Contents

004 Symbols
005 Foreword
006 Introduction

010 1 The Intuition of Mikhail Tal
022 2 Simple Intuitive Decisions
029 3 Combinative Intuitive Decisions
047 4 Intuitive Positional Decisions: Introduction
049 5 Exchange Sacrifices
066 6 Piece Sacrifices for Two Pawns
070 7 Queen Sacrifices
074 8 Pawn Sacrifices
086 9 Exchanging as an Intuitive Decision
094 10 Which Rook?
100 11 Mysterious Quiet Moves
103 12 Improving the Worst-Placed Piece
108 13 Analysis, Intuition and Mistakes in Judgement
119 14 Intuition and Risk
124 15 Intuition in the Endgame
134 16 Psychological Factors
149 17 Intuition in the Opening
155 18 Suetin on Intuition
167 19 Test Your Intuition
171 Solutions

174 Index of Players
176 Index of Openings  

Catalogue text:

Intuition is central to all chess decision-making, and an understanding of its role is vital in improving one's game. Players who try to calculate everything to a finish often lose themselves in a maze of variations, while those who use intuition to the full will save both time and energy for the key moments of the game.

This book, the first devoted to the role of intuition in chess, explains how to allow your intuition to reach its full potential and provides guidance on distinguishing between positions in which one should rely heavily on intuition and those where one ought to be more analytical.

The two authors, both top-level authors and players, have drawn examples from modern practice and from the classics, with especial emphasis on players whose intuition have been legendary, such as Mikhail Tal. The authors devote particular attention to the role of intuition in sacrifices, whether for attacking, defensive or positional purposes.