A foolproof guide to choosing your best next chess move, every time.

International Grandmaster Andrew Soltis brings you a foolproof guide to choosing your best next chess move, every time.

100 Years Later, Nimzowitsch Is Still Good for Your Chess!

Almost a century ago, a chess book about positional play and strategic concepts appeared on the chess scene. Written by a Latvian grandmaster residing in Denmark, it quickly took its place as one of the classics of chess literature. Since then, Aron Nimzovich’s magnum opus My System has been embraced by every generation of chessplayers.

The sequel, or the second part of the “Secrets of Positional Sacrifice” manual is titled “Positional Sacrifice in Modern Chess”. We assume that readers will conclude that the subject of our analysis are recently played games, especially the games played over the last few years. The book is intended for chess players who aspire to raise the level of positional play in this particular field of expertise, as well as coaches working on chess education.

The sequel, or the second part of the “Secrets of Positional Sacrifice” manual is titled “Positional Sacrifice in Modern Chess”. We assume that readers will conclude that the subject of our analysis are recently played games, especially the games played over the last few years. The book is intended for chess players who aspire to raise the level of positional play in this particular field of expertise, as well as coaches working on chess education.

Have you ever wondered why it takes grandmasters just seconds to see what's happening in a chess position? It's all about pawn structures, as Ivan Sokolov explained in his groundbreaking book Winning Chess Middlegames.

In this second and final volume of the Anti-Sicilian series, the author covers all alternatives to 2…Nc6.

The Moscow variation is the only critical alternative to 3.d4 that has caused any concerns for Black, and the author’s choices in this variation were mainly selected by their ability to create practical difficulties for the opponent. Against 3…Nd7, the author analyses two distinct options, either castling immediately or first playing 4.a4.

1-й половины 20-го века Савелия Тартаковера никогда ранее на русском языке не издавалась. По словам самого автора, в ней ему хотелось со-единить «полезное с приятным», т. е. представить читателю полезные сведения в увлекательном изложении. Как видно из оглавления, книга посвящена тематике, владение которой обязательно для шахматистов II-III разрядов. Шахматисты I разряда окинут свежим взглядом уже усвоенные принципы и найдут для себя немало полезного для дальней-шего усиления игры.

Помимо практической пользы (прежде всего) читатель получит не-сомненное удовольствие от изучения как малоизвестных, так и класси-ческих примеров, которые в своем фирменном стиле прокомментировал гуру шахматной литературы.

Варианты проверил с помощью компьютера и внёс необходимые уточнения международный мастер Григорий Богданович, его коммента-рии выделены в основном тексте курсивом.

- Compensation is a chess concept that we only fully understand when we enter the world of serious chess.

- The relative value of pieces is perhaps the most difficult chess concept of all to explain.

- It is one that every player must feel and believe in and can only be accepted with the help of our own practice, and when we feel it come together as though a part of us.

- Why so much talk about such or similar sacrifices? Quite simply because we are afraid! We have been taught, and practice shows and proves the clear fact, that the closer we get to the last part of the game, the ending, the more pronounced a material advantage becomes.

- If in the middlegame we can still hope for sudden turns, for the influence of other pieces, this is negligible in the endgame.

- Maybe less so with tactical sacrifices, where we immediately see what the sacrificer gets in return.

- How can we not accept the rook that the opponent offers us, when there is nothing concrete to see? One or two weaknesses perhaps, but they can be eliminated, and the material advantage and a secure victory in the endgame remains.

The Barry Attack is somewhat defensive-looking from the start. It tempts Black forward, provocatively. The Barry Attack is, after all, a little rebellious, flouting, as it does, all those common sense development rules. Perhaps your game needs a good shot of tactics to boost your results - it’s one of the fastest ways to improve and this is true not only for young players. If your opponent plays an early move order that’s not in this book such as 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c5 or 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 for example, the good news is that Black will be forced to transpose back into the mass of material. 

The spirit of Indian Defenses is based on flexibility and harmony.

Most of the lines are positional, not tactical in character.

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.

Zestaw 4 książek z serii Decision Making in Chess w promocyjnej cenie.

В книге международного мастера и опытного тренера Бориса Злотника «Руководство по миттельшпилю» изложен классический учебный материал по миттельшпилю на основе современной турнирной практики. 

