SUCCESS!! Publication of my "Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Fundamentals"

It's celebration time for me. I intend to drink a few beers with my buds or, if the weather sucks, open a good bottle of wine to share with my spouse. If I get lucky my wife and kids might even take me out to dinner. And at some point, I might smoke a good cigar...though it's been years since I did that.

Why am I celebrating? It started with a chirpy but accurate review of my first chess book (shown above left...the book cover, not the review 🤣). The bottom line is that a player rated around 1600 found the first book too difficult. And my coach, IM Attila Turzo, agreed that it was too difficult for most players. He did say some material would be quite useful for titled players. Those inputs drove my decision to write a new book that would address the complexity issues in a way that made trapping pieces clear for everyone. And along the way, I produced a sizable compilation of chess.com blogs on trapping pieces. The most recent was Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Blind Swine Mate. That blog has links to all my other blogs on trapping pieces. There is some overlap between the posts and the book, but the overlap would probably be less than 5% if it were a Venn diagram.

As far as the process of writing the new book, you can read about the entire journey, from original critique to concept development to submission to acceptance for publication, at My Experiences Writing a Second Book – "Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Fundamentals". The bottom line is I wrote a prequel. How very movie-like of me. (And no, I am not the Kevin Smith of film fame.)

But now, the long journey's night reaches nirvana: publication! Over 650 trainable variations and 50+ illustrative games. With extensive annotations, including two games annotated by GMs (it turns out they're quite generous in allowing that).

Here is a small sample of the material included:

✅ Pawn walls to block out bishops - shutting out the bishop with your pawns or even your opponent’s own pawns.

✅ “Fianchettoed Rooks” - the fianchetto setup is nice for bishops, but unfortunate for rooks! Learn how to force the enemy rook into this tough spot and take advantage with your minor pieces.

✅ Queen-trapping knights - two knights can have immense power in trapping the enemy queen - learn the common patterns that trap the queen at the edge of the board.

✅ King-trapping mating patterns - learn to spot ‘hidden’ checkmates like the Epaulette Mate, Smothered Mate, and Boden’s Mate. In many cases your mere threat of achieving the mating configuration will drive your opponent to make concessions that leave you winning.

✅ Wide-open board domination - if you think trapping pieces applies only to crowded boards, think again. A variety of endgame exercises will change your entire mindset on trapping!

And much more. The book addresses both offense and defense: in many cases, it offers tips and practice for spotting potential enemy traps and finding the escape to freedom. Or even turning the tables!

As for me, I am doing the Snoopy happy dance.