The Hippopotamus Defence is just what a club player needs. It’s a straightforward and clear-cut chess opening that avoids the ever growing body of mainline theory. It’s universal: Black can use the Hippo against virtually all of White’s choices (1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.f4, the Colle, London, Trompowsky, Réti and others). It’s not very well known and will surprise many opponents. On top of all that, the Hippo is seriously underestimated: with its characteristic double fianchetto it may look quiet, but inside there lurks a very dangerous animal. FIDE Master Alessio de Santis is one of the world’s greatest experts on the Hippo and has written a practical, well-structured and accessible manual.
Grandmaster and former senior world champion Larry Kaufman provides a ready-to-go repertoire for both colors that is based not on what on what is objectively ‘best’ (meaning the most popular in recent grandmaster play), but on what is easy to digest for amateurs.
Not yet available
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.
In The Longest Game Jan Timman returns to the Kasparov-Karpov matches. He chronicles the many twists and turns of this fascinating saga, including his behind-the scenes impressions, and takes a fresh look at the games.
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.
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
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.
In this memoir Walter Browne recounts his formative years, how he befriended and played Bobby Fischer in New York City, how he traveled the world and made his name. He annotates his best games from over four decades, great attacking games full of sacrifices and fireworks, in a clear style that is accessible for amateur players.
This is a practical guide for Black with extensive verbal explanations of the strategic ideas for both sides. Kuzmin’s book is chock-full of novelties and presents a most remarkable new plan for Black.
In this fascinating book he portrays ten World Chess Champions that played an important role in his life and career. Timman has a keen eye for detail, a fabulous memory and he visibly enjoys sharing his insider views, including many revelations.
Jan Timman is one of the greatest chess players never to win the world title. For many years ‘the Best of the West’ belonged to the chess elite, collecting quite a few super tournament victories. Three times Timman was a Candidate for the World Championship and his peak in the world rankings was second place, in 1982. For this definitive collection, Timman has revisited his career and subjected his finest efforts to fresh analysis supported by modern technology. The result is startling and fascinating. From the games that he chose for his Timman’s Selected Games (1994, also published as Chess the Adventurous Way), only 10(!) made the cut. Some games that he had been proud of turned out to be flawed, others that he remembered as messy were actually well played. Timman’s Triumphs includes wins against great players such as Karpov, Kasparov, Kortchnoi, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky, Bronstein, Larsen and Topalov. The annotations are in the author’s trademark lucid style, a happy mix of colourful background information and sharp, crystal-clear explanations. Once again Jan Timman shows that he is not only one of the best players the game has seen, but also as one of the best chess analysts and writers.