Wicemistrz Świata 2012 kontynuuje swoją historię, rozpoczętą w bestsellery „Podejmowanie decyzji pozycyjnych w szachach” („Książka roku” wg. Angielskiej Federacji Szachowej) oraz „Dynamiczne podejmowanie decyzji w szachach”. Nowa książka omawia, jak podejmować decyzje w zakończeniach i na stanowiskach, w których jedna ze stron ma lepszą strukturę pionka lub przewagę materialną. Studiowanie techniki gry jednego z czołowych arcymistrzów na świecie na złożone elementy szachów, które wielu uważa za niejasne. Koncepcje takie jak „Strefa jednego błędu” z pewnością przyjdą wielu jako objawienie.

"Gelfand bardzo dobrze i bardzo uczciwie wyjaśnia, jakie decyzje był w stanie obliczyć i jakie decyzje musiał podjąć na podstawie ogólnego rozumowania i jak to zrobił. Zaowocowało to książką, którą kocham. Myślę, że szachista o dowolnej sile może znaleźć tu wiele przydatnych rzeczy”

(arcymistrz Matthew Sadler - recenzent nowości w literaturze szachowej w czasopiśmie „New In Chess”).

Think Like a Super-GM is a unique collaboration combining the chess insights of an elite grandmaster with a scientific investigation into thinking at the chess board.

Magnus Carlsen’s mastery of the middlegame is astonishing, even by the standards of World Champions. But how did this power develop, and what can the rest of us learn from it? To explain the mysteries requires another elite grandmaster, and Ivan Sokolov is perfectly qualified for this role.

“I realize that this book will not cover all open wounds, nevertheless my aim to write a manual about defense which can help us defenders enduring the hardest difficulties in practice, seems to be achieved. Personally speaking this book helped me as a defender to approach a worse position in a much more objective way, optimally use all of my defensive resources available, both psychologically and technically, to set – even under the most dire circumstances – pitfalls, while keeping my nerves under control.” ~ Jan Werle

International master Herman Grooten has over 40 years of experience as a professional chess trainer. Countless of his pupils became strong chess players. The best known of these are the grandmasters Loek van Wely, Robin Swinkels, Wouter Spoelman, Dennis de Vreugt, Jan Werle, Twan Burg and Benjamin Bok.

In the field of journalism, he earned his spurs with chess columns in the newspapers Trouw and Het Eindhovens Dagblad. Since 2020 he has been co-owner of the popular Schaaksite.nl for which he has been writing articles for over ten years. As an author, he wrote several books of which the 2009 publication "Chess Strategy for Club Players" was awarded "Book of the Year" on Chesscafe.com.

Meanwhile, in his series "Understand before Moving " he has published several volumes that were received with great enthusiasm, both in Dutch and English.

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 "Understand 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.

How to Create a Deadly Attack on the Enemy King

Attacking your opponent’s king is not just a shortcut to victory, it’s also one of the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences in chess. If you want to win more games you should become a better attacker. Studying typical attacking motifs and ideas easily brings dividends while you are having a good time.

Michael Prusikin presents the prerequisites and the rules for a King attack in a lucid and attractive manner. In 15 thematic chapters he teaches you how to assess the nature of the position, identify the appropriate offensive patterns, find the preliminary moves and conduct your attack in a clear and effective way.

Battering rams, obstructive sacrifices, pawn storms, striking at the castled position, sacrificing a knight on f5, Prusikin demonstrates the most important patterns of attack with lots of clear and well chosen examples.

Next, Prusikin tests your newly acquired insights and your attacking intuition with exercises covering all the themes and motifs. You will find that studying Attacking Strategies for Club Players is both entertaining and rewarding.

Michael Prusikin is an International Grandmaster and a FIDE Senior Trainer from Germany. In 2009 he was the co-winner of the German Championship. Several times he has been voted German Chess Trainer of the Year. He writes the tactics column in the German magazine SCHACH.

“The vast majority of attacking patterns are presented with strikingly clear logic. Any reader who studies this book, almost irrespective of their playing strength, will come away with new ideas for conducting an attack on the king in particular and about chess understanding in general."

Alexander Khalifman, former FIDE World Champion

The Singular Skills of the World’s Strongest Chess Player Uncovered and Explained

What is it that makes Magnus Carlsen the strongest chess player in the world? Why do Carlsen’s opponents, the best players around, fail to see his moves coming? Moves that, when you replay his games, look natural and self-evident?

Emmanuel Neiman has been studying Carlsen’s games and style of play for many years. His findings will surprise, delight and educate every player, regardless of their level. He explains a key element in the World Champion’s play: instead of the ‘absolute’ best move he often plays the move that is likely to give him the better chances.

"We talk a lot about defence in chess but rarely try to break this major notion down into elements that constitute it and, importantly, that we can systematically learn. This book does exactly that. It is suitable for players of all levels aiming to improve their game. It may be especially appropriate for coaches because of its systematized character."

