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All the fundamental endgames are coveredFull of practical tips and opinionsWritten by an prominent endgame masterUnique structure with an educational purpose

Het schaken is bijzonder geschikt voor de totale ontwikkeling van elk kind. Omdat jonge kinderen de figuren op een schaakbord intrigerend vinden, bedacht Christel Minne (kleuterjuf en schaakcoach) een leuk en historisch prentenboek in rijmvorm om kleuters vanaf vier jaar mee te nemen in de wereld van het schaken. De tekeningen in het prentenboek zijn grappig en hebben als doel een visuele ondersteuning te bieden om de schaakregels te memoriseren. De bijhorende toolbox biedt bovendien tal van spelletjes en tips voor kinderen, ouders, grootouders, leerkrachten en therapeuten die het schaken willen (aan)leren. Ken je als volwassene niets van het schaken, dan biedt dit boek gezellige en ontspannen momenten om samen met je (klein) kind of een groep kinderen aan de slag te gaan.

·       Jan Boekelman has produced youwith a playable repertoire out of a somewhat sideline Opening, which nobodydared to touch to make it into an entire repertoire. ·       Try to expand your knowledge inthe 3.c3 variation and go beyond the book's content·       Deepen your knowledge in 3.c4variation and do not play it before you know it well·       Finally, follow the very strongGM Vladislav Artemiev, who has had a relatively successful run with thisopening in rapid online events.

This book is an expansion of Pandolfini’s commandments -  The author came up with 200 axioms, one-liners and mantras.  This list of 200 is an amalgamation from various sources including previous coaches. Things I’ve read, things I’ve seen in videos, conversations with other chess players and, of course, brutal losses over the board. I hope this list serves as primer for you before you go into battle, so that you remember key patterns and ideas, and also helps elevate your state of mind to that of a warrior going to war.

·           You may think such checkmates are a piece of cake and too easy. But you’ll see that some are not as simple as you may think.     And always remember: here in the book it’s written in big letters, “Mate in up to two moves”. In the game, though, there’s no such writing on the board and you have to see the mate yourself, preferably a few moves ahead.     Therefore it’s important that you know as many mate patterns as possible. I hope I can show you some that you did not know already or that you would not always recognize in a game.     Please take this training seriously; an important part of the road to playing better chess.

T Sound aggression against the Dutch Defence   Promises good attacking chances and avoids learning reams of theory about the Leningrad Dutch, the Stonewall or the Classical Dutch, opening set-ups our opponent knows everything about?    This book explores such a system for White with a complete repertoire based on the Staunton gambit.    A repertoire for White, with attention for various alternatives White may choose from along the way, and an in-depth analysis of all of Black's responses.

This book is a complete Black repertoire starting 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6, the exchange variation being the first chapter. It provides you with a lot of insights into this remarkable variation, the Ark, and entertains the reader with spectacular, resourceful lines to illustrate the ideas.  This book should also be interesting for those who just enjoy chess in general, not just for the fans of this line seeking new ideas! You don’t need to memorize everything to be able to play the variation successfully. Longer lines merely tend to be examples of how the game might develop, which help to enhance your understanding.

I have aimed to find a good balance of verbalexplanations without ignoring the hardcore variations you have to know. In caseyou find some of the analyses a bit too long, don’t be discouraged! They havebeen included mainly to illustrate the thematic ideas and show in whichdirection the game develops once the theoretical paths have been left. That’swhy I have actually decided to cover 37 games in their entirety, rather thancutting off my analysis with an evaluation. I believe that model games help youto better understand an opening, but certainly also the ensuing middle- andendgames. Just as in the The Modernized Sveshnikov,also in this book I have made frequently use of correspondence and enginegames. With a lack of over the board (elite) tournaments, most elite playersmade their switch to the world of online chess as well. These games with ashorter time control are often full of mistakes, but the opening stage is stillrelevant. Hence, I have decided to include these online games whenever Ithought them to be a useful addition to our repertoire. With the completion of this work and TheModernized Sveshnikov, I think I have succeeded in offering the reader acomplete, ambitious, and sound Black repertoire against 1.e4. I am incrediblysatisfied with the result of this work, as I think the mix of new ideas, beautifulvariations, model games, extensive analyses and explanation of key concepts willinspire many chess fans. I would like to wish you all an enjoyable read andhope that you will be able to apply some of my recommendations in your owngames. You no longer have to fear any Anti-Sicilian!  Robert Ris Amstelveen, The NetherlandsSeptember 2021

