This new book by Mikhail Shereshevsky, one of the most respected chess trainers in the world, is about a very important but little-explored topic: associative thinking. How can a modern chess student avoid drowning in the flood of information? The answer is to stop mechanically memorizing moves and turn on your curiosity. Try to create a vivid image of the technique you are studying and remember it as an association!

Tiviakov's Unbeatable Strategies: Searching for the Right Move

Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov once remained unbeaten in a streak of 110 consecutive professional chess games. Who could be a better guide to help you find the right move in any chess position than Tiviakov? His style was polished in the famous Russian chess school and hardened by his vast experience in hundreds of strong tournaments.

Книгу можно рассматривать, как три в одном: во-первых, это сборник разнообразных, но, часто типовых ловушек, встречающихся, как в дебюте, так и в середине игры и в эндшпиле. Во-вторых, эта книга – учебник по тактике, т.к. ловушки почти всегда основываются на хитроумных тактических ударах. 

В своей книге гроссмейстер и опытный тренер Александр Галкин не только попытался структурировать некоторые типы шахматных окончаний с нестандартным соотношением материала на доске, но и предложил свою методологию понимания основных особенностей подобных эндшпилей. 

Книга гроссмейстера и опытного тренера Александра Галкина посвящена сильнейшей фигуре на шахматной доске – ферзю. На примере эпизодов из партий современных гроссмейстеров (подавляющее большинство партий относится к 2020-2023 годам) и своей гроссмейстерской практики автор пытается обобщить, а где-то даже и уточнить методологию понимания и разыгрывания ферзевых окончаний, а также иных типов эндшпилей с наличием ферзей (ферзя) на доске. 

Книга гроссмейстера и опытного тренера Александра Галкина является заключительным звеном в серии публикаций автора, направленных на изучение классического эндшпиля на примерах партий современных гроссмейстеров.

Новая работа заслуженного тренера, автора бестселлеров «Стратегия эндшпиля» и «С молодежью – в эндшпиль», посвящена очень важной и в то же время малоисследованной теме – ассоциативному мышлению. Как современному шахматисту не утонуть в льющихся со всех сторон потоках информации? Опытный наставник советует: остановить механическое заучивание, включить любопытство, придумать яркий образ к изучаемому приему и запомнить его как ассоциацию.

Material imbalances are a fundamental part of almost every chess game, yet have not received much attention in chess literature. In this illuminating book, GM Mauricio Flores Rios breaks down this universal topic into categories such as bishop vs knight, opposite-coloured bishops, possessing and playing against the bishop pair, and various scenarios with a queen or rook being traded for a number of pieces. With well-chosen examples, insightful commentary and exercises to test your newfound understanding of all types of material imbalance, this book is an essential tool for chess improvement.

One of the sharpest lines to meet 1 d4 is the Modern Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6). The hallmark of this opening is that Black makes the positional concession of allowing White a central majority and in return hopes for counterchances via active piece play. However, there are many other weird and wonderful ways to handle these "Benoni structures" as the very experienced chess coach and author Andrew Martin demonstrates in this highly engaging book.

Chess theory ebbs and flows. Lines that have been discarded for decades suddenly become all the rage and everyone starts playing them. A case in point are queenside openings where White plays Bf4. For years these had been the chess equivalent of flared trousers but in recent times they have been reinvented and even the best players in the world are now sporting them.

Dana Mackenzie celebrates the joy of chess - the ordinary, everyday chess we amateurs play. For this book, he has selected forty of his favorite posts from his award-winning chess blog, including a diverse mix of stories, philosophical musings, chess improvement tips, and game analysis.

Books on how to improve your results over the board have been written before but in these changing times when chess has propelled onto the public consciousness, an update is badly needed. Grandmaster Daniel Gormally uses his 25+ years of experience to take the readers through the fires of the tournament cauldron, while illustrating some of his battles with the best players in England.

Few books have dealt with the topic of exchanges in chess, leaving this important part of chess strategy a mystery to most. In Mastering Chess Exchanges, grandmasters Aagaard and Castellanos break down the topic into crystal-clear themes, including piece preferences, tension, weaknesses, colour complexes, king safety and endgames, illustrating the concepts with illuminating examples. Then the reader is given a chance to turn understanding into skill, with 365 instructive exercises, featuring a novel, multiple-choice format designed to focus attention on possible exchanges.

When Learn from the Legends was published in 2004, the book became an instant classic and Mihail Marin became known as one of the world’s finest chess authors. 

