Street Smart Chess is an expert guide to scoring more points at the chessboard. When does it pay off to play hard for a win? Or safe for a draw? And how do you adapt your playing style accordingly?

GM Axel Smith answers these questions, and more, by using a world-class player as a model for each chapter. Learn how Magnus Carlsen grinds out wins from level positions; how David Navara beats lower-rated opponents, and how Baskaran Adhiban beats higher-rated ones! Or serve-and-volley in the opening like Peter Heine Nielsen.

Playing well is a good start in chess, but you also need to be Street Smart.

Axel Smith is the award-winning author of The Woodpecker Method, Pump Up Your Rating and e3 Poison, which were all enthusiastically received by readers and reviewers. Using the Woodpecker as part of his training, as an adult he improved from a rating of 2100 to becoming a Grandmaster.

“To utilize the Giuoco Pianissimo successfully, a club player needs only to master the general ideas of this setup, without overloading their brain with hundreds of variations. At the same time, they find themselves in the pleasant company of the world’s elite, and may even pick up recommendations to improve their opening from top grandmasters. Of course, such interactions will bring an amateur some concrete benefits in the opening, but more importantly it will increase their understanding of the game as a whole, because they will start to learn from the games of high-level players, with a vested interest!” ~ Alexander Kalinin & Nikolai Kalinichenko

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

The experiments have continued in the many online events held during the OTB lockdown. That makes excellent Forum material! Han Schut writes about Magnus Carlsen’s 7.g4 in the QGD (it gets played earlier and earlier) and René Olthof was pleasantly surprised by a Vasily Ivanchuk win with the King’s Gambit – an opening on which we also have a Survey, for the first time in ages, by Bogdan Lalic. And be sure not to miss Krishnan Sasikiran’s amazing analysis of a recent correspondence game featuring the Anti-Sveshnikov Sicilian.

From Our Own Correspondent

This time Erwin l’Ami presents a mixture of standard and non-standard openings. You’ll be surprised to know that From’s Gambit seems to hold up even in correspondence games! That is an encouraging thought for all those gambiteers out there. The Catalan and the QGD are also extensively scrutinized, the latter with a correspondence game by the Dutch GM himself, and he concludes with a study of two nice offbeat openings.

Reviews

The same juxtaposition as in the Correspondence column can also be found in Glenn Flear’s reviews this time. A Complete Opening Repertoire for Black after 1.e4 e5! by new author Yuriy Krykun (who will be awarded the IM title soon and has also written Surveys for us) features some fresh out-of-the-box ideas, and this is even more so in the case of Unconventional Approaches to Modern Chess Volumes 1 and 2 by Alexander Ipatov, whose middle name seems to be ‘Unorthodox’. More classical approaches can be found in Martyn Kravtsiv’s thorough work The Italian Renaissance (also 2 volumes!) and Squeezing 1.e4 e5: a solid strategic approach by Alexander Khalifman and Sergei Soloviov.

This book is written with the intention to introduce the reader to the creative chess ideas of Michael Basman. He gave up more intense regular tournament chess around the turn of the millennium, to concentrate his energy on the development of school chess. And that is what he is mainly known for in recent times, as the motor who made the UK Chess Challenge blossom. Nowadays the yearly nation-wide school competition still attracts around 40,000 children, and that is not even the record. […]

In my first volume of the Anti-Sicilians, we will be examining the Rossolimo variation. The Sveshnikov and Classical Sicilians, where Black begins with 2 ... Nc6, have consistently been a popular way for Black to acquire counter-attacking chances straight from the opening. These openings are the favorites of many top level Grandmasters; none more so than Magnus Carlsen, who most famously fashioned the Sveshnikov Sicilian against Fabiano Caruana in the 2018 World Championship match. The Rossolimo variation with 3.Bb5 is the clearest indication that we are attempting to frustrate Black’s counterplay. By delaying opening the center, we can simply wait for Black to show us how he intends to continue before we make any big commitments. Most importantly, we have the positional threat of Bxc6, which Black has to be wary of if he himself tries to open the center too quickly. In nearly all variations our principal aim is to achieve rapid development, ensuring optimal conditions for a timely central break. In the main three systems (3 ... d6, 3 ... e6 and 3 ... g6), my multiple suggestions are based on the dual concepts of playing as actively as possible, whilst simultaneously frustrating Black’s ideals.

