The Fianchetto Solution
When experienced teacher Emmanuel Neiman found that some of his pupils were avoiding tournaments for fear of being crushed in the opening, he set out to build the most practical repertoire he could: complete, solid, easy to learn, slow to date — and usable with both colours. Teaming up with grandmaster Samy Shoker, he settled on the King’s Fianchetto.
The appeal of the idea is its economy. Whether you are White or Black, you fianchetto the king’s bishop and play with the same handful of structures and plans — the bishop serving as both a defender of your own king and a long-range attacker. Learn the ideas once and you can apply them from either side of the board, which dramatically cuts the amount you must study.
For Black the book gives the Modern Defence against 1.e4 and fianchetto set-ups against 1.d4; for White it offers reversed King’s-Indian and Pirc structures and clear answers to the Dutch and to ...d5 systems. Throughout, the emphasis is on understanding typical fianchetto structures, activating the bishop, and attacking and defending these positions, with exercises to reinforce each idea.
Ideal for busy amateurs who want one coherent, low-maintenance system for their whole repertoire rather than separate theory for every opening.
London is a universal system, valid against almost any black response and one of the safest for White. It is very popular with club players who want to avoid the more theoretical lines, but it is also played regularly by strong grandmasters
In this memoir Walter Browne recounts his formative years, how he befriended and played Bobby Fischer in New York City, how he traveled the world and made his name. He annotates his best games from over four decades, great attacking games full of sacrifices and fireworks, in a clear style that is accessible for amateur players.
In this sequel to his Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition, Arthur van de Oudeweetering presents players of almost every level with a fresh supply of essential, yet easy-to-remember building blocks for their chess knowledge.”
Grandmaster Chess Strategy
One of the most effective ways to improve is to adopt a great player as your model — to study their games until their judgement starts to rub off on you. Jürgen Kaufeld and Guido Kern have done exactly that with Ulf Andersson, the Swedish positional genius whose crystal-clear style carried him to number four in the world.
The authors selected 80 of Andersson’s finest games and grouped them into 15 thematic strategy lessons, each pinpointing the specific technique that decided the game — the slow accumulation of small advantages, the exchange of the right pieces, the domination of a key square or file, the conversion of a microscopic edge into a winning endgame. Andersson’s games are the ideal teaching material precisely because the wins look effortless: there is rarely a flashy tactic to distract from the underlying positional logic.
The verbal explanations are detailed and accessible, aimed squarely at the amateur who wants to acquire genuine positional technique rather than admire it from afar.
A rewarding course in strategy for club players and above who want to learn the quiet art of outplaying opponents — from one of its supreme practitioners, clearly explained.
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.
After the immense success of his award-winning classic Chess Strategy for Club Players Herman Grooten has now written an equally accessible primer on attacking chess. He teaches how to spot opportunities, exploit weaknesses, bring your forces to the front line and strike at the right moment.
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.
Relive the magic of Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Karpov, Kasparov, Bobby Fischer and the others. All great champions, but so different in character and playing style. Schulz’s chronicle is an absorbing evocation of the battles they fought. He has also selected one defining game from each championship, and he explains the moves of the Champions, and the ideas behind the moves, in a way that is easily accessible for amateur players and highly instructive for beginners as well. This is a book that no true chess lover wants to miss.
Invisible Chess Moves with its many unique examples, instructive explanations and illuminating tests, will teach how to discover your blind spots and see the moves which remain invisible for others. Your results at the board will improve dramatically because your brain will stop blocking winning ideas..
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