The Lighter Side of Chess celebrates the game we love from a refreshingly humorous angle. Beyond deep calculations and serious tournament battles lies a world filled with blunders, bizarre positions, unexpected checkmates, and unforgettable moments of human comedy.
Georg and Adrian brought together a delightful collection of entertaining games, amusing goofs, and curious chess facts that reveal just how funny chess can be. From legendary masters caught in embarrassing mistakes to incredible oversights that defy belief, each chapter reminds us that even the greatest players are human—and that laughter is part of the game.
Perfect for casual reading, coffee-table browsing, or sharing with fellow chess enthusiasts, The Lighter Side of Chess is a joyful tribute to chess as a source of fun, surprise, and endless amusement. Whether you’re a seasoned competitor or a weekend player, this book proves that chess doesn’t always have to be serious to be brilliant.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 141st ADVENTURE
INFINITVM
CONTENTS:
RIGA FIDE GRAND PRIX GM Danilo Milanović
DANNY'S CHESS DIARY GM Daniel Gormally
A MOMENT OF INSPIRATION, OR HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED PREPARATION? GM Ivan Ivanišević
NEW TRENDS IN MAROCZY GM Miloš Perunović
MOVES THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND GM Rafael Leitão
THE REHABILITATED CARO-KANN – Part II GM Aleksander Delchev
THE RUY LOPEZ – Exchange Variation GM Michael Prusikin
THE BENKO GAMBIT GM Miša Pap
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES – Vintage Tal’s Magic Douglas Griffin
THE BEST OF CHESS INFORMANT – Magnus Carlsen
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, correspondence chess, endgame blunders, Tournament reviews, the best game from the preceding volume and the most important theoretical novelty from the preceding volume.
The periodical that pros use with pleasure is at the same time a must have publication for all serious chess students!
International Master Luis Bernal has unraveled the Berlin and made it accessible for amateur players. His practical guide is fully up to date, explains typical formations and strategies, and presents new ideas and resources in the old Berlin Wall structures.
‘Fischer gets up, tall, overweight, and slightly clumsy. He tries to fulfil the duties of the host and shakes hands, but his nervously darting eyes betray his unease with the situation. This is not a man accustomed to receiving visitors.’
Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam’s encounter with the reclusive American world champion in war-torn Yugoslavia, is the apotheosis of a unique collection of interviews with chess legends and stars that was first published in 1993.
Why did Garry Kasparov think Bobby Fischer was an alien? How many stamps does Anatoly Karpov have? Was it really Caruso who appeared in Vassily Smyslov’s dream to teach him how to sing?
Brimming with anecdotes and revealing insights these interviews bring together champions past and present. From Botvinnik, Najdorf, Portisch and Spassky to modern stars like Anand, Kramnik, and Judit Polgar.
Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam is editor-in-chief of New In Chess, the chess magazine with readers in 116 countries.
Sean Marsh, CHESS Magazine (UK):
"It is good to see this book back in print, as it is, quite simply, the finest collection of chess interviews yet assembled."
Edward Winter in Chess Notes:
“Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam brings to the task painstaking preparation, wide knowledge and sharp intelligence.”
Chris Wainscott, ChessIQ:
'The interviews individually are fascinating glimpses into the lives of chess immortals. As a whole they are something even greater. They are the very fabric of the chess history of 20 and 30 years ago. Go buy this book. You will not regret it"
British Chess Magazine:
"A vintage collection and very valuable, thorough and carefyully structured."
Lubosh Kavalek, The Washington Post:
"A master interviewer."
Max Euwe Centre, Amsterdam:
"Ten Geuzendam's interviews always result in rich conversations."
British Chess Magazine on 'The Day Kasparov Quit':
"Ten Geuzendam somehow manages to get the confidence of his subjects despite asking them sharp and challenging questions."
