philippe Tonnard

Cover design
Iwan Kerkhof

Back cover photo

Ana Matnadze

First edition 2017 by Thinkers Publishing

Chess calculation training. Volume 1: Middlegames

Copyright © 2017 Romain Edouard

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-94-9251-003-7
WD/2016/13730/8

All sales or enquiries should be directed to Thinkers Publishers, 9000 Gent, Belgium.

e-mail: info@thinkerspublishing.com
website: www.thinkerspublishing.com
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

KEY TO SYMBOLS 5
PREFACE 7

CHAPTER 1: WARM UP 9
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 1 35
CHAPTER 2: PUNISH BAD COORDINATION! 47
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 2 65
CHAPTER 2: FIND THE UNEXPECTED BLOW! 73
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 3 85
CHAPTER 4: PLAY THE RIGHT MOVE UNDER PRESSURE! 91
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 4 101
CHAPTER 5: A DEVASTATING ATTACKING MOVE! 109
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 5 131
CHAPTER 6: FIND THE STUNNING WINNING MOVE! 145
HELP PAGE! 150
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 6 151
CHAPTER 7: PLAY THE KILLER POSITIONAL MOVE! 155
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 7 165
CHAPTER 8: FIND THE MISSED MOVE! 171
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 8 185
CHAPTER 9: EVALUATE THE OPPORTUNITY! 193
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 9 201
CHAPTER 10: MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE! 207
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 10 215
CHAPTER 11: SPECIAL SECTION 219
SOLUTIONS – CHAPTER 11 231
 KEY TO SYMBOLS

! a good move
? a weak move
!! an excellent move
?? a blunder
!? an interesing move
?! a dubious move
 only move
= equality
 unclear position
 with compensation for the sacrificed material
 White stands slightly better
 Black stands slightly better
 White has a serious advantage
 Black has a serious advantage
+− White has a decisive advantage
−+ Black has a decisive advantage
 with an attack
 with initiative
 with counterplay
 with the idea of
 better is
 worse is
N novelty
+ check
# mate
 PREFACE

After writing my exercise book “The Chess Manual of Avoidable Mistakes

– Volume 2”, I wanted to continue in the same spirit by launching another
series of books: “Chess Calculation Training”. This first volume will focus on
middlegames.

I have always found that existing puzzle books, however good they are, only
provide a rather mechanical form of mental training. In this new collection,
you will find exercises to help you improve in specific areas of thinking, such
as you may encounter in your own games. To help this, all the problems are
taken from real games, with most of them having taken place in the last year.

The book begins with a warm-up. After that, you will find several types of
exercises. Some of these fall into the same categories as those in my previ-
ous book, as they were readers’ favourites. Other categories are completely
new, for instance: “Find the killer positional move!” or “Find the stunning
winning move!”.

The problems in the book are accessible to players with a level from mod-
est to confident. The most difficult ones are marked with an asterisk, while
the most challenging chapter comes with a help page, that you may check
when necessary.

I hope you enjoy solving these 496 puzzles, and look forward to seeing you
again in Volume 2: Endgames.

Romain Edouard

March 1st 2017

 Chapter 1

Warm up

As the title indicates, this part of the book is a warm up. For each po-
sition given, you must find the winning move. If there seem to be more
than one, you should go for the quickest and/or the clearest.

This chapter contains exercises of all types, which could have been used
in several of the other chapters. They have been collected in this chapter
because of their lower difficulty and will prepare you nicely for the rest
of the book!

This chapter is quite long: I recommend attempting one or two pages

(4 to 8 exercises) as a daily routine, or as a warm-up before looking at
another chapter.
  1  2
Naiditsch, A. – Mamedyarov, S. Landa, K. – Zhu, C.

 29... ? −+  15. ?+−

 3  4
Sher, M. – Kamsky, G. Aronian, L. – Grischuk, A.

 15... ?−+  41. ?+−

10 CHESS CALCULATION TRAINING. VOLUME 1: MIDDLEGAMES

 Chapter 3

Find the
unexpected
blow!

