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The 100 Endgames You Must Know Workbook

Jesús de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know became a worldwide bestseller by proving that essential endgame theory is finite and learnable. This workbook is its practical companion — built to make sure that knowledge is actually there when you need it at the board.

The idea grew from a real problem de la Villa noticed in his students: they had studied the endgames, but couldn’t recall them under pressure in their own games. So he assembled hundreds of exercises, grouped to mirror the chapters of the original book — basic endings, knight, queen and rook versus pawns, same- and opposite-coloured bishops, rook endings, pawn endings, and more.

Working through the puzzles drills the key methods into long-term memory, refreshes what you have read, and sharpens your technique. Just as valuable, de la Villa made a discovery while compiling it: most of his students’ mistakes had already been made by others — often by strong, even famous players — so the exercises are deliberately built around the errors people actually make.

A focused, high-value training book. It works best alongside the parent volume, but the clear solutions make it instructive on its own for any club player serious about endgames.

The Ruy Lopez is arguably the most classic of chess openings. White immediately starts the battle for the centre, fighting for the initiative. This strategic clarity has made the Ruy Lopez, or Spanish Opening, an eternal favourite with chess players at all levels. Inevitably, this popularity has also led to a wealth of opening theory. In this book, Fabiano Caruana takes you by the hand and lays out a complete and practical White repertoire for club players. He avoids complicated chaotic lines, but doesn’t shy away from sharp battles. Caruana loves to find and use the tactics to punish Black for risky choices. This one-volume and crystal-clear repertoire covers fifteen main variations, from the classical lines to the anti-Marshall (8.a4), and from the Schliemann (3…f5) to the Modern Steinitz. In an easy-to-grasp manner Caruana explains general characteristics, such as permanent weaknesses long-term goals, and is always looking for an advantage for White. The insights of the World #2 in this classic opening, will not only greatly improve your results in the Ruy Lopez, but also sharpen your general chess knowledge. Inspired by Caruana’s ChessBase Series Navigating the Ruy Lopez.

This second-volume workbook in Davorin Kuljasevic's How to Study Chess on Your Own series is optimized for chess players with an Elo rating between 1500 and 1800 but is helpful for anyone between 1200 and 2000. The astounding success of his How to Study Chess on Your Own made clear that thousands of chess players want to improve their game and like to work on their training at least partially by themselves. 

Kuljasevic has used his coaching experience to identify the typical mistakes of club players and create a broad and exciting training schedule to address them. Tasks like these will challenge you:

- Solve visualization puzzles

- Find the best middlegame move - and find a hidden tactic

- Evaluate a critical piece-trade decision

- Analyze a practical endgame position

With these exercises and tools, any chess student can start training immediately.

Davorin Kuljasevic is an International Grandmaster born in Croatia. He graduated from Texas Tech University and is an experienced coach. His bestselling book Beyond Material: Ignore the Face Value of Your Pieces was a finalist for the Boleslavsky-Averbakh Award, the best book prize of FIDE, the International Chess Federation.

Part two features the play of champions Max Euwe (1935-1937) Mikhail Botvinnik (1946-1957, 1958-1961 and 1961-1963), Vassily Smyslov (1957-1958) and Mikhail Tal (1960-1961).

These books are more than just a compilation of the games of these champions. Kasparov's biographies place them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

All these games have been thoroughly reassessed with the aid of modern software technology and the new light this sheds on these classic masterpieces is fascinating.

This ebook is a part of Bundle: My Great Predecessors

With the ascent of computer technology, humans have a chance to develop their thinking process based on hard evidence. Think Like a Machine explores human limitations and proposes new avenues for human thinking, inspired by computer engines. In positions taken almost exclusively from modern tournament play, the authors present jaw-dropping continuations which humans struggle to find, not due to lower human computing power, due to conceptual and perceptual limitations. In this book these “crazy” moves are analyzed and categorized. If you want to expand your chess imagination, understanding and intuition, Think Like a Machine is the book is for you. Think Like A Machine is the second chess book co-written by Noam Manella and Zeev Zohar. Manella is a digital and Social Networks Researcher; Zohar is an accountant and businessman. Their previous book, Play Unconventional Chess and Win, was a highlight in chess publishing in 2014.

The London System is a chess opening that is characterized by moves 1.d4 and 2.Nf3 followed by Bf4 and e3. This opening gained a lot of popularity among chess players because it is solid and flexible. By developing the knight on f3 and the pawn on e3, the central pawn structure is solid and well protected, making it difficult for the opponent to create any weaknesses. Such a stable center makes it easier for White to attack and, if needed, defend. The move Bf4 can be followed by a number of different moves, such as Nbd2, e3, c3, dxc5, h3, and in some cases c4, which allows White to adapt to a wide array of specific game situations. This flexibility allows for a number of different plans and possibilities, making it difficult for the opponent to anticipate White’s plan and thus counter it properly.

I have returned to my book from a few years ago, to an opening that at the time was a rare guest among books as a topic – and not only among books, but also in tournament practice. In the intervening years it has become very popular to use this old and somewhat forgotten method of playing and I have found lots of interesting new games.

