This new book by Mikhail Shereshevsky, one of the most respected chess trainers in the world, is about a very important but little-explored topic: associative thinking. How can a modern chess student avoid drowning in the flood of information? The answer is to stop mechanically memorizing moves and turn on your curiosity. Try to create a vivid image of the technique you are studying and remember it as an association During a game of chess, we have associations all the time. We are not talking about specific pawn structures, but about more abstract things. What is the best interaction between knight and pawn? Where should the rook be placed - behind the passed pawn or to the side? On which squares should you place your pawns when you have a bishop against a knight? Generations of chess players before us have answered these and similar questions. Shereshevsky clearly shows that studying the games of great chess players will help you to improve your associative thinking, especially when