In "The Duel", Alessandro Bossi and Claudio Brovelli go deep into the lives ofthese two legendary World Champions, who have left their mark in an unforgettable manner on their epoch (the first forty years of the 20th century) and whoremain – in part, due to their very different personalities and relationship withthe game – inimitable examples for all the chess-playing generations to come.The choice to present in parallel the two biographies (in my opinion quite rightlyso), shows clearly and effectively similarities and differences, not only in the styleof play, but also in the approaches to life of the two protagonists.With very precise historical descriptions and presenting the events in chronological order, the authors accompany us on a journey alongside the lives of thesetwo legends of chess. In this fashion the personalities emerge, in many ways antithetical but equally fascinating: Capablanca, friendly and charming in society,precocious, genial and nearly invincible on the chessboard, and Alekhine, whocombined a wonderful talent with a capacity for work, a competitive attitude andan energy which was truly enviable.

The purpose of this series is to introduce the reader to advanced training concepts, using the same methods of presentation and instruction that were taught to great players by famous trainers that they have worked with. The series will commence with the The Passed Pawn and we will examine how to handle such pawns.Every chess player who wishes to improvehis level in the difficult subject of chess is obliged to study methodicallyand understand the existing principles that govern the theory of the opening,middlegame and endgame. Most chess players focus more on the study of openingtheory than other aspects of the game. The reasons are probably clear: openingtheory is easier to learn and can provide immediate results, although this isbased more on the opponent's ignorance than our own abilities. Even for a chesstrainer, it is easier to teach some variations from this or that opening or aset of simple tactical motifs than to engross himself in the exposition ofmiddlegame and endgame theory. Yes, middlegame and endgame theory does exist.The great difficulty in approaching it lies in the fact that it does not followabsolute and clear-cut paths, but rather involves deep research in the ideasand logic by which specific types of positions are treated. Moreover, unlikeopening theory, the theory of the middlegame and the endgame does not changerapidly based on modern developments; it remains almost intact through theyears. In view of the above, any chess player who wishes to follow a chesscareer or simply become a better player must refrain from the commonplace andassume a different approach. He must develop a good understanding of middlegameand endgame theory, so as to be able in his games to proceed in a proper wayafter his chosen opening has reached its conclusion. The chess player candifferentiate himself only in the opening; there, each one of us brings forthhis own beliefs and convictions, and in general his own experiences andreferences. Objectively, no opening loses ? but also no opening wins. Theopening is just the beginning of the journey and serves to offer us acomfortable start. But to reach the end of this journey successfully we have tocount on our knowledge and experience, as regards middlegame and endgametheory. Endgame theory teaches us two fundamental issues. First, how to extractthe maximum from a basic theoretical position with little material, where theexperts, from practice comprising thousands of games, have reached definiteconclusions. Second, the way in which we can handle an endgame, depending onthe material remaining on the board, and the ideas and plans we should employ.This second issue is significantly more difficult to master because, apart frommaking full use of the first one (we must be aware of the possible outcomes ofthe endgame in question) it is greatly influenced by our experience andunderstanding, which are basically derived from the images and impressions wehave from related positions. A primary role is played here by the effort wehave invested in studying. In middlegame theory, things are even tougher. Weare obliged to study various types of positions with specific strategic andtactical attributes, so as to understand the underlying ideas and be able toemploy them ourselves in similar situations. While many chess players havestudied these topics and acquired knowledge, it is the application of thisknowledge in practice that helps differentiate between them. Chess is not asimple activity, but it becomes so much more attractive when we acquire thisknowledge.

This book takes a closer look at the Classic mistakes by amateur playersinclude: 1. Moving a piece too often in the opening. This is one of themainstays which we think relates at least partly to the desire to createsomething in the opening, when we would be better advised to focus on simpledevelopment. 2. Impatience. Sometimes amateur players are too eager to changesomething when there really is no need. 3. Overgeneralizing. One of the biggestdifferences I’ve noticed when comparing professional play to amateur play is thatthe former is much more about concrete calculation - you go there, we go hereand so on - whereas an amateur player will have a tendency to overgeneralizewhen thinking about a position, perhaps because they are not used to the basicart of calculation. 4. Cutting variations off too quickly. Amateur players donot extend their calculation far enough, and thus superficiality tends to kickin. These and other mistakes are explained in the book. Of course itshould be noted that professional players also make these kinds of mistakes.

