Guidelines for the Fundamentals of the Endgame

There are many books devoted to basic endgames, even from the Middle Ages. Principles of typical endgames (such as keeping the rook behind a passed pawn, not setting pawns on the same colored squares as your bishop’s, distant pawns being more dangerous than central ones etc.) are well known too. But what about “complex endgames”? I have in mind endgames with at least two pieces on each side; well I don’t find them often nor sufficiently well-explained in the past! It is exactly this fact (together with my passion and great endgame experience) that has motivated me to write this book (many friends simply call me “Endgame Wizard” ).

Try to expand your knowledge in the 3.c3 variation and go beyond the book’s content Deepen your knowledge in 3.c4 variation and do not play it before you know it well. Finally, follow the very strong GM Vladislav Artemiev, who has had a relatively successful run with this opening in rapid online events.

The most famous team ever participating in a chess pub quiz was MC Hammer. The team members are pretty decent chess players and happened to know their bit of chess trivia and chess history. Do you know or can you guess their names?

This book offers a collection of hundreds of chess trivia and chess-related trivia. You can use it by yourself, solving puzzles. Or you can use the book for multiple thematic pub quizzes at your local chess café or chess club.

Enjoy. The best game ever.

Zlotnik covers a wide variety of topics and uses a wealth of material. Readers will love this new book, as they did his first book, Zlotnik's Middlegame Manual. 'A brilliant, important and extraordinarily instructive book', said Florian Jacobs, the book reviewer for the Max Euwe Center in Amsterdam. 'This is how probing, rich and motivating studying chess can be.'

Grandmaster Training Camp 1 – Calculation! offers you a unique chance to participate in a training camp with Super-GM Sam Shankland, as he works through 300 problems set to him by his long-time trainer. Sam shares what he saw, what he did not see, and what he thinks about the problems and the skills needed to solve them.

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.

Защита Каро-Канн – один из самых популярных современных дебютов, который прочно входит в репертуар большинства элитных шахматистов. 

2-е издание, переработанное и дополненное, популярной монографии, которая посвящена одному из самых боевых современных дебютов – староиндийской защите. 

Первый капитальный труд, посвящённый Рудольфу Шпильману – одному из сильнейших шахматистов мира первой половины 20-го века. В начале книги даётся биографический очерк, дополненный редкими фотографиями. В основной её части – шахматной, через глубокий анализ более чем 200 партий автор рисует творческий портрет Шпильмана. Подробные комментарии, тематическое разбиение материала делают книгу настоящим учебником шахматной игры. В приложении приведена знаменитая статья Шпильмана «У постели больного королевского гамбита».

Для широкого круга любителей шахмат.

How often have you seen a game like this?

The hero has no advantage whatsoever but somehow manages to keep setting the opponent problems. Their opponent goes slightly astray and suddenly hero has a tiny advantage. It’s not much but now that they have a little something to work with, they are in their element. They play accurately and remorselessly and make life incredibly difficult for their opponent. Suddenly, and almost imperceptibly, their advantage increases. Further tiny inaccuracies follow, hero turns the screw and bags the full point. Their opponent is left shaking their head, wondering where on earth they went wrong.

Do you struggle to score against the Hedgehog and find it difficult to break the Black fortress? This opening manual, which could double as a positional middlegame manual, will show you how White can use a space advantage in this chess opening with maximum results.

The Tarrasch Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined is a fierce counter-attacking line arising after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5. In this variation Black gains free and easy piece play but in return usually has to accept the structural weakness of an Isolated Queen’s Pawn (IQP). In the early development of chess theory this line was somewhat frowned upon due to the vulnerability of the IQP. However, Siegbert Tarrasch, after whom the opening is named, famously declared that, “he who fears an Isolated Queen’s Pawn should give up chess”.

The biggest selection of composed endings with up to seven pieces on the board.

