In The Czech Benoni in Action, two practitioners of this little-known but sound counterattacking system join forces to show how you can pose novel problems for opponents of all strengths, leaving them to fend for themselves as early as move 3.
How Ulf Beats Black
In his prime in the 1970s and 80s, the Swedish grandmaster Ulf Andersson was a world top-ten player with an instantly recognisable style: he almost never lost, and he kept grinding out wins from positions that looked utterly quiet. This book reveals the secret — those positions only looked quiet.
Cyrus Lakdawala, who has played Andersson’s lines for decades, presents them as a complete White repertoire and explains the deep strategic understanding behind them. Andersson detected and exploited hidden chances better than almost anyone, and his openings glide smoothly from opening to middlegame and often straight into a favourable endgame — so this is far more than an opening manual; it is a course in positional squeezing.
The repertoire is built on the flexible 1.Nf3/1.c4/2.c4 move orders and covers everything Black can try: the King’s Indian, the Queen’s Indian and Hedgehog, the Catalan and Tarrasch structures, the Symmetrical English, the Modern and Pirc, the Dutch, and the Exchange Slav. The recommendations rest on understanding rather than memorised theory, so opponents can’t catch you with a novelty.
Lakdawala’s lucid, entertaining explanations make it ideal for club players who want to win the way Andersson did — quietly, positionally, and relentlessly.
If you are reading this, you likely already know the feeling: that unique blend of tension and solidity that comes with playing 1...e6. I have played the French Defense my entire life. It has been my trench, my counter-attacking weapon, and at times, my lifeline in positions where others would have collapsed. I know it intimately, not because I memorized a thousand variations from a database, but because I have suffered and enjoyed its structures over the board, with the clock ticking and adrenaline pumping.
And this is where I want to be brutally honest with you: memorizing variations will not make you a better French Defense player. I see too many students (and even many masters) fall into the trap of "modern theory." They memorize 25 moves of a line recommended by an engine, but the moment the opponent plays a "human" move that wasn't in the file, they go blank. They know the move, but they don't understand the position. This book is not designed for you to memorize; it is designed for you to absorb patterns.
Why Study "Model Games"? Chess is played by analogy. When you are on move 30, in time trouble, your brain doesn't calculate infinite variations; your brain searches its internal archive and says: "This looks like that Radjabov game. The plan here is to break with f6." The 20 games I have selected here are not random. They are the "cream of the crop" of master practice from 2025. They are living battles where the theory of the Tarrasch Variation (3.Nd2) was tested at the highest level.
By studying these complete games, from opening to endgame, you will achieve something that studying isolated variations cannot give you:
– Understanding Transitions: When should you trade the "bad bishop"? When should you accept an Isolated Queen's Pawn (IQP) in exchange for activity?
– Learning to Defend: The French requires nerves of steel. You will see how elite GMs withstand pressure and wait for the exact moment to counterpunch.
– Recognizing Typical Endgames: Many of these duels are decided in rook or knight endgames that recur time and time again.
A Note on Technology (Stockfish and Leela)
To write this analysis, I have used the most advanced technology available. I have consulted the silicon oracles (Stockfish 16 and Leela Chess Zero) to ensure tactical precision. There is nothing worse than a book with calculation errors. However, the engine is merely a quality control tool, not the author. The engine might tell you a position is "+0.45". For a human, that number means nothing. My job here has been to translate that number into human language: to explain why White is better (space, weak squares) or why that advantage is illusory if Black manages to activate their light-squared bishop. I have prioritized human ideas over incomprehensible computer lines. I want you to understand the plan, not memorize binary code.
How to Use This Book
Do not read this like a novel. If you have a physical board, use it. If you are using the ForwardChess screen, pause at critical moments. Try to guess the Master's move before revealing it. Ask yourself: "Why did he reject the queen trade?" or "Why did he sacrifice that pawn?". These 20 games are a treasure map of the modern French. If you study them deeply, the next time someone plays 3.Nd2 against you, you won't be recalling lines; you will be playing with the borrowed experience of the best players in the world. Welcome to the trench. Let’s begin.
This work is a follow-up to my first book “Unconventional Approaches to Modern Chess – Rare Ideas for Black” which was published in February 2019. This time, I am flipping the board and exploring offbeat opening ideas from White’s perspective. The structure of the book has remained basically the same as before, except that I merged Part III (Showing Ambitions) and Part IV (Early Surprises) into one combined chapter Ambitions & Surprises. Part I explores sidelines in several mainstream openings. This is the most in-depth chapter of the book in terms of opening analysis. Part II presents two systems that are quite universal in nature and can be used against more than one opening. Part III gives a broad overview of a variety of aggressive lines taken from GM-level games. As I stated in the previous book, I’m a big believer in the practical approach to chess. In order to win, you don’t need to find the best move in every position. It is neither possible nor necessary. To win a game, it is enough to be just a little bit better than your opponent. To make this happen, especially when facing a strong player, you must force your opponent to solve practical problems. You must get them into a position where the cost of a potential mistake is much higher than usual. If there is no room for your opponent to make a mistake, then they are unlikely to make it. It is your job to give them plenty of opportunity to go wrong. As Mikhail Tal famously put it, “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” This book aims to expose you to a variety of opening ideas that can help you to achieve this goal. I hope you find reading it beneficial in your future endeavors at the chess board.
The Black Lion is a thoroughly modern counterattacking system that is a nightmare to face. This wild and aggressive line attempts to take away White’s initiative from a very early stage and is guaranteed to throw your opponents off balance.