Yuri Sakharov (1922-1981) was a leading Ukrainian chess player and coach from the 1950s until his death, ranked the world number 17 in 1968 according to Chessmetrics. Although little-known in the West as he rarely played outside the Soviet Union, he qualified for six Soviet championship finals, with a highest position of joint sixth in 1967. Sakharov won the Ukrainian Championship twice and deployed many opening novelties in his time. As he aged he increasingly turned to correspondence chess, where he won gold medals at the ICCF Olympiads as a member of the Soviet team in 1972 and 1976.
As we see in this book, he went toe-to-toe with greats such as Tal, Smyslov, Bronstein, Keres, Polugaevsky, Taimanov, Geller, Averbakh, Stein, Ivkov and Kotov among many others. He started out as a primarily attacking player whose games often involved the Sicilian (especially the Najdorf variation), King’s Indian and Ruy Lopez openings, but he later evolved into a more universal player with strong positional skills. Sakharov also coached or seconded many future or contemporary grandmasters, including Vladimir Savon, Gennady Kuzmin, Ruslan Pogorelov, Dimitri Komarov, and Vladimir Sergeev, as well as WGMs Lidia Semenova and Elena Sedina. As his own chess understanding matured, he focused his pupils’ attention on more solid openings, such as the Slav Defense and Nimzo-Indian.
However, as first detailed to Western readers in the third volume of Sergey Voronkov’s Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships, based on articles by this book’s author Mykola Fuzik, Yuri Sakharov had a fascinating but tragic life-story. His father was executed in 1938 during the Stalin purges. Finding himself and his mother destitute under the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during World War II, he volunteered to work in Germany, although he later escaped and joined the US Army in a civilian capacity. During his time in Germany he found himself drawn into a tragic incident of which his contemporaries were almost certainly unaware. After his return to the USSR, a case was gradually built against him culminating in his arrest in 1951 followed by a trial in 1952 and imprisonment. Yet he survived five years in the Soviet GULAG system and emerged to play his best chess in his forties.
Ukrainian Candidate Master Mykola Fuzik has written a detailed account of Sakharov’s life and career based on many years of research. He previously published a biography of another leading Ukrainian chess player, Isaak Lipnitsky, with Elk and Ruby in 2024. The current book includes reminiscences of Sakharov’s pupils and other strong players who studied with him, such as double World Senior Champion GM Vladimir Okhotnik. 121 of Sakharov’s own games and fragments, as well as four games of his contemporaries that he annotated, are analyzed in this book. Many games are annotated by Sakharov himself and others by some of the strongest contemporary players of his time, including Korchnoi and Flohr, as well as guest grandmasters and the author. In particular, Ukrainian Grandmaster Vladimir Sergeev provided a significant portion of the annotations for this book as well as making important contributions on the biographical side.
The games and commentary are highly instructive – as Vladimir Okhotnik remarks at the end of one game: “I think that this game demonstrates Yuri Nikolaevich Sakharov’s strongest sides: serious home preparation, consistent game plans, and excellent conversion technique.”
This book is supplemented with a large number of photos never published before in the West.
The Queen's Gambit can be rather boring, especially for Black, so a couple of weapons to make things more excitement.
In this book, FIDE Master Carsten carefully analyzes two gambits for Black that both arise after the initial moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c5!?. The Canal Gambit arises when White captures 5.cxd5, and Black responds 5...Qb6. The gambit is somewhat dubious, but very effective in practical play. The Prins Gambit instead sees Black respond 5...cxd4!?, which is a correct gambit, giving Black full compensation for the sacrificed pawn.
All of White's responses to both gambits are carefully analyzed.
Prepare to give White a wake-up call!
CHESS INFORMANT’S 147th ADVENTURE
Awakening
TATA STEEL MASTERS 2021 GM Jon Speelman
FOUR NATIONS CHESS LEAGUE (4NCL) – Part II GM Gawain Jones
PLETHORA OF FRESH IDEAS GM Mihail Marin
CHESS TOUR MONEY LEADERS GM Daniel Gormally
THE EARLY g-PAWN ADVANCE GM Ivan Ivanišević
DEVELOPMENTS GM Krisztián Szabó
THE NAJDORF SICILIAN NEVER SLEEPS GM Miloš Perunović
HOW CARLSEN AVOIDS THE NAJDORF? GM Burak Firat
SUCCESSFULLY CORNERED KNIGHTS GM Kannappan Priyadharshan
Dr. TARRASCH'S NIGHTMARE GM Michael Prusikin
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – SYDNEY 2000 GM Ian Rogers
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, Correspondence chess, Studies, Tournament reviews, the best game from the preceding volume and the most important theoretical novelty from the preceding volume.