The Accelerated Dragon (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6) has attracted the attention of many creative players. In the past these included Tigran Petrosian and Bent Larsen while modern aficionados include the dominant player of the era, Magnus Carlsen, as well as Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and many others.

When deciding upon a repertoire to meet 1 d4, those players whose natural inclination is to be aggressive have a difficult decision. There are plenty of outright counter-attacking tries such as the Benko Gambit, the King's Indian Defence and the Modern Benoni. However, such openings are generally considered borderline unsound at the higher levels. On the other hand the safe options such as the Queen's Gambit Declined and Queen's Gambit Accepted make it difficult to create middlegame complications. So, what to do?

Chess Informant 162 “Manoeuvre!!” presents:

World Championship Match Ding – Gukesh, analysis by GM Ivan Ivanisevic

European Individual Chess Championship, analysis by GM Milos Perunovic

The Budapest Gambit, theoretical survey by GM Vasilios Kotronias

The King’s Gambit, 5.h3 Variation by GM K. Szabo

The Wandering King, instructive lecture by GM Michael Prusikin

Thankless Tasks, studies by GM Steffen Nielsen

Roger’s Reminiscences, Kasparov’s first trip to the West by GM Ian Rogers

A story of a Chess Prodigy – Roman Shogdzhiev

Traditional sections:

Correspondence Chess

The best game and most important theoretical novelty from the previous Volume

Endgames

Combinations

200 games according to ECO Codes.

The periodical that pros use with pleasure is at the same time a must have publication for all serious chess students!

A full Black repertoire grounded in answering 1…e6 against any move!

The answer against 1. d4 is the Stonewall, while the answer against 1. e4 is the French. The repertoire is geared towards all levels due to its flexibility. The Stonewall Dutch is a defense that nowadays has a dodgy reputation, but this is ungrounded. It is true that Black willingly creates a bad bishop, but I have both improved on modern theory, as well as offer some odd-looking, interesting, and innovative new ways to play this once renowned (and soon-to-be renowned!) defense. A defense that powerhouses such as Viktor Korchnoi used to play a lot is not being scrapped and thrown into the bin, as much as people nowadays believe it should, but rather shall be revitalized and spring to life anew.

Nikola Sedlak is a renowned chess player known for his expertise in the London System. He is a grandmaster from Serbia who has been considered one of the strongest players in the country for many years. Sedlak is also a well-known chess trainer and author, who wrote several books on the London System and other chess openings.

This book aims to give you a wealth of self-study knowledge about handling different types of endings that occur frequently but on which there is not much literature analyzing recent games. Imbalanced material endgames involving rooks are a key focus of the book, covering three-fifths of the material, and all endings in the book feature at least one rook. The vast majority of games are taken from the last few years, including many from 2021-2022. Like the author’s previous endgame book published with Elk and Ruby, 101 Endgame Crimes and Punishments (2020), this one is aimed at strong tournament players (1900-2300 Elo) and fast improving juniors.

Are you ready to shock your opponent on move 3?

The Reti Opening is a dynamic opening invented by Richard Reti more than a century ago. It has since been featured in the repertoires of countless grandmasters and world champions, including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Garry Kasparov, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Smyslov, and many others.

The book about defense is created as an endeavor to help players who struggle with this very difficult set of chess skills.

How to organize a proper defense?

SERIES INTRODUCTION

There are many various concepts and approaches to creating chess books. Chess strategy books have, more or less, well-known structure and contents. Writers work on “elements, principles, concepts... The chapter titles are more or less known in advance. I suggest an alternative concept. I will try to explain how to use your pieces and how to handle situations with the same pieces in your opponent’s camp!

Not once I heard statements like: “He doesn’t know how to play with minor pieces, or “He always stays with a bad bishop”, or “He is bad in rook endgames” etcThat conclusion motivated me to focus on such peculiar problems and to explain everything related to a concrete chess piece.

Having the Nimzo-Indian Defence in his repertoire is a must for every 1.d4 player. However, it has been deeply explored, and lately White has been struggling to make something out of the opening. Indicatively, recent years have seen only books from Black’s perspective. This repertoire presents an innovative approach for White. While he starts with Kasparov’s move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3, he is often ready to transpose to the Rubinstein System with e3, having sidestepped the main Black’s equalizers against it. That allows White to get rich dynamic positions with fair chances for success.