Solving endgame studies has become a major working tool in modern chess training combining the instructive with the enjoyable. Studies are highly recommended for refining calculating and tactical skills, deepening endgame understanding, as well as improving creativity and out of the box thinking.

A Solid and Straightforward Chess Opening Repertoire for Black

Looking for an easy-to-learn yet super-solid repertoire for Black against everything, which doesn’t require endless memorization of sharp theoretical lines? It’s here – and it was voted the best opening course on Chessable by the users of the most popular chess learning platform.

Presents 350 pages of the very best in chess:

Leitao – Opening Trends in South American Chess

Moradiabadi – European Club Cup (Tournament Review)

Navara – European Club Cup – Novy Bor

Shyam Sundar – This or That? – Part 2

Gormally – 4NCL and Crypto Blitz (Tournament Review)

Marin – Benoni Files (Old Wine in New Bottles)

Kotronias – King’s Indian – Fianchetto Variation (Survey)

Perelshteyn – Dzindzi-Indian (Theoretical Survey)

Davies – The 3…g6 Ruy Lopez – Part 2 (Theoretical Survey)

Perunovic – Catalan (Theoretical Survey)

Rogers – Toluca 1982 Interzonal (Roger’s Reminiscences)

Griffin – Karpov – Timman 1981(From Informant Archives)

Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, 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!

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!

Юрий Рафаэлович Дохоян (1964-2021) – гроссмейстер, заслуженный тренер России, сеньор-тренер ФИДЕ. Более 10 лет являлся тренером-секундантом Гарри Каспарова, а также тренировал сестер Татьяну и Надежду Косинцевых, Сергея Карякина и Андрея Есипенко, был главным тренером женской и мужской сборных России.

Я играю в шахматы около пятидесяти лет, из них свыше тридцати – на высшем уровне. Наверное, пришло время поделиться самыми памятными встречами. В первый том вошли партии, сыгранные в XX веке» (Б. Гельфанд).

Podręcznik strategii i taktyki szachowej.

В последнее время лондонская система все чаще применяется на практике, и причины этого очевидны. Белые могут опровергнуть почти любой ответ противника на 1.d4 с помощью надежных и простых в освоении вариантов. В процессе у вас появится выбор между стратегическим подходом и более агрессивной тактической игрой, и при этом вам не придется изучать все тома по дебютной теории! Идеальный вариант для шахматистов, у которых не так много времени на тщательный анализ.

Таль Михаил Нехемьевич (9.11.1936—28.06.1992) восьмой чемпион мира (1960—1961), международный гроссмейстер (1957). Чемпион Латвии 1953, 1965 гг. Чемпион СССР 1957, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978 гг. 

1200 CHESS COMBINATIONS

Решебник международного гроссмейстера и опытного тренера (в числе учеников которого А. Грищук) Максима Блоха содержит свыше 1200 комбинаций из практических партий и специально составленных примеров.

Данное учебное пособие адресовано тем, кто хочет самостоятельно научиться играть в шахматы и совершенствоваться дальше. Поурочный метод изложения, а также многочисленные упражнения способствуют последовательному усвоению правил и законов, составляющих основу шахматной игры. 

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. 

The only complete Encyclopaedia of Chess Problems ever written is available once again as a polished reprint of the original edition.

The life work of GMs Milan Velimirovic and Kari Valtonen is a must for any chess lover and enthusiast!

Tiviakov's Unbeatable Strategies: Pawn Structures

A fun & tricky ambush weapon for Black against 1.e4? In this book, the authors cover the exciting 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6!? which players like Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, and other strong players have used with powerful effect to drag White players out of their comfort zones into Black's domain.

The authors are pulling games from many resources, including their own experiments with the opening to illustrate how it is possible to beat titled players right out of the opening by shocking White's system and beliefs.

