This remarkable book is a tribute to a man who is probably the greatest chess coach of all time. Mark Dvoretsky was a fascinating, intelligent, honest, decent, hard-working and good-natured man who dedicated his life to chess and its players.
When Dvoretsky started coaching after a fairly successful career as a player, he became a kind of doctor who could quickly spot what his students needed help with. He made them better chess players but also better people. In this book, not only his most famous students Artur Yusupov and Sergey Dolmatov explain what made Dvoretsky so special, but also former World Champions such as Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen, and many others.
In addition to a wealth of delightful and often touching stories, Chess Coach contains 39 of Dvoretsky's games, which show what a strong player he was. They have been analysed by Dvoretsky himself and by many of his former students. Several interviews and articles complete this colourful compilation. One of Dvoretsky's own most famous books was called For Friends and Colleagues – as Garry Kasparov writes in his extensive foreword, this book is a worthy reply 'From Friends and Colleagues'.
Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) was known as ‘the strongest International Master in the world’ in the mid-1970s when he decided to pursue a career as a chess trainer. His students Artur Yusupov and Sergey Dolmatov became World Championship Candidates. A meticulous chess analyst, Dvoretsky wrote many highly acclaimed books, his most famous being Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. He became so popular as a coach that dozens of world-class players repeatedly sought his advice.
Anyone who plays the Sicilian Defence as Black must be prepared to meet a whole host of options for White known as the Anti-Sicilians. These includes popular choices such as the c3-Sicilian, the Grand Prix Attack, the Closed Sicilian, the King’s Indian Attack and all Bb5 lines, as well as numerous gambits and tricky sidelines which can be very difficult to meet for the unwary player. In this book, International Master Cyrus Lakdawala examines the Anti-Sicilian lines and provides repertoire options for Black against all of them. Using illustrative games, he explains the positional and tactical ideas for both sides, highlights important move-order issues and provides answers to all the key questions. This book tells you everything you need to know about facing the Anti-Sicilians with Black.
The rivalry between William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, the world's strongest chess players in the late nineteenth century, became so fierce that it was eventually named The Ink War. They fought their battle on the chessboard and in various chess magazines and columns. It was not only about who was the strongest player but also about who had the best ideas on how to play the game.
In 1872, Johannes Zukertort moved from Berlin to London to continue his chess career. Ten years earlier, William Steinitz had moved from Vienna to London for the same purpose; meanwhile, he had become the uncrowned champion of the chess world. Their verbal war culminated in the first match for the World Championship in 1886.
Zukertort is certainly the tragic protagonist of this book, but is he also a romantic hero? He has often been depicted as a representative of romantic chess, solely focusing on attacking the king. Steinitz is said to have put an end to this lopsided chess style with his modern scientific school. This compelling story shakes up the traditional version of chess history and answers the question which of them can claim to be the captain of the modern school.
With his first book, Move First, Think Later, International Master Willy Hendriks caused a minor revolution in the general view on chess improvement. His second book, On the Origin of Good Moves, presented a refreshing new outlook on chess history. In The Ink War, Hendriks once again offers his unique perspective in a well-researched story that continues to captivate until the tragic outcome. It gives a wonderful impression of the 19th-century chess world and the birth of modern chess. Hendriks invites the reader to actively think along with the beautiful, instructive and entertaining chess fragments with many chess exercises.
The Réti is a popular opening at all levels of chess. The great advantage it possesses over other openings is that it's a thematic system which can be adopted against many different defences, and because of this it's a firm favourite amongst those who prefer the understanding of ideas over dry memorization of moves.
In this book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald examines the Réti by going back to basics, introducing the key moves and ideas, and taking care to explain the reasoning behind them - something that has often been neglected or taken for granted in other works.
The Starting Out series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming chess players. These books are ideal for enthusiasts who don't necessarily have extensive knowledge of the openings in question and who wish to appreciate the essential principles behind them.
This book is about the Nimzo-Indian Classical line 4.Qc2 (also known as the Capablanca Variation) and the 4.Bd2-line, for which basically I could not find an established name.
As far as I know, the 4.Bd2 line has never been covered in such a comprehensive way in any book before. In the text I suggest that this line should have the combined name of Tartakower-Duchamp line because Saviellly Tartakower played it often, while to my surprise Marcel Duchamp (who was also a famous French artist) played it too in the 1930s and indeed in a very good positional fashion against strong players. Some of those games are in the book.
Now this line enjoys greater popularity than ever before. About the Classical line with 4.Qc2 there is nothing much to add, except for the fact that it has become hugely popular, but unfortunately from my point of view it involves too much engine-style chess.
This book is the sequel of the successful puzzle-book series from GM Ivan Ivanisevic. Known as a great tactical player Ivan Ivanisevic select the 548 puzzles All the puzzles have been collected from practical games (OTB, Blitz, Oline). There are more than 500 examples from GM practice. Puzzles are divided into 5 levels of difficulty. In this book, you can find a lot of tactical motifs and ideas which you can use in your games. Maybe you will find your games in our next book! Have fun and enjoy solving puzzles.
Joel Benjamin is one of the most prominent faces in the history of US chess. At thirteen years of age he broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever national master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. Perhaps most famously, in 1997 he hit the headlines when he became the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter.
In American Grandmaster, Benjamin takes the reader on a journey through chess adventures spanning more than thirty years. Tracing through his own career, from being a prodigy in the 'Fischer boom' era thorough to an experienced Grandmaster with many titles, Benjamin is in a unique position to highlight the major changes that have occurred both in US and international chess throughout the last four decades.
The final, and eagerly awaited, volume of the series will complete the opening repertoire for White according to Wojo.
Marshall’s Brilliant Victory
In the spring of 1904, most of the chess world’s elite gathered in the sleepy northwestern Pennsylvania town of Cambridge Springs, where the first great tournament of the twentieth century was to take place. World Champion Emanuel Lasker topped the field. The champions of America (Harry Pillsbury), Russia (Mikhail Chigorin), France (David Janowski) and the Austria-Hungarian Empire (Carl Schlechter) were also playing.
Among the other players in this historic fifteen-round-robin event was a young master from Brooklyn, Frank Marshall. He had some international experience, including defeating World Champion Lasker in their individual encounter at Paris in 1900. However, he certainly was not considered among the favorites at the time. Nevertheless, Marshall finished in first place, two full points ahead of the rest of the field, the only undefeated player.
The story of this great tournament is superbly told by author Robert Sherwood. Each game is deeply annotated, while contemporary sources and rare archival photos nicely supplement the round-by-round account.
With this victory, Frank Marshall took his place among the world-class players of his era. You are invited to join Marshall on his journey in this splendid account of his magnificent triumph in the first major international tournament of the twentieth century.