Secrets of Chess Transformations By: Drazen Marovic

Author: Drazen Marovic

A Gambit Classic Explains how to transform one advantage into another

“features an excellent mixture of classical and modern examples designed to turn the reader into a modern-day chess alchemist.” – IM John Donaldson, USA Team Captain

One of the most important skills in chess is the ability to transform one type of advantage into another. The great champions effortlessly convert an initiative into an attack, an attack into a material gain, and move into an endgame where it can be exploited smoothly.

From our own games, we know that this is not as simple as it looks. It is all too easy to miss the right moment to make the transformation, and suddenly encounter unnecessary difficulties.

In this wide-ranging text, experienced trainer Drazen Marovic discusses all aspects of chess transformations, enabling us to sense when they are necessary, and to decide how to bring them about. This understanding will also help us to frustrate our opponents’ plans, and put up a resilient defence in difficult positions.

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Drazen Marovic is a grandmaster from Croatia, who has won medals as both player and trainer for various national teams. His pupils include Bojan Kurajica, World Under-20 Champion in 1965, and Al Modiahki of Qatar, the first Arabian grandmaster. Marovic has a wealth of experience as a writer, editor and television commentator on chess. He was the trainer of the Croatian national team during a period in the 1990s when it achieved a number of successes in top-level contests. This is his fourth book for Gambit. His previous books discussed various aspects of pawn play and positional chess, and have been warmly received by the chess-playing public.

“It is an important work because transforming advantages is not easily grasped by tournament players and the Croatian grandmaster explains it clearly and instructively. In a chapter on real sacrifices, he shows how Fischer turned an initiative into an attack, an attack into a space advantage and eventually into a material advantage.” – GM Lubomir Kavalek, Washington Post

“[This book] demands hard work and concentration on the part of the reader, but could be studied profitably by strong club players who want to become even stronger. The positions are well chosen, and the subsequent play clearly explained, with the author sticking to the point and not straying off into long sub-variations. I found that it gave a fascinating insight into how a world class player views the board, and it has given me much food for thought.” – Alan Sutton, En Passant

“The elements of material, space, and time interact in chess to such an extent that strict delineation is impossible … As Marović himself says in ‘We should keep in mind that the complex play of transformations is the life of chess, the time of transition and metamorphosis its crucial moment, worthy of players’ exceptional attention and dedicated study.’ This work stands as a valuable aid towards such study.” – Dave Gillespie, Weekend Chess