The material is divided into four chapters, and two parts, depending if we have an endgame with queens or rooks on the board. I have decided to keep the focus on endgames because in middlegames, some other factors may simply prevail. In endgames, the importance of having a knight against a bishop just increases! For easier understanding, I suggest that before studying any example, you should determine which side will prevail and you can find the solutions yourself. Of course, you can work directly from the book and even skip some examples, and you can analyze them in random order.
In the book, you will find Capablanca’s famous postulate about the queen and knight cooperating better than the queen and bishop, and some exceptions as well. For first time, you will hear of my audacious “postulate” that a rook and knight will “more often” prevail over a rook and bishop combination. I know this may sound absurd. I know Tal and Fischer would have disagreed and probably would have been indignant to hear this. I know many strong players would rather have a rook and bishop combination, basing their approach on the past masterpieces of these giants. But what about Rubinstein, and especially Karpov and Andersson – these masters had a great influence on my style and my coaching methods. Furthermore, I have based my “postulate” on statistics that I obtained after deeply searching for examples for this book. I hope it will reopen a debate about this material balance. My opinion is made, and I would like to apologize to all “bishop fans”.
I have decided to use actual words instead of symbols to explain my ideas, methods and plans. I think that it should be right in this computer era that is full of numbers, digits, etc. that words and sentences from the coach are simply irreplaceable to explain strategy and endgames.
I am sure that this book will demystify that “eternal battle” and help you to broaden your horizons. I am sure you will find a lot for yourself in this book.
The chess world has witnessed a great number of wonderfully gifted attacking players, geniuses who have dazzled the chess public with their brilliant masterpieces. Everyone has their own favourites, and in Chess Secrets: Great Attackers, Colin Crouch chooses three of his own: Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Tal and Leonid Stein. World Champions Kasparov and Tal need no introduction, while Stein was a highly creative and intuitive player with the ability to destroy the world's best players with his vicious attacks. Crouch examines phases of these players' careers, compares their differing approaches and styles, and highlights key attacking themes including the idea of controlled risk - in some sacrificial attacks even the greatest players can't always see everything to the end. A study of this book will help you to enhance your skills in one of the most crucial elements of the game.
In this follow-up to his acclaimed 1001 Chess Exercise for Club Players, FIDE Master Frank Erwich teaches you how to reach the next level of identifying weak spots in the position of your opponent, recognizing patterns of combinations, visualizing tricks and calculating effectively. Erwich repeats the themes of his previous book, focusing on exercises in which the key move is less obvious. He also introduces new, more sophisticated tactical weapons. They are geared towards the reality of the advanced club player (Elo 1800 – 2300): it is not enough to spot simple combinations, at this level you must be able to resist your reflexes and look deeper. In variations that look forcing you will always search for that deadly Zwischenzug. Quiet moves in general should be your new best friends. In short: an advanced club player should expect the unexpected. One of the celebrated elements of Erwich’s previous book, which is neglected in other books on tactics, is back: defence! You will also learn how to defend against tactics, as well as how to use tactical weapons when you are under heavy pressure. This is a complete and structured course, and not just a collection of freewheeling puzzles. Erwich starts every chapter with an instructive explanation of the tactical concept at hand and has carefully selected the most didactically productive exercises.
The book offers a positional repertoire against the Caro-Kann, based on exd5.
The Basman-Williams Attack arises after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4, which was first played by the inventive and creative English International Master Michael Basman in the 1970s and later adopted & developed by English Grandmaster Simon Williams. Nowadays, it has become a weapon used by several top grandmasters and it was even adopted for use in the recent Candidates tournament by Chinese top grandmaster and former world number 2, Ding Liren. It is a fun way to avoid Black's intentions of playing the main line theory of the King's Indian and Grunfeld Indian defenses.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 150th ADVENTURE
Midwinter Dream
CONTENTS:
FIDE CHESS.COM GRAND SWISS 2021 GM L'ubomír Ftáčnik
SOUTH AMERICAN HIGHLIGHTS GM Rafael Leitão
US CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2021 GM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
EUROPEAN CHESS CLUB CUP 2021 GM Dragoljub Jaćimović
EUROPEAN WOMEN’S TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP WIM Sandra Đukić
MR. FIRE ON BOARD GM Mihail Marin
MELTWATER CHAMPIONS CHESS TOUR FINALS GM Elshan Moradiabadi
THE SEMI-TARRASCH – PART II GM Nigel Davies
NEW IDEAS IN THE ARKHANGELSK RUY LÓPEZ GM Miloš Perunović
KING’S INDIAN, FIANCHETTO – Part I GM Krisztián Szabó
THE ART OF INTUITIVE SACRIFICES GM Michael Prusikin
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – Asia-Pacific Zonal, Jakarta 1987 GM Ian Rogers
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES GM Marian Petrov
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, 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 chess students!
