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 Basman-Williams Attack arises after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4, which was first played by the inventive and creative English International Master Michael Basman in the 1970s and later adopted & developed by English Grandmaster Simon Williams. Nowadays, it has become a weapon used by several top grandmasters and it was even adopted for use in the recent Candidates tournament by Chinese top grandmaster and former world number 2, Ding Liren. It is a fun way to avoid Black's intentions of playing the main line theory of the King's Indian and Grunfeld Indian defenses.
In Play Like a Champion, Jennifer Shahade showcases the careers and sparkling tactics of some of the most talented and influential players to ever sit at the chessboard, from the first Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik and Grandmaster Hou Yifan to Phiona “Queen of Katwe” Mutesi. Learn the powerful moves of family chess dynasties including the Polgar and the Botez sisters.
Jennifer walks you through essential and inspiring examples of themes such as Double Attack, Removal of the Guard, and Clearance. You’ll get your turn to solve 700 puzzles from the games of more than one hundred pioneering chess champions. The positions are designed to help chess improvers (from beginner to master) to develop their tactical vision.
Solve the positions here, and you too will start to Play Like a Champion.
Jennifer Shahade is a two-time US Women’s Champion, an Olympic chess medalist, and the first female ever to win the US Junior Open. An award-winning writer, host, and speaker, Jennifer is known for making chess more fun and inclusive. She is also the author of Play Like a Girl!, Chess Queens, and Thinking Sideways (2025).
She lives in Philadelphia with her family.
On 30 April 2023, in Astana, Kazakhstan, Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren sensationally defeated Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in a dramatic battle for the chess crown. Ding Liren not only became the 17th World Chess Champion, but he also won the hearts of chess fans across the globe with his incredible fighting spirit and disarming interviews. At the final press conference, the new champion said the match ‘reflected the deepest of his soul’.
Humble and almost vulnerable in his demeanour, Ding Liren is a formidable fighter with a rich inner chess world. Throughout his career, his creative output has been immense. His games feature outstanding precision, rationality and superior endgame technique on the one hand and a talent to find brilliant, imaginative solutions on the other. His stoicism in the face of adversity and ability to quickly learn from mistakes and adapt to his opponents is unique.
Few chess greats can boast that they reached first place in both the blitz and rapid world rankings and became World Champion in classical chess. Even fewer can claim an unbeaten streak of 100 classical games. That’s how special Ding Liren is.
In this best games collection, grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic follows and explores Ding Liren’s rise from his first chess steps in provincial China to the top of the chess world. Making no secret of his admiration for this extraordinary chess genius, the author describes Ding Liren’s successes and setbacks and how these experiences shaped him as a player and a person.
Davorin Kuljasevic is an International Grandmaster born in Croatia. He graduated from Texas Tech University and is an experienced coach. His first book Beyond Material: Ignore the Face Value of Your Pieces was a finalist for the Boleslavsky-Averbakh Award, the best book prize of FIDE, the International Chess Federation. His second book, How To Study Chess on Your Own, was an international bestseller.
In the fourth volume of the epic Kotronias on the King’s Indian series Grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias tackles a variety of White’s attempts to challenge his favorite opening, starting with the sequence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Kotronias KID
In this groundbreaking work, award-winning chess coach and author Frisco Del Rosario shines a long-overdue light on this neglected aspect of Capablanca’s record. He illustrates how the Cuban genius used positional concepts to build up irresistible king hunts, embodying the principles of good play advocated by the unequaled teacher, C.J.S. Purdy. The author also identifies an overlooked checkmate pattern – Capablanca’s Mate – that aspiring attackers can add to the standard catalogue in Renaud and Kahn’s The Art of the Checkmate. As Del Rosario shows, Capablanca has inspired not only generations of players, but also many of the classics of chess literature.
The author presents a full opening repertory for the club player, which is analysed in seven volumes. In the books you will find many novelties for both sides, with a full move-to-move presentation. Furthermore, the reader will get access to middlegame strategies, endgame techniques and common tactical motifs, which are patterning the proposed variations.
In the fifth volume the openings of the Chigorin Defence, the Queen's Gambit Declined, the Tarrasch Defence, and the Semi-Tarrasch Defence are presented.
This ebook is a part of Bundle: Grivas Opening Laboratory
In this book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies one of the most important openings of all, the Ruy Lopez. This famous opening enjoys a long and distinguished history and is still widely regarded as White's strongest choice after 1.e4 e5. McDonald shares his experience and knowledge of the Lopez, examines the main ideas for both sides and offers answers to the key questions.
In Coaching Kasparov, Year by Year and Move by Move Garry Kasparov's long-term coach, second and mentor Alexander Nikitin tells the story of how he trained Kasparov from a brilliant but raw junior into becoming and then remaining the world champion.Volume II , the present work, covers the period 1982-1990, including the first four world championship matches against Karpov and the candidates matches against Smyslov, Korchnoi and Beliavsky. The present volume contains 39 fully annotated games. These include 20 secret training games that Kasparov played against his grandmaster coaches Evgeny Vladimirov and Gennady Timoshchenko in 1982-83 that have never before been published and which are annotated by Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco, national coach of the German Chess Federation and captain of the German national team. These games are provided by the Kasparov family specially for the 2020 edition of this book. The reader has a unique opportunity to gain an insight into Kasparov's secret preparation in those years, which were a new starting point in his career: he had to adjust his openings. Rogozenco is a big expert on Kasparov's games, having helped FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov prepare for his planned match against Kasparov in 2003. Kasparov's legendary opening repertoire, which was to define trends in chess theory for decades, was created not just through deep analysis, but also via training games. The never previously published material in this book consists of 16 games with classical time control and 4 rapid thematic games. Testing the Catalan for the first time with white, searching for ideas in the King's Indian with black, preparing the Queen's Gambit with both colors, playing typical Sicilian positions and trying new openings (for instance the Tarrasch as the big surprise for his candidates match versus Beliavsky) - all this can be found in these games. Further, the time records on most of Kasparov's original scoresheets (all of them pictured in this book) show that Kasparov and his coaches paid serious attention to such an important training aspect as the distribution of time during the game. From intuitive positional sacrifices to precisely calculated combinations and instructive play in typical pawn structures - the training games provide a lot of interesting material for both players and coaches. The other games, annotated by Nikitin, are well known, but Nikitin explains many of Kasparov's decisions in those games from the point of view of the world champion's coach, providing the context of his pupil's thought process and mistakes and tracing his progress as they together gradually out-thought Korchnoi and then Karpov. He also uses these games to illustrate and expand upon his coaching advice. His many insights include the preparation of the “cross-fire” strategy (playing the same opening against the same opponent with both colors) and a systematic approach to maintaining time discipline during games based on chronometric analysis. This makes his commentary quite unique and instructive, of formidable practical use to budding players, coaches and parents.