Contents:
Leitao – American Continental Championship (Tournament Review)
Moradiabadi & Arsovic– Fide Grand Prix Belgrade and Berlin (Tournament Review)
Gormally – Danny’s Chess Diary – 4NCL (Tournament Review)
Prusikin – Nimzowitsch Legacy (Instructive Lesson)
Foisor – The Pillsbury Attack (Instructive Lesson)
Davies – The 3...Qd6 Scandinavian – part 2 (Theoretical Survey)
Perunovic – The Alapin Sicilian (Theoretical Survey)
Szabo – The Scotch Game C45 (Theoretical Survey)
Petrov – World Championship Game Changers – part 4
Rogers – The Balaton Tournament 1983 (Roger’s Reminiscences)
Griffin – The most entertaining draw at the USSR Championships (From Informant Archives)
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, Tournament reviews, the best game from the preceding volume and the most important theoretical novelty from the preceding volume.
The periodical that pros use with pleasure is at the same time a must have publication for all serious chess students!
The Fighting Dragon showcases a variety of ways for Black to handle White’s responses. After taking in the key concepts, aspiring Dragon players can then deepen their understanding with three dozen critical test positions.
In the first full book to examine 2.b3 against the Sicilian, French and Caro-Kann, mainlines, interesting sidelines and current theory are reviewed. In addition, what actually happens in modern practice is surveyed. The authors are optimistic for White, and concentrate on the best continuations while trying to be objective. It is in that spirit that they conclude that 2.b3 is sound against the Sicilian, fun against the French, and curious against the Caro-Kann. In all three cases, the objective is to sabotage Black’s play, to take him out of his comfort zone.
The Modern Defence is an important opening that can be played by Black against absolutely any White opening system. It is an ambitious, counterattacking weapon, favoured by dynamic players. White is initially allowed to occupy the centre but Black plans to undermine this structure in the middlegame with well-timed blows from the pieces and pawns. If Black gets it right then the white centre can be dramatically swept away. However, when it goes wrong, Black can be overrun.
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.
One of the best ways to improve your results in chess is to study tactics.
In the present book, you will be challenged more than 200 times with positions taken from the author's popular Chess Life column.
Each set of puzzles contain three easy puzzles, three medium puzzles, and three difficult puzzles.
Working through the puzzles and then carefully playing through the annotated solutions will help you to improve your tactical radar as well as your calculation skills.
What Does It Take to Play Master-Level Chess?
Becoming a master is a goal many chessplayers seek. And for most, it is an unfulfilled dream. Now, for the first time, the topic is squarely addressed. Not by a super grandmaster or high-powered international master, but by a "regular" national master, a master who earned his stripes in the trenches, battling his way to the title.
In Reaching the Top?!, author Peter Kurzdorfer shares his journey to the coveted 2200 Elo mark. Using his own games, major topics covered by the author include: Learning From Past Mistakes; Choose Openings to Suit Your Style; Handling Material Inequality; Practical Endgames; How Sound Do Your Openings Need to Be?; When Things Go Terribly Wrong; Overcoming Difficulties; and How to Win.
This guide shows what it takes to play at the master level. What you need to know. What you do not need to know. It is a practical presentation that will not only help aspiring masters, but in fact any player seeking to improve his game.
So come on in and sit by the side of a chess master as he plies his craft, marveling at the wonderful, intricate combinations and positional ideas and shuddering at the opportunities that supposedly strong chess players missed time and time again. Enjoy these every-day, blue-collar battles that do not involve the cutting edge of theory or top professional combatants, but do come out of ordinary amateur chess players who have made it work for them.
However, there is one requirement: you do have to love the game and give it your best shot, every game, every move. Mix in some discipline and concentration, and you too may be able to play master-level chess.
About the Author
After a 30-year adventure spent immersed in chess beginning in the early 1970s, Mr. Kurzdorfer is back. He is a long-time national master, chess teacher, certified coach and tournament director. He is also a former contributor and later editor of Chess Life and School Mates magazines, a former judge for the Chess Journalists of America, and author of The Everything Chess Basics Book and the Tao of Chess. Though no longer active on the tournament circuit, he is involved in chess editing once again, notably with Russell Enterprises, Inc.
How should a chess player, be they amateur or professional, achieve their full potential? What’s the best way to prepare psychologically for the game, opponents, tournaments? How can they set goals at the board and achieve them? What techniques can they employ to react when the game takes an unexpected turn? How should they plan to avoid time trouble, and then handle it (or their opponent’s) if it occurs? What about maintaining concentration and controlling emotions at the board? How to use psychology when choosing a move or trying to achieve a draw? What’s the best approach to facing much stronger opponents? What should a player do if one’s opponent breaks the rules? How to bounce back from losses?
Woman Grandmaster Maria Manakova has written a detailed psychological manual on how to navigate these and other key matters for both club players and those setting out on their professional journey. This book contains a huge number of practical and actionable tips, drawn from both Maria’s personal experience and that of her professional peers among players and coaches. It provides examples from 24 games, some taken from Maria’s career and others played by the greats of the game (among them Carlsen, Kramnik, and Anand). It also contains a generous selection of photos from Maria’s life, as well as her own magnificent drawings that illustrate her advice.
Maria Manakova (born 1974) is a Serbian WGM of Russian origin with a career-high rating of 2395 who has played for Yugoslavia and Serbia in two Olympiads and three European team championships. Honors include silver medal at the European team championship (1999) representing Yugoslavia, gold medal in the European club championship (2002), Moscow women’s champion (2009) and Serbian women’s champion (2013). Maria has coached for three decades. Away from the board, she obtained a university degree in journalism and also studied theater. Maria has acted in theater plays and movies, co-hosted a talk show on Russian terrestrial TV, sung in a jazz band, and regularly performs as a singer-guitarist, including solo shows. Several documentary films have been made about Maria, the reason being, according to Boris Spassky, she is “a woman with a uniquely interesting life story”.
Here’s what Alexei Shirov had to say about the first edition of her book, published in 2023 in Russian: “While we ‘strong’ grandmasters narrow our perception of Earthly chess to one or two lines, Maria Manakova has embraced our entire galaxy in her work. This book will not leave any chess lover unmoved.”
We all have an intuitive feeling of the stress, pressure and frustration on the path to winning a World Championship in sport, but rarely will you get as unfiltered and raw an insight into the struggle to succeed as in The Mental Game.
Aleksandra Maltsevskaya won the 2018 World Junior Championship and 2022 European Rapid Championship. This book reveals the inside story of an 18-month period in which she worked with Grandmaster Alexander Galkin. A year later, Maltsevskaya became World Junior Champion. Galkin holds nothing back in revealing the highs, lows, jubilations and frustrations that were experienced in their collaboration, all while providing expert insights that will benefit chess players and coaches alike. The book contains a wealth of bonus material, including all eleven annotated games from Maltsevskaya’s World Championship victory.
International Master Maxim Chetverik has written an in-depth study of one of the most popular choices by white in the Queen's Indian Defense - the main line with 4.g3, where white fianchettoes his bishop. This line is often seen at top-level chess. This book contains 181 full games in this line and several hundred fragments with detailed and original commentary by the author focused throughout on giving a balanced evaluation in what are complicated positions.