This book contains games from every singlefemale World Champion, as well as young up and comers, top seasonedprofessionals, streamers, and even a section at Beth Harmon from the recent famedQueen’s Gambit hit show. This book is not just for girls and women,however. Any chess player can learn from these games and discover female chesshistory, both from the famous players in the past right up to the present day. How have these games been selected?It is at this point I can mention the realreason- my UK Girls chess project called ‘She Plays To Win’ (SPTW). This group has officially been going sinceApril 11th 2020. I had the idea even a few years before, but I wasnot sure how it could be set up. The unfortunate events of worldwide lock-downprovided the answer, as the switch to being online allowed me to offer zoomlessons for UK girls as well as weekly girls tournaments on the Lichess server.I do this for free and parents have never paid anything to get involved. Each week I cover a top female player andwe analyse the game. Over the past year I have built up a large collection ofgames and tactics, which I felt could be published. It is the most up to datecollection about women’s chess covering a variety of ages and levels. After just one year, I have over 360 girlsacross the UK signed up, and a further 150 beginners in our new beginnersprogram. I hope this is just the beginning.

Endgame theory teaches us two fundamental issues: First, how to extract themaximum from a basic theoretical position with little material, where the experts(from practice comprising thousands of games) have reached definite conclusions.Second, the way in which we can handle an endgame, depending on the materialremaining on the board, and the ideas and plans we should employ.This second issue is significantly more difficult to master because, apart frommaking full use of the first one (we must be aware of the possible outcomes of theendgame in question) it is greatly influenced by our experience and understanding,which are basically derived from the images and impressions we have from relatedpositions. A primary role is played here by the effort we have invested in studying.In middlegame theory, things are even tougher. We are obliged to study varioustypes of positions with specific strategic and tactical attributes, so as to understandthe underlying ideas and be able to employ them ourselves in similar situations.While players have studied these topics and acquired knowledge, it isthe application of this knowledge in practice that helps differentiate between them.Chess is not a simple game.The purpose of this series is to introduce the reader to advanced training concepts,using the same methods of presentation and instruction that were taught to greatplayers by famous trainers that they have worked with.The series will continue with the topic of “the Bishop Pair”, the first volume handled 'bishop endings' and we will examine how tohandle this “power of the sun” coupling.

Talloze onderwerpen zijnmooi beschreven en keurig uitgewerkt. Maar bij het bestuderen van partijen vanschaakstudenten, of het nou talentvolle jeugd was, of volwassen clubschakers vandivers niveau, viel me één aspect op dat ik als volgt zal proberen te beschrijven: nadatde klok is aangezet en de partij is begonnen, wordt de opening gespeeld. Veel spelers blijken redelijk goed op de hoogte van de theorie. Onvermijdelijk komt het moment waarop één van beide spelers afwijkt, waardoor beide spelers op zichzelf zijnaangewezen. In de fase daarna moeten de spelers hun weg zien te vinden in eenwirwar van varianten en plannen. Zij mogen de tactiek niet uit het oog verliezen,maar bovenal zullen zij een strategisch plan moeten bepalen. In deze fase viel mij –door de bank genomen – op dat veel clubschakers over het algemeen de momentenwaarop tactiek een rol speelt, goed in de gaten hebben. Laten we zeggen dat ergemiddeld om de vijf zetten tactiek in de stelling zit. Echter… die andere vier zettenmoeten zij toch zelf verzinnen! Maar hoe moeten zij dat doen? Waar moeten ze opletten? Welke principes dienen zij te hanteren. Hoe zien ze of een bepaald strategischkenmerk dominanter is dan een ander?Als ervaren speler en gediplomeerd schaaktrainer kon ik er meestal wel een vingerachter krijgen waar het ergens mis ging. Dat was bij elke speler telkens anders, maartoch slaagde ik er soms in om een “grootste gemene deler” in de partijen van iemandop te sporen. Daarmee was ik er nog niet. Want elke partij was natuurlijk verschillendmet de partijen die nog gingen komen. Hoe kon ik deze speler daadwerkelijk vooruithelpen hiermee? In deel 2 komen de belangrijke Pionnenstructuren aan bod!

