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Here we are, together on this page, both interested in the French Defence with 3.Nc3 Bb4. Before telling you what you can learn from this opening, let me tell you a little story about my journey in the French. I started playing the French after reading John Watson’s Play the French, which improved my play a lot. I learned that the French is a positional yet concrete opening, and many of my young opponents couldn’t grasp its subtleties. Moreover, many opponents were far less prepared against 1...e6 than against 1...c5 or 1...e5. Unfortunately those days would end. During the 2008 Dutch Youth Championships (U20), I understood that everyone would throw 7.Qg4 in the Winawer at me. In that respect, my opening preparation was simple: I’d study the Winawer for Black very intensively and the problem would be solved. In reality, I faced many difficulties. Novelties I’d find in the evenings were promptly refuted by the engine the next morning; I was constantly thinking about the French, but I couldn’t quite make it work. There was this strange, inexplicable feeling in my stomach, some might call “butterflies”. I had fallen in love with a chess line! Despite my two losses in the crucial games, I still believed I had a great repertoire with countless novelties to show for it.

In Coaching Kasparov, Year by Year and Move by Move Garry Kasparov's long-term coach, second and mentor Alexander Nikitin tells the story of how he trained Kasparov from a brilliant but raw junior into becoming and then remaining the world champion.Volume II , the present work, covers the period 1982-1990, including the first four world championship matches against Karpov and the candidates matches against Smyslov, Korchnoi and Beliavsky. The present volume contains 39 fully annotated games. These include 20 secret training games that Kasparov played against his grandmaster coaches Evgeny Vladimirov and Gennady Timoshchenko in 1982-83 that have never before been published and which are annotated by Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco, national coach of the German Chess Federation and captain of the German national team. These games are provided by the Kasparov family specially for the 2020 edition of this book. The reader has a unique opportunity to gain an insight into Kasparov's secret preparation in those years, which were a new starting point in his career: he had to adjust his openings. Rogozenco is a big expert on Kasparov's games, having helped FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov prepare for his planned match against Kasparov in 2003. Kasparov's legendary opening repertoire, which was to define trends in chess theory for decades, was created not just through deep analysis, but also via training games. The never previously published material in this book consists of 16 games with classical time control and 4 rapid thematic games. Testing the Catalan for the first time with white, searching for ideas in the King's Indian with black, preparing the Queen's Gambit with both colors, playing typical Sicilian positions and trying new openings (for instance the Tarrasch as the big surprise for his candidates match versus Beliavsky) - all this can be found in these games. Further, the time records on most of Kasparov's original scoresheets (all of them pictured in this book) show that Kasparov and his coaches paid serious attention to such an important training aspect as the distribution of time during the game. From intuitive positional sacrifices to precisely calculated combinations and instructive play in typical pawn structures - the training games provide a lot of interesting material for both players and coaches. The other games, annotated by Nikitin, are well known, but Nikitin explains many of Kasparov's decisions in those games from the point of view of the world champion's coach, providing the context of his pupil's thought process and mistakes and tracing his progress as they together gradually out-thought Korchnoi and then Karpov. He also uses these games to illustrate and expand upon his coaching advice. His many insights include the preparation of the “cross-fire” strategy (playing the same opening against the same opponent with both colors) and a systematic approach to maintaining time discipline during games based on chronometric analysis. This makes his commentary quite unique and instructive, of formidable practical use to budding players, coaches and parents.

Playing 1.e4 - French Defence and Sicilian Sidelines

This is the second volume of John Shaw’s acclaimed three-part White repertoire after 1.e4 (Volume 1 covered the Caro-Kann, 1...e5 and minor lines). Here the focus narrows to two big jobs: the French Defence in full, and the first instalment of the Sicilian.

Against the French, Shaw advocates his own favourite weapon, the Tarrasch Variation (3.Nd2). He covers the entire French landscape through that lens — the various 3rd-move tries, the ...Nf6 main lines, the ...c5 systems with both recaptures on d5, and the solid Rubinstein and Fort Knox set-ups after 3...dxe4 — giving a clear recommendation and the plans behind it in each case.

The final section opens the "mammoth task" of the Sicilian by mopping up the tricky sidelines: Black’s rare second moves and the various 2...e6, 2...Nc6 and 2...d6 move orders that try to avoid the main roads. These get tidy, ready-to-use answers so nothing catches you off guard.

A serious, fighting repertoire for club players and above. With Volume 1 and the concluding Volume 3 (the main-line Sicilians), it forms one of the most respected complete 1.e4 repertoires available.

Tired of being recommended to study chess tactics but the tactics in the books do not look anything like what could arise in the openings you play? So am I! Well, here is the answer: opening specific tactical exercises split up by variation from actual games. In this book, you will face hundreds of tactical positions, not only combinations but positions with tactical elements for you to solve and familiarize yourself with. This will help you be extra tactically alert when you are playing your games in this opening. This book covers all the variations of the exciting Budapest (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4) and Fajarowicz Gambits (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4). With well more than 200 positions and annotated solutions you are bound to improve your tactical eye in typical positions of these openings and learn a ton about the openings when you study the solutions.