The first volume dealt with the Najdorf and Scheveningen variations, and it is now time to pay attention to three other extremely popular systems: the Taimanov, Kan and Richter-Rauzer variations. After careful consideration within the Thinkers Publishing team, we decided that it made sense to group these variations together. In particular, the first two are closely related and share the feature that, in both cases, Black plays …e7-e6 and …a7-a6 at an early stage. They typically have the idea of retaining more options for their king’s bishop by postponing …d7-d6 (or even omitting it entirely.) The bishop may go to b4 or c5 in different lines.

006 Key to Symbols

009 Foreword by Le Quang Liem

010 Introduction

PART I - Alternatives to the modern major lines

015 Chapter 1 - Questionable setups for Black

019 Chapter 2 - Bird’s Defense

031 Chapter 3 - Schliemann Defense

053 Chapter 4 - Cozio Defense

073 Chapter 5 - Smyslov Defense

091 Chapter 6 - Classical Defense

111 Chapter 7 - Steinitz Defense

145 Chapter 8 - Norwegian Variation

151 Chapter 9 - Averbakh Variation

PART II - Berlin Defense

173 Chapter 10 - 4.0-0: Sidelines on move 4

179 Chapter 11 - 4.0-0: Sidelines on move 5 and 6

201 Chapter 12 – 4.0-0: Black plays 7...Nf5

239 Chapter 13 – 4.0-0: Black plays 7...Nxe5

303 Chapter 14 - 4.d3: Sidelines on move 4

315 Chapter 15 - 4.d3: Black plays 4...d6

337 Chapter 16 - 4.d3: Black plays 4...Bc5

PART III - Ruy Lopez Open Defense

391 Chapter 17 - Sidelines on move 6 and 7

405 Chapter 18 - White plays 8.Nxe5

425 Chapter 19 - White plays 8.dxe5 (9...Bc5 and 9...Nc5)

469 Chapter 20 - White plays 8.dxe5 (9...Be7)

Книга рассказывает о шахматных соревнованиях в 1945 году. Об участии советских (российских) шахматистов в соревнованиях за рубежом... В 1945 году - это был в основном Алехин. Рассказывается о главных соревнованиях: чемпионаты СССР, республик, городов, областей, спортивных обществ... Освещены только очные соревнования... Основное внимание в книге посвящено РСФСР. Освещены события и отдельно по областям, краям, республикам. Издание энциклопедического формата тиражом 45 экземпляров!

Pentala Harikrishna shows you the ins and outs of the French Defense.

Make the next step in your chess development.

The French Defence is coming back to fashion again!

Новая работа заслуженного тренера Белоруссии, автора классических трудов «Стратегия эндшпиля» и «Контуры эндшпиля», – о понимании современной игры в сложном игровом эндшпиле.

Из предисловия 14-го чемпиона мира Владимира Крамника: «В юности, когда я только начинал изучать шахматы, одной из, можно сказать, «библий» по игровым окончаниям была книга этого же автора «Стратегия эндшпиля». Она считалась «канонической», все тренеры в Советском Союзе рекомендовали своим ученикам: «Читай Шерешевского!» Я сам внимательно проштудировал эту книжку, и мне она очень понравилась. Слышал, что она понравилась и Магнусу Карлсену – понятное дело, много лет спустя. Книга «С молодежью – в эндшпиль» продолжает ту же линию, но назвать ее «вторым изданием», конечно, будет несправедливо – в ней очень много нового. Причем не просто дополнительных свежих примеров (по объему этот двухтомник, наверное, раза в 3-4 больше советской книжки в мягком переплете), но и оригинальных концепций, новых подходов к изучению эндшпиля».

Книга адресована, в первую очередь, юным шахматистам, их тренерам и родителям, но будет полезна всем любителям шахмат независимо от возраста и квалификации.

Первый капитальный труд, посвящённый замечательному шахматисту, дважды игравшему матч за звание чемпиона мира, Ефиму Дмитриевичу Боголюбову. В шахматной литературе творчество Боголюбова представлено недостаточно широко. А между тем шахматное наследие одного из величайших шахматистов первой половины XX века - это кладезь шахматных идей и приёмов.