This time though I have focused mainly on Colle-Zukertort type positions, plus some transpositions to Queen’s Indian-type play, so this is not a repertoire book like the previous one, but rather you can look at it as an opening book. Of course, Slav reactions with ...c6 are covered as well, and also early and quick ...c5 and ...g6 reactions.

Due to increased popularity, I have dived into specifics which we can consider now as a renaissance of this old line.

Another important thing, and it is indeed an especially important detail, is the organization of material into logical sections, because this system is often transpositional. Therefore, it is important to do this because reading this book should be an easy and joyful experience.

There are positions in this book that have stood the test of time, but I have also focused on the most recent ideas as I didn’t want to simply repeat the same ideas as before – I wanted to include as much as possible new plans. I also tested these ideas numerous times in my own practice.

So, what you have here is a completely redesigned and modernized system compared to only a few years ago, when this system was virtually forgotten.

Endgame Labyrinths presents the reader with 1002 challenging studies selected and truncated, with their usefulness for the practical player in mind. It is common for studies to be extended by less interesting manoeuvres or by incomprehensible sequences, before the main themes come into play. The studies in this book have been pruned to leave the reader with 1002 clear and solvable challenges.

A few years of extensive selection, analysis, reselection, reanalysis and refining have gone into putting together the study book for the practical player with the most value ever.

Steffen Nielsen is the reigning World Champion in endgame composition. His creativity and aesthetics in his compositions have had a massive influence on modern competition. He is a strong club player, with a good understanding of the difficulties practical players face over the board. Steffen is also a life-long supporter of the football club AaB, which is less successful...

GM Jacob Aagaard is one of the leading chess writers and trainers of his generation. His students have played successfully at all levels and continue to do so. His books are used all over the world, by top players and amateurs alike.

"Absolute Gold" – GM Anish Giri

Continuing from Volume 1A (The Catalan), this book completes Boris Avrukh's reworking of his Grandmaster Repertoire series on 1.d4, covering all of Black's remaining answers to the Queen's Gambit across 24 chapters.

The biggest departure from Avrukh's earlier work is in the Queen's Gambit Accepted: he has replaced 3.e3 with the more ambitious 3.e4, applying immediate central pressure rather than the quieter development of his previous recommendation. This requires more theoretical preparation but, as Avrukh argues, pays off in positions White can genuinely enjoy playing.

The Slav Defence takes up the largest section. The core recommendation — 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 — remains, but the coverage has expanded from 95 pages in the original to 203 pages here, reflecting how heavily the theory has developed. The main change is after 4...Bg4, where Avrukh now prefers 5.h3 over his previous 5.Nc3.

The final section covers Black's smaller lines: the Chigorin (now split across two chapters due to new developments), the Albin Counter Gambit, the Tarrasch, and various rare defences including 2...Bf5, 2...Nf6 and 2...c5.

As with Volume 1A, this is an advanced book designed for serious study rather than quick preparation. The two volumes together give White a complete, deeply researched repertoire for 1.d4 against everything Black can play.

This book advocates the 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 move order for Black – with 3.Nc3 Bb4 having been covered in the sister volume Playing the Nimzo-Indian. By waiting for the knight to appear on f3 before transposing to a Queen’s Gambit, Black reduces White’s options.

Spanish GM Renier Castellanos completes his cutting-edge repertoire for Black against 1.d4, with the Vienna Variation (4.Nc3 dxc4) and Catalan (4.g3 dxc4) the biggest topics. This book also provides thorough guidance against all of White’s significant alternatives on moves 2-4.

With thoughtful explanations backed up by precise analysis, Beating the Queen’s Gambit – Indian Style! provides everything you need to handle 1.d4 Nf6 variations where White avoids the Nimzo-Indian Defence.

Rook endgames are the most frequently recurring endgames and also one of the most exciting areas of chess, with mind bending tactical opportunities and dizzying nuances available. They have unsurprisingly been a big topic in endgame literature, with a heavy focus on the set theoretical positions and their logic and fixed conclusions (see the excellent Theoretical Rook Endgames by GM Sam Shankland, published as a sister volume to this book as the peak example of this).

Conceptual Rook Endgames goes in a different direction. Focused on two dozen major concepts, the book explains the mechanisms of rook endgames in a novel way, by building foundations with simple examples, which can be seen in the most complicated examples as well. Rook endgames will remain rich and surprising, as they are for the greats, but armed with this book, your comprehension of them will skyrocket.

Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard is the most talented chess writer of his generation. He won the British Championship in 2007, but is mostly known for his multi-award winning books and his work with students that have won club, country, state, national, continental and world championships, as well as Olympiad golds (board and overall), the World Cup and Candidates tournament.

Imagine you are a club player who has been given the opportunity to talk at length with a famous Grandmaster. How would you make the most of this opportunity? This is the third book in the highly acclaimed Lessons with a Grandmaster series. It bridges the gap between great player and amateur through a series of conversations between teacher, the renowned Grandmaster Boris Gulko, and student Dr. Joel R. Sneed, a professor of psychology and amateur chess player. The lessons are based on Gulko's own battles against fellow Grandmasters. In this third volume, Gulko and Sneed focus on both strategic and tactical ideas, and how to successfully combine the two parts over the board. Among the many subjects examined are attack and defence, exploiting weak squares, fighting for the initiative, Sicilian strategy and the bishop pair.