This exercise book is the result of many years of work as a chess coach. The positions are drawn from original training materials developed for my private students, giving me valuable insight into the ideas players typically consider and the difficulties they most often encounter. This practical experience is reflected throughout the explanations and solutions.
The book is designed to help advanced players improve both their calculation skills and their strategic understanding. Beyond solving individual positions, readers are encouraged to extract broader lessons and improve their overall thinking process. While the exercises cover a wide range of themes, one principle appears again and again: in chess, active and energetic play is often rewarded above all else.
The book is essential reading for every ambitious chess player.
An effective approach to opening improvement should focus on understanding the logic behind each move, the relationship between moves, and the ability to adapt to different setups without becoming trapped in a theoretical straitjacket. There is little value in memorizing twenty moves of theory if, once your preparation ends, you are left without a clear plan.
Real improvement comes from recognizing strategic patterns, mastering typical pawn structures, and understanding the middlegame positions that arise from your chosen openings. This means studying model games, analyzing key transitions from opening to middlegame, and developing training habits that prioritize understanding over the mere accumulation of variations.
Only through such an approach can you build a reliable opening repertoire—one founded not on the fragile thread of memory, but on the enduring strength of genuine chess understanding.
Yet, when working on our openings, how often do we stop to consider the sustainability of our progress? How frequently do we think about the transfer of knowledge between different phases of study, the practical integration of computer-assisted analysis, or the simple reality that chess learning remains a fundamentally human process, regardless of how many databases, engines, and training modules continue to emerge?
This book seeks to answer those questions. Its goal is not merely to help you learn openings, but to help you understand them, retain them, and apply them successfully in practical play.
“Compared with the other books in this series, substantially more space is given to the analysis of the opening problems that confront a player in a particular game. The first half of the book is altogether devoted to opening preparation (although, as you will see, not only to this), and also in the second half nearly every game is accompanied by detailed opening information.
The main attraction of chess is its thematic content. I hope that this book, like the preceding ones, will provide a guide for you through the rich and diverse world of chess ideas, will help you to perceive the depth and beauty of schemes generated at the board, in tournament or match play, to disclose the causes of mistakes and to be aware of the hidden forces that determine the plans of chess encounters. As a result you will significantly improve your understanding of chess, and your practical playing strength will rise.”
— MARK DVORETSKY
This third volume in Mark Dvoretsky’s course is devoted to questions of strategy, and is aimed at improving the reader’s positional understanding. The author also examines a number of positions that lie on the boundary between the middlegame and endgame.
As in the other books of the series, he uses examples from his own games and those of his pupils, together with original analyses of episodes from other player’s games.
The initial part of this book deals with combinations and tactical techniques, and suggests methods for developing a player’s calculating ability.
In the second part the author analyses a number of fascinating examples, in which he examines a wide variety of attacking and defensive means. Once again, the reader is encouraged to developing his understanding by tackling numerous tests. Join in and become one of Mark Dvoretsky’s pupils!
Mark Dvoretsky is regarded as the leading chess coach in the world, and in this series of books he reveals the training methods that have transformed so many of his pupils into champions.
This first title is devoted to the endgame and examines a wide range of positions, taken mainly from games of the author’s pupils. The comments are packed with practical advice and special test positions and frequent questions ensure that the reader’s participation in the book is an active one.
IM Donaldson examines Fischers life and career from his days as a child prodigy through the height of his World Championship triumph and into his tumultuous final years. Donaldsons meticulous research has uncovered previously lost games and a wealth of unknown material about Fischer -- ranging from his close friendships with players and supporters to his acrimonious relationships with organisers, journalists, lawyers, and publishers. Bobby Fischer and His World is brought to life through a potpourri of first-hand accounts, interviews, letters, and articles by and about the colourful characters that inhabited Fischers world. Unifying this wide-ranging tale are over 100 photos and illustrations and 99 newly annotated games. This is the story of Fischer the man and the player, shedding new light on the riddle of the most famous chessplayer in history. International Master John Donaldson is a player, a chess journalist and historian, and a thirteen-time United States World Chess Olympiad coach (his 2016 team won gold).
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All the regular features of the UK's best-selling CHESS magazine and more! Regular features include: How Good is Your Chess? by GM Daniel King, Saunders on Chess, Find the Winning Moves, Never Mind the Grandmasters..., Studies, Home & Overseas News, Forthcoming Events Calendar and Book Reviews.
In this issue:
Editorial
Malcolm Pein on the latest developments in the game
A Clean Sweep, and a Close Shave!
Andrew Ledger reports from an exciting final weekend of the 4NCL season
60 Seconds with... Axel Smith
The Swedish GM gave a huge blindfold simul and has a new book out
Small Margins
Paul Littlewood reports from the World Senior Team Chess Championships
The Comeback
Carlsen won his final three games then the playoff in Malmo
The Brightest Star?
Carl Strugnell on the specialness of 14-year-old Turkish superstar Yagiz Kaan
Forthcoming Events
Will you be playing at Crewe, Edinburgh, the MindSports Centre or elsewhere?
Studies with Stephenson
Brian pays tribute to the composing giant that is Harold van der Heijden
How Good is Your Chess?
Daniel King looks at how Rameshbabu Vaishali likes to play on the front foot
The Beauty in Chess
Jon Crumiller on Sir António Horta-Osório’s dazzling collection of chess sets
Find The Winning Moves
Can you do as well as the players at the final 4NCL weekend of the season?