Available via subscription
British Chess Magazine (May 2026)
This book is the result of twenty years of teaching chess to students of all ages, distilling practical lessons from a lifetime of experience into one accessible guide. It emphasizes that chess is a game of endless learning, where no player—not even world champions like Magnus Carlsen—can ever “know everything.”
A central theme of the book is the importance of study, growth, and humility, highlighting the difference between casual players and serious students of the game. Drawing inspiration from Tigran Petrosian’s belief that true appreciation of chess comes through study, the author underlines the value of deep understanding over surface knowledge.
At its core, the book focuses on mistakes and blunders—the true deciding factor in most games. And where better to start than with the classical 1.e4 e5!
In Volume 1 we covered the most frequently played lines after 1.e4 e5!
From beginners to grandmasters, every player makes errors. What separates strong players from the rest is not perfection, but the ability to recognize, punish, and learn from mistakes, ensuring they never lose the same way twice. Through practical examples, including games by top-level players like Alex Stripunsky, the book explores these universal lessons and shows how improvement begins with understanding failure.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 142nd ADVENTURE
COUNTDOWN
22nd EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP GM Ivan Sokolov
FIDE WORLD CUP 2019 GM Danilo Milanović
HAMBURG FIDE GRAND PRIX GM Ivan Ivanišević
EUROPEAN CLUB CUP GM Dragoljub Jaćimović
THE LAST MAN STANDING ON THE ISLE OF MAN GM Ivan Ivanišević
GOING FOR THE KILL GM Rafael Leitão
SAINT LOUIS WINTER CLASSIC GM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
THE REHABILITATED CARO-KANN – Part III GM Aleksander Delchev
THE FOUR KNIGHTS SICILIAN GM Miloš Perunović
FIGHTING AGAINST THE FIANCHETTO KNIGHT GM Michael Prusikin
El Tratado General de Ajedrez es un clásico de la enseñanza del juego ciencia. Se trata de una obra que nos permite descubrir de forma amena y sencilla la esencia del juego, desde las enseñanzas básicas hasta la estrategia superior. Está íntegramente transcrito al sistema algebraico de notación, los nombres de las aperturas y de las líneas han sido actualizados y se han solventado algunos errores tácticos detectados en la obra original con notas al pie.
CONFORMACIONES DE PEONES
La conformación de los peones es un tema fundamental en ajedrez. Una adecuada ubicación de éstos en el tablero permitirá a las piezas actuar con armonía. Por esto, la comprensión de las distintas estructuras proporciona valiosas herramientas para entender con mayor profundidad el juego. Entre otros temas, el autor destaca la solidez de los peones unidos, o la fuerza o debilidad de los peones pasados. Explica a su vez el modo en que los peones doblados compensan su debilidad cuando comen hacia el centro y da pautas para desenvolverse en posiciones con peones aislados o colgantes.
Roberto Grau (1900-1944) fue un estudioso del ajedrez, actividad a la que consagró gran parte de su vida, como periodista, jugador y maestro. Obtuvo el título de Campeón Argentino en 6 oportunidades, y participó en 6 olimpiadas, logrando excelentes resultados. Dirigió las publicaciones Ajedrez Americano y Ajedrez Argentino. Su columna Frente al Tablero, en el periódico La Nación, cautivó a los aficionados de su época. Además de su obra cumbre, el Tratado General de Ajedrez, escribió La Historia de Ajedrez, Códigos del Ajedrez, Aperturas y Finales, Estrategias del Ajedrez y Cartilla de Ajedrez.
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