Tartakowerās Legendary Magnum Opus
The decade after the First World War was one of exciting change for the royal game. A new wave of dynamic chess was taking shape, led by the young lions Alekhine, RĆ©ti, Nimzowitsch, Breyer, Euwe, Tartakower and others. They were successfully asserting their new ideas against the Old Guard.
It was in this period that Savielly Tartakowerās magnificent work Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie was first released. A massive tome of over 500 densely packed pages, the first edition was published in German in 1924. It was an instant best-seller and a second edition soon followed with corrections and additional material.
At first glance, it appears to be an opening manual with incredibly comprehensive notes. But in fact it is much more. There are essays on strategy, tactics, endings, history and other chess-related topics, all presented in Tartakowerās wonderful writing style. However, donāt be fooled by the witty aphorisms and humor. The scope and depth of Tartakowerās annotations would be unmatched until ChessInformant came along in the 1960s. And the rise of the silicon monsters notwithstanding, there is much fertile opening theory to be found and explored.
The Hypermodern Game of Chess is the first English-language work of the Second Edition. Several hundred diagrams have been added and some reformatting of the text has been done to meet the expectations of 21st century readers. In every other respect, it preserves all the comprehensive content.
The Hypermodern Game of Chess is now available in English. See why it has inspired generations of chessplayers. See why Tartakowerās magnum opus is, as they say, the stuff of legend...
Are you a parent of a junior chess player who feels that because you donāt know how to play chess, you canāt help your child? Or are you an adult or junior chess player who has taken private chess lessons for years, but feels you havenāt been progressing?
In both cases, there can be a lot of reliance on a chess coach who has been given free rein with lesson content and direction. They probably have some sort of plan but it is likely to be a plan used for all their students. This is not ideal. More important is a well-thought out, individualized plan, that focuses on a specific playerās unique strengths and weaknesses. Formulating such a plan is crucial for making improvements.
Victoria Doknjas and her son John Doknjas are an ideal writing partnership to tackle this topic. John is a FIDE Master who has already established himself as an excellent and highly-respected author who understands the improvement process very well. Victoria has over a decade of experience navigating the competitive chess arena with her three master-level sons, including also running her own chess academy. Together they offer a unique and informative insight to those wanting to get more out of their chess studies, as well as presenting practical advice in areas including:
ā Identifying important goals and how to work towards them.Ā
ā Understanding how to objectively analyse your games.Ā
ā Maximising the efficiency of software and engines for learning.
Reading this book can broaden your horizons in the essential areas of chess study, and ideally let you better evaluate what your chess coach is teaching you. And if you donāt have a chess coach, this book will provide you with an excellent foundation for serious chess study.
The secret of its success may be its anti-positional look. The pawn thrust g2-g4 is often so counter-intuitive that itās a perfect way to confuse your opponents and disrupt their position. Ever since World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik started using it to defeat the elite grandmasters of his day, it has developed, on all levels of play, into an ever more popular and attractive way to fight for the initiative. Grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin owes a substantial part of his successes as a chess player to the g2-g4 attack. In this book he shows how it can be used to defeat Black in a number of important Closed and Semi-Closed Defences and Flank Openings: the Dutch, the Queenās Gambit, the Nimzo-Indian, the Kingās Indian, the Slav and several variations of the English Opening. With lots of instructive examples, Kryakvin explains the ins and outs of the attack on the g-file: the typical ways to gain tempi and keep the momentum, and the manoeuvres that will maximize your opponentās problems. After working with this book you will be fully equipped to use this modern battering ram to define the battlefield. You will have fun and win games!
This book takes the reader on a journey from early 19th century developments in the game up to the present-day. It takes in the revolutionary Wilhelm Steinitzās early summation and establishment of a firm positional basis for chess and the considerable contributions made by all of the subsequent world champions and certain other great players, including the contemporary computer phenomenon, AlphaZero.
The Rossolimo is the Anti-Sicilian that is by far the most popular with club players ā 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 ā 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 ā 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.
Do you want to do the same chess homework that world-famous grandmasters Fabiano Caruana, Robert Hess and Peter Heine Nielsen did in their formative years as chess players? This book will test you with hundreds of positions created by their coach Miron Sher (1952-2020). Just like Fabiano, Robert and Peter, you are not supposed to stop after the first move. You have to find the last move of the solution!
Miron Sher is one of those legendary coaches who got their chess education in the Soviet Union and in later years spread their knowledge in Western Europe and the United States. He was born in Ukraine, studied in Moscow, coached the Russian national team and emigrated to New York in 1997. There he taught at various schools and worked privately with dozens of students.
Dream Moves focuses on five themes that Sher considered important for chess improvement.
āĀ An unprotected piece ā the trigger to start thinking tactics!
āĀ In-between moves ā they help you spring a surprise on your opponent
āĀ Open files ā a fundamental element of chess strategy
āĀ The 20% Rule ā if your pawn has advanced to the 5th or 6th rank, moving it forward is quite often your best option
āĀ Dream Move ā dream about the final, decisive move, and you will find the way there
The book contains close to one hundred illustrated games and more than three hundred puzzles. Do as the legends did - and use these puzzles to sharpen your tactical skills and improve your understanding of chess.
Miron Sher (1952-2020) is chess grandmaster and legendary coach. He was born in Ukraine, won a dozen international tournaments as a player, and became famous as a trainer in the United States where he lived since 1997. In New York he taught chess at multiple schools, including the Dalton School, IS 318 and Stuyvesant High School. He worked privately with dozens of students such as Fabiano Caruana, Robert Hess and Peter Heine Nielsen.
The book before you is a product of what happens when two chess players start a relationship (which started over six years ago) and enter a dialogue about how to get ready for the next tournament. The content of this book is a training program for players who plan to play an over-the-board tournament a few weeks from the time they start training with this book. This book, unlike other similar books in the field of improvement, does not have a central theme. In other words, we are not focused solely on openings, middlegames or endgames. Moreover, the book does not only concentrate on specific themes (calculation, positional decisions, or other strategic aspects), though many of these concepts are addressed throughout the book. Instead, this book offers a holistic view on how to approach every single position in it, regardless of the phase of the game or the nature of the position. We try to teach players how to identify types of decisions in various positions, while pointing at the trade-off between a hardcore calculation and a heuristics judgment.
Tired of being recommended to study chess tactics but the tactics in the books do not look anything like what could arise in the openings you play? So am I! Well, here is the answer: opening specific tactical exercises split up by variation from actual games. In this book, you will face hundreds of tactical positions, not only combinations but positions with tactical elements for you to solve and familiarize yourself with. This will help you be extra tactically alert when you are playing your games in this opening. This book covers all the variations of the exciting Budapest (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4) and Fajarowicz Gambits (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4). With well more than 200 positions and annotated solutions you are bound to improve your tactical eye in typical positions of these openings and learn a ton about the openings when you study the solutions.
The French Defence is one of the most solid and strategically rich responses to 1.e4.