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Chess enthusiasts can sit down with 20 of the world's top players to answer the question posed by this instructive and amusing guide. Grandmaster Daniel King based How Good is Your Chess? on his popular Chess Monthly column. His easy-to-follow, test-yourself guide asks readers to predict their opponent's moves; points are awarded (or deducted) according to the readers' degree of success. In addition to helping players to judge their standard of play, it presents opportunities for improvement by providing a look at complete games and the chance to work out and study the plans and ideas of the experts. Algebraic notation used throughout.

Do you like setting your opponent problems from the very first move?

Are you happy to roll the dice and take some risks?

Then enter the intriguing world of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit!

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit is a dangerous attacking opening which has amassed a cult following - a loyal band of supporters like no other in chess. White sacrifices a pawn in return for a strong initiative which tests Black's defensive capabilities to the limit. Some experts have questioned its objective soundness but there's no doubting its effectiveness over the board, where pressure and a ticking clock often mean it's impossible to find the right defence.

In this book, Christoph Scheerer takes a modern-day look at the gambit. He examines in detail the most promising lines for White and the most resilient defences for Black, discusses the key ideas for both sides and highlights the many traps awaiting the unsuspecting player.

The Polgar Way to Better Chess!

Learn Chess the Right Way is a five-volume chess puzzle book series aimed at the novice, beginner and intermediate level player, using the unique methods of the award-winning coach and former world champion Susan Polgar. It introduces the most important checkmate and material-winning tactics, as well as defensive techniques to the new chess player. Each of the five volumes will consist of over 500 puzzles.

In Volume 3, you will be introduced to 500 must-know defensive techniques. Each chapter will start with a few introductory examples and explanation about to what to look for in the puzzles that follow.

In chapter 1, the task is to move an attacked piece. In each puzzle, there is only one good solution by moving the attacked piece to a safe square. In chapter 2, one of the kings is in check. The goal is to find the correct response. In chapter 3, a piece is attacked, but has no good square to which to move. So, rather than moving the attacked piece(s), you will need to look for a way to protect it with another piece. 

In chapter 4, we focus on defensive ideas against a direct checkmate threat. In chapter 5, one side “defends” by counter-attacking. In chapters 6 and 7, you will be introduced to the game-saving techniques of drawing by stalemate or perpetual check. In chapter 8, the task is to catch a pawn that is about to promote. In chapter 9, a certain piece is about to get “trapped.” The task is to prepare for the attack and avoid material loss. Finally, in chapter 10, you can practice solving a variety of defensive ideas, with the goal to avoid or minimize material losses or being checkmated. 

With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and coach, international grandmaster Susan Polgar has developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners – Learn Chess the Right Way. Let her show you the way to understanding the most common and critical patterns and let her show you the way to becoming a better player.

SUSAN POLGAR is a winner of four Women’s World Championships and the top-ranked woman chess player in the United States. She became the #1 woman player in the world at 15 and remained in the top 3 for over 20 years. In 2013, she received the U.S. Coach of the Year Award and the following year, she was named the Chess Trainer of the Year by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She thus became the first person in history to be accorded both honors. Under her guidance, SPICE chess teams at both Texas Tech University and Webster University have won a combined six consecutive National Division I Collegiate Chess Championships.

This book is about the Marshall Attack and the lines which can be grouped together under the banner of the so-called Anti-Marshall. The theory has developed so much in the last decade that there is more than enough material to be going on with just in those areas, but I also decided to include a detailed look at an important line in the Exchange Variation. Black’s key concept in the Marshall is giving up a central pawn in return for activity, and I have tried to give as many lines as possible which adhere closely to this principle. Why is this so significant? Well, for starters, usually in the Ruy Lopez Black is looking for long, slow games in solid, closed positions. The Marshall flips this on its head and Black tries to accelerate the play and radically change the character of the game at an early stage. Let’s briefly discuss the material of the book itself and the lines that I have decided to give. First of all, I started off with the standard Marshall Attack, after the initial moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5. I have given direct analysis wherever possible and I have tried to cover all the essential lines. Of course, with the passing of the years and the continual development of theory we can see how the popularity of some positions has shifted and, in some cases, how certain lines have simply been rendered obsolete. I also discovered, to my surprise, that there are still new, unexplored, and interesting paths for further analysis.

