Sergei Tkachenko has written a fascinating account of Alexander Alekhine’s time spent in Odessa during World War I, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, as well as of the impact of Odessa on his later life. The book includes 24 complete games (some handicapped) with annotations from Alekhine, Sergei Tkachenko and Sergei Voronkov (co-author with David Bronstein of Secret Notes), as well as five puzzles and one fragment. Alekhine played in 22 of these games and the fragment and set three of the puzzles.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln. There's no escaping the fact: if you want to win chess games, you have to attack at some point. Many players are happy solving combinations in winning positions, when the hard work is already done, but the key to a successful attack undoubtedly comes much earlier. No-one can attack effectively if they haven't prepared properly, and yet planning in chess can be a difficult technique to master, even for experienced players. This book provides a solution. Using an abundance of illustrative games and examples, Gary Lane answers the questions which constantly puzzle players of all levels. How should I plan after the opening? Where are my opponent's weaknesses? Do I have enough pieces in the attack? When should I strike? Do I need to sacrifice? Should I cash in or continue to attack? Read this book, discover the answers and attack with confidence!

The readers will see many complex endgames with dozens of useful and beautiful ideas, which could be used in our own practical games.

Many gambit lines, where one or more pawns are sacrificed for the initiative, have to be taken seriously, but Ivan has succeeded in finding many new ideas and theoretical improvements. The result is the neutralisation or refutation of most of these common and well known 'Gambits'.

A sound positional approach for White to handling the Sicilian.

The Vienna set-up aims for very aggressive play, which often includes sacrifices, but White prefers to be on the safe side, without burning all the bridges and to try to justify his actions from the point of view of positional play as well. This is how this usually happens. At first, he deploys his minor pieces to active positions, then he advances the thematic move f4, castles (usually on the kingside) and begins an attack only after all this.

Opening Originals focuses on both sound and dangerous opening ideas that have escaped wide notice.

Silmans Endspielkurs: Vom Anfänger zum Meister des berühmten Autors und Spielers Jeremy Silman ist das einzige Endspielbuch, das Sie auf dem Weg vom Anfänger zum starken Turnierspieler bis zum Meister brauchen. Silmans Buch spricht seine Leser direkt und persönlich an und verrät Schachspielern alles, was sie auf ihrem jeweiligen Spielstärkeniveau über das Endspiel wissen müssen. Auf diesem Wissen bauen die nachfolgenden Phasen der Entwicklung auf. Zu Beginn, auf Anfängerniveau, werden alle grundlegenden Matts klar und sorgfältig erklärt. Danach werden die grundlegenden Bausteine des Endspielwissens aufstrebender und erfahrener Turnierspieler detailliert untersucht. Und schließlich werden feinere Endspielgeheimnisse, die auf Konzepten und nicht auf Auswendiglernen beruhen, leicht verständlich dargestellt. Die grundlegenden Schlüssel für fundiertes Endspieltraining – Opposition, die Lucena- und Philidor-Stellungen, Katz und Maus, Trébuchet, Fuchs im Hühnerstall, Triangulation, das Bauen einer Box, das Quadrat des Bauern, seitliche Umgehung, das Prinzip zweier Schwächen – sind wichtig. Aber genauso wichtig ist eine Liebe zum Endspiel, die am Ende des Buches zu ihrem Recht kommt: mit einer Untersuchung taktischer Motive im Endspiel, Dominierung von Leichtfiguren und einem Blick auf die fünf größten Endspielkönner aller Zeiten – Dinge, die Schachfans aller Spielstärken Freude machen.

Feature articles and hundreds of deeply annotated games

A comprehensive 2014 update of the classic manual on the King’s Indian Defense by Eduard Gufeld. Variations covered include Sämisch Variation, Classical Variation, Four Pawns Attack, as well as many sidelines.

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.

Sarhan Guliev presents a wide range of strategic manoeuvres that have been repeatedly employed by great chess players.