Opening preparation is essential, but for aspiring players understanding the middlegame is even more important.

The test positions in this instructive book cover the entire spectrum of what a modern club player should know. The reader is invited to find tactical blows, deep strategic manoeuvres, opening traps, standard endgame plans and other principles in action. The solutions rarely involve spectacular fireworks, as is the case in most chess puzzle books. Instead, you may be asked to find a quiet move or a reasoned evaluation. Solving the puzzles in this unusual and entertaining book is a most effective way to improve your chess. It will help you to develop a vital skill: the ability to take practical decision in critical moments.

De la Villa started collecting training material and selected those exercises best suited to retain and improve your knowledge and avoid common errors. In this book the Spanish grandmaster presents hundreds of exercises grouped according to the various chapters in 100 Endgames. Solving these puzzles will drive home the most important ideas, refresh your knowledge and improve your technique. This book contains a massive amount of clear, concise and easy-to-follow chess endgame instruction. The advice De la Villa gives in the solutions is practical and useful. Ideal for every post-beginner, club player and candidate master who wishes to win more games.

London is a universal system, valid against almost any black response and one of the safest for White. It is very popular with club players who want to avoid the more theoretical lines, but it is also played regularly by strong grandmasters

The Tarrasch Defence is one of the most ambitious ways to play against 1.d4. Black immediately fights for the centre, gets a lot of space and develops his pieces without many problems. Former Russian Champion Alexey Bezgodov has more than 30 years of experience with the Tarrasch and is one of the world’s greatest experts. The Art of the Tarrasch Defence is a deeply researched journey into the positional structures, the key moments in the fight for the initiative, the players and the variations.

International Master Luis Bernal has unraveled the Berlin and made it accessible for amateur players. His practical guide is fully up to date, explains typical formations and strategies, and presents new ideas and resources in the old Berlin Wall structures.

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.

International Master and experienced chess trainer Thomas Willemze is the handyman you are looking for. He tells you which are the most urgent problems that need fixing. In his no-nonsense guide, Willemze presents essential techniques on how to mobilize your pieces in order to gain the upper hand.

The Sveshnikovs clearly explain the ideas and plans for both sides and provide exercises and test positions. After reading and studying this book, White players, from amateurs to Grandmasters, will make their opponents’ lives even more difficult.​

This handbook, probably the most thorough grounding in the history of teaching chess, was recently created for chess teachers at the DYSS, the special sports school for young talents in Russia.

In VOLUME 2 you are again handed basic and advanced tools to improve in a wide array of areas: assessing and handling pawn structures, employing positional and tactical means to improve your position, identifying weak spots, mastering attacking dynamics and more.

Moskalenko covers the Anti-Dutch, Leningrad, Stonewall and Classical variations. He guides you through this ground-breaking opening book with the enthusiasm, the ease and the humor that characterize his style.