Yusupov's 9-part series, Boost your chess, Build up your chess and Evolution series is the 2009 winner of the Boleslavsky Medal from FIDE (the World Chess Federation) as the best instructional chess books in the world (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Mark Dvoretsky in 2nd and 3rd place).
This first book in the series helps players build their skills on a solid foundation. The author guides the reader towards a higher level of chess understanding using carefully selected positions and offering practical advice. This new understanding is then tested by a series of puzzles.
This book is not a random collection of positions tossed together but carefully chosen ones that methodically build the student's knowledge from exercise to exercise.
- The windmill
- Pawn weaknesses
- Back rank combinations
- Exploiting weaknesses
- The 7th rank
- Fortresses
- The pawn wedge
- Opening traps
- The use of traps
- Stalemate combinations
- The semi-open file
- Mate with bishop and knight
- Combinations involving files
- Outposts
- Combinations involving diagonals
- Elementary endgames
- Combinations with knights
- The principles behind mobilization
- Perpetual check
- Mate in two moves
- Combinations with the major pieces
- Coordination of the pieces
- Combinations with knights 2
- Zugzwang
This book comes highly recommended for players with ratings of less than 1100.
The book forms part of a 9-part series that covers (1) the fundamentals, (2) beyond the basics and (3) mastery. For players with ratings of less than 1100, the series offers:
- Build up your chess 1
- Boost your chess 1
- Evolution 1
