In this book on the 3.Nc3 French, Harikrishna offers practical ideas from White’s perspective to make your preparation more effective. At times, this means suggesting the 2nd or 3rd choice of the engine. He builds on the material from his earlier French course (Chessable, May 2019) and has expanded it with new analysis in all the lines, especially the 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 variation. Harikrishna analyzes both 5.Nce2 and 5.f4, so that the reader may make an informed choice about their personal preference. The driving force throughout is to keep the book clear-cut and practical. A good example of a practical weapon is the deceptively simple 3...Bb4 4.exd5 line. There are also fresh and interesting suggestions against the sidelines you are likely to encounter, especially at shorter time controls. The entire Thinkers Publishing team joins with the author in wishing you enjoyment and success from this exceptional book.
A collection of games in the Indian Defenses showing a catalog of typical mistakes, misunderstandings, mis-evaluations and how to exploit these: either through simple execution or brilliant chess tactics.
The Grand Prix Attack is one of White's most aggressive ways of fighting the Sicilian. It leads to a sharp, complex battle in which White often launches a direct attack against the black king. The opening has become a powerful weapon in the cut and thrust of tournament chess, where victory is everything and draws are not enough. It has even gained the seal of approval from elite players such as Vishy Anand and Nigel Short, who have both utilized it with success.
In this book Gawain Jones, one of the world' leading experts on the Grand Prix Attack, provides everything you need to know about this opening. Using illustrative games and drawing upon his own wealth of experience, he introduces the key moves and ideas for both sides, taking care to explain the reasoning behind them - something that has often been neglected or taken for granted.
The Everyman Chess Starting Out series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming players. These books are distinguished by their easy-to-read layout, the lucid explanations of the fundamentals, and the abundance of notes, tips and warnings to help the reader absorb vital ideas.
“The Ruy Lopez is such a classic opening that never gets old. Regardless of what you already knew about this opening, there are always new ideas to be found and tested over the board. That is why this book is beneficial to chess players and enthusiasts at all levels, including top Grand Masters like myself. Reading the first volume of this book has been inspiring, as I feel that I have broadened my chess knowledge in certain variations. I am eagerly waiting to try Dariusz’s solid recommendations in my future games, and I look forward to the second volume of his series. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Ruy Lopez.” ~ Le Quang Liem
The Sicilian Defence is the most popular reply to 1 e4. With 1...c5 Black comes out fighting, immediately challenging any sense of a “natural white advantage”. Sicilian Defence players are often very well prepared theoretically and the tremendous dynamism of the Sicilian can often disturb their opponents. In this book, German FIDE master Jonas Hacker provides a complete repertoire for White when facing the Sicilian. The recommended systems are based on solid strategic considerations. The backbone of the repertoire is the line 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 f3!? This is a perfect line to throw Najdorf and Dragon players off their stride. White will (usually) follow up with c2-c4 and establish a useful space advantage. Many of the other recommended lines are also based around the space-gaining c2-c4 advance providing cohesion across the whole repertoire. In Opening Repertoire: Beating the Sicilian, Jonas Hacker guides the reader through the complexities of the Sicilian and carves out a repertoire for White. He examines all aspects of this highly complex opening and provides the reader with well-researched, fresh, and innovative analysis. Each annotated game has valuable lessons on how to play the opening and contains instructive commentary on typical middlegame plans.
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.
This book is definitely not a book full of theoretical lines. Of course, I will give some advice if possible and necessary. But the main purpose is to explain the structures that can result from double fianchettoed positions. The reader will find five chapters with structures from the white side and six chapters with structures from the black side. The last chapter is a mixed one, with games from both sides. The main — and longest — part will be the first chapter, with games and analyses of my own main weapon starting with Nf3, g3 and b3 against the King’s Indian and Grünfeld. I will show the reader a few games of my own and also games from Kramnik and Andersson, two of my favourite players. I have learned a lot from their games myself. I have played those structures for nearly 25 years and one of my sons also now starts with 1.Nf3. During my years of playing chess I tried many possible openings with White and Black, but I was only successful with fianchettoing one, or even better both, bishops. Maybe this was a sign and those structures are really a lifestyle for me? I hope you will enjoy reading this book and maybe these structures will also become part of your lifestyle. ~ Daniel Hausrath
Having the Nimzo-Indian Defence in his repertoire is a must for every 1.d4 player. However, it has been deeply explored, and lately White has been struggling to make something out of the opening. Indicatively, recent years have seen only books from Black’s perspective. This repertoire presents an innovative approach for White. While he starts with Kasparov’s move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3, he is often ready to transpose to the Rubinstein System with e3, having sidestepped the main Black’s equalizers against it. That allows White to get rich dynamic positions with fair chances for success.
