Aveskulov Valeriy. The Art of Exchanges

Modern Chess, Middlegame Databases, 2019.When the main goal of our play is to checkmate the opponent's king, one of the main ways to achieve this is to reach a material advantage. Every beginner is taught to count pieces and do not allow obviously disadvantageous exchanges (such as rook for bishop or knight for pawn). And while beginners often continue despite large material imbalances, this is much less often seen among tournament players. Here the fight usually revolves around strategical and tactical ideas. Players strive for situations in which their pieces are superior to their opponents'. One of the most important tools to achieve this goal is the exchange. The famous Soviet author Gennady Nesis has written a few books about the art of exchanges, both in middlegames and endgames. They were popular in their times and can still be useful for players today. Yet if we look at their contents, we will find that exchanges are not categorized by their themes and their goals there. The current database is designed to fill this gap.