John Shaw’s aim, stated plainly in his preface, is to supply a top-class White repertoire after 1.e4 — one effective all the way up to grandmaster level, but with a workload an ambitious club player can actually manage. This first volume handles the Caro-Kann, 1...e5, and the various minor defences; a second volume completes the repertoire against the Sicilian and French.
Shaw’s selection principle is sensible: where two lines are equally good he picks the one demanding less memorisation, but where one option is clearly best he recommends it even if it requires serious study. And because 1.e4 players, as he puts it, tend to have “dark intentions against the black king,” the choices throughout are active and space-gaining, chosen to create attacking chances.
The two main battlegrounds set the tone. Against the Caro-Kann he gives the Advance Variation, meeting 3...Bf5 with the aggressive 4.h4 to seize space and harry the bishop. Against 1...e5 he chooses the Scotch — a forcing, challenging system that sidesteps the heavily-analysed Berlin and Marshall of the Ruy Lopez. The Petroff, Scandinavian, Philidor, Alekhine (with a principled 6.Nxf7 sacrifice), Pirc, Modern, and assorted gambits are all given clear, explained recommendations.
At 632 pages this is a thorough, fighting repertoire rather than a shortcut, illustrated throughout with deeply annotated games. Best suited to intermediate and advanced players who want a 1.e4 repertoire they can rely on for years.
This book aims to offer an active Black repertoire against The English Opening 1.c4, the Reti 1.Nf3, and their siblings that arise after 1.g3. More importantly, it tries to offer not only variations, but also a philosophy of how to treat such openings.
Bf4 in the Queen's Gambit and the Exchange Slav
Grandmaster Alexey Dreev is one of the leading experts on the quiet, pressing systems where White develops the dark-squared bishop to f4, and this book is his detailed guide to using them as a complete White weapon against two of Black’s most solid defences.
The first half covers the Exchange Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Bf4) — an opening often dismissed as drawish, which Dreev shows to be a genuine tool for posing problems. The second half applies the same Bf4 idea to the Queen’s Gambit Declined, in both the Petrosian and Classical Variations, where the bishop’s early development sidesteps Black’s most comfortable set-ups.
Dreev’s treatment is thorough and concrete: he maps out the many move-order branches, explains the recurring plans for both sides, and supports the analysis with complete illustrative games. The recurring theme is how White can keep a small but lasting initiative in positions Black expected to be safe.
A specialist, theory-rich repertoire for ambitious players who want a sound, low-risk way to fight for the advantage with 1.d4 against the Slav and the QGD.
The idea of the Miniatures series is to present a mix of interesting miniatures, combinations, instructive mistakes along with some accompanying opening theory putting everything into context This volume is dedicated to Sicilian Najdorf.
The Powerful Catalan
The Catalan is one of the most respected weapons in modern chess: White fianchettoes the king’s bishop and uses its long-range pressure on the a8–h1 diagonal to squeeze Black for the entire game. It is a favourite of elite strategists like Kramnik and Anand precisely because it combines rock-solid safety with lasting, unpleasant pressure. In this book Victor Bologan turns it into a complete White repertoire.
Bologan covers everything Black can try, including the attempts to dodge the Catalan by steering toward the Queen’s Indian or Tarrasch structures. The book is classically organised — starting with the rarer sidelines and building toward the most important main lines, such as the critical Open Catalan where Black grabs the c4-pawn and White plays for long-term compensation.
Throughout, the recommendations are backed by original analysis of recent tournament games and explained with the clarity Bologan is known for, so you grasp the recurring plans — the pressure on the queenside, the central breaks, the typical endgames — rather than just memorising moves.
A complete, ambitious Catalan repertoire for club players and above who want a sound but genuinely pressing way to play for the advantage with White after 1.d4.
This book presents an opening repertoire for Black to players who are looking for initiative and counterplay in the Ruy Lopez.
In the fourth volume of the epic Kotronias on the King’s Indian series Grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias tackles a variety of White’s attempts to challenge his favorite opening, starting with the sequence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6.
My First Repertoire for White
Most opening repertoires assume you already speak the language of theory. This one is written for the player who doesn’t yet — and wants a complete, sensible set of White openings they can start playing immediately. French trainer Vincent Moret has built it around one principle: lines that are sound, easy to understand, slow to go out of date, and light on memorisation.
The repertoire is based on 1.e4. Against 1...e5 Moret recommends the Italian — the quiet Giuoco Pianissimo as the main road, with the sharper Giuoco Piano and Greco Gambit offered for when Black allows it. The rest of the book supplies a coherent, attacking answer to everything else: the Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian, the King’s Indian Attack against the French, and a direct fianchetto-busting set-up against the Pirc and Modern.
Every chapter is reinforced with exercises, so you are not just reading lines but learning the typical plans, tactics, and middlegame ideas that flow from them. The emphasis throughout is on getting a comfortable, playable position you actually understand.
Ideal for improving juniors and adult club players building their first real White repertoire — and a natural companion to Moret’s My First Repertoire for Black.
Every 1.e4 player needs a reliable answer, and few are as principled as 1...e5 — meeting White head-on, claiming the centre, and developing naturally. The challenge today is building a sound Black repertoire on these lines without drowning in theory. That is exactly what Nikolaos Ntirlis sets out to do here, in a book opened by a foreword from grandmaster Parimarjan Negi.
Against the Ruy Lopez — the most important battleground — Ntirlis recommends the Breyer System, one of the most solid and computer-resistant set-ups available to Black, where the knight retreats to b8 and redeploys to d7 behind a flexible pawn structure. The choice reflects the book’s philosophy: lines that rest on understanding and sound structures rather than memorised forcing sequences.
The rest of the repertoire is handled with the same clarity. The Scotch, the Italian and Two Knights, the full range of Four Knights systems, the Bishop’s Opening and Vienna, the Scotch and the King’s Gambit, and the various gambits and sidelines White can throw at 1...e5 are each given a clear recommendation and explanation.
This is a complete, classical Black repertoire after 1.e4 e5, built for players who want a dependable defence they can rely on for years. Best suited to intermediate and advanced players willing to learn ideas as well as moves.
The main goal in choosing lines was to reach positions with well-defined plans for both sides, then illustrate how to handle a typical middlegame in each variation through the use of well-chosen instructive games.
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