The Berlin Defence has been a highly popular opening in top level chess ever since Vladimir Kramnik famously used it in the 2000 World Championship match to wrest the title from Garry Kasparov. Club players often hesitate to include the Berlin in their repertoire because they see the typical Berlin Wall endgame as complex and daunting. International Master Luis Bernal has unraveled the Berlin and made it accessible for amateur players. His practical guide is fully up to date, explains typical formation
Masterclasses by Kasparov, Carlsen, Tal, Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Smyslov, Larsen, Karpov and many others. For more than three decades, every issue of New In Chess magazine has been full of detailed and highly enlightening annotations by the worlds best players of their own best games. Because studying well-annotated master games is the best way to learn the skills that really matter, acclaimed chess author Steve Giddins has revisited the New In Chess vault and assembled the clearest and most didactic
The Advance Variation is the most ambitious way to meet the solid French Defence. Its popularity among club players is not difficult to understand: by advancing the e-pawn to e5 on the third move, White not only gains space but also blocks in Blacks c8-bishop and hampers Blacks kingside development by taking away the f6-square. Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov has played the Advance Variation in countless games with excellent results and is, as former World Champion Anatoly Karpov puts it, the world exper
The Sicilian Defence is Blacks most popular reply to 1.e4. Most Black players hope for an Open Sicilian, seeking unbalanced positions and opportunities to play for a win. No wonder that in roughly one-third of the games White does not play 2.Nf3 and chooses one of numerous Anti-Sicilian lines. Ranging from primitive and agressive to respected but tedious, these Anti-Sicilians have one thing in common: they all cross Black's plans and steer for territories where it is easy to get ambushed. Evgeny Sve
Are you looking for a way to outwit theory-sharks in the Open Sicilian? Then this may just be the book for you. The concept is simple: surprise your opponent with 5.f3, build up a strong pawn centre, avoid all of Blacks main lines and steamroll his Sicilian! Experienced grandmaster Sergey Kasparov presents a complete repertoire for White which has all the right features for ambitious and creative chess players: its an early deviation still fairly unknown in a widely played opening which guarante
It is not difficult to understand why the London System is such a popular chess opening with club players all over the world. Against virtually every Black defence after 1.d4 it offers White an easy-to-learn and reliable set of lines with interesting choices between strategic or more aggressive approaches, while avoiding tons of opening theory. Lately an increasing number of Grandmasters such as Alexander Grischuk, Gata Kamsky, Baadur Jobava, Richard Rapport and even World Champion Magnus Carlsen have
Former Ukrainian Champion Moskalenko, who coached Vasily Ivanchuk to stardom, presents a fundamentally new approach of getting better at chess. Covering all aspects of the game, Moskalenko develops new and easy-to-apply rules-of-thumb for amateur players who want to improve. With many examples, tests and exercises, this is the ultimate modern chess skills improvement manual. Easy to read and understand; even weaker players will benefit from Moskalenko's breakdown of the material, wrote Carsten Hansen at C
Shortlisted for the English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award 2016! You cannot win in chess without taking risks. Winning requires courage and psychology. No matter how deep you calculate, there always comes a point where you have to deal with uncertainties and take a decision. What is carefully calculated risk, and what is bluff? And why were famous players like Lasker and Tal so successful with both? They realized that chess is not a science. Emotions also play a role behind the board. If you
The dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of a unique chapter in the history of chess. With hindsight we can only marvel at the pivotal place the royal game occupied in the biggest country in the world. Originally embraced by Lenin as gymnastics of the mind, chess developed into an ideological weapon during the Cold War. Supported by the Soviet leadership, chess champions, from Mikhail Botvinnik on, grew into symbols of socialist excellence. As a respected trainer who became a world-class grand
The idea is as clever and original as its inventor. With 3.f3 (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6), Alexander Alekhine designed a promising strategy to take Grünfeld players out of their comfort zone. Alekhines find was a great idea in the days of the fourth World Champion and it still is. In fact, its recent revival has opened up a new chapter in chess opening theory. Top players like Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian have used it with success. The popularity of this variation is easy to understand: it offers White
Best Books of 2013 - CHESS Magazine English Chess Federation Book of the Year Finalist Sacrifice and Initiative in Chess is an entertaining and instructive guide, packed with useful advice and sparkling examples The sacrifice is one of themost beautiful and complex elements of chess. Giving up material in order to get an advantage is often the most difficult decision a player has to take during a game. It can also be the most rewarding. Ivan Sokolov, a true grandmaster of attack, presents a set of pra
Learn how to attack in the sharpest lines of the most widely played chess opening! Against most Sicilian variations, Whites sharpest and often best weapon is queenside castling, a strategy that frequently leads to spectacular fireworks. Regrettably, these powerful charges have never been properly categorized. Until this book. In Sicilian Attacks, Grandmaster Yuri Yakovich, who has more than thirty years of experience with complex Sicilian systems, analyses the Najdorf, the Scheveningen, the Dragon, th
More than 85% of all chess games start with either 1.e4 or 1.d4, and The Black Lion presents a flexible, logical and sensible way for Black to meet both of these moves. This robust, multipurpose opening system looks quiet, like a sleeping lion, but when this predator is provoked, and the game heats up, Black eats its prey in an extremely swift and efficient way. The moves are easy to learn, Black has a good choice of middlegame plans, the positions are fresh and interesting, and White will often struggle
Learn How to Think Ahead and Become One of the Best Players in Your School If you want to amaze your friends with your chess skills, this is exactly the book you have been looking for. To become one of the best chess players in your school you need to play Power Moves, winning tactics that require thinking ahead. But how do you find Power Moves? Experienced chess trainer Charles Hertan will show you and help you to become a very dangerous player! You will learn how to weed out silly moves and just
Sharpen Your Endgame Play! Reinfeld on the Endgame is a very fine specialty book about several aspects of endgames. This charming piece concentrates on a very difficult, too-often glossed over aspect of the transition between the middlegame and the endgame. Transition phases are harder to cover than either of the three favorite phases because they dont fit quite so neatly into the rigid classification that openings, middlegames, and endgames do. But mastering them is essential to those who wish to mast