The idea behind this book is for you to‘play’ as in a real game, and it is my job to ensure you have a pleasant timewhile training. I suggest you take at least an hour and a half for eachgame and as your coach I will indicate when to guess the moves. Sometimes therewill be suggestions — including tricky ones — to measure your concentrationlevel. The ideas behind the moves are always explained. Points are awarded forthe ‘right answers’ as well as for some other moves, and at the end there is ageneral assessment plus a review of some of the things to be learned from thegame. During my coaching period I was able to witness how motivating it is forkids to receive points for the right answers, their ‘lives are at stake’ whenthey try to find the answers, and it is a challenge much appreciated by them.Later I also noticed a similar effect with adults although, unlike the kids,the older students try to hide it. The final score is not that important; it isnot scientifically based. But of course the more points you get the better you‘would have played’. The effort you put into trying to find the best moveevery time is what matters most. I firmly believe it really helps to learn alittle more about playing chess with every game. The methodology recommendedfor solving the exercises is the ‘old-school’ one of using a piece of paper tocover the text and scrolling down the page as you advance.

The revolutionary Wilhelm Steinitz(1836-1900) considered himself to be in the vanguard of an emerging, late-19thcentury ‘Modern’ school, which embraced a new, essentially scientific vitalityin its methods of research, analysis, evaluation, planning, experiment and evenbelligerent fight.Steinitz, who dominated the chess world inthe shadow of a more directly attacking, openly tactical and combinative,so-called ‘romantic’ age, established a much firmer positional basis to chess.A pivotal change!This book follows that story, both beforeand beyond Steinitz’s early ‘modern’ era, focusing closely on the subtly variedways in which the world’s greatest players in the last two centuries have thoughtabout and played the game, moving it forward. The author reflects on all sixteen ‘classical’world champions and others, notably: C-L. M. de la Bourdonnais, Adolf Anderssen,Paul Morphy, Siegbert Tarrasch, Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Réti, Judit Polgar andthe contemporary Artificial Intelligence phenomenon, AlphaZero.Be inspired by this exploration of the ‘modern’game’s roots and trajectory!

The book that you are holding in your hands is a continuation of the famous Kuzmin series. The two prior books concerning the chess creativity of Alexander Morozevich and participants in the Candidates tournaments was written for rather experienced players. That last book on the Candidates recently won the FIDE Chess Book Award of the Year 2018.This book is different in that ¿Together With Mamdeyarov¿ has been written primarily for chess players with an Elo ranging 1400¿2100. While working on the book I followed two objectives. First to help the players¿ improvement and secondly to closer acquaint the readers with the creativity of one of the brightest contemporary grandmasters. If I were to characterize Mamedyarov¿s play in one word I would use the adjective ¿powerful¿ and if I were to use two words, then perhaps ¿power chess¿. Namely this energy and power are the dominants of his creativity with his opening preparation being only a supplementing factor.¿Together With Mamedyarov¿ is not a collection of his selected games but it is primarily a study-book. It contains test positions taken from games of the famous Azeri grandmaster with detailed comments on the solutions to the tasks. In this book the solutions have been placed right after a diagram with a test except for the six positions given as a warm-up in the beginning of the chapter one. For those of you who work without the assistance of a coach would recommend that you cover the answer with a sheet of paper to avoid spoiling the benefit of solving the problem. This book is dedicated to all young chess players aspiring to improve but i also hope that it will be interesting for admirers of the Azeri ¿number one¿ chess player¿s creativity and his fans. Further we hope this book will be useful for coaches in their work.

Your opponent plays a gambit against you. How dare they!? But how can you punish them?Spanish Grandmaster Salgado has taken a close look at a wide variety of 'Gambit Lines'. Many gambit lines, where one or more pawns are sacrificed for the initiative, have to be taken seriously, but Ivan has succeeded in finding many new ideas and theoretical improvements. The result is the neutralisation or refutation of most of these common and well known 'Gambits'.This book is simply a must for anyone who wants to be fully prepared to engage in battle against a 'Gambit Player'. If you are a gambit player yourself, you need to read this to prepare yourself for new challenges to your systems.

Dit is het eerste deel van de nieuwe serie Sleutelconcepten in het Middenspel. Het idee is om middenspelen te behandelen waarin een bepaalde structuur of essentieel thema cen­traal komt te staan. De gedachte om deze serie te beginnen, sluit aan bij de andere serie Begrijp wat je doet omdat het streven is om het inzicht van clubschakers te verbeteren. Het spelen van een opening dient volgens de auteur ‘opgehangen’ te worden aan stereotiepe ideeën en concepten behorende bij die structuur. Het grondige uitdiepen van midden­spel­structuren gaat te ver bij openingsboeken, vandaar dat het logischer is om dat te gaan doen in deze complementaire reeks. In dit boek wordt het Egelsysteem uitgebreid besproken. Behalve dat de speelwijze deel uitmaakt van het repertoire van de auteur, verdient deze zeer typische spelsoort het om ruim onder de aandacht gebracht te worden. Hoewel in het tweede deel van de trilogie over het Siciliaans de egel al zijn intrede heeft gedaan, kan het ogenschijnlijk kwetsbare, maar o zo verraderlijke diertje in dit boek op uitgebreide wijze zijn stekels recht overeind zetten!

