Technical Decision-Making in Chess

Description

♟️ What is this book about?

Conversion — turning a clearly winning position into an actual win — is a skill that many advanced players underestimate. The conversion phase has its own challenges: maintaining objectivity when you’re winning, resisting the temptation to complicate unnecessarily, finding the precise move order that leaves no chances, and managing the psychological pressure of not wanting to let a won game slip.

This third volume of the Gelfand-Aagaard series is dedicated entirely to those challenges, showing how Boris Gelfand actually thinks through the conversion phase, including moments where he had to fight against his own impatience.

🎯 Who is this book for?

• Advanced players who drop points from winning positions more often than they should
• Players who understand they’re winning but don’t know how to convert efficiently
• Coaches who want material on the conversion phase for advanced students

📖 What’s inside

351 pages organized around the main challenges of the conversion phase:

• Recognizing when a position is technically winning vs. when it still requires precision
• The practical approach to different types of winning positions: material advantage, positional squeeze, king attack
• Avoiding unnecessary complications when a simpler path wins
• The psychological aspects of conversion: staying objective when you’re winning
• Gelfand’s annotated games showing the conversion process from inside

📚 The Gelfand-Aagaard series: three aspects of decision-making

Volume 1 covered positional decision-making. Volume 2 covered dynamic positions. This third volume covers technical positions. Together, the three books provide a comprehensive picture of how decisions are made at the highest level across all types of positions.

♟️ Why we recommend it at Chesscul

At Chesscul we recommend this volume to advanced students who are already strong tactically and positionally but keep losing points from won positions.

🔗 Recommended to pair with

• Positional Decision Making in Chess: volume 1 of the Gelfand-Aagaard series.
• Dynamic Decision Making in Chess: volume 2 of the series.
• Endgame Play: Aagaard’s dedicated treatment of endgame technique.