Semko Semkov is a chess journalist and theoretician, with two GM norms. His most famous books are The Modern English, The Most Flexible Sicilian, The Taimanov-Sheveningen Hybrid, Understanding the QGA, Building a Reti Repertoire.
Play the Trompowsky Attack
The Trompowsky Attack — 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 — lets White set the terms from move two, pinning the knight and steering the game away from the heavily-analysed Nimzo-Indian, Grünfeld, and King’s Indian into sharp, original middlegames. In this book, grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin presents it as a complete and notably aggressive White repertoire.
Kryakvin’s treatment leans into the opening’s combative side. He covers all of Black’s defensive tries — 2...e6, 2...c5, 2...Ne4, and 2...d5 — but where the position allows it he favours the most testing, attacking continuations, making this a good fit for players who want the Trompowsky to be a genuine winning weapon rather than merely a theory-avoidance device.
In the Chess Stars house style, each chapter pairs a "Main Ideas" overview of the typical plans and structures with a detailed "Step by Step" theoretical section and annotated games, so you can study the recommendations at whatever depth you need. The level is pitched at the ambitious club player and above.
A sharp, well-organised Trompowsky repertoire for those who want to surprise opponents early and play for the initiative.
This book presents a Black repertoire based on the QGA. The authors consider the Classical System with 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6, but they also offer alternative approaches – building up tension with 4…Bg4, and the destructive 4…a6 aimed at quick equalisation.
Players who meet 1.d4 with ...d5 or ...Nf6 spend most of their preparation on the main lines — and then, in practice, keep running into everything else: the London, the Torre, the Colle and Colle-Zukertort, the Trompowsky, the Veresov, the Barry Attack, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and a host of other sidelines designed to dodge theory. This book, part of Quality Chess’s Grandmaster Repertoire series, provides a complete, active answer to all of them.
The material is organised by Black’s move order so it slots neatly alongside an existing main-line repertoire. The four parts cover the sidelines arising after 1.d4 d5, after 1.d4 Nf6 (including a thorough treatment of the Trompowsky), after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6, and after 2.Nf3 g6 — the latter handling the London, Torre, Barry, and fianchetto tries against a King’s-Indian/Grünfeld set-up.
The recommendations are ambitious rather than merely safe: the goal throughout is to give Black a sound position with real winning chances, not just equality, against opponents hoping to avoid a theoretical fight.
A genuinely useful book to own, because these systems appear constantly at club and tournament level. Aimed at intermediate and advanced players.
About 10 months ago, Nery approached me. We already knew each other; Nery had been my student in group online classes for about 2 years. Nery’s main goal and desire is to help chess lovers like himself. Let’s say we don’t know the theory beyond moves 8-10 and, in many cases, after 5-6 moves we find it difficult to make the right choice. We are also not interested in studying all these complex and long variations, it does not bring us pleasure, and we only want to understand the criteria that we can rely on in choosing a move or plan in opening positions that are critical for us. Nery came to this idea thanks to numerous positions from many of his games in which he found it difficult to make a quick and correct decision. The analysis of these positions after the game, and the conclusions made together with his coach or the computer, or even independently, brought invaluable experience for making further correct decisions in the opening.
Dear chess friends, he wants to share this experience with you.
I’m sure you will enjoy reading this book. Play chess and love chess!!!
Kotronias on the King's Indian Fianchetto Systems
Of all the ways to meet the King’s Indian, the quiet g3 fianchetto is the one that frustrates attackers most: White avoids the wild Mar del Plata races and aims for a small, safe, lasting edge. This book — the opening volume of Vassilios Kotronias’s monumental King’s Indian series — gives Black a complete, fighting answer to it.