This is the first volume of the new series "Key Concepts of Chess". The idea is to deal with middlegames in which a certain structure or essential theme becomes central. The idea of starting this series is in line with the "Understanding before Moving" series because the aim, is to improve the understanding of club chess players. According to the author, playing an opening should be 'hung up' on stereotypical ideas and concepts belonging to this structure. The thorough exploration of middlegame structures is beyond the scope of opening books, hence it makes more sense to expose it in this complementary series.In this first volume, the "Hedgehog System" is discussed in detail. Apart from being part of the author's repertoire, this typical set-up deserves to be widely highlighted. Although in the second part of the trilogy on the Sicilian, the Hedgehog has already made its appearance, in this book the seemingly fragile, but oh so treacherous creature can reconsider its spines in an extensive way.

The official story of the 2020 Candidates Tournament began on November the 11th, 2019 with the signing of a contract between FIDE and the Russian Chess Federation detailing the hosting duties of said tournament in Ekaterinburg from the 15th of March to the 5th of April, 2020. At that point no one could have even imagined how difficult the road to that tournament would be nor how unexpected the outcome. Yet the significance of the actual numbers in this dramatic epic is hard to overestimate which is why the author will attempt to play the role of chronicler and try to describe as accurately as possible the key moments of this historic event. Vladimir Tukmakov was our close observer, author and wrote a historically important book on the first part of the Candidates 2020.

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.

The Tarrasch variation of the French Defense is reached after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2. This is one of the most positional treatments White has available. Using his typical funny and dynamic writing style, David shows that it is possible to play solidly but also remain with the dynamic elements Black has available. He recommends several creative lines, even a bit off the beaten track, but which he has very carefully worked out over the several years of his own practice. Again, Miedema and his love for the French Defense shines through his second volume, the third and final being available at the end of this year.

The idea was towrite about the best players in the USA born at the turn of the century. Theseplayers grew and blossomed thanks to the continuous and generous support by theworld’s biggest chess patron Rex Sinquefield and the Saint Louis Chess Club. Their success changed the scenery of American chess, set new standards andpropelled the country as the promised land for new talents. Grandmaster AlexColovic will be your guide in his fascinating journey with the US’s Young ChessGuns!

Have you ever wondered why you do well in certain tournaments and not in others? If your opening choices are the right ones? If your attacking play is good, bad, or Tinder swipe left ugly?In this entertaining account, the author explains how to achieve success in chess we need to understand our what works for us, but to achieve true mastery we should prepare to go beyond our zone of comfort. Along the way he takes us on a journey through his own world of discovery and explains how he became one of the best chess players in England. It’s a deeply honest and at times tragicomic memoir as he also reveals his strategy for taking on his biggest rivals and how best to use computers to improve your chess.

The Sicilian Defense is an opening that commences with the moves 1.e4 c5. TheSicilian Defense is the most popular and best-scoring response to White’s firstmove 1.e4. For example, 1.d4, is a statistically more successful opening forWhite because of the high success rate of the Sicilian Defense against 1.e4.The Sicilian is Black’s most dynamic, asymmetrical reply to 1.P-K4. It produces thepsychological and tension factors which denote the best in modern play andgives notice of a fierce fight on the very first move.’ The Modernized Grivas Sicilian is an unique variation within the Sicilian developed by Grandmaster Grivas, the reason why it has his name.

To learn and to play endgames well the chess player must love endgames¿ - Lev Psakhis. Different kinds of endgames have specific characteristics and rules. Every serious player must know many typical positions and main principles of all types of endings. That knowledge should help us during the game, but it is not enough to become a good player, not yet. There just too many different endings, some of them with two or more pieces, some are very complex. To be comfortable and play well those complex endings require specific knowledge and specific ways of thinking. We will call it `endgame thinking¿.I chose to write a book on advanced rook endings as I simply did not wish to write another book that would be like the many already available. I have done my best to present analysis and articles I have written over the past 10-15 years. Th is work has been presented in my daily coaching sessions, seminars, workshops, etc. The material has helped a lot of trainees to develop into quite strong players gaining international titles and championships. Now, it is your turn to taste and enjoy it!