In this groundbreaking work, award-winning chess coach and author Frisco Del Rosario shines a long-overdue light on this neglected aspect of Capablanca’s record. He illustrates how the Cuban genius used positional concepts to build up irresistible king hunts, embodying the principles of good play advocated by the unequaled teacher, C.J.S. Purdy. The author also identifies an overlooked checkmate pattern – Capablanca’s Mate – that aspiring attackers can add to the standard catalogue in Renaud and Kahn’s The Art of the Checkmate. As Del Rosario shows, Capablanca has inspired not only generations of players, but also many of the classics of chess literature.
The Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5) contains countless variations and sub-variations that have been discussed in detail at all levels of play for many years. Even "small" specialized systems have been covered in exhaustive detail in book after book. That is why this book is unique, The Carlsen Variation, which arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4, has never previously been covered in detail before. The variation was uncorked by World Champion Magnus Carlsen in 2018 and has since been played by several other top grandmasters such as Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and several others. Yet despite this attention, the theory of the variation is largely unexplored and this book aims to set this discrepancy straight. Main lines are established and carefully analyzed with hundreds of new ideas and improvements suggested along the way. For the reader, this book is an excellent resource to get the opponent out of their opponent's "book" into our book. Time to have some fun in the Sicilian - enjoy!
Have you ever admired an amazing game of chess, simultaneously thinking “I could never play like that”? In Tiger’s Chaos Theory, you will find a different perspective, treating extraordinary play and creativity as a learnable skill. Thinking outside the box is a stock phrase of the commentators; champions expand their box.
GM Tiger Hillarp Persson is renowned as one of the most creative and original thinkers in chess – attributes he developed through targeted study. Tiger shares how to map patterns and navigate the outrageous, using games and ideas that helped him expand his creative approach.
Tiger’s Chaos Theory will take you on an inspirational journey, featuring concepts such as extreme Hecatomb sacrifices, Houdini-style pawn breakouts and even becoming another player at the board. With thought-provoking chess content, amusing anecdotes and candid reflections on the author’s games and career, this book is unmissable.
This book aims to give you a wealth of self-study knowledge about handling different types of endings that occur frequently but on which there is not much literature analyzing recent games. Imbalanced material endgames involving rooks are a key focus of the book, covering three-fifths of the material, and all endings in the book feature at least one rook. The vast majority of games are taken from the last few years, including many from 2021-2022. Like the author’s previous endgame book published with Elk and Ruby, 101 Endgame Crimes and Punishments (2020), this one is aimed at strong tournament players (1900-2300 Elo) and fast improving juniors.
Specifically, this book covers the following endings: rook vs. minor piece (chapter 1), rook vs. a pair of minor pieces (chapter 2), rook and minor piece vs. rook and minor piece, rook and minor piece vs. rook, rook and minor piece vs. two minor pieces, rook and minor piece vs. a pair of rooks, and rook and minor piece vs. queen (all in chapter 3).
The material arrangement principles applied for this book are largely consistent with those adopted for the author’s books published earlier. He has selected examples only from games played over the board and in which at least one of the players is a grandmaster. Six of the included games were played by world champion Magnus Carlsen. Other examples come from games by top players such as former world champions Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand, as well as Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Sam Shankland, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Judit Polgar, Gata Kamsky, Daniil Dubov and others. Eight of the 101 examples in this book come from the author’s own games.
Endgame positions have been selected so that a person studying the book can see the critical moments of play, such as a single or a series of errors that led to a loss or when one of the sides missed a winning move. Before playing through the correct continuation the reader is advised to try and work it out from the initial diagram.
In our final book of the series we want to show the most entertaining elements of rook and pawn endgames, plus many of the most important practical cases. Additionally, we have included more than 100 of the most entertaining studies as well as 100 rook ending tests. Part 8 of the first FIDE-approved endgame manual, written by 3 of the world leading experts: FIDE Senior Trainers IGM Mikhalchishin, IGM Grivas and IGM Balogh.
It is hard to understate the importance of tactic ability to overall chess proficiency. Of course other elements such as a knowledge of opening play and an understanding of strategy are also important. However, it is undoubtedly the case that 99% of games are won or lost because one player either spots or overlooks a tactic. Consider your own games and just imagine how much stronger you would be if you never overlooked a tactical idea.
The good news is that your tactical ability is not some genetically-acquired unalterable trait. Tactical ability can always be improved through the application of diligent practice. Tactical themes are repetitive. The same arrangements of pieces occur again and again and a continual study of the subtle interactions between the forces will inevitably lead to a greater sharpness in actual play.
