Grandmaster Richard Pask

It's here! Grandmaster Richard Pask's fifth and concluding volume of his Logical Checkers series is now available for free download here, or from the Richard Pask page as linked in the right-hand column. (Earlier download problems have been resolved.)

Over 300 pages in length and filled with diagrams, the book provides the crowning touch to this unprecedented series of instructional volumes, designed to take the player from novice to expert, fully prepared for master level studies.

As a sample of the new book's content, here's an illustrative game leading to a problem position, with Mr. Pask's commentary.

Illustrative Game 150: 9-13 24-20; 10-14 22-18; 5-9 27-24; 6-10 25-22; 1-5?! (although impossible to criticize in general terms, analysis has shown that this should be avoided, with 10-15! preferred) 31-27!; 14-17 (10-15? 23-19; 14-23 27-18!; 7-10 26-23; 3-7 30-25 is a quick win scored by Pat McCarthy over Ken Lovell) 21-14; 10-17 29-25; 17-21 18-14; 9-18 23-14; 11-15 27-23; 8-11? White to Play and Win.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W14,20,22,23,24,25,26,28,30,32:B2,3,4,5,7,11,12,13,15,21

15-18 and the resultant 3 for 3 would have drawn. Can you find the White win? Of course, as would be expected in an advanced study, you may not find it easy. For the solution, download the book and refer to page 167.

Now that this landmark series is concluded, we plan to prepare and publish a comprehensive single-volume edition of all five parts of Logical Checkers, a mammoth book with over 1,000 diagrams and likely running above 800 pages. An electronic version will as always be provided completely free of charge. The trade paperback print edition is estimated to cost around $30.00, although that has yet to be finalized. The book will take quite some time to bring to press, but look for it in the latter part of 2021.

The Checker Maven thanks Grandmaster Pask for the honor of continuing to publish his work and for his unparalleled generosity in providing it to the checker playing public completely free of charge.