International Master Jonathan Hawkins was a relatively slow starter in the world of chess. Learning the game at the age of eight, he was a keen junior who won a number of local tournaments. But by his own admission, ‘by the time I was in my mid-teens my age-to-playing-strength ratio was distinctly average.’<br /><br />He started to study chess very seriously in his late teens and achieved a rapid rise through the ranks. He became a FIDE Master in 2008 and earned the title of International Master in 2010. 2011 brought Jonathan two Grandmaster norms. One of them was earned at the super-strong British Championship, in which he outscored numerous Grandmasters to share third place.<br /><br />How did Jonathan Hawkins manage to go from being an average tournament competitor to a player on the brink of clinching the Grandmaster title? It took just three years for him to become a FIDE Master, an International Master and to achieve his first two Grandmaster norms.<br /><br />The secret was knowing what to study and how to learn as efficiently as possible. Focusing his attention firmly on the endgame, Jonathan devised a number of building blocks and identified a number of very important areas of study. The result of his hard work was a meteoric rise through the ranks, as he became firmly established as a prominent GM killer on the English tournament circuit.<br /><br />These pages reveal the secrets of his notebooks for the first time. IM Hawkins presents special material aimed to help you become a much better practical player, one armed with a deeper understanding of key aspects of chess.<br /><br />A careful study of the lessons presented in this book should enable the chess student to gain a significant improvement in both performance and rating.