The new volume in internationally bestselling series. Are you ready to seriously improve your game?It has been said that chess is 99% tactics but whether that is an accurate reflection is hard to tell. Nevertheless, it is important. But if you are like most players, you only discover the tactics after you come home and run through your game with a chess engine. So what to do? In the present book, you will be challenged 404 times but unlike most tactics puzzle books you don't know what your objective is: do I need to find a mate, find an opportunity skewer or pin a piece, use a tactical turn to gain a positional advantage and how far do I need to calculate?These questions are you are faced with when you play your own games and therefore this book tries to replicate this position. Your one advantage over the players in the respective positions is that you know that there is supposed to be something in there for you to find.The puzzles vary a lot in difficulty, some are relatively easy, some are incredibly difficult, but most are somewhere in between. However, most of the puzzles are layered so that even when you think the answer is obvious, it is worth looking further because your idea may be the decoy left there for you to get distracted from the actual solution.Working through the puzzles and then carefully play through the thoroughly annotated solutions will help you to up your tactical radar as well as your calculation skills. So if you are up for the challenge, here is the opportunity to take the leap forward. Good luck!
CHESS INFORMANT’S 143rd ADVENTURE
EQUILIBRIUM
CONTENTS:
TATA Steel 2020 GM Ivan Sokolov
DAVID'S GIBRALTAR DUELS GM David Navara
JERUSALEM GRAND PRIX GM Danilo Milanović
BEWARE: Generation Z is here! GM Elshan Moradiabadi
FRESH IDEAS IN THE WINAWER GM Francesco Rambaldi
THE GRAND PRIX ATTACK GM Miloš Perunović
NEW TRENDS IN THE TARRASCH DEFENCE GM Ivan Ivanišević
Mr. FIRE ON BOARD IN BRAZIL! GM Rafael Leitão
A VENOMOUS LINE IN THE ENGLISH – PART I GM Aleksander Delchev
WOMEN'S WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH WGM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
DANNY'S CHESS DIARY GM Daniel Gormally
THE POSITIONAL PAWN SACRIFICE GM Michael Prusikin
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, correspondence chess, endgame blunders, Tournament reviews, the best game from the preceding volume and the most important theoretical novelty from the preceding volume.
The periodical that pros use with pleasure is at the same time a must have publication for all serious chess students!
Let's face facts: everyone enjoys winning. And the only thing better than winning is to win quickly!
Mistakes are often made in the early part of the game - at all levels of chess - but a key skill is to recognise these critical moments as they happen and to exploit them with maximum efficiency. This is a skill which Grandmaster Simon Williams addresses in this book. Using instructive and entertaining games in which one side wins quickly, he examines all the typical mistakes chess players make in the opening and early middlegame, how you should look to exploit them, and how to avoid falling into similar traps yourself.
All too often opponents are let off the hook, mistakes go unpunished and the game drags on. Don't let this happen to you - become a ruthless winner!
CHESS INFORMANT’S 144th ADVENTURE
JUBILEE
ALEKSANDAR MATANOVIĆ – TRIBUTE TO CHESS LEGEND
FIDE NATIONS CUP GM Pentala Harikrishna
NO LIMITS FOR CREATIVITY GM Rafael Leitão
CHESS IN THE TIME OF CORONA GM Milos Perunović
ELSHAN'S EXPLORATIONS GM Elshan Moradiabadi
PAWN STRUCTURES AND PAWN PLAY AT MAGNUS INVITATIONAL WGM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
THE ISOLATED PAWN COUPLE GM Michael Prusikin
WHEN h2-h3 PAWN ADVANCE BECOMES TOO COSTLY GM Mihail Marin
DISMANTLING THE DUTCH GM Ivan Ivanišević
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – KERES MEMORIAL 1985 GM Ian Rogers
CHESS IN THE 1990s AND HOW IT INSPIRED ME GM Daniel Gormally
1...b6 is a dynamic defence which allows Black to steer the game into relatively unchartered territory, where White players are unable to relax and rely on their 'opening book' knowledge. A major attraction of 1...b6 is that it can be employed against all of White's mainline openings, including 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. In this book, International Master Cyrus Lakdawala examines all the important variations after 1...b6. Using illustrative games, he explains the main positional and tactical ideas for both sides, provides answers to all the key questions and tells you everything you need to know about successfully playing 1...b6.
The Modern Defence is an important opening that can be played by Black against absolutely any White opening system. It is an ambitious, counterattacking weapon, favoured by dynamic players. White is initially allowed to occupy the centre but Black plans to undermine this structure in the middlegame with well-timed blows from the pieces and pawns. If Black gets it right then the white centre can be dramatically swept away. However, when it goes wrong, Black can be overrun.
First Steps books are based around carefully selected instructive games which demonstrate exactly what both sides are trying to achieve. There is enough theory to enable the improving player to get to grips with the opening without feeling overwhelmed. If you want to take up a new opening, First Steps is the ideal place to start.
International Master Maxim Chetverik has written an in-depth study of one of the most popular choices by white in the Queen's Indian Defense - the main line with 4.g3, where white fianchettoes his bishop. This line is often seen at top-level chess. This book contains 181 full games in this line and several hundred fragments with detailed and original commentary by the author focused throughout on giving a balanced evaluation in what are complicated positions.
The main goal in choosing lines was to reach positions with well-defined plans for both sides, then illustrate how to handle a typical middlegame in each variation through the use of well-chosen instructive games.
The repertoire is based around two main themes: 1. The suggested variations for White are ones that rely far more on a generic understanding of strategic ideas rather than the memorisation of reams of opening theory. This explains the choice of the Bishop’s Opening (handled “Lopez-style”) against 1...e5 and the Bb5 variations against the Sicilian Defence. Both these lines are designed to create dynamic and interesting middlegame positions rather than attempting to score a quick knockout victory – a generally overambitious aim that often backfires 2. The variations are chosen so that White can gain space whenever possible. Therefore the Advance Variation is recommended against the French Defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5) and also the Caro-Kann Defence (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5). The fact that these lines often create similar middlegame structures is helpful for general comprehension of White’s plans.
This book in front of you assists all players in their efforts to improve, and along their way, our young chess guns provided fresh insights how to trap and trick your opponent in the opening and early middlegame. With the many computer-assisted learning tools available, the player’s capacity to improve is limitless. This book offers the reader an insider’s candid view of how to unbalance the game in the modern age of chess.
The Barry Attack is a highly aggressive system that arises after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4. Although the concept of the Barry Attack has been known for a century or so, the modern interpretation (as with a number of other dynamic white systems) has mainly been developed by English grandmasters over the past couple of decades.
This “modern interpretation” is often not very subtle. If Black provides a target by castling early on the kingside, White will often let rip with moves such as Qd2, Bh6, 0-0-0 and h4-h5, playing very directly for a quick checkmate. If this strikes you as too crude to have a chance against a sophisticated and competent defender, then a quick glance through this book will undoubtedly change your mind. You will witness countless games where very strong players are destroyed on the black side in less than 30 moves. Sometimes a lot less.
This makes the Barry an ideal weapon for those who love to attack. Black’s defence has to be very accurate. If not, a quick annihilation is on the cards.
Play the Barry Attack is the ideal guide to this fascinating opening. Anyone who reads this book carefully and studies all White’s attacking ideas will have a fearsome weapon in their armoury.