Relive the magic of Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Karpov, Kasparov, Bobby Fischer and the others. All great champions, but so different in character and playing style. Schulz’s chronicle is an absorbing evocation of the battles they fought. He has also selected one defining game from each championship, and he explains the moves of the Champions, and the ideas behind the moves, in a way that is easily accessible for amateur players and highly instructive for beginners as well. This is a book that no true chess lover wants to miss.
Most tactics books train you to attack: your opponent’s position is loose, so find the win. This one flips the question. Award-winning instructor Dan Heisman argues that practical success starts with a humbler habit — asking, before every move, “is the move I’m considering actually safe?”
It sounds simple, but answering it reliably is not, and that gap is where countless games are lost. Heisman has assembled more than 150 carefully chosen positions — from openings, middlegames, and endgames — that show how a move can look safe and not be, or look risky yet be the soundest choice on the board. The format is multiple-choice, and the positions range from fairly easy to genuinely difficult.
The orientation is defensive in the best sense: instead of finding your own tactic, you are training to make sure your opponent won’t have one. Many of the answers are far from clear-cut and are analysed in depth, so the book doubles as serious calculation practice rather than a quick quiz.
For anyone who keeps throwing away good positions with one careless move, this is a direct, practical remedy. Suitable for a wide span of players, from lower intermediate up to strong club and master level.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Dan Heisman's Books
Invisible Chess Moves with its many unique examples, instructive explanations and illuminating tests, will teach how to discover your blind spots and see the moves which remain invisible for others. Your results at the board will improve dramatically because your brain will stop blocking winning ideas..
If you want to improve, you have to understand pawn structures — they dictate where the pieces belong, which plans make sense, and how a position should be judged. The Power of Pawns is a focused training manual aimed squarely at the post-beginner who knows the rules but has never been taught these essentials systematically.
Experienced trainer and grandmaster Jörg Hickl builds the book in two halves. The first looks at how the individual pieces — bishop, knight, and rook — relate to pawn structure and which squares suit them. The second works through the fundamental formations every player meets: hanging pawns, isolated pawns, backward pawns, passed pawns, doubled pawns, weak squares, and pawn chains.
Hickl’s method is common-sense and practical. For each structure he explains the typical characteristics, how to develop your pieces around it, how to improve your position, and how to form a concrete plan. Worked examples illustrate the ideas, and exercises let you apply them immediately.
The tone is that of a good coach rather than a reference work — clear, encouraging, and to the point. Best suited to improving players who want a dependable foundation in structure before tackling more advanced strategy.
TACTICS TRAINER AVAILABLE!
The upgraded 2024 edition of a modern classic
The best advice for chess players who want to improve quickly is: get better at tactics! Because the vast majority of amateur games is decided through tactics you will immediately start beating moreopponents when you improve your tactical skills.
Improve Your Chess Tactics presents more than 700 decisive combinations from tournament practice and is a self-tutor and a sparring-partner in one. Experienced Russian chess master Yakov Neishtadt has selected those examples that have the biggest instructional value for club players.
In the first part of the book Neishtadt teaches a systematic course on the most important tactical themes. The second part consists of an exam with hundreds of tests from real-life chess, in random order so as not to give unwelcome hints on how to solve them. The solutions are not just lists of moves, but include clear,witty and instructive prose.
Yakov Neishtadt (1923-2023) was a famous chess writed and historian. He published dozens of books, in his native Russia and abroad, and was editor-in-chief of the acclaimed Soviet chess magazine 64.
Every 1.e4 player needs a reliable answer, and few are as principled as 1...e5 — meeting White head-on, claiming the centre, and developing naturally. The challenge today is building a sound Black repertoire on these lines without drowning in theory. That is exactly what Nikolaos Ntirlis sets out to do here, in a book opened by a foreword from grandmaster Parimarjan Negi.
Against the Ruy Lopez — the most important battleground — Ntirlis recommends the Breyer System, one of the most solid and computer-resistant set-ups available to Black, where the knight retreats to b8 and redeploys to d7 behind a flexible pawn structure. The choice reflects the book’s philosophy: lines that rest on understanding and sound structures rather than memorised forcing sequences.
The rest of the repertoire is handled with the same clarity. The Scotch, the Italian and Two Knights, the full range of Four Knights systems, the Bishop’s Opening and Vienna, the Scotch and the King’s Gambit, and the various gambits and sidelines White can throw at 1...e5 are each given a clear recommendation and explanation.
This is a complete, classical Black repertoire after 1.e4 e5, built for players who want a dependable defence they can rely on for years. Best suited to intermediate and advanced players willing to learn ideas as well as moves.
The main goal in choosing lines was to reach positions with well-defined plans for both sides, then illustrate how to handle a typical middlegame in each variation through the use of well-chosen instructive games.
In blitz and rapid it is important to make the right decisions quickly and almost instinctively. That is why world-famous opening expert Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov and his son, International Master Vladimir Sveshnikov, have created a chess opening repertoire for club players that is forcing, both narrow and deep, and aggressive.
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