Beauty in chess manifests itself in different ways!
For chess players who are not sophisticated enough, one of the leading aesthetic criteria is probably the value of the offered piece. An experienced player will primarily value the originality and purity of the idea. It happens that a key to a position is a seemingly discreet move. Situations like these have always impressed me the most.
Firstly, by their mystery: why does one of several apparently equivalent moves turn out to be much stronger than the others? Secondly, a modest move can radically change a well-established position assessment and even change the outcome of the game straight away. Where did the idea for this kind of work come from?
There are two reasons.
Firstly, while browsing chess literature, I have not found a publication focusing on quiet moves, as most often, only three to eight examples are given. Secondly, we have always felt sorry for a person who cannot see beauty, for example of mountains (as these are just rocks) or architecture (as the Eiffel Tower is just iron), etc. The same applies to a large group of chess players, who value only the size of the piece they offered or the victory. However, one can lose a game and feel satisfaction because, for example, they found a stunning quiet move in their game.
This series provides an ideal platform to study chess openings. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of opening knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to study any chess opening and at the same time improve your general chess skills and knowledge.
The Old Indian has a well-deserved reputation as a sound defence to 1 d4. Black employs an easy-to-learn system of development, seizes a firm foothold in the centre and aims to create counterplay from a solid platform. In this book, Old Indian expert Junior Tay invites you to join him in studying the opening and its many variations. Using illustrative games, Tay highlights the tactical and positional ideas for both sides, provides repertoire options for Black and offers answers all the key questions. This book will tell you everything you need to know about playing the Old Indian Defence.
– Essential guidance and training in the Old Indian
– Offers repertoire options for Black
– Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study
Available via subscription
British Chess Magazine (April 2025)
Irving Chernev's outstanding chess books earn him a high rank among the world's top chess authors. In this well-annotated text, Mr. Chernev guides his readers to an understanding of the subtleties of combinative play.
Step-by-step from the simplest combinations to the most complex, the book explains the intricacies of pins and counter-pins, Knight forks, smothered mates, and other elements of combination play. There is a discussion in chapter five of combinations lurking in roads not taken — alternate lines of play show up in Chernev's notes to the game, while the sixth chapter, "Convincing the Kibitzers," shows the second-guessers what would have happened had the masters done the obvious. (Some disastrous combinations show up here.) A host of boomerangs follow — cases where the player didn't look far enough ahead and his combination, instead of bringing about the opponent's ruin, paved the way to his defeat. Chapters 8–21 take up combinations used by such great players as Tarrasch, Botvinnik, Nimzovich, Steinitz, Rubinstein, and Pillsbury; the sacrificial combinations of Anderssen and Spielmann; the dazzling brilliancies of Morphy, Keres, and Alekhine; the deadly attacks of Marshall; the almost unfathomable ideas of Lasker; and the matchless creations of Capablanca. Mr. Chernev's thoughtful annotations unravel the secrets of each of these plans. A diagram accompanies each combination; an index, by player, leads the reader to the combination he is looking for.
This is a theoretical book about a chess variation that (it could not be otherwise) I will call the Del Rio Variation. It is one of the most fascinating openings that can be played today, leading almost immediately to highly dynamic and complex positions. Additionally, it can be set up quite easily. For example, after 1.d4 Nf6 (1...d5 is another possible move order to reach the same position) 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 (from 1.d4 all of White’s moves are the most popular). Then 4...dxc4, establishing the Vienna Variation. Here, White can only fight for an advantage with 5.e4.
Until a few years ago, the main lines continued with 5...Bb4 6.Bg5 c5, or the dangerous gambit 6.Bc4!? Nxe4 7.0-0. All of these led to a well-researched ocean of variations where Black had to struggle to maintain equality and generally had few practical chances to win the game. The scenario changes dramatically with 5...b5!? as Black now sets up a complicated, unbalanced game that is also less studied than the other continuations. This partly explains the excellent results that Black has been achieving in practice. It is no surprise that this move has attracted the interest of today's top players, some of whom have adopted it frequently.
This book is especially focused on Black's perspective and aims to provide you with all the necessary material to successfully employ this variation. You will find theory, exemplary games, deep analyses, conceptual explanations, and many novel ideas that have yet to see the light of day in practice.
The London System, reached after 1.d4 and 2.Bf4, has grown from a quiet sideline into a main-road opening played at every level up to the World Championship. In Chess Opening Repertoire: The London System, Cyrus Lakdawala presents a complete White repertoire built on the pure 2.Bf4 move order (covering every major Black setup, from the Classical ...d5 and ...e6 structures to the King's Indian, Grünfeld, Benoni and Dutch), with a question-and-answer format that tests the reader's understanding throughout.
What's Covered?
About the Author:
Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master, a former National Open and American Open Champion, and a six-time State Champion. He has taught chess for over 40 years, coaches top US juniors, and is one of the most prolific chess authors of his generation.
One of the sharpest lines to meet 1 d4 is the Modern Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6). The hallmark of this opening is that Black makes the positional concession of allowing White a central majority and in return hopes for counterchances via active piece play. However, there are many other weird and wonderful ways to handle these "Benoni structures" as the very experienced chess coach and author Andrew Martin demonstrates in this highly engaging book.
Martin introduces the reader to (amongst others) the Vulture (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 Ne4), the Clarendon Court (1 d4 c5 2 d5 f5) and the Snake Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 Bd6!?). All of these are outlandish tries but nevertheless set White difficult problems to solve at the board.
In other systems Black plays "Nimzo-style" and jettisons the dark-squared bishop in order to inflict weaknesses on the white pawn structure. One typical line is 1 d4 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 Nc3 c5 4 d5 and now 4 ... Bxc3+!? 5 bxc3. This is a line favoured by elite grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura who has used it frequently in blitz and rapid chess. An advantage of playing this way is that it will usually take well booked up White players outside their comfort zone and force them onto their own resources.
