This fascinating biography of over eighty-five annotated games and stories are being presented by grandmasters Georg Mohr and Adrian Mikhalchishin. It covers Planinc’ entire life and chess career, including his most fascinating games. This fitting tribute of a forgotten chess genius should be found in anyone’s chess library. Thanks to this colorful book Albin Planinc will continue to inspire us all and will keep his spirit alive.

New In Chess Yearbook, which appears four times a year, contains the latest news in chess openings. Each issue brings you dozens of new ideas on the cutting edge of modern chess opening theory. Have a look at what this issue has to offer.

Forum

This issue’s Forum Section features an article by René Olthof on the stunning piece sacrifice with which Fabiano Caruana took Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by surprise in the second leg of the Candidates Tournament. This is followed by some unique analysis material by Ganguly on a game he lost against Pavel Eljanov! Two other grandmasters, Mikheil Mchedlishvili and Max Warmerdam, also made a contribution, and you should certainly check out IJntze Hoekstra’s short but intriguing note to the book Side-Stepping Mainline Theory by Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins!

From Our Own Correspondent

Our GM correspondent Erwin l’Ami starts his column with a good equalizing method for Black in the Tarrasch and then presents a thorough analysis of a correspondence game with the Delayed Poisoned Pawn in the Najdorf. L’Ami has played the Black side of Kramnik’s QGD endgame and demonstrates that Black is OK here – which cannot be said of his two final subjects, the Poisoned Pawn line in the London System and the Winawer French with 7…0-0.

Reviews

Part of Glenn Flear’s Reviews column is dedicated to modern media again. The 2-volume ebook The Modern French by Kryakvin is reviewed and compared to two other recent works on the French: Anish Giri’s awesome Lifetime repertoire course; The French Defense (for Chessable) and Pentala Harikrishna’s book Beat the French Defence with 3.Nc3. The Englishman also pays attention to Ilya Smirin’s book Sicilian Warfare – arguably more than just an opening book – and of course the latest masterpiece by Parimarjan Negi: Grandmaster repertoire: 1.e4 vs Minor Defences.

Are you ready for new strategic insights about thirty-five of the most fascinating and complex chess games ever played by World Champions and other top grandmasters? Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and renowned chess writer Steve Giddins take a fresh look at some classic games ranging from Anderssen-Dufresne, played in 1852, to Botvinnik-Bronstein (1951) and Geller-Euwe (1953). They unleashed the collective power of Leela, Komodo and Stockfish to help us humans understand what happened in games of fan favourites such as Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Bent Larsen and Bobby Fischer.

The Caro-Kann Defence arises after the moves 1 e4 c6. With this first move Black (as is also the case with the French Defence - 1 e4 e6) plans 2 ... d5, establishing a well-protected central pawn. The Caro-Kann has a reputation as a rock solid defence that minimises the risk of Black being subjected to undue early pressure. Rather than inviting the opponent to engage in immediate warfare, Black focuses on completing development comfortably and postponng the serious battle until the middlegame. It is notable that the White systems which try to batter the Caro-Kann into early submission are highly double-edged and often rebound badly.

Alojzije Jankovic (1983) is a grandmaster and FIDE trainer from Croatia. In 2010 he shared first pl ace in the Croatian National Championship, was national champion in 2015, shared third place with Croatia in the European Team Championships 2017 and played for Croatia in the Olympiad. He won several international tournaments and also hosts weekly the broadcast 'Chess commentary', Croatian national tv, third channel. This is his second book for Thinkers Publishing, after his successful co-edition with GM Z. Kozul on the 'Richter Rauzer Reborn' updated version 2019.

By going through the chapters of my book, you will get acquainted with my way of grandmaster type thinking. I can assure you of one thing: there are better and weaker grandmasters, but you won't find a GM who is playing without ideas or, let's say, without his way of thinking! As you will find out, I am basically trying to detect the problem or goal of the position and then I am starting to scan factors which can lead to the solution. That process you will find in many examples in the book.

GM Alojzije Jankovic, April 2020.

BRAK NA MAGAZYNIE - produkt może zostać sprowadzony "NA ZAMÓWIENIE"

The Dawn of the Planet of the b-Pawns!

“There can be no Plan B because there is no Planet B,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We disagree when it comes to chess. In this book you will see analyzed not only 1.d4 b5 (the Polish Defense) but also the St. George Defense (1.e4 e6 2.d4 a6 intending 3...b5), 1.Nf3 b5, also 1.f4 b5 and, most shocking of all, 1.e4 a6 2.d4 b5. Grandmasters have lost to these systems; other Grandmasters even try them out themselves when they have the black pieces. No, an early ...b7-b5 is not Plan A. However, if you want to humiliate the opposition by being literally eccentric (off-center) and disrespectful ... Welcome to Planet B!

The fundamental purpose of Black’s aggressive and provocative move with the d-pawn is to create immediate central tension and to exploit the latent power of the queen on her starting square. Remember Lasker’s observation: “Black’s idea is to make use of the great fighting power of the queen in the opening”. 

An Active Repertoire

The Sicilian Sveshnikov arises after the opening moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5, and is an ideal weapon based on sound principles of fast development and seizing central space. Decades of practical testing and analysis have proved the theoretical soundness of Black’s system, and its dynamic counterattacking potential makes it a popular choice among club players and top grandmasters alike.

A good start is half the battle. Experienced American chess coach Dean Ippolito has trained thousands beginners and adult improvers and knows exactly how you should build your opening knowledge.

Many club players think that studying chess is all about cramming as much information in their brain as they can. Most textbooks support that notion by stressing the importance of always trying to find the objectively best move. As a result amateur players are spending way too much time worrying about subtleties that are really only relevant for grandmasters.

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.

Вы держите в руках задачник, составленный по партиям Алирезы Фирузджи - ярчайшего мастера комбинационной игры с феноменальным тактическим дарованием. Здесь представлены одни из самых интересных шахматных позиций из партий выдающегося шахматиста. Задача - найти решение в ситуациях, с которыми в ходе партии сталкивался сам Фирузджа.