The first half of the book tests your ability in each part of the game. Opening Exercises test your ability to develop harmoniously and to find creative solutions in the first part of the game. The middlegame section assesses your proficiency at making decisions relating to attack and defence prophylactic thinking and finding the correct plan. The endgame challenges focus on the basic essential knowledge that often decides real-life games.

The second half of the book is comprised of How Good is Your Chess exercises, where you are asked to follow one side through a complete game, trying to guess each move as if you were playing a real game. Points are awarded according to the accuracy of your decisions.

Full, detailed solutions are given to all exercises.

Steffen Pedersen is a young international master from Denmark. He scored a grandmaster norm when he was 16 and played in several World and European junior championships. In 1998 he was joint winner of the Hampstead Grandmaster tournament, and achieved another grandmaster norm at the Aars get2net Cup in 1999. He has written several highly-regarded opening books with subjects including the Dutch Defence, Sicilian Scheveningen, Benko Gambit and the Semi-Slav.