Chess Visualization Course - training exercises for tactics and attack on the King to improve your chess!

Chess Visualization Course, Book 1: General Tactics
is designed to improve your chess visualization skills
using positions taken from real games. As you go
through the 800 exercises in the book, your vision
will not only deepen as the length of the variations
increases from 4 to 39 half-moves, but will also
expand from one to two to three and more sectors
of the board. All of this while you gain knowledge
of the 26 chapter themes presented in the book.

This page lists ten great features that make this book both valuable and unique.

1. The book helps you develop a vital chess skill -- chess visualization -- which has received far too little attention in the chess literature.

2. The book allows you to work on your visualization skills using real positions taken from real games. We don't ask you to visualize the color of a particular square or try to figure out how a Knight can hit every square on the board. The positions in the book were taken from real games, most played by masters and grandmaster in tournaments located throughout the world.

3. The book contains 800 exercises, which run from 4 to 39 half-moves deep (although most of the exercises are 5 to 12 half-moves long). Twenty-four sample exercises taken from six chapters of the book are available elsewhere on this website.

4. The exercises are arranged in increasing order of difficulty based on the length of the variation that you are asked to visualize.

5. The exercises are arranged in 26 thematic chapters. Each chapter contains on average 30 exercises, which means that each theme is given extensive coverage. The chapter introductions are available here (MS Word required). Other books might illustrate a particular theme using two or three examples. Not so here! Using on average 30 exercises per chapter helps you gain a deep understanding of the various sub-themes relevant for each chapter.

6. The chapters are arranged in a logical sequence that stretches your vision from 1 to 2 to 3 and more sectors of the board. Chapter themes include how to expand the position, what can happen before and/or after a tactical series of exchanges, how to visualize positions with multiple imbalances, how to use rabid pieces and pawns, how to play positions in which both Queens are under attack (including chapters on desperado Queens and double desperadoes), how to see further than your opponent, and other topics as well. The book doesn't just rehash the same old tactical themes that have been presented over and over again.

7. The book helps you to identify your own personal ply depth barrier, e.g., the depth at which your chess vision begins to get cloudy. It also describes three techniques to help you break through this barrier and further develop your visualization skills.

8. The book measures nearly 7 x 10 inches (~17.5 x 25 cm) and contains 324 pages. It's not a thin book!

9. The GBC comb binding ensures that the book will always lie flat, even if you take your hands off the pages. As of May, 2008, the book now easily folds in half, occupying half the space of most books, which is great if you're working on the kitchen table, for example.

10. You can get these 800 exercises at a great price! The Chess Visualization Course, Book 1: General Tactics is now available at a Special Internet Introductory Offer of just $19.95! That's about 2 1/2 cents per exercise. For even greater savings, you can also purchase the e-book version for just $12.95. Plus, there's no postage for e-books!

If you want a low-cost systematic way to improve your chess visualization skills, this book is for you!

Click the "Next" button to read what FIDE
Master Paul Whitehead has to say about how
he improved his chess and about visualization.