The possession of the bishop pair (vs. bishop & knight, or knight pair) is an important strategic element that may guarantee superiority and even determine the outcome of the game. In modern chess, the bishop pair has been established as a positional advantage in the majority of cases, and it’s very common nowadays to hear teachers tell their students ‘keep your bishops’ or ‘capture that bishop’.
In today’s chess, the importance given to this element has increased to the point that in some of the most popular opening variations, the main goal has become to gain the bishop pair. That is because the bishop pair can be a powerful advantage in any phase of the game. For example, it’s a lethal weapon in an attack against the king. It can also be very efficient in attacking weaknesses: one bishop can put pressure on the target, while the other attacks the defending piece. However, it is the endgame where it is particularly strong.
Do you like setting your opponent problems from the very first move?
Are you happy to roll the dice and take some risks?
Then enter the intriguing world of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit!
The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit is a dangerous attacking opening which has amassed a cult following - a loyal band of supporters like no other in chess. White sacrifices a pawn in return for a strong initiative which tests Black's defensive capabilities to the limit. Some experts have questioned its objective soundness but there's no doubting its effectiveness over the board, where pressure and a ticking clock often mean it's impossible to find the right defence.
In this book, Christoph Scheerer takes a modern-day look at the gambit. He examines in detail the most promising lines for White and the most resilient defences for Black, discusses the key ideas for both sides and highlights the many traps awaiting the unsuspecting player.
The Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5) contains countless variations and sub-variations that have been discussed in detail at all levels of play for many years. Even "small" specialized systems have been covered in exhaustive detail in book after book. That is why this book is unique, The Carlsen Variation, which arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4, has never previously been covered in detail before. The variation was uncorked by World Champion Magnus Carlsen in 2018 and has since been played by several other top grandmasters such as Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and several others. Yet despite this attention, the theory of the variation is largely unexplored and this book aims to set this discrepancy straight. Main lines are established and carefully analyzed with hundreds of new ideas and improvements suggested along the way. For the reader, this book is an excellent resource to get the opponent out of their opponent's "book" into our book. Time to have some fun in the Sicilian - enjoy!
The Caro-Kann Defense has always been one of my favorite openings to play and was the very first opening I learned when I started playing chess. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov espoused this opening throughout his career and, with his solid and positional style, inspired me to play the Caro-Kann as well. Many games have been played, and theory has evolved since the days of Karpov’s Caro-Kann. As you will see in this book, this opening offers Black many opportunities for dynamic play, despite its solid framework. My hope is that readers of all levels will find something of value to them in this book. The material contains many new ideas and the analysis often stretch quite far from the opening stages. Nevertheless, I have done my best to help the reader make sense of the complicated variations and of the positional nuances inextricably woven between them. The idea is not only to show you the moves, but also to help you develop both your understanding of the underlying plans and your familiarity with broader strategic concepts, to guide your decision-making even beyond the opening.
The new series of middlegame books by Adrian Mikhalchishin and Georg Mohr starts with a volume about the center.
No other chess tournament has such a long and rich history as the annual gathering 'in between the years' at the English seaside resort of Hastings. Countless chess players, professionals, and amateurs alike have celebrated Christmas and welcomed the New Year in Hastings while battling it out on the chessboard.
German FM Jürgen Brustkern has been making the annual pilgrimage to Hasting ever since 1977. Together with his compatriot Norbert Wallet, he describes the tournament's fascinating history and portrays forty of the most colourful participants.
The stories begin in 1895 when the young American Harry Pillsbury shocked the European chess elite with his victory, and they span 125 years. In this book, you will meet the strongest female players of all time, Vera Menchik, Nona Gaprindashvili, and Judit Polgar. You will get to know the mysterious Sultan Khan and the unorthodox Michael Basman and enjoy anecdotes about Mikhail Tal, Viktor Kortchnoi, and his rival Anatoly Karpov. How many World Champions came to Hastings? How expensive was the Golden Knight trophy that Lajos Portisch won? What was the effect of the British Chess Explosion?
This collection of games and stories is enjoyed best in the dark days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, after a stroll on the beach, immersed in the spirit of Hastings. 'Should I trade my Romantic style for the modern way and only hunt for points?', Nicolas Rossolimo is quoted as asking himself. 'No, I won't. I will fight for chess as an art form.'
What’s the most effective book for your level or the most effective course to get?
As a Grandmaster and chess coach, who left his cozy life and started a company with a mission to help chess lovers to unlock their full potential, I’m very happy that in the chess world there are people like Vishnu and that you picked his book.
Vishnu isn’t an ordinary person; his methods of improvement aren’t ordinary and neither is he as a coach. When he won the Chicago Open, being the 60th out of 116 in the starting list, many people were surprised. But they wouldn’t be if they saw how smart and interesting his system of chess improvement is. Vishnu proved that his methods work and how important pattern recognition is. And exactly that’s what he teaches in this book!
When I saw the draft of it I was blown away by the hard work he had done, the quality of the research, and how carefully he was picking up the examples. I want to congratulate you on having this book in your hands. You avoided traps, you found a man who has walked the talk and has spent years learning and preparing for you a material that you can digest in a short period of time. And if your rating is somewhere between 1000-2000, this book will be one of the best books for you!
The idea behind this book is for you to ‘play’ as in a real game, and it is my job to ensure you have a pleasant time while training. I suggest you take at least an hour and a half for each game and as your coach I will indicate when to guess the moves. Sometimes there will be suggestions — including tricky ones — to measure your concentration level. Th e ideas behind the moves are always explained.
Points are awarded for the ‘right answers’ as well as for some other moves, and at the end there is a general assessment plus a review of some of the things to be learned from the game. During my coaching period I was able to witness how motivating it is for kids to receive points for the right answers, their ‘lives are at stake’ when they try to find the answers, and it is a challenge much appreciated by them. Later I also noticed a similar effect with adults although, unlike the kids, the older students try to hide it.
The final score is not that important; it is not scientifically based. But of course the more points you get the better you ‘would have played’. The effort you put into trying to find the best move every time is what matters most. I firmly believe it really helps to learn a little more about playing chess with every game.
In this book, the authors aim to assist the reader in becoming better at finding combinations and creative solutions, constructing plans, and calculating long, forcing variations. For the purpose of instruction, the material is based on the creative output of the Austrian International Master in Chess Composition Alois Wotawa (1896-1970), using his endgame compositions from various works and publications.
This is not a book for lower-rated players and newcomers to chess as the material is seriously complex and challenging. But ambitious players will find an incredible source of interesting material that is carefully annotated.