When I decided to write The Modernized Sveshnikov (June 2020) I knew that I was basically committing myself to covering the Anti–Sicilians in a separate book as well. After all, what’s a book on the Sveshnikov alone worth when your opponents decide to avoid the Open Sicilian? Especially since the Sveshnikov is nowadays considered to be one of the most reliable options for Black in the Sicilian, White players have been investigating new territories within the Anti–Sicilians. The book you are holding in your hands, Beat the Anti–Sicilians, aims to provide a complete Black repertoire against all the critical sidelines after 1.e4 c5. The biggest part of the book covers the Rossolimo and Alapin, but also the popular lines at club player’s level like the Grand Prix Attack and the Morra Gambit, and other alternatives on White’s 2nd move are also worked out in detail.
100 Endgame Patterns You Must Know
When you recognise a pattern, you spot the key move faster, calculate more accurately, and remember what you studied far better. That insight drives this follow-up to Jesús de la Villa’s classic 100 Endgames You Must Know — but where the original covered theoretical endings, this book targets the phase just before them: the practical positions from which those endgames actually arise.
These are the recurring practical fundamentals that let you reap the benefit of theoretical knowledge — the distant and protected passed pawn, the breakthrough, king activity and the "bodycheck," reserve tempi, the opposition and corresponding squares, the good and bad bishop, blockades, and dozens more. De la Villa deliberately chose the 100 patterns with the greatest practical frequency, on the principle that studying a pattern only pays off if you will actually meet it.
Each is explained and illustrated with carefully selected examples, in the clear, myth-busting style that made the original a worldwide bestseller — proof again that the essential endgame is finite and learnable.
A high-value training book for club players and above. It pairs naturally with 100 Endgames You Must Know, but its practical focus makes it genuinely useful on its own.
The second part of Sergey Voronkov’s three-volume treatise continues from where Volume I left off. It covers the eleventh to fifteenth Soviet championships, the 1941 match tournament for the title of Soviet Absolute Champion, and the main events in the country’s chess history between these tournaments. Themes include the downfall of Nikolai Krylenko, the persecution and disappearance of Soviet chess players during the purges, and the experience of chess players in World War Two. The atmosphere of the time is captured in contemporary accounts and memoirs of key players and cultural figures. We see Botvinnik and Keres established as leading challengers for Alekhine’s throne, with plans being made to arrange a title match. We encounter for the first time and witness the rise of great Soviet players such as Smyslov, Bronstein and Boleslavsky, and enjoy the games of many other stars including Flohr, Lilienthal, Bondarevsky, Kotov and Tolush. This volume contains 84 games and fragments mostly annotated by the players themselves and their peers, and subjected to recent computer analysis. It is illustrated with around 250 photos and cartoons from the period, the main sources being Russian chess magazines and tournament bulletins. Volume I of Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships was named the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year 2021. The jury stated: “The book reads like a novel... A most remarkable, absorbing and entertaining chess history which fully lives up to its title, Masterpieces and Dramas, on and off the board. A worthy winner of Book of the Year 2021 over strong competition.”
Above all, the Averbakh is a very rewarding opening. White’s piece development follows classical principles. In general, White is not lagging in development. Even without the theoretical knowledge of certain variations, he should be able to find his way. Best of all, the Averbakh promises you a head-start at the end of the opening, without the mess our KID opponents love to create on the board!
This volume covers the Ragozin, the Chebanenko, the Vienna, the Hennig-Schara Gambit, theTarrasch, 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 a6 and 3...Bb4.
I have always been interested by less theoretical Sicilians. I have been playing the Classical Sicilian for a long time and right before the covid period, I decided to find a new one. The Sicilian Kan came to me as a very serious option, and I decided to work on it. In the meantime, my friend and editor Daniël Vanheirzeele offered me the chance to author a book about it. This came to me as a complete surprise, as I had no experience with it. In comparison with my work on the Reti and the Dutch (my two previous books), I am a newbie on the subject. But I decided to accept the challenge. I found it extremely interesting, as this gave me a fresh look at the positions. I think I managed to ask myself the questions everyone would have asked. I also work as a second for others and am accustomed to working on openings I do not necessarily play as well as finding the key ideas very quickly. So, after a deep initial work to understand the variations, I was ready to start writing!
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