Geoffrey Mott-smith

Point Count Chess: an Accurate Guide to Winning Chess Geoffrey Mott-smith

Perhaps more than any other chess book ever, this book was greeted with calumny and ridicule when it first came out. However, there has been a re-appraisal. Chess coaches have found this book to be great for teaching chess to their students. It is now highly recommended by a large number of chess coaches and trainers. Computer chess programs have also adopted the concepts introduced in this book. Chess Review magazine called this book ?a completely original concept in chess instruction.? This book, via the Point Count, shows the reader how to evaluate these differences and exploit them. What is more, the reader also acquires a working knowledge of more than a score of plans, their mechanisms and physical contours, and the influence they exert in actual play. This book is based on the following premise: Every move on the chessboard is an exchange, a give and take. The very first move, if it is a pawn move, for example, gives away control of the squares that the pawn had previously commanded and takes control of new squares. Similarly at any stage of the game, there is implicit in every move a plus and minus quality. To be sure, these differences of themselves are usually minute and carry little weight. When combined in series of inter-related moves ? plans ? their effect is to sway the course of the game. Pawn skeletons, chains, salients and other basic features of this valuable unit are compared structurally as to strengths and weaknesses. Outpost stations, wing demonstrations and a host of strategic ideas are described, appraised via the Point Count and illustrated in numerous examples from actual play. Point Count Chess will augment the reader's understanding of the game, enhance his repertoire and determine his proper course of action in each contest, based upon the innate considerations of the position.