Kotronias is one of the world’s foremost King’s Indian theoreticians, and the treatment here is correspondingly deep. He covers the full range of fianchetto set-ups: lines where White holds back c4, the systems with an early ...c5 counter, and the main lines after ...Nbd7 and ...e5, including the critical 8.Qc2, 8.e4 and 8.b3 battlegrounds and the sharp Mozny Variation.
Throughout, the goal is not merely to equalise but to give Black active, double-edged positions with real winning chances, backed by original analysis and a clear explanation of the plans behind the moves. A set of exercises helps drill the key ideas.
This is an advanced, theory-heavy repertoire book for dedicated King’s Indian players who want to meet the fianchetto with genuine ambition rather than passively accepting White’s slow squeeze.
In this book’s pages you will find tons of novelties not seen in practice, and in many of the lines I offer strong improvements. Many sources were reviewed, where the authors defended certain options from White’s point of view, while I defended Black’s side. In addition, this book has absorbed my attitude and approach to various positions, and I have been analyzing the Benko Gambit for more than 10 years! I wanted to approach each position from the point of view of a human, as close as possible to a practical game. In addition, even if this book becomes outdated at some point, I am sure that it will always be possible to improve the variations – but the backbone of studying this opening can be taken from this book; this is normal work on chess.
A Dynamic Positional Enterprise
More than a half-century ago, Hungarian-American Grandmaster Pal Benko crafted a strategy for Black to meet 1.d4. A Benoni-style pawn structure is followed by a strike on the queenside – ...b7-b5! While this tactic had already been known, it was Benko who shaped it into a dynamic, dangerous system.
In this first book of a two-volume set, the authors examine the Benko Gambit Accepted in great detail. In addition, understanding that the opening analysis should not stand alone, they examine over 300 endgames arising from these lines. The result is an incredibly thorough and comprehensive treatment of one of Black’s most energetic defenses.
In his Introduction, Grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias points out that overall, the Benko Gambit is really a dynamic positional enterprise. Black sacrifices a pawn for open lines on the queenside while at the same time, the black king is relatively safe.
Three-time U.S. Champion, Grandmaster Lev Alburt has been a powerful proponent of the Benko:
An impressive work by excellent authors. I particularly like the QuickStarter! Section and the chapter on the endgames arising out of the Benko Gambit.
About the Authors
Greek Grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias, has won the championship of Greece ten times and has represented his country many times in team competitions. He is one of the most respected opening analysts in the world today.
Russian-Serbian Grandmaster Mikhail Ivanov has been successful in many European tournaments, including the 2002 Neckar Open. He is a venerable chess coach and trainer. He has partnered with GM Kotronias on several books for Russell Enterprises.
Bird's Opening is currently in that 'Goldilocks' zone of the great arbitrages in life. The majority of chess players have dismissed it overlooking its inherent value and this allows for adopters of the Bird to take advantage of this asymmetry. As of this writing, it is played 0.9% of the time in online databases and this drops to 0.2% (!) in the master's database of OTB games. For reference in the OTB database 1.e4 is played 45% of the time. So for every 225 OTB games your opponent plays against 1.e4, he plays against the Bird once. While a case could be made that 1.e4 or 1.d4 are stronger, the objective difference between them and the Bird is infinitesimal. The way I see it, people will continue to ignore the Bird for the foreseeable future. Unless this book sells a million copies, the Bird will never be played remotely close to the frequency it deserves. Because of this it will never be worth your opponent's while to study it, so it will always carry great surprise value.
The book is structured around the Lichess database for players rated between 1200 and 2000 - so if you are in this category the repertoire will synchronize perfectly with the lines your opponents are choosing in your own games. Whenever possible I have sought out lines to surprise your opponent and give them the toughest time figuring things out.
In response to 1.e4, White’s most common first move, it has long been recognized that when and if Black can play ...d5 safely, the result is approximate equality. Scandinavian devotees argue all that can happen on Move 1! But it’s hardly a “peaceful” equality.
But do we really need a book that is a blur of all sorts of black and white possibilities with countless tightly-nested game fragments? Hardly. Double Trouble is a straightforward volume of repertoire recommendations, easy to understand and easy to play.
The book is in three parts. Part One, besides introducing the book generally, covers the very first moves of the Scandinavian Defense and White’s early deviations. Anyone who plays the Scandinavian will find this section quite helpful. Then Part Two covers Qd6 + g6 systems, while Part Three covers the very different Nf6 system.
