Almost every improving player has asked some version of the question this book is named for — and, as the author notes in his preface, almost none get a satisfying answer. Davorin Kuljasevic, a grandmaster who shifted from playing to full-time coaching, found that when students put him on the spot he could offer only a few quick tips. This book is his attempt to finally answer the question properly.
The result is not a collection of exercises but a method. Across nine chapters, Kuljasevic builds the reader toward a single practical outcome: your own structured, personalised study plan. He starts with mindset — the difference between studying with the right and wrong frame of mind — then moves through fifteen concrete study methods, how to identify your priorities, and how to choose resources appropriate to your level rather than copying what works for someone hundreds of points stronger.
Separate chapters then tackle how to actually study each phase: openings in genuine depth, tactical training, endgames, and a system for organising middlegame knowledge. The book closes by pulling everything into an actionable plan you can follow week to week.
The emphasis throughout is on independence. Kuljasevic’s goal is not to be a crutch but to make you self-sufficient — able to diagnose your own weaknesses and design your own training long after you finish the book. Suitable for everyone from ambitious club players to professionals, and rich in tables, checklists, and worked examples viewed from unusual angles.
The author presents a full opening repertory for the club player, which is analysed in seven volumes. In the books you will find many novelties for both sides, with a full move-to-move presentation. Furthermore, the reader will get access to middlegame strategies, endgame techniques and common tactical motifs, which are patterning the proposed variations.
In the sixth volume the openings of the the Janowski Defence, the Orthodox Defence, the Cambridge Springs Defence, Various Slav Systems and the Tartakower Defence are presented.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 147th ADVENTURE
Awakening
CONTENTS:
TATA STEEL MASTERS 2021 GM Jon Speelman
FOUR NATIONS CHESS LEAGUE (4NCL) – Part II GM Gawain Jones
PLETHORA OF FRESH IDEAS GM Mihail Marin
CHESS TOUR MONEY LEADERS GM Daniel Gormally
THE EARLY g-PAWN ADVANCE GM Ivan Ivanišević
DEVELOPMENTS GM Krisztián Szabó
THE NAJDORF SICILIAN NEVER SLEEPS GM Miloš Perunović
HOW CARLSEN AVOIDS THE NAJDORF? GM Burak Firat
SUCCESSFULLY CORNERED KNIGHTS GM Kannappan Priyadharshan
Dr. TARRASCH'S NIGHTMARE GM Michael Prusikin
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – SYDNEY 2000 GM Ian Rogers
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, Correspondence chess, Studies, 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!
Alvis Vitolins (1946-1997) was a seven-time chess champion of Latvia, a player with a ferocious attacking style, and one of the game’s last true openings innovators in the pre-computer age. He was a world-class blitz player and was a regular blitz sparring-partner of his friend, world champion Mikhail Tal. Vitolins often deployed gambits, and his attack-minded novelties in the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian set trends that were copied at top-level chess, including in world championship and candidates matches. He gained the International Master title in 1980. Through an analysis of 25 of his most exciting games, this book, first published in Latvia in 2008, tells the reader of Alvis’s chess legacy, which includes many breathtaking Talesque sacrifices. Additional full games and fragments from Vitolins’s career are incorporated in the annotations. Opponents include the authors of this book as well as grandmasters Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Bagirov, Vladimir Tukmakov and other stars of Soviet and post-Soviet chess. The book contains a new foreword specially written for the English edition by Genna Sosonko, who met Vitolins on several occasions.
AlphaZero benötigte nur wenige Stunden des Selbstlernens, um zu dem Schachspieler zu werden, der die Welt erschütterte. Das System Künstlicher Intelligenz wurde mit nichts anderem als den Regeln des Königlichen Spiels gefüttert, bevor es das weltbeste Schachprogramm in einem langen Match besiegte. Die im Dezember 2017 veröffentlichte Auswahl von zehn Partien sorgte für weltweites Aufsehen: Wie war es möglich, gegen einen Gegner von übermenschlicher Stärke derart brillant und riskant zu spielen, ohne auch nur eine einzige Partie zu verlieren? Für Zeitenwende im Schach haben Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan mehr als zweitausend zuvor unveröffentlichte Partien von AlphaZero untersucht. Zugleich hatten sie exklusiven Zugang zum Forschungsteam von DeepMind und konnten einen einzigartigen “Blick unter die Haube” werfen, um so die Tiefe und Breite von AlphaZeros Suchfunktion ermessen zu können. Zeitenwende im Schach präsentiert zugleich eine Sammlung einprägsam erläuterter Schachpartien außergewöhnlicher Qualität. Die erstaunlichen Entdeckungen von AlphaZero in jedem relevanten Bereich lassen die Spielstärke von Profi- wie auch Vereinsspielern wachsen: Eröffnungsvorbereitung, Figurenbeweglichkeit, Initiative, Angriffstechniken, langfristige Opfer und vieles mehr. Dieses Buch bietet faszinierende Einblicke in die Perspektiven und Möglichkeiten der Künstlichen Intelligenz. Wobei sich der Radius keineswegs auf die Bewältigung von Spielen beschränkt, sondern ebenso auf verschiedenartigste gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen gerichtet ist.