Первая часть книги представляет собой биографический очерк, дополненный редкими, ранее неизвестными документами и фотографиями. Во второй части, где рассматривается шахматное творчество Боголюбова, даётся его творческий портрет. Тематическое разбиение партий Боголюбова выпукло иллюстрирует широту диапазона его мастерства. Творчество Боголюбова настолько многогранно, что из его партий можно подобрать пример на любую тему общей шахматной теории.

Подробные комментарии, распределение материала по темам делают книгу хорошим учебником шахматной игры.

Do you like active piece play? Fighting for the initiative from move one? The Tarrasch Defense just may be what you are looking for.

Its advantages include:

It can be played against pretty much anything: 1.Nf3, 1.c4, 1.g3, 1.d4. Play 1...e6, 2...d5 and 3...c5 and you are there!

It leads most of the time to a typical IQP pawn structure, and it is difficult for the opponent to shape the game into another course.

Black’s pieces naturally enjoy open lines and active posts so it’s easy to play the opening moves quickly and successfully!

Keep cool and find creative solutions when under pressure and attack.

Only the very best dared to play for a win against Tigran Petrosian. The 9th World Champion was extremely difficult to beat because his defensive techniques were virtually unmatched. In the rare case that someone managed to bring him into difficulties they ran a serious risk of having to face a vicious counterattack.

Piąta część z serii Repertuar Arcymistrza 1.e4

Everyone knows they should work on their endgame play. So many hard-earned advantages are squandered in ‘simple’ endings... But it’s tough finding a way to study endings that doesn’t send you to sleep and that helps you actually remember and apply what you have learnt.

There is no doubt that the Nimzovich Defense is one of Black’s most inspiring openings after 1.e4. Black strives to unbalance the position by creating new problems for White from move two, giving himself every opportunity to fight for the initiative from the outset. It is no surprise that 1 ... Nc6 appeals ambitious players who relish a complicated battle. In this book, GM Christian Bauer explains how to use this powerful weapon drawing from his own successful experiences. He is not shy to show you the fundamental ideas, the traps, the pitfalls and naturally the move order subtleties which play such an important role in our modern game of chess. We are convinced this book will give you plenty of confidence and make your opponent think more than twice.

Вниманию читателей предлагается вторая и заключительная книга из серии «Недооценка контригры соперника». На этот раз она посвящена миттельшпилю. Авторы подобрали 111 учебных примеров из партий современных гроссмейстеров, сыгранных исключительно в 2019 году.

По статистке большинство партий заканчивается уже в миттельшпиле. Поэтому крайне важно уметь хорошо разыгрывать именно эту стадию шахматной партии. Авторы постарались таким образом систематизировать материал, разбив его на соответствующие главы, чтобы работа над книгой дала максимально продуктивный результат, появлялись новые знания и вырабатывались профессиональные навыки правильного разыгрывания миттельшпиля.

Книга предназначена для тренеров, шахматистов-разрядников и широкого круга любителей шахмат.

Из предисловия 14-го чемпиона мира Владимира Крамника: «В юности, когда я только начинал изучать шахматы, одной из, можно сказать, «библий» по игровым окончаниям была книга этого же автора «Стратегия эндшпиля». Она считалась «канонической», все тренеры в Советском Союзе рекомендовали своим ученикам: «Читай Шерешевского!» Я сам внимательно проштудировал эту книжку, и мне она очень понравилась. Слышал, что она понравилась и Магнусу Карлсену – понятное дело, много лет спустя.  

In Technical Decision Making in Chess former World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand discusses his path to decision making in endgames and positions where one side possesses a structural or material advantage. This investigation into a top Grandmaster’s technical understanding will illuminate difficult parts of the game that many players find elusive. Concepts like the “Zone of one mistake” are certain to be a revelation to many.

Grandmaster Boris Gelfand has been an elite player for over 30 years, winning the World Cup, Olympiad Gold, the Candidates and many other top tournaments.

A book by stalwart chess writer on an aspect of chess that is quite common, but little is written about, swindling in chess. In chess, a swindle is a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent, and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss. Renown chess writers Horowitz and Reinfeld observe that swindles, "though ignored in virtually all chess books", "play an enormously important role in over-the-board chess, and decide the fate of countless games".