What does it take to become an expert in opening preparation?

How can we learn the secret methods which allow the top players to dominate everyone else in the opening?

Books can hardly be useful in this regard because modern books on openings, regardless of the level of the author, are very standard and straightforward. The title of this book claims to answer this question. Your author will then back up his claim with proof in the form of analysis from a strong engine. You are then left to decide whether or not to include these ideas in your opening repertoire.

What is missing is some sort of guidance and advice relating to what sorts of tournaments and against what sorts of players this idea should be employed. Moreover, every one of you has likely noticed that even the best opening idea still has a relatively short life span and can hardly be used in more than a few games. So far I have published about 10 books on openings and for me it is not a problem to publish another 10 or even more. However, in the modern era I believe the lifespan of an opening book is incredibly short as new games are constantly being played and new ideas are being found. I feel it would be much more useful to you if I uncover a new approach to opening preparation, which will be more long-lasting and will improve your play as well.

The method of opening preparation I have used throughout my entire chess-playing career (1997 – 2018) allowed me, with relatively little effort, to be unpredictable the re by winning the psychological battle of the opening. Luring my opponents into prepared opening tricks and traps was great fun!

In the method which I will introduce you to in this book, the first and most important aspect is adapting your approach to each individual opponent and perfect prediction of the opponent’s opening choice, to the smallest details.

One of the most popular – and intriguing – variations of the Sicilian Defense is the so-called Chelyabinsk Variation. In the West, it is known as the Sveshnikov Variation, while older opening monographs may refer to it as the Lasker-Pelikan Variation. It is called the Chelyabinsk Variation in Russia. It is the variation that arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5. Once dismissed by theoreticians as “anti-positional,” it is now common at all levels. In this monumental work, grandmaster Gennadi Timoshchenko, one of the creative founders of the entire line, puts the entire variation into both a personal and historical perspective and then examines the theory and practice of this line in great detail. Extraordinary analytical depth, cross-checked by strong engines, is complemented by historical and biographical perspectives to make this a truly unique opening manual. Regardless of what name you give it, Sicilian Defense: The Chelyabinsk Variation will provide you with a powerful weapon against 1.e4.

The secret of its success may be its anti-positional look. The pawn thrust g2-g4 is often so counter-intuitive that it’s a perfect way to confuse your opponents and disrupt their position. Ever since World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik started using it to defeat the elite grandmasters of his day, it has developed, on all levels of play, into an ever more popular and attractive way to fight for the initiative. Grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin owes a substantial part of his successes as a chess player to the g2-g4 attack. In this book he shows how it can be used to defeat Black in a number of important Closed and Semi-Closed Defences and Flank Openings: the Dutch, the Queen’s Gambit, the Nimzo-Indian, the King’s Indian, the Slav and several variations of the English Opening. With lots of instructive examples, Kryakvin explains the ins and outs of the attack on the g-file: the typical ways to gain tempi and keep the momentum, and the manoeuvres that will maximize your opponent’s problems. After working with this book you will be fully equipped to use this modern battering ram to define the battlefield. You will have fun and win games!

