Elisabeth Pähtz:
How to exchange pieces

Which pieces to keep and which to exchange is one of the most important questions in chess. This is true in the opening, the middlegame and the endgame.

Less experienced players often think exchanging means to swap pieces of equal value and fail to take stra-tegic factors into account. Of course, you have to keep the material balance in mind but it is crucial to realize how exchanges affect the position. The "feeling" for the right exchange – players like Capablanca or Karpov were unrivalled masters of this art – is something a chessplayer has to develop over time. This DVD wants to help to develop this feeling.

On this DVD IM Elisabeth Pähtz pursues the questions related to "exchanging" and to answer these questions with the help of instructive games to develop a "feeling" for the right exchange. I divided my lecture into four parts:

To exchange or not to exchange: that is the question!

1. Structural aspects of an exchange
2. Exchanging when attacking or defending
3. Exchanging to realize an advantage
4. The exchange of queens

Elisabeth Pähtz

Elisabeth Pähtz (or Paehtz, photo by Andreas Kontokanis) is a German WGM and men's IM, currently rated 2452, making her the strongest female player in the country. Elisabeth (or Elli, or Lizzy) was trained in chess from early childhood by her father GM Thomas Pähtz.

Elli as a pre-teen tournament player

At the age of nine she won her first German Championship in the under-11 age group. In 1999 she became Germany's women's chess champion. In 2002 she became the Youth World Champion of the under-18 age group, and in 2004 the U20 Junior World Champion.

Grim determination: playing on Playchess in the Hamburg ChessBase office

As one of the greatest German new-generation talents Elisabeth was the subject to great media interest when growing up. In September 2015 she married Italian IM Luca Shytaj.

6½-minute sample of Elisabeth Pähtz - The right exchange

Elisabeth Pähtz: How to exchange pieces Video running time: 4 hours 35 min (English) Video running time: 4 hours 35 min (English) With interactive training including video feedback 2 CBM articles about the exchange Including CB 12 Reader €29.90 €25.13 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $27.14 (without VAT)  This DVD can be purchased as a hard copy or it can be downloaded directly from the Internet, that way sparing you the few days needed for it to arrive by post.

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Other DVDs by Elisabeth Pähtz

You can order these DVDs in the ChessBase Shop