Under the Hammer
John Henderson takes a look at the auction of Lothar Schmid’s collection
Chasing Dreams
Ben Graff thoroughly enjoyed being out and about at the Menorca Open
Menorca Masterclass
Daniel Fernandez explains how he outplayed the 2024 World Rapid Champion
Never Mind the Grandmasters
Carl Portman on his last round game at the UK Armed Forces Championships
How to Beat a Grandmaster
Paul Littlewood looks at an impressive game by a young Jon Speelman
Key Encounters
Some more of the best chess from the FIDE Candidates and the TePe Sigeman
Overseas News
Hans Niemann won the opening leg of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour in Poland
Home News
Popular weekenders took place in Belfast, Blackpool, Bournemouth and elsewhere
This Month’s New Releases
Sean Marsh enjoyed the return of Neil McDonald, with his new book on strategy
Saunders on Chess
John on Eugene Colman and his contribution to the Two Knights Defence
In Schach 4/2026 finden Sie Berichte über folgende Veranstaltungen/Themen:
* Vorschau Kandidatenturnier
* Umfrage Kandidatenturnier
* Schachfestival Prag, Schach960 in Weissenhaus
* Herren-Bundesliga, Frauen-Bundesliga
* Fragebogen: Ding Liren
* Kombinationsschule, Problemschach, Turnierausschreibungen, Rezension
* Mitarbeiter dieser Ausgabe: Luis Engel, Stefan Löffler, Peter Nielsen, Franz Pachl, Michael Prusikin
Award-winning historian Sergey Voronkov has written a four-volume psychological biography of Alexander Alekhine, presenting the former world chess champion in a much more complicated, conflicted and tragic light than you have ever seen him before! This first volume traces his early development through to his departure from Soviet Russia in 1921, while also attempting to untangle the knot of his complex relationships with all his five wives.
Unpublished or long forgotten memoirs, as well as original newspaper and magazine articles from around the world, are drawn together in forensic research to paint the most extensive picture of Alekhine ever created. Key events in his life are reconsidered, including his release from internment in Germany during World War 1, his escape from execution in Odessa, his service under the Bolsheviks as a detective, his trip to the Urals as a Comintern translator, as well as just how he emigrated.
His character development is considered beginning with a detailed examination of his childhood, based on memoirs of his classmates. Voronkov then considers Alekhine’s transition from shy boy to dandy (and even the role played in that by his erstwhile friend José Capablanca), as well as how our protagonist gained the mental toughness of a world champion, and his chess philosophy. Some details make you admire him, others make you pity him, still others cast him in an unfavorable light...
Chess-wise, Voronkov presents over 50 games and fragments with original commentary by Alekhine and his opponents, most of which has not been published in books before. These include eleven completely unknown Alekhine games as well as ten game scores of other players with light commentary by Alekhine from the first Soviet Championship in 1920, found in Alexander Kotov’s archive.
In many cases, Alekhine’s earliest annotations are compared with his later ones to the same games, often leading to surprising conclusions. In particular, Voronkov highlights brilliant variations shown in Alekhine’s analysis that were supposedly found during play but which were actually discovered by the champion only years later when he republished his games. This led to Alekhine radically changing his assessments of positions in his writings as the years passed. We also see how Kotov had a habit of taking Alekhine’s commentary and presenting it as his own.
This book is illustrated by over 170 photos and other visuals, many published for the first time.
Ein Lehrbuch des Schachspiels auf ganz neuartiger Grundlage
„Mein System“ erschien zunächst in den Jahren 1925/26 in fünf Lieferungen jeweils als Broschüre und wurden vom Berliner Schachverleger Bernhard Kagan herausgegeben.
Das Buch ist aufgeteilt in zwei Teile: „Die Elemente“ beschäftigt sich mit den Grundlagen der Schachstrategie wie z.B. Zentrum und Entwicklung, offene Turmlinien, die 7. und 8. Reihe, Freibauern etc. Im zweiten Teil wird dann auf dieser Grundlage „Das Positionsspiel“ behandelt: Prophylaxe und Zentrum, Doppelbauer und Hemmung, eigene starke und schwache Bauern bzw. Punkte etc. Über alle Kapitel verteilt gibt es Partiebeispiele, zumeist aus der eigenen Praxis des Autors.
Quelle: https://nimzowitsch.net/mein-system.html
The third volume of Sergey Voronkov’s epic tale takes the reader on a historical journey through the late Stalinist period in the USSR. It covers in depth the five Soviet championships from 1948 to 1952 and the playoff match between Botvinnik and Taimanov in 1953, which concludes one month before Stalin’s death. Against a background of rampant anti-Semitism, a new wave of repressions and descent into the First Cold War, in which chess was an important front, the USSR captures the world chess crown and Botvinnik and the generation that followed him, including Smyslov, Keres, Bronstein, and Boleslavsky, assert their places at the top-tables of Soviet and indeed global chess. Yet a new group of legends begins to emerge, including Petrosian, Geller, Korchnoi, Taimanov, Averbakh, Simagin, Kholmov, and Furman making their championship debuts, as well as a semi-final appearance by Nikitin and Spassky’s first quarter-final. At the same time, the reader learns about lesser-known masters Yuri Sakharov and Johannes Weltmander, victims of Stalinism who found solace in chess from their otherwise tragic lives.
The present volume contains 77 games and fragments, once again mostly annotated by the participants and other contemporary masters, augmented with modern computer analysis. It is illustrated with over 220 photos and cartoons from the period. Many of these photos come from unique archives, including that of David Bronstein, and are published for the first time.
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