Ian Nepomniachtchi’s road from Grandmaster to becoming Magnus Carlsen’s world championship challenger in 2021 was a long one. GM in 2007 and Russian champion for the first time in 2010, Ian only hit the elite in recent years. His victory in Ekaterinburg occurred at his very first candidates tournament. In this book Grandmaster Zenon Franco analyzes Nepo’s chess through his 30 best wins and several fragments, considering his style, his strengths, as well as his weaknesses and how he has overcome them. Like Magnus, we see fighting, practical chess with a player not afraid to push his g and h pawns in front of his king, and a more aggressive than positional style. Above all, Franco compares Nepo to Lasker, Korchnoi and Magnus Carlsen himself. In instructional move by move format, we see Ian’s best wins against Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Giri, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Svidler, Gelfand, Karjakin, and other elite players of the last decade.

In the fourth volume of the epic Kotronias on the King’s Indian series Grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias tackles a variety of White’s attempts to challenge his favorite opening, starting with the sequence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6.

By going through the chapters, you will get acquainted with my way of grandmaster type thinking. I can assure you of one thing: there are better and weaker grandmasters, but you won’t find a GM who is playing without ideas or, let’s say, without his way of thinking! As you will find out, I am basically trying to detect the problem or goal of the position and then I am starting to scan factors which can lead to the solution. That process you will find in many examples in the book.

This revised and enlarged special anniversary edition for his 80th birthday includes both volumes with his games with white and black. Korchnoi’s annotations are honest, detailed and very instructive.

„In all of chess history you cannot find another player with this long-lived discipline, vigour, and ferocity… He still wants to play big games with big ideas. He is one of the greatest truth-seekers.“ Garry Kasparov

Combines all 7 books by Victor Charushin: Alekhine’s Block, Combination Cross, Lasker’s Combination, Mitrofanov’s Deflection, The Steeplechase, Domination, and Less Common Combinations.

This theoretically solid opening repertoire for White, based on playing 5.d4 in the main line of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6), gives you a great way to bamboozle your opponent, who is probably unprepared for this variation and its many pitfalls. Black can easily go wrong within the next few moves and quickly lose material or succumb to a crushing attack. White is poised to castle and engage in battle; Black’s king is vulnerable in the center and may find no relief on the kingside as White develops pieces to powerful outposts and forces pawn moves that allow attackers to pour in.

This variation is named after Scottish-American master George Mackenzie, who popularized it in the nineteenth century. He was undefeated with it, overwhelming some top masters of that day.

Elite competitors from many eras have played the Mackenzie Variation, including Morphy, Lasker, Alekhine, Tal, Short, and Cramling. In recent years, grandmasters such as Jones, Kosteniuk, and Yoo have used it to great effect, especially in rapid and blitz games, when opponents have little time to find a sound defense.

A final chapter shows you how to meet the popular Berlin Defense (3...Nf6) with a Mackenzie-style thrust, 4.d4. Again, many difficult decisions and tricky positions await the unwary Black player.

As well as variations and advice, this book contains 57 model games with key annotations, from Morphy in 1858 through to a dozen examples from the 2020s.

“In this lucid and well-researched book, David Gertler shows you how to make the Mackenzie Variation a formidable weapon.” – Stuart Rachels, former US champion and author of The Best I Saw in Chess.

Do you relish the prospect of setting your opponent awkward problems from the early start of the game? If so, you should just continue reading, for in the Bg5 Najdorf, it’s every man for himself, and only the best informed and most creative resourceful player survive. The Bg5 variation gives White very dangerous attacking ideas, and Blacks really needs to know a precise defense to come out of this variation alive. This book provides weapons that are ideal choices for those who revel in forcing opponents into chaotic and uncomfortable positions. Lukasz Jarmula, a player and writer of international caliber, will be your truthful guide!

Levenfish describes in vivid detail the atmosphere of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, giving first-hand impressions of some of the most famous names in early-twentieth-century chess, such as Lasker, Rubinstein, Alekhine and Capablanca – all of whom were personally known to him. Some of the stories stay long in the memory: descriptions of the hardships endured by players in the first USSR Championship that took place in the difficult years of the Civil War; of idyllic trips to the Caucasus and Crimea; of grim struggles for survival in the winter of 1941.

Soviet Outcast comprises Levenfish’s annotations to 79 of his finest games, translated from his Russian autobiography, plus extensive bonus material including several games compiled from other sources, mostly with annotations by Levenfish himself, as well as a 30-page Afterword by GM Jacob Aagaard. This is the first time Levenfish’s memoir has been published in English.