In this book, popular author and Correspondence Master Marek Soszynski gives you a defense to 1.e4 that can honestly be called “complete.” Your prep could not be better...This book cuts [the theory] down to size. Marek Soszynski gives you just what you need to know to show that the old “theoretical” equalizer, 1...d5, can indeed be played, and played with verve, on Move 1! – From the Foreword by Al Lawrence
Double Trouble Scandinavian Style: Equalize early and then play for a win!
The variation of the French that starts 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 (or 3 Nd2) 3 ... dxe4 is often called the Rubinstein Variation. It is a great way to simplify the position and ensure that the middlegame battle rewards strategic understanding rather than rote memorisation of opening moves. It is also a very useful weapon to defuse the attacking intentions of aggressive White players who plan an all-out assault in the main lines of the French Defence.
An important feature of the lines after 3...dxe4 4 Nxe4 is that Black has various different ways to continue. 4 ... Nd7 is the most common but 4 ... Bd7 (planning ... Bc6 – the Fort Knox Variation), 4 ... Be7 and 4 ... Nf6 are all possible. All these lines are covered in the book.
Finally, White can, of course, avoid the 3 ... dxe4 variation with (amongst others) the Advance Variation, 3 e5. Martin provides antidotes to all these possible sidelines and so the variations in the book provide a complete repertoire to meet 1 e4.
Welcome to Volume 2 of Cheparinov's 1.d4!.
In the second part of the series, I am sharing my knowledge about the Slav Defense. I am confident that the book contains many new and interesting ideas and I have tried to provide you with the best practical options. Objectively speaking Black looks good in many lines but in practice things may look different. While I cannot promise you a big advantage in each line, I do believe you will have the best practical chances during the game.
Writing the second volume was very challenging for me. The Slav encompasses a wide but solid body of theory. Black has plenty of options and finding advantages and practical chances was not easy at all. In any case I believe that chess players from amateurs to very strong players will appreciate this book. While the Covid pandemic gave me a lot of free time to concentrate on the book, I am very happy to see that many tournaments are back. This means that my book can be useful, and you may actually be able to apply some of the ideas in your games.
The best way to use this book is to first examine the lines on an actual board and then check them with an engine. I hope this method of study increases your understanding of the positions that arise from the Slav. This book can be a very important starting point for building your 1.d4 repertoire.
Not all chess players are ready to face a dangerous opening like the Grivas Sicilian, or any other open form of the Sicilian Defense of course, so an alternative set-up is on the quest. White has plenty of choices after 1.e4 c5; these choices sometimes are quite sound, and some others are simply crap!
Well, shorter time-controls (blitz & rapid) ‘favors’ safer, not forced and not very deep and long theoretical continuations, so White has a fair point for avoiding the open versions of the Sicilian Defense. Especially in the ‘cholera years’ as I call the 2020–2021 years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, chess players had to stay home, avoiding travelling and exercise instead via the internet form of our royal game.
This general fear demanded as ‘compensation’ a lighter approach to the game and some weird and unsound opening choices were on the daily menu. That’s fine of course, for the well-trained and ambitious chess player sitting behind the black pieces!
It is also quite true that this book is quite ‘heavy’ and contains many, many lines which are almost impossible to remember in totality. But chess is learned sub-consciously, so repeated motifs and ideas guide our choices and help us to recall important lines.
We must be trained not only in concrete opening moves, but on the middlegame, the endgame and the tactical part of the opening in question. And this is exactly what this book offers: a complete structural think-tank on the non-open form of the Sicilian Defense.
There are no good or bad openings – there are openings you understand and openings that you do not understand. And understanding comes by studying and applying the absorbed Knowledge!
There is no doubt that the Nimzovich Defense is one of Black’s most inspiring openings after 1.e4. Black strives to unbalance the position by creating new problems for White from move two, giving himself every opportunity to fight for the initiative from the outset. It is no surprise that 1…Nc6 appeals ambitious players who relish a complicated battle. In this book, GM Christian Bauer explains how to use this powerful weapon drawing from his own successful experiences. He is not shy to show you the fundamental ideas, the traps, the pitfalls and naturally the move order subtleties which play such an important role in our modern game of chess. We are convinced this book will give you plenty of confidence and make your opponent think more than twice.
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.
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