Many club players think that studying chess is all about cramming as much information in their brain as they can. Most textbooks support that notion by stressing the importance of always trying to find the objectively best move. As a result amateur players are spending way too much time worrying about subtleties that are really only relevant for grandmasters. Emanuel Lasker, the second and longest reigning World Chess Champion (27 years!), understood that what a club player needs most of all is common sense: understanding a set of timeless principles. Amateurs shouldn’t waste energy on rote learning but just strive for a good grasp of the basic essentials of attack and defence, tactics, positional play and endgame play endgame play. Chess instruction needs to be efficient because of the limited amount of time that amateur players have available. Superfluous knowledge is often a pitfall. Lasker himself, for that matter, also studied chess considerably less than his contemporary rivals. Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins have created a complete but compact manual based on Lasker’s general approach to chess. It enables the average amateur player to adopt trustworthy openings, reach a sound middlegame and have a basic grasp of endgame technique. Welling and Giddins explain the principles with very carefully selected examples from players of varying levels, some of them from Lasker’s own games. The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess is an efficient toolkit as well as an entertaining guide. After working with it, players will dramatically boost their skills – without carrying the excess baggage that many of their opponents will be struggling with.
Oscar de Prado has revisted the London Chess Opening, after the enourmous success of The Agile London System, the book he co-authored in 2016. His new book has a more practical approach. De Prado avoids long and complicated variations and concentrates on explaining straightforward plans, clear-cut strategies and standard manoeuvres.
Twenty years ago, New In Chess magazine started its own Proust Questionnaire, entitled Just Checking. In this back page column, chess players and personalities named their favourites, preferences, moods, life mottos and whatnot. One of the questions has always been: What was the most exciting chess game you ever saw?
Chess greats such as Anand, Shirov and Ivanchuk (and probably any other top player you can think of), authors and commentators such as Jeremy Silman, Jennifer Shahade, and Tania Sachdev nominated memorable games. This anthology presents the 45 most exciting of these most exciting games.
Besides inevitable ‘usual suspects’ like Kasparov-Topalov (Wijk aan Zee 1999) or the ‘Immortal’ Anderssen-Kieseritzky (London 1851), you’ll be treated to a wide variety of lesser-known gems. You’ll see Ding Liren revelling in an all-out attack, Ivan Saric juggling a knight and five pawns versus two rooks, and Sergei Radchenko chasing the white king all over the board.
Every game is a showcase of the richness and resourcefulness of chess.
Steve Giddins edited this selection, a job he immensely enjoyed: ‘I hope that every reader will find games here which bring a smile to their face and a lift to their heart’.
The study of well-annotated master games is the best way to improve. Acclaimed chess author Steve Giddins has assembled the most didactic examples from New In Chess. There are masterclasses by dozens of chess legends and no fewer than eight World Champions. Together they provide the high standard of instructional material that today’s club player needs.
The Pirc Defence and the Modern Defence are two naturally entwined chess openings that are both flexible and rich in strategic and tactical ideas. They feature in the repertoire of great players like Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Nakamura and Carlsen.
In The Perfect Pirc-Modern, Viktor Moskalenko, a renowned propagator of dynamic chess who has championed the Pirc-Modern for many years, explains:
- the ideas and plans that matter
- the various pawn structures and how to handle them
- tricky transpositions: opportunities and risks
- a wealth of new resources for both Black and White.
In this updated version of Moskalenko’s 2013 book of the same name, 33 of the 42 games are new, the structure has been updated in places, and there are fresh ideas on every page.
Moskalenko expertly guides you through this ground-breaking opening book with the enthusiasm, ease and humour that characterize his style.
Viktor Moskalenko (1960) is an International Grandmaster and a well-known chess coach. The former Ukraine champion has won many tournaments in Spain, his current home country. For New In Chess, he wrote, among others, The Fabulous Budapest Gambit (2007), Revolutionize Your Chess (2009), The Diamond Dutch (2014), Training with Moska (2017), The Fully-Fledged French (2021) and Trompowsky Attack & London System (2022).
Understanding the pawn structure is a key tool when you are evaluating a position on the board. Post-beginners should know the basic essentials of chess structures and that is what this modern training manual focuses on.
The Catalan is a solid chess opening system which is popular with both masters and amateurs all over the world. It is a flexible opening and can be reached by different move orders. In this book top Grandmaster Victor Bologan presents a complete repertoire for White
The Rossolimo is the Anti-Sicilian that is by far the most popular with club players – and with elite grandmasters such as Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, and Alireza Firouzja.
If you play 3.Bb5 in the Sicilian, you do not need to keep up-to-date with the dazzling theoretical developments in all kinds of Open Sicilians. You can sidestep theory, play your own creative game – and put your opponent in trouble! You will love the harmonious, easy development and reach unbalanced positions with winning opportunities and surprisingly dynamic play.
Victor Bologan has played the Rossolimo ever since his youth – in practical play, but also in training sessions with Garry Kasparov. Bologan has now updated and expanded his authoritative 2011 repertoire book. As a former top-20 player, Bologan is one of the few Grandmasters whose opening books are read by both his peers and by club players. His ideas are always thoroughly analyzed and checked by the strongest engines, but still very accessible to amateurs.
Club players all over the world who wish to improve their game have now access to Shereshevsky’s famous training program in one volume and can learn how to build an opening repertoire, how to work with the chess classics to maximum benefit, how to master the most important endgame principles and how to effectively and efficiently calculate variations.