Practical White Repertoire, Volume 3
The concluding volume of Alexei Kornev’s practical White repertoire with 1.d4 and 2.c4 mops up everything the first two books didn’t — and at its heart sits the most important customer of all: the Nimzo-Indian Defence.
Against the Nimzo, Kornev recommends the solid, classical Rubinstein System with 4.e3, giving complete coverage of the Taimanov, Botvinnik, Fischer, and Reshevsky variations. Around that he supplies clear answers to the whole supporting cast: the Dutch (in its various move orders), the Benoni and Volga/Benko Gambit, the Budapest and Fajarowicz, the Czech Benoni, and the many offbeat first moves and Queen’s-Indian-Accelerated tries Black can throw at a 1.d4 player.
As throughout the series, the watchword is practicality — sound, unified lines a club player can actually learn and rely on, with the key plans and move-orders spelled out clearly so you understand the ideas behind them.
Together with Volumes 1 and 2 it completes a coherent, classical 1.d4 and 2.c4 repertoire covering everything Black can play. Best suited to club players and above who want a principled, low-fuss White system for life.
The move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 is designed to keep Black's options open. By delaying the development of the queenside knight, Black avoids being forced into a specific Sicilian structure early — preserving the choice between the Taimanov (eventually ...Nc6) and the Kan (eventually ...a6), depending on how White plays.
This book, a follow-up to the same authors' The Safest Sicilian, develops that flexible approach into a complete repertoire. Delchev and Semkov cover both the Taimanov and the Kan systems, as well as the various ways White can try to take Black out of book early — the English Attack, the Keres Attack, the Bb5+ lines — and how to handle them with the flexible move order intact.
Chess Stars books tend to be theory-heavy and are aimed at serious club players and above who want a deep understanding of the positions, not just a surface repertoire. At 340 pages this is a thorough treatment, though readers who prefer prose explanations over dense variation trees may find the style demanding.
The Classical Slav provides a sound and active chess opening repertoire for Black based on 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4. White’s early deviations from move 3 onwards are also covered. Boris Avrukh has had the Slav in his repertoire throughout his career and has never lost a serious game with it.
Danish grandmaster Lars Schandorff is known for clear explanations and practical, fighting recommendations, and this volume delivers both. It presents a complete white repertoire against Black's Queen's Gambit responses — the positions arising after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 — covering the Slav, the Semi-Slav, the Queen's Gambit Accepted, and various other systems.
Schandorff's approach throughout the GM Repertoire series has been to choose lines that create real problems for Black rather than opting for technical, drawish variations. This volume continues that philosophy: the repertoire here is designed to produce middlegames with genuine winning chances for White, even at the cost of some theoretical complexity.
At 320 pages this is a focused treatment of one branch of 1.d4 play. Volume 2 (The Indian Defences) completes the repertoire by handling the Nimzo-Indian, King's Indian, Grünfeld, and other systems Black can choose by delaying ...d5. The two books together give White a complete, tested approach to 1.d4 written by a grandmaster who plays these lines himself.
Players who meet 1.d4 with ...d5 or ...Nf6 spend most of their preparation on the main lines — and then, in practice, keep running into everything else: the London, the Torre, the Colle and Colle-Zukertort, the Trompowsky, the Veresov, the Barry Attack, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and a host of other sidelines designed to dodge theory. This book, part of Quality Chess’s Grandmaster Repertoire series, provides a complete, active answer to all of them.
The material is organised by Black’s move order so it slots neatly alongside an existing main-line repertoire. The four parts cover the sidelines arising after 1.d4 d5, after 1.d4 Nf6 (including a thorough treatment of the Trompowsky), after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6, and after 2.Nf3 g6 — the latter handling the London, Torre, Barry, and fianchetto tries against a King’s-Indian/Grünfeld set-up.
The recommendations are ambitious rather than merely safe: the goal throughout is to give Black a sound position with real winning chances, not just equality, against opponents hoping to avoid a theoretical fight.
A genuinely useful book to own, because these systems appear constantly at club and tournament level. Aimed at intermediate and advanced players.
Most opening books assume you want to become an expert. Openings for Amateurs starts somewhere else: with the mistakes that players under 1600 actually make, over and over, in the first fifteen moves of a game.
The book is in two parts. Part One — "The Primer" — is structured around 24 common opening errors, each given its own chapter. The titles are deliberately stated as mistakes: "Allowing the king to give up castling without a good reason", "Don't make unnecessary pawn moves if you have not completed your development", "Don't develop the queen too early", "Solid, passive defenses are the waiting rooms for defeat." Each chapter explains not just what the mistake is but why it keeps happening and how to avoid it. Author Pete Tamburro, a longtime chess teacher and columnist, pays particular attention to the situations players find most confusing: what to do against gambits like the Blackmar-Diemer or the Belgrade; how to handle "system" openings like the Colle and the Barry Attack; whether to chase an active bishop; how to use (and when to distrust) opening manuals.
Part Two puts principles into practice. Tamburro presents a selection of playable, learnable openings — chosen for their compatibility with the ideas in Part One rather than their theoretical complexity — and illustrates each with annotated games. The 53 games are chosen to show the opening's strategic logic, not to demonstrate the latest theory.
360 pages. Aimed at club-level and scholastic players looking for a practical foundation rather than memorised lines.
The ability to determine when conditions are suitable for attacking the opposing king is critical to successful chess play. Readers will hone this skill while learning valuable techniques to force the enemy monarch out of his fortress.
While good opening preparation is important, it is often the proper middle and endgame execution that dictates the game outcome. In Techniques of Positional Play, authors Valeri Bronznik and Anatoli Terekhin focus on 45 key practical methods that every aspiring player must know. From concepts like restricting enemy pieces, creating space, navigating pawn structures, leveraging rook pawns, seizing open files, and more, these skills, while often intuitively understood, can be honed through deliberate study to enhance strategic vision.
Most of these techniques are easy to understand and memorize. Bronznik and Terekhin do not burden the reader with deep analysis and only present those variations that are necessary to get the point. Additionally, the book includes a special training section where the players can test and reinforce their skills and positional understanding.
How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World is the fairy-tale-like story of his rise.
Cookie settings
We use cookies to deliver and improve our services, analyze site usage, and if you agree, to customize or personalize your experience and market our services to you. You can read our Cookie Policy here.