Whether you are preparing for a weekend open tournament or trying to crush your rival in the local league, downloading this PDF (legally) and grinding through its 1001 exercises is the single highest-ROI training decision you can make this year.

Years later, when Mira packed a small box of used books and folded a paper in the margin for a nervous new player, she did not wonder where the battered volume had come from or why its exercises fit like gloves. She understood instead that some problems are meant to be solved once, and then given away, so that others might learn the shape of attention.

The buzz around is not a fleeting trend. It is the result of a perfect alignment: A brilliant author, a desperate audience (stuck intermediate players), and a convenient digital format.

: Available through major retailers like Amazon or directly from the publisher, New In Chess .