The Black Lion is essentially a contemporary and aggressive interpretation of the Philidor Defence (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6). The Black Lion starts with a slightly different move order, 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3, and now the lion family splits into two different animals: the risky lion (3...Nbd7) or the tame lion (3...e5). Both treatments are thoroughly investigated in this book.
Simon Williams (the Ginger GM) is the ideal guide to explain how to whip up an extremely dangerous attack using either treatment. Williams is well known for his swashbuckling, attacking play and the Black Lion suits his style perfectly. His commentary and annotations are always instructive and entertaining.
– The Black Lion is an unusual and dangerous system with little established theory.
– White cannot rely on simple, safe moves as such a strategy is liable to be overrun.
– The Black Lion is fun and exciting to play!
The author presents a full opening repertory for the club player, which is analysed in seven volumes. In the books you will find many novelties for both sides, with a full move-to-move presentation. Furthermore, the reader will get access to middlegame strategies, endgame techniques and common tactical motifs, which are patterning the proposed variations.
In the second volume the openings of the King's Indian Defence, the Dutch Defence and the Benko-Volga Gambit are presented.
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln. There's no escaping the fact: if you want to win chess games, you have to attack at some point. Many players are happy solving combinations in winning positions, when the hard work is already done, but the key to a successful attack undoubtedly comes much earlier. No-one can attack effectively if they haven't prepared properly, and yet planning in chess can be a difficult technique to master, even for experienced players. This book provides a solution. Using an abundance of illustrative games and examples, Gary Lane answers the questions which constantly puzzle players of all levels. How should I plan after the opening? Where are my opponent's weaknesses? Do I have enough pieces in the attack? When should I strike? Do I need to sacrifice? Should I cash in or continue to attack? Read this book, discover the answers and attack with confidence!
The ambition of many chess players at various levels is to build a full and reliable repertoire against White’s major starting moves. This book is designed to provide exactly that: a complete list of variations needed to know in order to confidently meet 1.d4. The goal is to lift the burden of line selection and research off your shoulders and show you exactly what you need to know to get out of the 1.d4 openings at least equal with the black pieces.
I base the repertoire on the Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian Defenses. The spirit of Indian Defenses is based on flexibility and harmony. As you will notice during the course of reading the book, the lines recommended here rarely end with huge imbalances or clear weaknesses for Black. Quite often White will get the bishop pair but will have to suffer pawn weaknesses or Black’s greater piece activity in return.
Most of the lines are positional, not tactical in character. That means that stepping out of the path outlined in the book should not get you in too much trouble, as long as your moves have solid positional foundations. While playing Black, you have to accept that occasionally you will not equalize, or get surprised or out-prepared. Learning the material from this book should sharply limit the extent of such instances, thus improving your overall results.
Finally, I have an important piece of advice: remember about color strategy! The Bogo-Indian is mainly based on dark-squared control, while the Nimzo-Indian does so on the light squares. In case you forget what to do, this may prove a very useful guideline when choosing a move.
I wish you pleasant reading and great results against 1.d4!
This work was originally envisioned as a single-volume collection of my most memorable games, annotated by me, à la Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games. However the more I delved into the past, the more things started to rise up from the recesses of my memory, which, along with deeper analysis and more detailed introductions to the games, made it more like an anthology of chess stories. Thankfully, my gracious editors decided to split the work into two volumes. What you are going to find in this first volume is a selection of my most memorable battles on the chessboard during the first of two different periods. It covers the time from my arrival in the USA as an up-and-coming young talent in early 1989, acquiring the freedom to play in any open tournament in the world and quickly gaining precious experience to grow into a challenger for the World Championship in 1996. This period ended with my early retirement from the game to pursue other goals in life.
One of the sharpest lines to meet 1 d4 is the Modern Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6). The hallmark of this opening is that Black makes the positional concession of allowing White a central majority and in return hopes for counterchances via active piece play. However, there are many other weird and wonderful ways to handle these "Benoni structures" as the very experienced chess coach and author Andrew Martin demonstrates in this highly engaging book.
Martin introduces the reader to (amongst others) the Vulture (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 Ne4), the Clarendon Court (1 d4 c5 2 d5 f5) and the Snake Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 Bd6!?). All of these are outlandish tries but nevertheless set White difficult problems to solve at the board.
In other systems Black plays "Nimzo-style" and jettisons the dark-squared bishop in order to inflict weaknesses on the white pawn structure. One typical line is 1 d4 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 Nc3 c5 4 d5 and now 4 ... Bxc3+!? 5 bxc3. This is a line favoured by elite grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura who has used it frequently in blitz and rapid chess. An advantage of playing this way is that it will usually take well booked up White players outside their comfort zone and force them onto their own resources.
If you want to inject a big dose of dynamism into your play with Black, the create some mayhem in the Benoni.
All through his career Jan Timman has been captivated by the mystery and splendour of endgame studies. Even during his most successful and busy years as a world-class player, Timman continued to compose studies and admire those of others. For him, there has never been any doubt that his journeys in this magical world helped him to grow as a player.
In this fascinating book, first published in 2011, Timman has collected studies by other composers and explains in his lucid style how they inspired him to create dozens of brand-new studies.
Timman has revised the book for this new edition. With the help of engines, Timman discovered that a few studies needed to be corrected or had alternative solutions. He removed six studies and replaced another six with better versions. And fourteen new studies have been added, two of which are published here for the first time.
Jan Timman is a former world championship candidate who rose to number two on the FIDE world rankings. He is the author of several highly acclaimed bestsellers, such as Timman’s Titans and Max Euwe’s Best Games. He was awarded the title of FIDE Master of Composition in 2022.
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