2020 PUZZLE QUEST, selected and analysed by Ivan Ivanisevic: * Test your chess prowess and sharpen your tactical antenna, * 500 carefully selected exercises, * 5 levels of difficulty, * Practical training tool with detailed solutions. Study, practice and improve with our selection of tactical jewels!
Ian Nepomniachtchi’s road from Grandmaster to becoming Magnus Carlsen’s world championship challenger in 2021 was a long one. GM in 2007 and Russian champion for the first time in 2010, Ian only hit the elite in recent years. His victory in Ekaterinburg occurred at his very first candidates tournament. In this book Grandmaster Zenon Franco analyzes Nepo’s chess through his 30 best wins and several fragments, considering his style, his strengths, as well as his weaknesses and how he has overcome them. Like Magnus, we see fighting, practical chess with a player not afraid to push his g and h pawns in front of his king, and a more aggressive than positional style. Above all, Franco compares Nepo to Lasker, Korchnoi and Magnus Carlsen himself. In instructional move by move format, we see Ian’s best wins against Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Giri, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Svidler, Gelfand, Karjakin, and other elite players of the last decade.
This is the first volume of the new series "Key Concepts of Chess". The idea is to deal with middlegames in which a certain structure or essential theme becomes central. The idea of starting this series is in line with the "Understanding before Moving" series because the aim, is to improve the understanding of club chess players. According to the author, playing an opening should be 'hung up' on stereotypical ideas and concepts belonging to this structure. The thorough exploration of middlegame structures is beyond the scope of opening books, hence it makes more sense to expose it in this complementary series. In this first volume, the "Hedgehog System" is discussed in detail. Apart from being part of the author's repertoire, this typical set-up deserves to be widely highlighted. Although in the second part of the trilogy on the Sicilian, the Hedgehog has already made its appearance, in this book the seemingly fragile, but oh so treacherous creature can reconsider its spines in an extensive way.
With all the many books and articles on the Sicilian Defense, there is surprisingly little about the Four Knights Variation. Its starting position is reached after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6. It may also be reached after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6. Some prefer 2...e6 to 2...Nc6 because it avoids 3.Bb5. The fundamentals of the Sicilian Four Knights are not hard to learn. Black reaches the middlegame quickly and safely, with lively piece play in the dynamic positions which arise. There is no easy ride for White here, and, in particular, if he gets over-ambitious, he can find himself on the receiving end of a powerful attack very quickly.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 148th ADVENTURE
Following the Sun
CONTENTS:
CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT 2020/21 GM Ivan Sokolov
THE KNIGHT DOMINATED BY A (NOT SO) BAD BISHOP GM Mihail Marin
THE SEARCH FOR THE BRAZILIAN IMMORTAL GM Rafael Leitão
AGGRESSIVE PLAY AND ATTACKING THE KING GM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
SHINE AND POVERTY OF DOUBLE PAWNS GM Michael Prusikin
THE EARLY g-PAWN ADVANCE – Part II GM Ivan Ivanišević
THE SICILIAN DEFENCE – Keres Attack GM Krisztián Szabó
NEW IDEAS AND TRENDS IN THE ROSSOLIMO GM Miloš Perunović
A SURPRISING IDEA FOR WHITE IN THE FOUR KNIGHTS GM Priyadharshan Kannappan
NEW IDEAS IN THE PHILIDOR DEFENCE GM Danilo Milanović
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – Biel 1985 and 1986 GM Ian Rogers
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, Correspondence chess, 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 students!
Oscar de Prado has revisted the London Chess Opening, after the enourmous success of The Agile London System, the book he co-authored in 2016. His new book has a more practical approach. De Prado avoids long and complicated variations and concentrates on explaining straightforward plans, clear-cut strategies and standard manoeuvres.
Paul Morphy is a chess legend and without doubt one of the greatest players in the history of the game. His understanding of the game was years ahead of his time and in his era he was easily the best player in the world. His chess career was brief but brilliant and he influenced all the great champions who came after him. His legacy includes a treasure trove of wonderful strategic and attacking games which are highly instructive for all aspiring chess players. In this book, Grandmaster Zenón Franco examines in detail Morphy’s chess style, selects and studies his favourite Morphy games, and demonstrates how we can all improve our chess by learning from Morphy’s masterpieces. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to improve your chess skills and knowledge.
I decided to write about something that I would be interested to learn myself. In this book: • I show what preparation for a game by a 2650 player looks like. In chess, we only see the game on the stage, and can only guess at what is hidden behind the scenes. Top players can't reveal this, nor can their seconds, so I decided – who, if not me? • I show my preparation for games, accompanied by analyses that I consider enough to apply the opening line. • I show how I outplay opponents, not with powerful opening preparation, but by leading them into positions that are pleasant for me or unpleasant for them. • I explain things that many players do not pay attention to in terms of opening preparation and preparation for an opponent.
Coffeehouse Repertoire is a 1.e4 player’s dream: an arsenal of ideas from a world-class grandmaster to surprise and confound your opponents, combining coffeehouse trickery with complete theoretical soundness. In Volume 1, GM Gawain Jones shows how to put pressure on the Sicilian, Caro-Kann, Scandinavian and Alekhine’s Defences, using lines which feature a potent combination of surprise value, objective soundness and practical effectiveness. The Coffeehouse 1.e4 Repertoire will be completed in Volume 2, which covers 1...e5, plus the French, Pirc, Modern, Philidor and other miscellaneous Defences. Gawain Jones is an English grandmaster, twice British Champion and winner of the 2020 European Blitz Championship. He has defeated some of the world’s best players using the ideas recommended in this book.