The French Defence is one of the most solid and strategically rich answers to 1.e4: Black accepts a slightly cramped position in return for a durable pawn structure and clear, long-term plans, usually centred on the counterstrike against White’s d4 and the eventual activation of the famously “bad” light-squared bishop. This book turns that defence into a complete, ready-to-play repertoire for Black.
The coverage is genuinely comprehensive. Every serious White try gets its own treatment: the space-grabbing Advance Variation, the Tarrasch with 3.Nd2, the sharp Steinitz and Classical main lines, the McCutcheon, the trappy Exchange and its symmetrical lines, and the quieter King’s Indian Attack and assorted sidelines. Across twenty-five chapters the reader is given a clear recommendation against each, with the strategic ideas explained rather than just the moves listed.
The emphasis is on understanding the resulting middlegames — the pawn breaks, the typical piece manoeuvres, and the endgames the French so often steers toward — so that you are equipped to play the positions, not merely reach them.
This is a serious, thorough repertoire book aimed at club players and above who want to take up the French as a lifelong weapon, or to deepen a defence they already trust.
Chess Training for Post-Beginners
There is a frustrating gap in most players’ development: you know the rules and you’ve picked up some tactics, but nobody has ever taught you how to actually think about a position. Experienced trainer Yaroslav Srokovski wrote this book to fill exactly that gap — a structured first course in positional understanding.
Across twelve focused chapters he builds the core skills of strategy from the ground up: how pieces become strong or weak, the use of open files and key squares, weak-square complexes and diagonals, queenside pawn majorities, the power of the passed pawn, weak pawns, the exposed king, the eternal good-knight-versus-bad-bishop questions, and the bishop pair in both middlegame and endgame.
The presentation is deliberately clear and compact, and every chapter ends with exercises so the ideas stick through practice rather than just reading. The two underlying skills Srokovski keeps returning to are the ones that decide most amateur games: how to assess a position honestly, and how to choose sensible long-term plans.
Pitched precisely at the post-beginner — the player ready to move beyond pure tactics toward genuine positional judgement.
How I Beat Fischer's Record
In 1991 Judit Polgar became a grandmaster at fifteen — breaking the age record Bobby Fischer had set decades earlier — on her way to becoming the strongest female player in history and a genuine threat to the world’s very best. This book is the first volume of her trilogy, and it is both a teaching manual and the story of how that prodigy was made.
Polgar builds the instruction around her own early games, organised by theme rather than by opening. The chapters work through the attacking and tactical tools that defined her play — tricks and traps, the mating net, trapping the queen, the zwischenzug, piece domination, exploiting a lead in development, and attacking the uncastled king — before moving into the art of simplifying and basic endgame technique.
Because the examples come from her own path to the top, the lessons carry the weight of real, high-stakes games, including victories over elite opponents such as Anand and Polugaevsky and a vivid tournament diary. You learn the ideas and meet the player at the same time.
A rich, motivating book for club players and improving juniors who want to absorb aggressive, concrete chess from one of its greatest exponents — equal parts instruction and inspiration.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Polgar Bundle
Bent Larsen's Best Games
Bent Larsen (1935–2010) was one of the great fighting spirits in chess history — the Danish grandmaster who defeated every World Champion from Botvinnik to Karpov, qualified as a Candidate four times, and was chosen ahead of the entire Soviet team to play board one for the Rest of the World in 1970. This is the definitive collection of his finest games, annotated by the great man himself.
More than 120 games are presented, and Larsen’s notes are the heart of the book: lucid, sharply to the point, deeply instructive, and famously witty. He was as original a writer as he was a player, and his comments convey not just the analysis but the uncompromising, risk-embracing attitude that made him such a dangerous and beloved competitor.
The games are arranged as a career narrative, carrying the reader from his early Scandinavian successes through his astonishing run of five consecutive international victories in 1967, the Interzonals and great tournaments of the 1970s, and his encounters with Fischer, Spassky, and the rest of the era’s elite.
Part games collection, part autobiography, this is a book to study and to enjoy — ideal for any player who wants to learn attacking, independent chess from one of its supreme practitioners.
This exceptional book continues the unique project where one of the greatest players of our time transforms her personal journey to the top into a roadmap for everyone who ever wanted to better themselves in the game of chess.
GM Dreev offers a new look at the old system 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 Nge7 which is one of the most challenging ways to combat the Spanish.
It is well established that nothing improves a developing player faster than studying basic tactics — and that is exactly what this book sets out to teach, comprehensively and from the ground up. Award-winning instructor Dan Heisman covers the full vocabulary of tactical ideas with around 500 examples and problems, ranging from very easy to genuinely difficult.
The organisation is methodical. After an opening look at safety and counting — the bedrock skill of making sure a capture actually wins material — Heisman works through the complete catalogue of motifs: trapped pieces, pins, skewers, double threats and double attacks, knight and pawn forks, removal of the guard, discovered attacks and checks, promotion, and more. Further chapters cover checkmating patterns, tactics in the opening, and the often-overlooked area of defensive tactics.
Two ideas give the book its identity: “the seeds of tactical destruction,” Heisman’s framework for recognising when a position is ripe for a combination, and a closing scheme of five levels of tactical ability that lets you gauge where you stand.
Clear, encouraging, and genuinely thorough, this is a foundational tactics course for beginners and improving players — and a reminder that tactics are also simply the most fun part of the game.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Dan Heisman's Books
In this book Ivan Sokolov presents a set of practical tools that will help you to master the art of sacrifice.
This is the second half of Lars Schandorff’s acclaimed White repertoire with 1.d4, and it completes the picture. Where Volume 1 dealt with 1...d5 and the Queen’s Gambit, this book answers everything else — the whole family of Indian Defences and related systems Black uses to avoid an early ...d5.
The coverage is broad and ambitious. Schandorff gives clear recommendations against the Nimzo-Indian, the King’s Indian, the Grünfeld, the Modern Benoni, the Benko Gambit, the Old Indian, and the Dutch, plus a chapter mopping up the various minor lines, the Budapest Gambit, and Modern Defence set-ups.
As in Volume 1, the approach reflects Schandorff’s style throughout the series: choose principled, fighting lines that pose Black real problems rather than steering for a quiet technical edge, and explain the resulting middlegames clearly enough that the reader can play them with understanding.
Together the two volumes give White a complete, coherent, grandmaster-tested repertoire after 1.d4 — written by an author who plays these positions himself. This is a demanding book aimed at ambitious club players and above who want one dependable answer to everything Black can throw at 1.d4.
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