Andrew Soltis, American chess journalist, says swindles are not accidental or a matter of luck. Swindling is a skill. But there has been almost nothing written about how to do it, how to make yourself lucky in chess. Swindling means setting traps that exploit an opponent’s over-confidence. It means choosing the move that has the greatest chance of winning, rather than the move that has the least chance of losing.

Soltis’ new proposal will explain to players of all levels how to do just that with plenty of examples to explain along the way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

International Grandmaster Andrew Soltis is chess correspondent for the New York Post and a very popular chess writer. He is the author of many books including What it Takes to Become a Chess Master, Studying Chess Made Easy and David Vs Goliath Chess.

Данная книга содержит большой пласт теоретической и практической информации, связанной с заключительной стадией шахматной партии – эндшпилем. Автор исследовал и представляет на суд читателя более 100 эпизодов шахматной борьбы из партий, сыгранных 137 гроссмейстерами из более чем 40 стран мира исключительно в 2019 году. Целью данной книги является развитие навыков правильной оценки позиций, встречающихся в шахматных партиях, нахождение путей опровержения, сделанного гроссмейстером или мастером ошибочного хода, и, соответственно, определение сильнейшего хода в предлагаемых примерах.

Книга предназначена для работы шахматных тренеров и самостоятельного изучения квалифицированными шахматистами.

Autor: Lew Polugajewski, 1987 rok wyd., Sportverlag Berlin, 248 str., oprawa twarda, język niemiecki.

The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence provides a battleground for one of the key conflicts in chess: structure versus activity. Black voluntarily accepts a weak pawn formation but in return obtains easy development and excellent piece activity. This is a line that finds favour with aggressive, attacking players who are confident in their tactical ability. The idea of playing ...e5 in the Sicilian is an old one but the modern Sveshnikov treatment was developed in the 1970s, since when it has featured in the repertoires of numerous elite players. It is currently experiencing great popularity due to the fact that it was Magnus Carlsen’s choice in his World Championship Match against Fabiano Caruana in London 2018. Carlsen’s success with the line was a significant factor in his eventual victory in the match. Since then he has continued to use the Sveshnikov with great success.

With the ascent of computer technology, humans have a chance to develop their thinking process based on hard evidence. Think Like a Machine explores human limitations and proposes new avenues for human thinking, inspired by computer engines.

In positions taken almost exclusively from modern tournament play, the authors present jaw-dropping continuations which humans struggle to find, not due to lower human computing power, due to conceptual and perceptual limitations. In this book these “crazy” moves are analysed and categorised. If you want to expand your chess imagination, understanding and intuition, Think Like a Machine is the book is for you.

Think Like A Machine is the second chess book co-written by Noam Manella and Zeev Zohar . Manella is a digital and Social Networks Researcher; Zohar is an accountant and businessman. Their previous book, Play Unconventional Chess and Win, was a highlight in chess publishing in 2014.

The Petroff Defence is universally recognised as one of Black’s soundest responses to 1.e4, having been tried and tested by a host of World Champions and other elite players. This book shows how you too can harness the power of this top-class opening.

Playing the Petroff offers an ideal solution for practical players. GM Swapnil Dhopade presents a compact yet bulletproof repertoire for Black, drawing on the games of leading Petroff specialists such as Gelfand, Caruana and Kramnik. This book also provides guidance on how to deal with 1.e4 e5 games where White avoids 2.Nf3, with particular focus on ‘Anti-Petroff ’ lines such as 2.Bc4.

If you want a world-class repertoire but lack a world-class memory, this is the book for you.

Swapnil Dhopade is a young Indian Grandmaster and a renowned coach, including of the Indian Women’s Team. His other students include Raunak Sadhwani who achieved the GM title at age 13.

Yaroslav Zherebukh was born in July 1993 in Lviv, Ukraine. He earned the Grandmaster title in January of 2009 at 15.5 years of age. In 2011 Yaro participated in the World Cup where he was seeded 97 th out of 128 contestants. He won his first three matches against Pavel Eljanov, Ruben Felgaer and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov before losing to David Navara. In 2013 he moved to the United States shifting his focus to coaching and academics. In 2017 he competed in the US championship where he scored a spectacular win over world #2 Fabiano Caruana and qualified to the 2017 World Cup! He has coached a plethora of talented American youths induding world dass GM Jeffery Xiong. Besides his chess activities, Yaro holds an MS in financial economics from Saint Louis University and has experience working for private equity firms in New York City.

