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Winning a pawn is a common occurrence in chess, but many players have no idea what to do with an extra pawn, aside from the vague notion of “exchange pieces and win the endgame”. Grandmaster Sam Shankland knows better – and after reading this book, you will too.

In this groundbreaking work, Shankland shares his three-step process for handling positions with an extra pawn, providing exercises to train the reader’s ability, along with carefully annotated examples to illustrate the key themes. Converting an Extra Pawn in Chess contains everything you need to master the skill of winning with the most common type of material advantage in chess.

How to lose small and win big in Chess

A pawn is the smallest unit of material in chess, but a well-executed pawn sacrifice can yield huge rewards. Still, many players shy away from such possibilities when they are uncertain of the consequences.

Powerhouse Pawn Sacrifices contains everything you need to master this crucial area of chess. In addition to covering dynamic and long-term sacrifices, Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov also discusses pawn sacrifices arising in specific opening variations, connecting the different phases of the game, while sharing valuable insights that will be transferable to other scenarios.

Mikhail Botvinnik is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time, in the same league as Magnus Carlsen, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov. Botvinnik was born in 1911 and died in 1995. He is known as The Patriarch, or the father of the Soviet School of Chess. He was World Chess Champion from 1948 until 1963, with two short interruptions, and later mentored other world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.

For this modern biography, the Russian grandmaster Alexander Khalifman has selected and annotated more than fifty of Botvinnik’s best games. Khalifman is an excellent guide with a deep understanding of chess and a talent for explaining games in a clear and accessible manner.

Botvinnik’s Best Games is part of a series by New In Chess that celebrates the greatest chess players of all time. Previous titles in the series include collections of games by Paul Morphy, Max Euwe, Boris Spassky, and Ding Liren.

Alexander Khalifman (1966) is a Russian grandmaster who has won numerous tournaments, including the Russian Championship and the New York Open. He was FIDE World Champion in 1999-2000 and has written more than a dozen widely acclaimed chess books.

For whom would I recommend playing the exchange variation of the French Defense?

First of all, for those players who strive for a clear and understandable game with good endgame technique. We would also like to surprise our opponent to some extent, throw him off his preparation, and dull his vigilance. With good knowledge, we can not only claim a theoretical advantage, but also exert some psychological pressure, since the opponent will lose his chances of winning. Perhaps they will become bored, and this will contribute to some kind of aggressive action on the part of our rivals; perhaps this will only lead to a weakening, which is what we are trying to provoke.

In the Caro-Kann Defense, I recommend playing 2.с4!?, the so-called English variation!

So-named because the English maestro Elijah Williams played 2.c4 for the first time in 1845. The idea of exploring this option also came about by chance. I always liked to study the opening and look for new, interesting and non-standard ideas. At some point, the old ideas became boring to me, and I wanted to look for something new. My gaze and attention was drawn to how Oleksandr Bortnyk plays against the Caro-Kann defense. I began further study after the moves: 1.е4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.exd5 Nf6. I was surprised by the move: 5.Qа4!? You could say that I immediately fell in love with this move. Later, analyzing this option with engines a lot, I decided to create a file on my computer. The analysis expanded, I found interesting and new ideas, and then I started playing them in online games and the results surprised me.

The beginning of the 20th century was a different time in chess. The World Champion was the German Emanuel Lasker, and tournaments took place in Paris, Monte Carlo, Cambridge Springs, and St. Peterburg. The key contestants were familiar names such as Pillsbury, Schlechter, Tarrasch, Marshall, Maroczy, Rubinstein, and many more.

Based on his popular blog series on Chess.com, Sam Kahn covers the first decade of the 20th century, where you get to meet all of the above characters and many more, read about the fascinating tournaments, what went on behind the scenes and see more than forty exciting games, carefully annotated by the experienced authors Cyrus Lakdawala and Carsten Hansen

Chess problems and chess composition are topics of which most chess players are aware but have little understanding.

This is, of course, no surprise to those who enjoy chess problems and other chess compositions. Their world contains different kinds of rules, names, techniques, both when composing and solving, and these are not easy to grasp unless you get a good introduction.

In this volume, Peruvian Chess Problem composer Antonio Tarnawiecki takes the reader along on his journey from a novel composer to becoming more serious and seasoned, understanding more and more facets of composition while working with some of today’s most familiar names in chess composition, winning some prizes along the way while also understanding that you only become better when working hard and being patient, and encountering a community that includes countless famous chess players that are eager to enjoy what he creates.

