American-Czech Grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek (1943-2021) was a three-time US Chess Champion and one of the best chess writers of the last decades. He reached millions of chess fans with his much-acclaimed columns in the Washington Post and the Huffington Post.
Kavalek could speak from experience as he had played with or met all the chess greats of the last century. He assisted Bobby Fischer during the legendary Match of the Century in 1972, and in later years, he was the second of Nigel Short and Jan Timman. He also was the tournament director of the prestigious World Cup organized by the Grandmasters Association. But first and foremost, he was an elite player, winning countless tournaments and brilliancy prizes.
Kavalek rose spectacularly fast to the rank of grandmaster. With attractive and sharp play, he twice won the national championship in his native Czechoslovakia. In 1968, after the Soviet invasion had ended the Prague Spring, he fled his home country and eventually settled in the United States with his wife Irena.
At the end of his life, Lubosh Kavalek started writing his memoirs. With humour, wit and passion, he put on paper the compelling story of his adventurous life and rich chess career. When he passed away in 2021, he had all but finished the book he had been working on with the Czech-American writer Jan Novak.
Kavalek’s memoir makes for compelling reading and evokes his fascinating journey in life and the chess world. His story is supplemented by more than fifty of his best games, many with Kavalek’s entertaining comments.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 145th ADVENTURE
HARVEST
CONTENTS:
WOJTASZEK WINS BIEL TRIATHLON GM Ian Rogers & IM László Hazai
LEGENDS PLAYING THE RAGOZIN GM Elshan Moradiabadi
LEGENDARY TECHNIQUE IN THE LEGENDS OF CHESS WGM Sabina-Francesca Foişor
THE CROATIAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2020 GM Saša Martinović
THE STRENGTH OF MOBILE PAWN CENTRE GM Mihail Marin
THRILL ON THE EDGE OF THE CHESSBOARD GM Šarunas Šulskis
THE ENGLISH REPERTOIRE FOR WHITE GM Ivan Ivanišević
AN INTERESTING NEW IDEA IN THE RUBINSTEIN GM Francesco Rambaldi
WHAT IS NEW UNDER THE RICHTER–RAUZER SUN? GM Milos Perunović
SACRIFICING THE QUEEN GM Kannappan Priyadharshan
POSITIONAL QUEEN SACRIFICE GM Michael Prusikin
ROGERS' REMINISCENCES – BATH 1983 GM Ian Rogers
FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES Douglas Griffin
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, 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!
Magnus Carlsen is arguably the strongest player of all time. His dominance is such that every loss comes as a shock. They remind us that even he has his weak moments. In fact, identifying the root causes of his losses holds valuable lessons for all players. Cyrus Lakdawala’s search starts with a series of Magnus wins and draws to give the reader a feel for how incredibly difficult it is to beat him. The World Champion’s arsenal is awesome: a superlative ability to calculate, near-perfect intuition, probably the best endgame technique ever, a wide and creative opening repertoire, a willingness to unbalance the position almost anytime, and last but not least: his unparalleled will to win. How to Beat Magnus Carlsen has a thematic structure, which, together with Lakdawala’s uniquely accessible style, makes its lessons easy to digest. Sometimes even Magnus gets outplayed, sometimes he over-presses and goes over the cliff’s edge, and sometimes he fails to find the correct plan. And yes, even Magnus Carlsen commits straightforward blunders. Lakdawala explains the how and the why. It’s wonderful to have a World Champion who is not just incredibly strong, but who is also happy to experiment and take risks. That’s what makes Magnus Carlsen such a fascinating chess player. And that’s why he is the hero of this book. There is no doubt that Carlsen has examined all his losses under a microscope. If he benefits from this process, then so will we.
¿Cada vez te juegan más la Defensa Holandesa cuando juegas peón de dama? ¿Juegas distintos esquemas contra esta defensa y ninguno termina de convencerte?
Si tu respuesta es SI a alguna de estas dos preguntas, este libro es para ti.
En el último año, han salido distintas publicaciones recomendando esta variante para jugadores aficionados. ¿La razón? Es una variante universal contra 1.d4, 1.c4 y 1.Cf3 por parte de las blancas.
Sin embargo, considero que la Defensa Holandesa no es una variante buena y, en caso de que las blancas sepan como jugar, pueden conseguir una gran ventaja.
En este libro ofrezco una forma de jugar innovadora que te permitirá hacerte con ventaja contra jugadores de todos los niveles.
Las variantes han sido revisadas con Stockfish. La apertura está analizada de manera sistemática y organizada de manera que sea cómoda para el lector.
Además, no solamente se analiza la apertura, sino que también me adentro en el medio juego, analizando partidas modelo que nos servirán de guía en el momento que se termine la apertura.
Para terminar, como no podría ser de otra manera, ofrezco ejercicios típicos del medio juego de la Defensa Holandesa, la mejor forma para estar preparados para la partida.
Al terminar este libro, estarás preparado contra esta apertura para toda tu vida y estoy convencido de que podrás conseguir muchas victorias gracias a mis ideas.
In 2013 chess returned to world headlines.
Joel Benjamin is one of the most prominent faces in the history of US chess. At thirteen years of age he broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever national master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. Perhaps most famously, in 1997 he hit the headlines when he became the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter.
In American Grandmaster, Benjamin takes the reader on a journey through chess adventures spanning more than thirty years. Tracing through his own career, from being a prodigy in the 'Fischer boom' era thorough to an experienced Grandmaster with many titles, Benjamin is in a unique position to highlight the major changes that have occurred both in US and international chess throughout the last four decades.
Chess Secrets is a series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess, such as strategy, attack, defence, opening play, endgames, off-board preparation and mental attitude. In each book the author chooses and deeply studies a number of great players who have excelled in such aspects of the game, greatly influenced their peers and inspired all of us.
In Heroes of Classical Chess, Craig Pritchett selects five great players whose style exemplifies classically direct, clear, energetic, tough, ambitious yet fundamentally correct chess playing attributes. Pritchett studies the major contributions they have made, compares their differing styles and discusses the critical influences they have had on the development of chess, on their peers and on all our games.
Read this book and enhance your own skills. Understand how to play in a classical style and win more games.