The Modernized Grünfeld Defense will be extremely helpful for any chess player looking for a reliable lifetime repertoire against White's 1.d4. It will benefit current Grünfeld players as Yaro unveils his analysis and numerous novelties waiting to be played over the board.

Tytuł oryginalny: Стратегия атаки на короля (2-е изд.)
Wydawnictwo: Kaliniczenko, 2020
Autor: A. S. Wołczok
Język wydania: rosyjski
Ilość stron: 168
Oprawa: twarda
ISBN: 9785907234116

Александр Сергеевич Волчок — известный шахматный литератор, международный гроссмейстер ИКЧФ, мастер спорта СССР по шахматам.

О форме стратегии, в которой тактика находит наибольшее применение, — атаке на короля — рассказывает эта книга. Автор знакомит читателя с типичными и оригинальными стратегическими планами игры, описывает характерные ошибки и упущения, порождающие условия для проведения ранних и внезапных наступлений на короля, показывает пути создания атаки.

Данный труд заслуженно стал классическим учебником в теме атаки на короля. Новое издание прошло тщательную компьютерную редактуру, также в книгу были внесены необходимые исправления и уточнения.

Учебник может быть полезен не только для шахматистов высших разрядов, но и для широкого круга читателей.

Realizacja zamówienia do 7 dni roboczych 

Najbardziej osobisty partner szachowy jakiego możesz sobie wymarzyć!

Na tym szachowym komputerze grasz jak prawdziwy Król! Nowy The King Performance zawiera legendarny program szachowy The King Johana de Koninga.

Dzięki klasycznemu, harmonijnemu designowi, wykonanemu z prawdziwego drewna o wymiarach 40 x 40 cm możemy cieszyć się idealnym komputerem do gry w domu.
Ręcznie wykonane figurki z prawdziwego drewna doskonale dopełniają wrażenie wysokiej jakości.
Szachownica o wyglądzie drewna oferuje 81 diod LED wskazujących ruch, a nowa technologia czujników HighSensitive zapewnia bardzo wygodną zabawę.

"Winning with 1.d4!" offers a complete repertoire for d4 players against all plausible responses. The recommendations were selected with the main goal of enabling the reader to leave out vast amounts of opening theory and to concentrate on a comprehensible number of lines that promise some initiative and active play and often even an opening advantage. Here is what you can expect from "Winning with 1.d4!":

Well chosen promising opening systems from the abundance of theory

- Easily understandable presentation and thorough discussion of ideas and plans

- Novelties and other discoveries from current tournaments, both in classical and in correspondence chess

- Annotated games for your practical training

FM Jerzy Konikowski has published a large number of excellent opening books. Uwe Bekemann is a national master in correspondence chess and has published several books on gambits.

A winning streak in chess, says Cyrus Lakdawala, is a lot more than just the sum of its games. In this book he examines what it means when everything clicks, when champions become unstoppable and demolish opponents. What does it mean to be ‘in the zone’? What causes these sweeps, what sparks them and what keeps them going? And why did they come to an end?

Lakdawala takes you on a trip through chess history looking at peak performances of some of the greatest players who ever lived: Morphy, Steinitz, Pillsbury, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Fischer, Tal, Kasparov, Karpov, Caruana and Carlsen. They all had very different playing styles, yet at a certain point in their rich careers they all entered the zone and simply wiped out the best players in the world.

In the Zone explains the games of the greatest players during their greatest triumphs. As you study and enjoy these immortal performances you will improve your ability to overpower your opponents. You will understand how great moves originate and you will be inspired to become more productive and creative. In the Zone may bring you closer to that special place yourself: the zone.

Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master and a former American Open Champion. He has been teaching chess for four decades and is a prolific and widely read author. His Chess for Hawks won the Best Instructional Book Award of the Chess Journalists of America (CJA). Other much acclaimed books of his are How Ulf Beats Black, Clinch It! and Winning Ugly in Chess.