GM Adrian Mikhalchishin

W skład zestawu wchodzą 2 książki:

- Poznaj po pierwszym spojrzeniu. Typowe plany gry środkowej (K-5893)

- Poznaj po pierwszym spojrzeniu. Typowe plany gry środkowej. Księga druga (K-5989)

Чемпион мира Магнус Карлсен, отвечая на вопрос о методах совершенствования юных шахматистов, особо подчеркнул: «Одним из наиболее важных умений является распознавание образов: способность увидеть типичные темы и шаблоны на доске, характерные особенности позиции и вытекающие из этого последствия». Развитию именно этих навыков и умений посвящена эта книга: она наглядно показывает, какой именно «образ» (шаблон, типичный маневр, план) нужно распознать в позиции, чтобы избрать правильный план. Речь идет именно о стратегических приемах, а не о тактических, вроде типичных матовых атак.

Первая книга из серии «Узнай с первого взгляда» представляла собой «стратегический ликбез» для не слишком искушенных шахматистов. Во второй известный голландский тренер представляет еще 40 «лайфхаков» от ведущих гроссмейстеров и мастеров. Каждая из 40 глав содержит, как минимум, по 6-8 примеров на конкретный шаблон. Задания для самостоятельного решения помогут лучше усвоить материал. После изучения книги представленные в ней типичные планы, маневры и связанные с ними идеи прочно сохранятся в вашей памяти и позволят добиться высоких результатов в турнирных баталиях.

"We talk a lot about defence in chess but rarely try to break this major notion down into elements that constitute it and, importantly, that we can systematically learn. This book does exactly that. It is suitable for players of all levels aiming to improve their game. It may be especially appropriate for coaches because of its systematized character."

- GM Adrian Mikhalchishin

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. […]

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.

25% materiału więcej!

3198 przykładów!

Dear readers, the book you are holding in your hands has an extraordinary history and development over the last 40 years. The 1st edition of the “Encyclopaedia of Middlegames: Combinations” was published in 1980, and ever since it has been a favourite training tool for aspiring chess students, trainers, and of course – professionals. The 6th edition of our classic (Encyclopaedia of Chess Combinations 6th edition – ECC 6) contains examples and instructive positions from games played by all World Champions. From Steinitz to Carlsen!

Also, in this edition of the Encyclopaedia we kept the standard division of all the themes and tactical motifs into 10 topics, while all the positions are graded in three levels according to playing strength – basic, intermediate and advanced. Therefore, the book should prove to be extremely useful for chess trainers allowing them to choose the examples and level of difficulty based on their student’s knowledge and progress.

Make the next step in your chess development.

Magnus Carlsen is arguably the strongest player of all time. His dominance is such that every loss comes as a shock. They remind us that even he has his weak moments. In fact, identifying the root causes of his losses holds valuable lessons for all players.

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

If you want to improve your middlegame play, you will have to develop a FEEL for positions.

That’s what Boris Zlotnik has been stressing during his long and rich trainer’s career. Clicking through concrete variations (a popular pastime in the computer era) is not enough. To guide your thinking during a game you should be able to fall back on a reservoir of typical ideas and methods.

Чемпион мира Магнус Карлсен, отвечая на вопрос о методах совершенствования юных шахматистов, особо подчеркнул: «Одним из наиболее важных умений является распознавание образов: способность увидеть типичные темы и шаблоны на доске, характерные особенности позиции и вытекающие из этого последствия». Развитию именно этих навыков и умений посвящена эта книга: она наглядно показывает, какой именно «образ» (шаблон, типичный маневр, план) нужно распознать в позиции того или иного типа, чтобы избрать правильный план. Речь идет именно о стратегических приемах, а не о тактических, вроде типичных матовых атак. Книга разбита на четыре части, каждую из которых предваряет небольшое предисловие. Главы содержат, как минимум, по шесть примеров на конкретный шаблон, поскольку повторение – мать учения. Задания для самостоятельного решения помогут лучше усвоить материал. После изучения книги представленные в ней типичные планы, маневры и связанные с ними идеи прочно сохранятся в вашей памяти и принесут большую пользу в предстоящих турнирных баталиях. Для широкого круга любителей шахмат.

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.

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.

Dawid Bronstein to jeden z największych geniuszy szachowych wszech czasów. Doskonały nauczyciel i analityk. Powyższa pozycja zawiera 237 najpiękniejszych partii arcymistrza rozegranych w latach 1938-1996. Książka ukazuje piękno strategii i taktyki szachowej na najwyższym poziomie. Analiza skomentowanych partii Dawida Bronsteina z pewnością ułatwi zrozumienie planów gry w prezentowanych debiutach.