The Basman-Williams Attack arises after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4, which was first played by the inventive and creative English International Master Michael Basman in the 1970s and later adopted & developed by English Grandmaster Simon Williams. Nowadays, it has become a weapon used by several top grandmasters and it was even adopted for use in the recent Candidates tournament by Chinese top grandmaster and former world number 2, Ding Liren. It is a fun way to avoid Black's intentions of playing the main line theory of the King's Indian and Grunfeld Indian defenses.

The King’s Indian Defense has a reputation as a sharp combative opening where Black aims to attack on the kingside, usually through a pawn storm supported by heavier artillery.

Goethe once wrote, “Everything is both simpler than we can imagine, and more complicated than we can conceive.” He could well have had chess endgames in mind. Endgames have fewer pieces on the board than middlegames but this does not necessarily make them “easier” to play or understand.

What exactly makes the greatest players of all time, such as Magnus Carlsen, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov stand out from the rest? The basic aspects of chess (calculation, study of opening theory, and technical endgame ability) are of course of great importance. However, the more mysterious part of chess ability lies within the thought process.

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.

Learn from the legacy of one of the most talented players to ever grace the chess world.

All elements of the game explained in an easy-to-digest and highly entertaining fashion.

Judit Polgar is the strongest female chess player of all time. From an early age on the Hungarian prodigy baffled the world with her sensational triumphs. At the age of 15 she beat Bobby Fischer’s record to become the youngest grandmaster in history. During her glorious career, which she ended in 2014, she defeated World Champions Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen.

Have you ever wondered why strong chess players immediately grasp what is happening in complex positions? The secret is pawn structures. The pawn structure dictates the game's flow, and different structures require distinct approaches. You can improve your game by studying a large variety of pawn structures and the Hidden Laws of Chess.

Volume 1: Exercises and Training for Club Players (1800 - 2100)

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

What separates the best chess players from the rest? What gives them the edge over their rivals? Chess legend Vladimir Kramnik believes it’s their fighting skills and the ability to continuously find ways to keep a game alive. Colin Crouch agrees, and is fascinated that the world’s strongest players seem almost unbeatable, even when play appears sharp and double-edged. In this book Crouch examines the tremendous fighting qualities of today’s top players. Analysing key games from 2012, Crouch demonstrates how they give nothing away to their opponents but are always alert to punish any slight errors, and how we can apply these lessons from top-level chess to help us in our own games.

Grandmaster Simon Williams presents an ambitious opening repertoire for Black in the ever-popular French Defence. One of the world's most creative players combines his attacking alent with the traditionally solid French structure, resulting in a powerful armoury of opening weapons. This will prove ideal for players who like to seize the initiative and cause problems for their opponents from the outset. Williams' recommendations in the French are based on his own repertoire which he has successfully employed at Grandmaster level.

A highly adventurous repertoire designed to meet 1 e4 with 1...e5 and take the initiative!

The main problem Black faces in answering 1 e4 with 1...e5 is the plethora of opening systems available to White: the Ruy Lopez, Giuoco Piano, Scotch, Ponziani, King’s Gambit, Vienna, Bishop’s Opening and so on. Each is likely to be White’s pet line, which usually means conducting the chess battle on the opponent’s turf.

Do you wish to surprise your opponent on the first move?

Do you enjoy playing creatively from the beginning of the game?

Look no further than 1 b4!

With this aggressive pawn lunge White takes the game into relatively unknown territory and forces Black players onto their own devices.

In this landmark book, Yury Lapshun and Nick Conticello take an in-depth look at 1 b4. The authors provide a practical and fun-to-play repertoire for White, offering options against all of Black's main possibilities. Read this book and confound your opponents with 1 b4!

In 2018 DeepMind published the shocking results of their chess-playing artificial intelligence software, AlphaZero. Chess players looked in disbelief and immediately wondered how AI would affect the future of chess. Less than a year later, a whole new wave of chess engines emerged that were based on using neural networks to evaluate positions in a completely new way. This book is about the extraordinary impact that AI has had on modern chess.