First published in Russian in 2004 and now available in English for the first time, The Lubyanka Gambit is a classic work investigating the darkest side of chess history in the Soviet Union. It is the culmination of nearly two decades of research by Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, historian and human rights campaigner Sergei Grodzensky, whose own father was sent to the Gulag in Stalin’s times. It describes the careers and life stories, based on archival documents and witness testimony, of Soviet chess composers, players and famous amateurs who were repressed by the Soviet authorities, ending up either executed or sent to the Gulag. Featured names include Lazar Zalkind, Arvid Kubbel, Vladimirs Petrovs, Petr Izmailov, Georgy Schneideman, Nikolai Krylenko and Natan Sharansky, among many others. The theoretical contribution to the history of composition is one key theme in this work.
The Lubyanka Gambit also looks in detail at the historical context of the purges of chess players and describes how chess was played by prisoners in the Gulags and internal exile. Perhaps the icing on the cake is provided by Grodzensky’s personal memories of the Soviet Union’s foremost Gulag writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn (his schoolteacher) and Varlam Shalamov (his father’s close friend). This book contains 72 full games and fragments analyzed by the participants, contemporaries, the author and other leading players, as well as 145 computer-checked compositions.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 145th ADVENTURE
HARVEST
CONTENTS:
WOJTASZEK WINS BIEL TRIATHLON GM Ian Rogers & IM László Hazai
LEGENDS PLAYING THE RAGOZIN GM Elshan Moradiabadi
LEGENDARY TECHNIQUE IN THE LEGENDS OF CHESS WGM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
THE CROATIAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2020 GM Saša Martinović
THE STRENGTH OF MOBILE PAWN CENTRE GM Mihail Marin
THRILL ON THE EDGE OF THE CHESSBOARD GM Šarunas Šulskis
THE ENGLISH REPERTOIRE FOR WHITE GM Ivan Ivanišević
AN INTERESTING NEW IDEA IN THE RUBINSTEIN GM Francesco Rambaldi
WHAT IS NEW UNDER THE RICHTER–RAUZER SUN? GM Milos Perunović
SACRIFICING THE QUEEN GM Kannappan Priyadharshan
POSITIONAL QUEEN SACRIFICE GM Michael Prusikin
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – BATH 1983 GM Ian Rogers
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, endgame blunders, 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!
Many gambit lines, where one or more pawns are sacrificed for the initiative, have to be taken seriously, but Ivan has succeeded in finding many new ideas and theoretical improvements. The result is the neutralisation or refutation of most of these common and well known 'Gambits'.
Magnus Carlsen is arguably the strongest player of all time. His dominance is such that every loss comes as a shock. They remind us that even he has his weak moments. In fact, identifying the root causes of his losses holds valuable lessons for all players. Cyrus Lakdawala’s search starts with a series of Magnus wins and draws to give the reader a feel for how incredibly difficult it is to beat him. The World Champion’s arsenal is awesome: a superlative ability to calculate, near-perfect intuition, probably the best endgame technique ever, a wide and creative opening repertoire, a willingness to unbalance the position almost anytime, and last but not least: his unparalleled will to win. How to Beat Magnus Carlsen has a thematic structure, which, together with Lakdawala’s uniquely accessible style, makes its lessons easy to digest. Sometimes even Magnus gets outplayed, sometimes he over-presses and goes over the cliff’s edge, and sometimes he fails to find the correct plan. And yes, even Magnus Carlsen commits straightforward blunders. Lakdawala explains the how and the why. It’s wonderful to have a World Champion who is not just incredibly strong, but who is also happy to experiment and take risks. That’s what makes Magnus Carlsen such a fascinating chess player. And that’s why he is the hero of this book. There is no doubt that Carlsen has examined all his losses under a microscope. If he benefits from this process, then so will we.
Woman International Master and experienced children’s coach Anastasiya Geller has written a textbook for beginners teaching them the very basics of attacking the enemy king. The reader will learn how to find a simple check and fully master one of the most important tactical elements in chess – checkmate in 1 move! The reader also learns how to choose the best defense against a check.
The book contains 2000 exercises, most of which are checkmates in 1 move – from the simplest mates with one piece to mating using several tactical techniques at once. The first part of the book introduces the concept of check and shows the reader how to recognize a safe check, before teaching discovered check. The second part gradually introduces different types of mate in a logical sequence by the different pieces, beginning with the rook and then progressing to the bishop, queen and knight. The third part of the book explains how to checkmate in one move using key techniques: checkmate with capturing, checkmate with a pawn promotion, checkmate with protection (including checkmate with a pawn), checkmate with pinning, checkmate with a discovered check, and checkmate with a double check.
Most of the positions to be solved have been selected from actual games of the strongest grandmasters of the present and the great masters of the past. For beginner chess players, their parents and coaches.
Fundamentos del ajedrez, Lecciones elementales de ajedrez.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 154th ADVENTURE
ECLIPSE
Leitao – Opening Trends in South American Chess
Moradiabadi – European Club Cup (Tournament Review)
Navara – European Club Cup – Novy Bor
Shyam Sundar – This or That? – Part 2
Gormally – 4NCL and Crypto Blitz (Tournament Review)
Marin – Benoni Files (Old Wine in New Bottles)
Kotronias – King’s Indian – Fianchetto Variation (Survey)
Perelshteyn – Dzindzi-Indian (Theoretical Survey)
Davies – The 3…g6 Ruy Lopez – Part 2 (Theoretical Survey)
Perunovic – Catalan (Theoretical Survey)
Rogers – Toluca 1982 Interzonal (Roger’s Reminiscences)
Griffin – Karpov – Timman 1981 (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.