I have returned to my book from a few years ago, to an opening that at the time was a rare guest among books as a topic – and not only among books, but also in tournament practice. In the intervening years it has become very popular to use this old and somewhat forgotten method of playing and I have found lots of interesting new games.

The Sicilian Scheveningen Defense is a highly respected and flexible variation of the Sicilian Defense, characterized by the pawn structure Black adopts with pawns on e6 and d6. It arises after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6. This setup allows Black to maintain a solid central presence while keeping options open for dynamic counterplay.

We all love the dynamics of chess. Spectacular sacrifices, combinations and attacks on the king never fail to enchant us. But how do we improve our understanding of dynamics? How can we recognize the ‘dynamic energy’ in a position? When can we turn 2+2 into 5, as the legendary tactician Mikhail Tal could? The answers can be found in the Hidden Laws of Chess.

Siegbert Tarrasch and Aron Nimzowitsch could be called the two vainest chess players in history. This book tells the fascinating story of their lifelong rivalry. They clashed as personalities, as players and as chess writers, both searching for the truth in chess, but with very different perspectives.

The astounding success of How To Study Chess on Your Own made clear that thousands of chess players want to improve their game — and like to work on their training at least partially by themselves.

Grandmaster Simon Williams was taught the English Opening at the age of six and 1 c4 was his weapon of choice until long after he became an International Master. For this new work, he teamed up with acclaimed theoretician International Master Richard Palliser to explore his old favourite.

Hikaru is a five-time US chess champion, ranked as high as second in the world with a stratospheric peak rating of 2816, the 10th highest of all time. He is also a top chess streamer with over a million followers across social media, consistently on the list of the five wealthiest gamers in the world. Nakamura has represented the US in 5 Olympiads, earning a team Gold and two Bronze medals.

Who is the greatest chess player of all time, the GOAT? Who is in the top ten? Let the debate ensue!

How do you measure greatness? Is Morphy "greater" than Carlsen? Can such judgements be made, and do they mean anything?

Every chess player faces an opening dilemma: big main lines are complicated and time-consuming to learn, while easy-to-learn sidelines usually suffer from other defects. Finding the best of both worlds has been an impossible dream – until now!

Magic Chess Moves is a book that will enthral you while also testing and improving your chess abilities. You will be invited to solve a collection of exercise positions, but the accompanying text contains far more than simply the solutions. The author offers his reflections on all manner of other fascinating topics, such as how tactics can be coached, and details of the composer’s life story.

Many players approach the opening with a desire to learn sharp lines and out-prepare their opponents. This is an exhausting task, which gets more difficult by the day. However, there is a different strategy which is more practical and designed for longevity. This is to develop an advanced understanding of typical positions. Such a policy is the best approach against different move orders and new ideas.

M Richard Palliser outlines a combative Trompowsky (1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5) repertoire for White. The lines analysed deal with all of Black’s common responses. A perennial favourite of creative players, the ‘Tromp’ sets Black complex problems from the very beginning.

This opening manual completes the Black repertoire against the Sicilian that uses the Kalashnikov as the main line. When possible, Black will opt for the adventurous moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5, covered in the book King’s Kalashnikov. But everyone playing 1... c5 has to be ready when White chooses to avoid the Open Sicilian.

The Center Game is a wonderful opening for club players. White starts with a center push, develops quickly, looks for opposite castling, and launches an attack. The setup will feel very familiar to you in no time. And the chess engines show that this opening is both sound and correct, and at least as good as the over-analyzed Ruy Lopez and Italian Opening.

Rook endgames are the most frequently occurring endgames, as well as one of the most exciting and challenging areas of chess. In 2023, Quality Chess published Theoretical Rook Endgames by GM Sam Shankland and its sister volume Conceptual Rook Endgames by GM Jacob Aagaard – a dazzling dyad of domination in endgame literature.

This book advocates the 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 move order for Black with 3.Nc3 Bb4 having been covered in the sister volume Playing the Nimzo-Indian. By waiting for the knight to appear on f3 before transposing to a Queen’s Gambit, Black reduces White’s options.

Spanish GM Renier Castellanos completes his cutting-edge repertoire for Black against 1.d4, with the Vienna Variation (4.Nc3 dxc4) and Catalan (4.g3 dxc4) the biggest topics. This book also provides thorough guidance against all of White’s significant alternatives on moves 2-4.

With thoughtful explanations backed up by precise analysis, Beating the Queen’s Gambit Indian Style! provides everything you need to handle 1.d4 Nf6 variations where White avoids the Nimzo-Indian Defence.