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This book consists of eleven chapters devoted to different variations of the all-purpose defence for Black 1.d4 d6.

This hefty book offers the results of S. Soloviov’s ten-year-long investigation of a nearly virgin territory of chess theory.

It is very important for the practical player to train his or her ability, understand when to rely on intuition, rules of thumb and more general positional considerations, when to try to solve problems by calculating variations to the end and how to manage time to avoid time pressure.

In 2013 chess returned to world headlines.

The energetic Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen was front page news and his fans were not disappointed: the World Number 1 won the World Championship.

Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne gives an inside view of Carlsen’s dramatic journey: from one of eight challengers in the London Candidates tournament, with the near disaster in the final rounds, ending with triumph in Chennai.

With behind-the-scenes stories and top-level analysis of the games Kotronias & Logothetis have written the ultimate book on how Carlsen became the 16th undisputed World Champion.

Vassilios Kotronias is a grandmaster and nine-time Greek Champion. He is a key member of the Greek team as both a player and coach.

Sotiris Logothetis is a computer expert and highly-regarded arbiter and organiser.

There are many ways to study and improve at chess, but some are more effective than others. GM Axel Smith, the author of Pump Up Your Rating, is a master at teaching his students how to make the most of their training. In this book, he dives into the technical and psychological aspects of chess and shows readers the best practice techniques and strategies for rapid improvement. 

Smith covers many areas of chess from openings to middle and endgames, focusing on active learning acquired through ample training exercises and clear explanations.

Pump Up Your Rating is particularly great for intermediate to advanced players looking to overcome a plateau and increase their rating. 

The French Defence is one of the most popular and reliable responses to 1.e4. Grandmaster Repertoire 15 – The French Defence 2 covers the most critical variation of the Winawer, which occurs after the opening moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3† 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4. This volume presents three contrasting ways of meeting White’s aggressive opening system: 7...cxd4 leading to the notorious Winawer Poisoned Pawn; 7...0–0 8.Bd3 f5, a solid yet strategically complex system; and 7...0–0 8.Bd3 Nbc6, which leads to a tense, full-blooded battle

Grandmaster Repertoire 14 – The French Defence 1 introduces the Winawer Variation after the opening moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4, and provides expert recommendations against all of White’s major possibilities, with the exception of the most critical 7.Qg4 line which receives special coverage in Volume Two of the series. Volume Three will deal with the Tarrasch, Advance and all of White’s other options.

Practical White Repertoire, Volume 2

This is the second volume of Alexei Kornev’s practical White repertoire with 1.d4 and 2.c4, and it is devoted to the defences in which Black fianchettoes the dark-squared bishop — the most ambitious, attacking replies to the Queen’s-Pawn game.

Kornev gives clear, complete recommendations against the whole fianchetto family: the Grünfeld (with the main 4.cxd5 and 5.e4 approach), the King’s Indian in all its branches, and the Modern, Pirc, and Philidor/Lion structures that arise when Black combines ...g6 or ...d6 with an early kingside fianchetto. Each is met with a coherent, unified plan rather than a patchwork of unrelated lines.

As the title promises, the emphasis is practical: the repertoire is chosen to be sound and genuinely playable for a club player, with the key plans and move-orders laid out clearly so you know not just the moves but the ideas behind them.

This is the middle book of a three-volume series: together with Volume 1 (the 1...d5 defences) and Volume 3 (the Nimzo-Indian and others), it forms a complete, classical 1.d4 and 2.c4 repertoire. Best suited to club players and above who want a principled, low-fuss way to meet the King’s Indian and Grünfeld.

We have analysed the most straightforward possibilities for White

Playing the Trompowsky

The Trompowsky — 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 — is the great theory-dodger’s weapon. By pinning or harassing the knight on move two, White sidesteps the Nimzo-Indian, the Grünfeld, and the King’s Indian in one stroke, avoiding the deep, well-trodden main lines those defences demand and steering the game into fresh, creative, and genuinely complex positions instead.

Richard Pert — a Trompowsky specialist who has played it for years — turns that idea into a complete White repertoire. He works systematically through Black’s replies, from the solid 2...e6 and the combative 2...c5 to the immediate 2...Ne4 and the structural 2...d5, giving a clear recommendation and the typical plans in each case, and he also covers the related 2.Bg5 systems against the Dutch and against 1...d5.

The appeal is practical: the amount of theory you must learn is modest, the resulting middlegames reward understanding and imagination over memorisation, and you will routinely take better-prepared opponents out of their comfort zone early. Pert’s recommendations are ambitious without being unsound — he is happy to fight for an advantage rather than settle for a quiet game.

A sound, low-maintenance opening for club players and above who want an aggressive, off-beat answer to 1...Nf6 and would rather play chess than recite the latest 25-move main line.

Wojo's Weapons, Volume 2

The late Aleksander Wojtkiewicz was one of the most successful tournament grandmasters of his era — a player who racked up wins year after year with a compact, repeatable White system rather than a sprawling theoretical repertoire. This series preserves and teaches that "Wojo System," and Volume 2 carries it forward into the heart of the Queen’s-Pawn battleground.

The backbone is the Catalan, reached via the flexible 1.Nf3 and g3 move orders Wojo favoured. The book gives a complete, layered treatment of both the Closed Catalan and the Open Catalan — the latter examined in real depth, line by line — and then extends the same fianchetto approach to the Slav, the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, the Tarrasch, and the Chigorin.

What makes the material so practical is its coherence: the same bishop on g2, the same pressure on the long diagonal and the c-file, and the same handful of plans recur across every line, so the repertoire is far easier to learn and maintain than its scope suggests. The authors explain how to assemble the pieces of the system into a working whole.

A sound, grandmaster-tested White repertoire for club players and above who want to win the way Wojo did — quietly building pressure and grinding out the point. It is the second of three volumes in the Wojo’s Weapons: Winning With White series; this book concentrates on the ...d5 and ...e6 defences (the Catalan and the Queen’s-Gambit family), while the companion volumes cover the rest, so the three together form the complete repertoire.