If you want to inject a big dose of dynamism into your play with Black, the create some mayhem in the Benoni.
Material imbalances are a fundamental part of almost every chess game, yet have not received much attention in chess literature. In this illuminating book, GM Mauricio Flores Rios breaks down this universal topic into categories such as bishop vs knight, opposite-coloured bishops, possessing and playing against the bishop pair, and various scenarios with a queen or rook being traded for a number of pieces.
With meticulously chosen examples, insightful commentary and exercises to test your newfound understanding of all types of material imbalance, Chess Imbalances is an essential tool for chess improvement.
Dana Mackenzie celebrates the joy of chess - the ordinary, everyday chess we amateurs play. For this book, he has selected forty of his favorite posts from his award-winning chess blog, including a diverse mix of stories, philosophical musings, chess improvement tips, and game analysis.
In each story, the fun leaps off the page. We attend club nights, team tournaments, and state championships. We are on the road and at the board. We enjoy the company of famous and not-so-famous chess personalities. You will read about the Hook and Ladder Trick and Dana’s personal favorite opening, the Bryntse Gambit, presented here with analysis found nowhere else.
A special chapter is devoted to Mike Splane’s invitation-only chess parties, a monthly ‘meeting of the minds’ for masters and aspiring masters in the San Francisco Bay Area. There was no resting on one’s laurels in this crowd. No matter how well you thought you played, you could expect some tough questions and spirited disagreements.The book continues in the spirit of the blog, preserving a dialogue between author and reader that is rarely found in other chess books, or any books for that matter.
Dana Mackenzie is a Ph.D. mathematician who went rogue and became a full-time freelance writer, specializing in popular science and mathematics. As a chess player, he was North Carolina State Champion in 1985 and 1987, is a USCF National Master and Life Master, and for several years was a popular lecturer on a chess instruction website, chesslecture.com. As a professional science writer, he wrote The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be and co-authored The Book of Why, which was named one of the top science books of 2018 by National Public Radio’s Science Friday program.
This book presents forty selected posts (many newly edited and revised) from his blog, which was named ‘Best Chess Blog of 2021’ by the Chess Journalists of America.
“Chess is the art of analysis” - 6th World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik
Game analysis is almost universally recommended by chess coaches worldwide, but when it comes to analyzing one’s own games, many chess players don’t know where to start or what a good annotation even looks like. Others often neglect the task, not wanting to face their mistakes post-mortem.
Aimed at players of all levels, How To Analyze Your Games is a guide to reviewing and annotating one’s chess games, an absolutely crucial task for the development of any ambitious chess player.
The book contains a collection of model game examples from players of every level, along with a straightforward guide to doing your own game analysis. The idea is to provide real examples of what good annotations look like, hopefully bringing inspiration and motivation for readers to begin to do the work themselves.
Featuring students of the Dojo Training Program with ratings ranging from 0-2400, the book is broken up into four parts (0-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2000, 2000+), with every chapter consisting of five model annotated games of players within a 100-point rating cohort (1100-1200, 1600-1700, etc.) starting from 0-300 and going all the way up to 2400-2500.
The book also contains three instructional chapters, written by Dojo senseis GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, and IM Kostya Kavutskiy:
– How to Analyze Your Games by GM Jesse Kraai: GM Jesse Kraai explains the process of reflecting on and analyzing one’s games.
– David’s Advice For A Reluctant Analyst by IM David Pruess: Advice for newer players or those who have never analyzed their games before, and are intimidated by the prospect.
– Using Engines by IM Kostya Kavutskiy: A technical breakdown on how to most effectively use computers and chess engines for game analysis.
If you’re a chess player looking to get serious about your game, learning to analyze your games is an absolute must!
The Accelerated Dragon (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6) has attracted the attention of many creative players. In the past these included Tigran Petrosian and Bent Larsen while modern aficionados include the dominant player of the era, Magnus Carlsen, as well as Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and many others.
The opening is characterised by the swift fianchetto of the dark-squared bishop on g7. It is a close relative of the "normal" Dragon (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6) but with one crucial difference - Black delays committing the d-pawn to d6, a decision which complicates the play. If White does not respond accurately, Black will often gain the opportunity to play ...d7-d5 in one go. This can mimic the effect of a bomb going off as the white position is laid to waste.
The traditional reason why the accelerated version of the Dragon is viewed with a little suspicion is that with 5 c4 White can set up the Maroczy Bind - a potentially powerful clamp on Black's game. However, there are good ways to fight against this plan and they are examined in detail.
– A strong aggressive line where "natural" moves can be disastrous for White.
– A complete repertoire for Black against 1 e4.
– The question and answer method continually tests the reader's understanding.
Nigel Davies is an International Grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer. He is the author of numerous books and DVDs on the game and is known for the clarity of his explanations. Davies was part of the victorious England over-50 side at the recent European Senior Team Chess Championships, winning team gold, as well as an individual silver medal for his performance on board four.
The Carlsbad Pawn Structure is one of the most important and instructive pawn structures in chess. It commonly arises from the Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange Slav, and other 1.d4 openings, offering a wealth of strategic ideas for both sides. This structure has been studied extensively by many world champions, including Capablanca, Karpov, and Petrosian, due to its rich positional themes.
This textbook is a must-study for any serious chess player. It provides a deep understanding of long-term plans and strategic maneuvering. If you want to improve your positional play, mastering this structure will give you a huge edge in tournament games.
* Final Rating: 9/10 - A timeless and instructive pawn structure that belongs in every player's repertoire.
In the epic book French GM Christian Bauer will be your truthful chess guide!
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