Most opening books assume you want to become an expert. Openings for Amateurs starts somewhere else: with the mistakes that players under 1600 actually make, over and over, in the first fifteen moves of a game.
The book is in two parts. Part One — "The Primer" — is structured around 24 common opening errors, each given its own chapter. The titles are deliberately stated as mistakes: "Allowing the king to give up castling without a good reason", "Don't make unnecessary pawn moves if you have not completed your development", "Don't develop the queen too early", "Solid, passive defenses are the waiting rooms for defeat." Each chapter explains not just what the mistake is but why it keeps happening and how to avoid it. Author Pete Tamburro, a longtime chess teacher and columnist, pays particular attention to the situations players find most confusing: what to do against gambits like the Blackmar-Diemer or the Belgrade; how to handle "system" openings like the Colle and the Barry Attack; whether to chase an active bishop; how to use (and when to distrust) opening manuals.
Part Two puts principles into practice. Tamburro presents a selection of playable, learnable openings — chosen for their compatibility with the ideas in Part One rather than their theoretical complexity — and illustrates each with annotated games. The 53 games are chosen to show the opening's strategic logic, not to demonstrate the latest theory.
360 pages. Aimed at club-level and scholastic players looking for a practical foundation rather than memorised lines.
The ability to determine when conditions are suitable for attacking the opposing king is critical to successful chess play. Readers will hone this skill while learning valuable techniques to force the enemy monarch out of his fortress.
For Lluis Comas Fabrego chess is about more than just winning as many games as possible, it is a creative search for the truth. In True Lies in Chess Comas Fabrego takes on the challenging task of separating the truth from lies in chess literature. Guided by many practical examples and clear advice, the readers will learn how to reduce the complexity of chess towards the essential features of each position, and so improve their play.
While good opening preparation is important, it is often the proper middle and endgame execution that dictates the game outcome. In Techniques of Positional Play, authors Valeri Bronznik and Anatoli Terekhin focus on 45 key practical methods that every aspiring player must know. From concepts like restricting enemy pieces, creating space, navigating pawn structures, leveraging rook pawns, seizing open files, and more, these skills, while often intuitively understood, can be honed through deliberate study to enhance strategic vision.
Most of these techniques are easy to understand and memorize. Bronznik and Terekhin do not burden the reader with deep analysis and only present those variations that are necessary to get the point. Additionally, the book includes a special training section where the players can test and reinforce their skills and positional understanding.
How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World is the fairy-tale-like story of his rise.
This book consists of eleven chapters devoted to different variations of the all-purpose defence for Black 1.d4 d6.
This hefty book offers the results of S. Soloviov’s ten-year-long investigation of a nearly virgin territory of chess theory.
It is very important for the practical player to train his or her ability, understand when to rely on intuition, rules of thumb and more general positional considerations, when to try to solve problems by calculating variations to the end and how to manage time to avoid time pressure.
In 2013 chess returned to world headlines.
The energetic Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen was front page news and his fans were not disappointed: the World Number 1 won the World Championship.
Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne gives an inside view of Carlsen’s dramatic journey: from one of eight challengers in the London Candidates tournament, with the near disaster in the final rounds, ending with triumph in Chennai.
With behind-the-scenes stories and top-level analysis of the games Kotronias & Logothetis have written the ultimate book on how Carlsen became the 16th undisputed World Champion.
Vassilios Kotronias is a grandmaster and nine-time Greek Champion. He is a key member of the Greek team as both a player and coach.
Sotiris Logothetis is a computer expert and highly-regarded arbiter and organiser.
There are many ways to study and improve at chess, but some are more effective than others. GM Axel Smith, the author of Pump Up Your Rating, is a master at teaching his students how to make the most of their training. In this book, he dives into the technical and psychological aspects of chess and shows readers the best practice techniques and strategies for rapid improvement.
Smith covers many areas of chess from openings to middle and endgames, focusing on active learning acquired through ample training exercises and clear explanations.
Pump Up Your Rating is particularly great for intermediate to advanced players looking to overcome a plateau and increase their rating.
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