In this chapter, you must find unexpected incisive moves! Sacrifices, in-
termediate moves, surprising and hidden moves will be on the menu.

The aim of this chapter is to help you to understand how rich chess is in
ideas, so that you can overcome your bad automatic reflexes. Everyone
is able to spot basic things. You have to force yourself to see the rest!

The difficulty of the exercises in this chapter ranges from medium to

difficult.
  1  2
Ivanchuk, V. – Karjakin, S. Rozentalis, E. – Socko, B.

 16... ?  17... ?−+

 3  4
Guerrero, R. – Raimbault, P. Aronian, L. – Mamedyarov, S.

 18. ?+−  22... ?−+

74 CHESS CALCULATION TRAINING. VOLUME 1: MIDDLEGAMES

 Chapter 4

Play the right

move under
pressure!

In each exercise in this chapter you are under pressure from your oppo-
nent. You must find the only move, or simply the best response, depend-
ing on the problems you are facing.

A short introduction to each exercise will set you on the path to the
solution. The aim of this chapter is to prepare you for difficult situations:
being under attack, needing to find resources, time pressure...

The difficulty of the exercises in this chapter ranges from medium to

very difficult, the most challenging ones being marked with an asterisk.
  1  2
Negi, P. – Zhukova, N. Korobov, A. – Negi, P.

 22… ?  23… ?
Black has one move to stay fully in Find the drawing move!
the game, can you spot it?

 3  4
Mateo, R. – Demuth, A. Vega Gutierrez, S. – Videnova, I.

 28. ?  15… ?
Black is threatening ...a2: but White It looks like Black is running into big pro-
has a way to keep the dynamic balance. blems, but in fact he is completely fine!
Find it! Can you find how?

92 CHESS CALCULATION TRAINING. VOLUME 1: MIDDLEGAMES

 Chapter 7

Play the killer

positional
move!

In this chapter, you must find strong positional moves. The solution is al-
ways concrete and the evaluation of the position which will result should
be very helpful.

A good positional move does not mean there are no tactics involved! On
the contrary, this series of exercises is intended to help you to intelli-
gently mix tactics and strategy.

The difficulty of these exercises ranges from medium to difficult, the

most challenging ones being marked with an asterisk.
  5  6
Mamedyarov, S. – Ragger, M. Smirin, I. – Radjabov, T.

 18. ? ±  29… ? −+

 7 (*)  8
Vachier Lagrave, M. – Studer, N. Harikrishna, P. – Grandelius, N.

 12. ? ±  40. ? +−

CHAPTER 7: PLAY THE KILLER POSITIONAL MOVE 157

 Chapter 8

Find the
missed
move!

In this chapter, each position is accompanied by a series of moves which

were played in a game. You must find the missed opportunity in this
series of moves. The player whose move it is in the given position is the
one who missed an opportunity.

In order to help you in your search, I will also give you the evaluation of
the position if that missed move had been played.

The aim of this part of the book is to encourage you to concentrate on

what is important, looking at the whole board, so you can spot key mo-
ments.

These exercises will also help you to find the right balance in your anal-
ysis: passing quickly over obvious things while making sure to notice
possible surprises, so you develop a feeling for when the key moment
has arrived.

The difficulty of these exercises ranges from medium to difficult, unless

an asterisk indicates that the exercise is very difficult.
  1  2
Vallejo Pons, F. – Topalov, V. Negi, P. – Wen, Y.

30.  f6 d8 31.g5 d2 33...d7 34. c8+ d8

32.h6+ g7 33. f5+ h8−+ 35.c5 xe6 36.  xd8++−
(±) (−+)

 3 (*)  4
Nguyen, D. – Negi, P. Karpov, A. – Timman, J.

15.xe7  xe5 16. xe5  f6 43. e8 g6 44. d8 h4

17.d7  xe7 18. xb6 axb6© 45. d6 f5 46.d1 e6=
(±) (+−)

172 CHESS CALCULATION TRAINING. VOLUME 1: MIDDLEGAMES