Former US Open Champion Timothy Taylor takes a contemporary look at one of Black's most ambitious counters to 1 e4, the Alekhine Defence. This is a sharp opening in which Black attacks from the very beginning, luring White's central pawns forward in the expectation of destroying them later on. The Alekhine is a favourite among creative players such as Nigel Short, Vassily Ivanchuk and Hikaru Nakamura.

By studying the most important games and also drawing upon his own experience in the opening, Taylor constructs a practical repertoire for Black, ideal for the modern-day player. All the key tactical and positional ideas for both players are covered, and crucial move-order nuances are highlighted. This book provides everything you need to know to play the Alekhine with confidence.

– A dynamic repertoire for Black 

– Provides answers to all of White's possibilities 

– Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players.

The Scandinavian (also known as the Centre Counter Defence) occurs when Black meets White’s 1.e4 with 1...d5, immediately countering in the centre. White invariably continues with 2.exd5 when Black can choose between two systems, both of which are covered in this book. Firstly 2...Qxd5, which regains the pawn immediately but exposes the black queen early on – a feature that complicates the play for both players. Secondly 2...Nf6, which invites White to risk attempting to hold onto the d5-pawn. If White goes down this path then a complex tactical struggle can easily develop.

First Steps is a new opening series and is ideal for improving players who want simple and straightforward explanations. First Steps emphasizes:

– the basic principles 

– the basic strategies 

– the key tricks and traps

First Steps books are based around carefully selected instructive games which demonstrate exactly what both sides are trying to achieve. There is enough theory to enable the improving player to get to grips with the opening without feeling overwhelmed. If you want to take up a new opening, First Steps is the ideal place to start.

It has rightly been said that chess is more than a game, but less than a science. It follows that it is doubtful whether chess, as a profession, is desirable for any but a genius. Curiously enough, one of the very greatest, Morphy, always was most wroth when professionalism was attributed to him, and this may have been partly the reason why he gave up chess altogether. Yet one may well ask whether the world was better off when an outstanding chess genius spent his energy on being a moderate lawyer. This problem comes to most players who are enthusiastic, and achieve a measure of success in chess, and we find a satisfactory solution in the life of R. P. Michell.

In writing the Manual of the Endgame, the author has dealt with the subject mainly from a practical point of view. It is intended for the beginner who, though having acquired a certain degree of playing strength in the opening and in the middlegame, is weak when it comes to the endgame, owing to insufficient study.

The opening and the endgame – though not the middlegame – are open to analytical treatment, and, therefore, in both of them, theoretical knowledge is indispensable. The player who lacks it in either will be severely handicapped in his practical play. Of what use is it to the amateur who, after avoiding all the pitfalls of the opening and after a well-played middlegame, has obtained a good or even winning position if he does not know how to take advantage of it in the face of his opponent’s superior handling of the endgame? He is caught again by subtleties and tricks which should be familiar to him. It is certainly annoying to be deprived at the end of a well-deserved victory, as so often happens, and for the beginner, the realization that he is helpless in the endgame is very depressing. He soon recognizes that he must study the theory of the endgame, it is true, but in trying to do so, he comes up against some unexpected difficulties.

A collection of the third world champion, Jose Raul Capablanca's 35 best games from 1901-1919.

Before José Raúl Capablanca became World Champion, he was first a prodigy, next a strong upcoming player, then a grandmaster. The present volume covers his career almost up to the point where he ascended to the World Championship match against Emanuel Lasker. This classic game collection features thirty-five of Capablanca's greatest games from that period, annotated by Capablanca himself. The new edition has been thoroughly expanded and updated to not only correct some inevitable mistakes but also to bring greater context to the analysis of the games annotated in the book. Countless discoveries have been brought to light by FIDE Master Carsten Hansen.

has been played a few times since and remains a popular opening at all levels of play. Some of the lines are incredibly theoretical, but rather than burden you with a ton of theory in lines you will have limited chance of using in your own games, the emphasis is on the lines that are more likely to occur in your games. Those lines will be in chapters 3 and 4, the two longest chapters of the book. This book is by no means an all-encompassing theory work, which means that there is a lot of theory that is not discussed in the notes. This is of course intentional. The book is written to entertain and inspire. If you find some lines that you like, you are encouraged to dive deeper into those lines before using them in your own games. As for the games, they are typically between players with a rating of at least 2350 and often well more than that; you will find games between players rated above 2700 in this book. However, I have made some exceptions when a lower rated player beats a player rated above the magical 2350 number. To show the relative strength of the players, I have included the ELO rating of the players involved in the miniatures. A few games are of older date, but are otherwise as recent as 2015.