This book is similar to the Rate Your Chess series. It uses a system developed by FIDE master Bill Jordan for coaching.

This book features Mikhail Tal who became world chess champion in 1961 after defeating Mikhail Botvinnik. He lost the title in a rematch with Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963. Tal was from the Soviet Union.

Tal was a great attacking and sacrificial player.How many of his moves can you guess?

One suggested approach was not to take too long on the moves, say about 10 seconds or so. You could score correct guesses. If the move was totally unexpected, then it would be a good time to see if you could understand why the move was played. Every move should have a clear idea behind it. If you cannot see the idea, there is a learning opportunity there.

Here there is between one and four choices. This is similar to a multiple choice exam. This is easier than looking at all moves and may mean you examine some moves you would not have normally considered.

You will need a chess set and board to read this book and need to know how to read standard chess notation.How to ScoreThis book consists of games from World Championships with brief annotations for each move. You may simply play over the games for their own sake. To get the most out of this book you play through the games and take the role of the winning player.The winning player will always be playing up the board.

Initially all the details of the games will be displayed.

For a number of opening moves you will not need to guess the move. The number will vary from game to game and will generally be between 8 and 10 moves (for each side).

After these opening moves have been played, you will then try and predict the winning player's moves. Your choice will be selected from a number of candidate moves.

If you guess correctly you will score points which will range from 0 to 6. You can either write down or otherwise keep track of your total score and see what category you reach.

These are based on the FIDE (The international chess federation) rating system developed by Professor Elo.

The rating of 2500+ is an approximation of the strength needed to be a Grandmaster.

After you have finished a game, find what range your score is in the left column. Your approximate rating is in the right column.

• 91-100 2500+
• 81-90 2400 - 2499
• 71-80 2200 - 2399
• 61-70 2000 - 2199
• 51-60 1800 - 1999
• 41-50 1600 - 1799
• 31-40 1400 - 1599
• 21-30 1200 - 1399
• 11-20 1000 - 1199
• 0 -10 below 1000

The challenge is to increase your rating with each game!

• Steinitz
• Lasker
• Capablanca
• Alekhine
• Euwe
• Botvinnik
• Smyslov
• Tal
• Petrosian
• Spassky
• Fischer
• Karpov
• Kasparov
• Anand
• Kramnik
• Carlsen