The Complete Manual of Positional Chess: Volume 2

The Complete Manual of Positional Chess, volume 2

This is the second half of the training course Konstantin Sakaev and Konstantin Landa built for the DYSS, Russia’s elite sports school for young chess talents. Where Volume 1 laid the foundations, Volume 2 goes wide and deep — a genuinely comprehensive reference covering the two engines of practical play: pawns and dynamics.

The first part takes Nimzowitsch’s dictum that "pawns are the soul of chess" literally, working through every important structure in turn: passed and protected passed pawns, blockades, pawn chains and how to break them, backward, doubled, isolated, connected and hanging pawns, the minority attack, pawn breaks, and the destruction of the enemy centre.

The second part turns to dynamics and tactics — open and discovered attacks, the standard combinational motifs (pin, fork, double attack, deflection, overload, interference), the classic sacrifices on h7 and f7, attacks on the castled and uncastled king, opposite-side castling races, and the art of eliminating defenders and bringing every piece into the attack.

Each topic is explained as a transferable tool rather than a list of examples, in the structured DYSS style. This is an advanced reference for players aiming at master strength who want one coherent treatment of the whole middlegame. Best used alongside Volume 1.