The Fully-Fledged French
This is Viktor Moskalenko’s third and most complete book on the opening he is most identified with. His earlier Flexible French (2008) and Even More Flexible French (2015) were international bestsellers — hailed as eye-opening, sparkling, and genuinely fun to read — and this volume brings the whole project fully up to date with countless new improvements, alternatives, and surprise weapons.
It is a complete repertoire for Black after 1.e4 e6, organised by White’s main systems and threaded through with the dynamic, attacking spirit that defines Moskalenko’s approach to the French. The Advance, Tarrasch, Classical and Winawer each get thorough, restructured treatment, and the final part adds five surprise weapons for players who like to take opponents out of their comfort zone.
What keeps Moskalenko’s books beloved is the writing: high-level analysis delivered with a light, enthusiastic touch, the critical ideas and traps clearly flagged, and the French presented as a living, fighting opening rather than a passive defence.
A first-class, current French repertoire for club players and above who want active, double-edged play with Black.
In the first book ever exclusively devoted to the Exchange French Variation, American grandmaster Alex Fishbein recognizes that the Exchange French is an opening for a player who likes active piece play, fights for the initiative, excels in positions with possibilities on both sides of the board, and finds strategic and tactical nuances that arise out of almost nothing. And if you play the French as Black, then this book will help you deal with White’s 3.exd5. Authors of French Defense books from the black perspective have recognized for a while that there is no draw here at all and have proposed lines where Black can create interesting play. Indeed, both sides can create complications. The author shows that playing “boring” moves is actually risky with both White and Black. The Exchange French is a vibrant opening, just like any other, and yet there has been very little literature showing how to play it from the white side. That void is filled with this book.
The first volume dealt with the Najdorf and Scheveningen variations, and it is now time to pay attention to three other extremely popular systems: the Taimanov, Kan and Richter-Rauzer variations. After careful consideration within the Thinkers Publishing team, we decided that it made sense to group these variations together. In particular, the first two are closely related and share the feature that, in both cases, Black plays ...e7-e6 and ...a7-a6 at an early stage. They typically have the idea of retaining more options for their king’s bishop by postponing ...d7-d6 (or even omitting it entirely.) The bishop may go to b4 or c5 in different lines. The Richter-Rauzer is, in theory, just one of the possible developments from a Classical Sicilian. We have already dealt with a few games that started with the Classical and where Black shortly played ...e7-e6; and 6.Bc4 (the Sozin variation) was rightly treated within the Scheveningen pages. However, it is clear that White’s most popular counter, the Richter-Rauzer variation (6.Bg5) deserves separate attention.
Four hundred years ago, an Italian chess master, Gioachino Greco, discovered an extraordinary bishop sacrifice on h7 that often leads to checkmate or a significant material advantage. More amazing still, he recorded the idea! This book chronicles the history of that idea, what many have come to call the Classic Bishop sacrifice, from its discovery and formative years through its remarkably complex uses in modern chess. During the past century, several annotators have attempted to explain the circumstances under which the sacrifice works, and when it doesnt. Edwards reviews their efforts and, in a spectacular ninth chapter, provides a modern classification. His taxonomy of the sacrifice is comprehensive and full of pleasant surprises for beginners and even accomplished masters. This book represents a thematic approach to chess tactics and strategy. Careful readers will suddenly discover that they are able, quickly and accurately, to see 5-10 moves or more ahead in these lines. Here you will find hundreds of carefully annotated games. Learn from brilliant moves and strategies; and take full advantage of others instructive mistakes.
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