Pump Up Your Rating (Hardcover)

Unlock your Chess Potential

Any man in the street knows how to increase his physical strength, but among most chess players confusion reigns when it comes to improving their playing strength.

Axel Smith's training methods have guided his friends, teammates and pupils to grandmaster norms and titles.

Hard work will be required, but Axel Smith knows how you can Pump Up Your Rating. Every area of chess is covered - opening preparation, through middlegame play, to endgame technique.

Smith delves into both the technical and psychological sides of chess, and shows how best to practise and improve.

International Master Axel Smith from Sweden has had great success as a coach. Using his methods on himself, within two years he boosted his rating from 2093 to 2458. He is now closing in on the Grandmaster title.

>> ChessCafe.com 2013 Book of the Year. 

Kjell Tore Sandum:
"I've never seen anything like it – entertaining and a true recipe on how to increase your playing strength."

John Hartmann:
"In a year where chess fans have been blessed with a multitude of great books (..) International Master Axel Smith might well have written the best among them."

IM John Cox, CHESS magazine:
"Overall, this is a fun and original work written with a lot of soul (..) some thought-provoking suggestions and guidance,some inspiration, and some interesting positions with interesting reflections upon them."

Amatzia Avni, ChessCafe:
"Pump Up Your Rating is very well-written. The explanations are lucid and clear. Axel Smith imparts plenty of useful advice in a very detailed manner (..)."

Arne Moll, Chessvibes:
"Despite its, well, silly title, it’s actually an extremely interesting and thoughtful treatise by the Swedish coach and International Master.(..) By showing concrete examples, Smith mostly offers his student ‘tools’, or ‘thinking techniques’ to improve their skills."

Uwe Bekemann, German Corrsespondence Chess Federation:
"Any player who works in a continuous and concentrated way with this book will undoubtedly raise his skill level."