The history of sport has seen many great gladiatorial clashes: Ali v Frazier in boxing, McEnroe v Borg in tennis, Prost v Senna in motor racing. None however can quite compare to the intensity of the rivalry between those two great world chess champions: Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. Between 1984 and 1990 they contested an astonishing five World Championship matches consisting of 144 individual encounters. This volume concentrates on the first two of those matches. – The epic 1984/85 contest which was lasted six months before being controversially halted "without result" by the then President of FIDE Florencio Campomanes. – The 1985 match when Kasparov brilliantly won the final game to take the title and become - at the age of 22 - the youngest ever world champion. Great chess contests have often had resonances extending beyond the 64 squares. The Fischer v Spassky match was played during the Cold War with both champions being perceived as the finest products of their respective ideologies. The Karpov v Korchnoi battles (three matches between 1974 and 1981) were lent an edge with Karpov being a Russian hero of the pre-Glasnost era whilst Korchnoi was the disaffected dissident. The Kasparov v Karpov encounters mirrored a battle between the new Russia and old Russia with Kasparov seen as a symbol of the new ideology emerging under Gorbachev whereas Karpov was seen to represent the old regime of die-hard Communists such as Brezhnev. In this volume Garry Kasparov (world champion between 1985 and 2000 and generally regarded as the greatest player ever) analyses in depth the clashes from 1984 and 1985, giving his opinions both on the political machinations surrounding the matches as well as the games themselves.

Having you ever been tortured at the chessboard? If so, then you have probably been a victim of pressure play.

Elite players are brilliant exponents of pressure play. In situations where they have either a tiny advantage or no advantage at all they are highly adept at constantly setting problems for their unfortunate opponents. The position on the board may appear lifeless but they can probe and find plans and regroupings that will constantly ask their opponents difficult questions. These can be countered only by continual alert and accurate defence and we all know how difficult and wearing that can be.

The arch exponent of pressure play is world champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen is superb in this area of the game and consistently defeats world class opposition from simplified positions where he has no advantage whatsoever. How does he do it? 

In this book, the highly experienced author and coach Neil McDonald analyses the finest examples of pressure play. In doing so he teases out the fundamental concepts that enable players like Carlsen to torture their opponents mercilessly.

– Paralyse the enemy pieces. 

– Target the weakest squares on the board. 

– Increase and exploit a space advantage.

Master pressure play and it will be your opponent on the rack, not you.

Next year, Chess Informant will proudly celebrate its 60th anniversary. To commemorate this remarkable milestone, we are delighted to present the first volume in our new series: "From the Chess Informant’s Archives."

From the vast trove of material accumulated over the decades, we have chosen to begin with Selected Endings. Endgames first appeared as a special section in Informant No. 5 and have been published regularly ever since.

This volume presents a carefully curated selection of 705 endgames, chosen not only for their instructional value but also for their aesthetic beauty and conceptual depth.

All endgames are presented in the spirit of their time - as they were played and annotated when they first appeared.

The book is also for experienced chess players as well as beginners!

Between 1984 and 1990 Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov contested five long matches for the World Championship. This fourth volume of the series 'Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess' concentrates on all the games played between the two from 1988 to the present day and features their fifth World Championship match played in New York and Lyon 1990. The period after 1990 was also a fascinating one in the chess world as it witnessed the emergence of a new generation of young grandmasters capable of challenging the supremacy of the two 'K's'. Between them these great champions had dominated the chess landscape for the previous two decades and it has seemed unthinkable that a major tournament could be won by a different player. Now, however, grandmasters such as Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Nigel Short, Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov arrived on the scene and proved themselves capable of competing successfully at the very highest levels. This period also witnessed an increasing disatisfaction amongst the world elite with the traditional ruling body, FIDE (the World Chess Federation). This led to attempts by the leading grandmasters to organise the World Championship cycle outside of FIDE's jurisdiction. In the late 1980s the Grandmasters Assocation (GMA) was created and was responsible for the organisation of the World Cup - a tournament championship of the world's leading chess players. Another organisation, the Professional Chessplayers Association (PCA) followed in 1993. In this volume Garry Kasparov (world champion between 1985 and 2000 and generally regarded as the greatest player ever) analyses in depth all the games and matches he played against his great rival Anatoly Karpov from 1988 to the present day. Kasparov was personally involved in the creation of both the GMA and PCA and gives a fascinating insight into this important time in chess history.