"How can I improve my game?" is a perennial question facing chess-players. While there are no easy answers, Alex Yermolinsky is better qualified than most to offer advice. Having found the famed "Soviet School of Chess" wanting, he trained himself, slowly but surely raising his game to top-class grandmaster standard.

In this book, he passes on many of the insights he has gained over the years. He steers the reader away from "quick fix" approaches, and focuses on the critical areas of chess understanding and over-the-board decision-making. This entertainingly written book breaks new ground in many areas of chess understanding.

Topics covered include: Trend-Breaking Tools; The Burden of Small Advantages; What Exchanges Are For; Classics Revisited; and Computer Chess. A large part of the book discusses a variety of important opening set-ups, including methods for opposing offbeat but dangerous lines, such as the Grand Prix Attack.