In Tactical Training, experienced chess coach and prolific author Cyrus Lakdawala guides the reader through numerous tactical themes. Topics include:
– Checkmating patterns,
– The 32 major combinational concepts,
– Numerous positions ranked in terms of level of difficulty.
The final chapter focuses on a 2020 online match between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, currently the top two ranked players in blitz, the form of chess where tactics predominate.
The King's Indian Attack is a very popular system of development for White, which can be used against many defences. It's easy to learn and play, and is based on understanding ideas rather than move memorization. The King's Indian Attack usually involves a deliberate and sustained attack on the black king, which often proves to be highly effective and difficult to defend against. In this book Grandmaster Neil McDonald examines in depth the many variations of the King's Indian Attack. He outlines White's most promising options and Black's best defences, and provides answers to all the key questions.
Former Russian Champion Alexei Bezgodov explains for a wide range of players how they can employ the skills of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian to deal with adversity in their own games. The aim of this book is to help amateur players to improve the standard of their defensive play. In many training programs a serious analysis of the art of defense is missing. That is why most club players are much better at attacking than at coping with difficult positions. This book will point the way to finding creative solutions and save lots of points. Written by former Russian Champion Alexei Bezgodov, on a subject that has been neglected in many training programs: defense.
This book presents the 100 most essential chess endgames — the basic endings every club player is likely to encounter in real games.
Learning how to handle these positions will help you win more games, and also save more games. Once you reach the stage where your results are no longer decided by simple tactical mistakes, the real challenge begins: converting your advantages with confidence.
With clear explanations and a structured, step-by-step approach, these 100 lessons form a complete endgame survival kit. You will learn:
* how to stay confident when the game transfers into an endgame
* how to exploit advantages you have gained in the middlegame
* how to avoid the frustration of failing to win clearly better positions
* how to approach simplification without uncertainty
Master these basic endings and they will serve you for the rest of your chess life. Study them carefully, and your technique — and your confidence — will improve forever.
Jesus de la Villa (1958) is an International Grandmaster born in Spain. He is a successful author and a well-known chess trainer. He has twice won the Spanish Championship. His book '100 Endgames You Must Know' is an international bestseller.
In this book, the authors aim to assist the reader in becoming better at finding combinations, constructing plans, and calculating long, forcing variations. For the purpose of instruction, the material is based on the output of former World Champion Vassily Smyslov (1921-2010), using his endgame compositions from various works and publications as well as several of his practical endgames from games from tournaments and matches throughout his career against players such as Mikhail Botvinnik, Paul Keres, Bent Larsen, Efim Geller, Tigran Petrosian and several other world class players
The history of the Queen's Gambit is connected with the very beginnings of modern chess, the opening being cited in the earliest published books on the science game, such as the Göttingen manuscript (1490) and the books of Ruy Lopez (1561) and Salvio (1604). The so-called Queen's Gambit Declined - or refused - is, together with the Slav, the main defense in the universe of Queenside openings, and shares with the aforementioned defense a well earned reputation for being a reliable and very solid scheme.
To make a book considering each and every possibility arising from the opening position of the Queen's Gambit Declined is a cyclopean task that would demand many volumes like the present one. Instead, my aim was to present a simpler repertoire, with no more than one or two variation options for each important position (in the latter case I generally present a more positional and a more aggressive line, although in many cases these boundaries are blurred).
The last section of the book is devoted to the other possible schemes starting from different white moves on their third or fourth move. Here the chapters on the Catalan order 3.g3, which is among the fashionable lines at the master level, and the move 4.e3 (preceded by a knight move to the third rank) are highlighted.
Each section presented here is composed of several chapters in which theory is developed with an emphasis on the most modern choices in practice. At the end of each chapter the author presented analyzed games that expose the most common ideas in middlegames. We hope that by the end of reading this material the reader will not only have incorporated some new ideas into his repertoire - and perhaps changed the idea that the Queen's Gambit Declined is a passive defense - but also have contributed to his general knowledge of chess.
The French Defence is coming back to fashion again! One of the leaders in the 2020 Candidates tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi, successfully staked on it. Lately World champion himself also embraced the French several times. A great expert of this opening is the last challenger for the world title Fabiano Caruana. The French became a real arena of the battle of the engines – neural network genius Leela was confidently repelling the attacks of its powerful rivals. The author’s view on the French allows Black to obtain fresh creative positions without having to compete with deep knowledge in well trodden paths. The theoretical material is based on the author’s tournament practice, and passed the test at a GM level during the writing of the book.
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