Playing 1.d4 – The Queen’s Gambit is part of an ambitious two-volume repertoire for White with 1.d4
In Playing 1.e4 e5 – A Classical Repertoire, Nikolaos Ntirlis offers the best of both worlds: a complete repertoire against 1.e4, built on sound positional principles, which does not require excessive memorization.
The English Opening arises after 1.c4, and is a great practical weapon for players of all levels. White dictates the opening from the very first move, and often reaches positions where understanding themes and plans is more important than the latest computer-generated analysis.
Nikolaos Ntirlis has been Playing the English successfully for many years in high-level correspondence events, as well as teaching it to students ranging from club players to Grandmasters. While his analysis is first-rate, Ntirlis also understands the differing needs between correspondence and human play, and this repertoire is specifically tailored towards practical players.
Playing the English – A World-Class Repertoire provides a complete repertoire with 1.c4, showing how to meet every major option that Black may try. Each section of the book begins with an introduction outlining the main plans and concepts, so you will be equipped with both the strategic and theoretical knowledge needed to crush your opponents.
Nikolaos Ntirlis is an award-winning author, openings expert, and Correspondence IM. He has worked as an openings adviser to numerous GMs, including the Danish Olympiad team.
The French Defence is one of the most solid and strategically rich responses to 1.e4.
The Grünfeld Defence is well known to be one of Black’s best and most challenging responses to 1.d4, and has long been a favourite choice of elite players including Kasparov, Svidler, Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave and many more. As with many openings, however, it can be difficult to navigate the ever-expanding jungle of games and theory. Playing the Grünfeld offers an ideal solution for practical players. Alexey Kovalchuk is a young Russian talent with expert knowledge of the Grünfeld, and in this book he shares his best ideas to form a complete, coherent and combative repertoire for Black. In addition to theoretical soundness, efforts have been made to avoid variations leading to early forced draws, as well as those in which Black allows his king to be attacked at an early stage.
The Sicilian Najdorf is one of Black’s best and most combative responses to 1.e4. The Najdorf was championed by Fischer and Kasparov during their respective periods of dominance over the world chess scene, and has been used extensively by many other World Champions and elite GMs, including Anand, Gelfand, Topalov and Vachier-Lagrave to name but a few. Despite the Najdorf’s obvious pedigree, many players are intimidated by the highly tactical and theoretical nature of some of its main lines. In Playing the Najdorf, IM David Vigorito shows that this need not be a problem, as he offers a complete repertoire for Black based on positional principles, offering sound recommendations which lead to a fighting game without turning the battle into a memory contest.
The Petroff Defence is well known to be one of Black’s soundest and theoretically robust responses to 1.e4, having been tried and tested by a host of World Champions and other elite players. This book shows how you too can harness the power of this top-class opening. Playing the Petroff offers an ideal solution for practical players. Swapnil Dhopade is a young Indian GM and theoretician, who presents a compact yet bulletproof repertoire for Black, drawing on the games of leading Petroff specialists such as Gelfand, Caruana and Kramnik. This book also provides plenty of guidance on how to deal with 1.e4 e5 games where White avoids 2.Nf3, with particular focus on ‘Anti-Petroff’ lines such as 2.Bc4.