The Accelerated Dragon (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6) has attracted the attention of many creative players. In the past these included Tigran Petrosian and Bent Larsen while modern aficionados include the dominant player of the era, Magnus Carlsen, as well as Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and many others.

When deciding upon a repertoire to meet 1 d4, those players whose natural inclination is to be aggressive have a difficult decision. There are plenty of outright counter-attacking tries such as the Benko Gambit, the King's Indian Defence and the Modern Benoni. However, such openings are generally considered borderline unsound at the higher levels. On the other hand the safe options such as the Queen's Gambit Declined and Queen's Gambit Accepted make it difficult to create middlegame complications. So, what to do?

Chess Informant 162 “Manoeuvre!!” presents:

World Championship Match Ding – Gukesh, analysis by GM Ivan Ivanisevic

European Individual Chess Championship, analysis by GM Milos Perunovic

The Budapest Gambit, theoretical survey by GM Vasilios Kotronias

The King’s Gambit, 5.h3 Variation by GM K. Szabo

The Wandering King, instructive lecture by GM Michael Prusikin

Thankless Tasks, studies by GM Steffen Nielsen

Roger’s Reminiscences, Kasparov’s first trip to the West by GM Ian Rogers

A story of a Chess Prodigy – Roman Shogdzhiev

Traditional sections:

Correspondence Chess

The best game and most important theoretical novelty from the previous Volume

Endgames

Combinations

200 games according to ECO Codes.

The periodical that pros use with pleasure is at the same time a must have publication for all serious chess students!

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.

Nikola Sedlak is a renowned chess player known for his expertise in the London System. He is a grandmaster from Serbia who has been considered one of the strongest players in the country for many years. Sedlak is also a well-known chess trainer and author, who wrote several books on the London System and other chess openings.

Are you ready to shock your opponent on move 3?

The Reti Opening is a dynamic opening invented by Richard Reti more than a century ago. It has since been featured in the repertoires of countless grandmasters and world champions, including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Garry Kasparov, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Smyslov, and many others.

Having the Nimzo-Indian Defence in his repertoire is a must for every 1.d4 player. However, it has been deeply explored, and lately White has been struggling to make something out of the opening. Indicatively, recent years have seen only books from Black’s perspective. This repertoire presents an innovative approach for White. While he starts with Kasparov’s move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3, he is often ready to transpose to the Rubinstein System with e3, having sidestepped the main Black’s equalizers against it. That allows White to get rich dynamic positions with fair chances for success.

I have returned to my book from a few years ago, to an opening that at the time was a rare guest among books as a topic – and not only among books, but also in tournament practice. In the intervening years it has become very popular to use this old and somewhat forgotten method of playing and I have found lots of interesting new games.

The Sicilian Scheveningen Defense is a highly respected and flexible variation of the Sicilian Defense, characterized by the pawn structure Black adopts with pawns on e6 and d6. It arises after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6. This setup allows Black to maintain a solid central presence while keeping options open for dynamic counterplay.

Grandmaster Simon Williams was taught the English Opening at the age of six and 1 c4 was his weapon of choice until long after he became an International Master. For this new work, he teamed up with acclaimed theoretician International Master Richard Palliser to explore his old favourite.

Every chess player faces an opening dilemma: big main lines are complicated and time-consuming to learn, while easy-to-learn sidelines usually suffer from other defects. Finding the best of both worlds has been an impossible dream – until now!

Many players approach the opening with a desire to learn sharp lines and out-prepare their opponents. This is an exhausting task, which gets more difficult by the day. However, there is a different strategy which is more practical and designed for longevity. This is to develop an advanced understanding of typical positions. Such a policy is the best approach against different move orders and new ideas.

M Richard Palliser outlines a combative Trompowsky (1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5) repertoire for White. The lines analysed deal with all of Black’s common responses. A perennial favourite of creative players, the ‘Tromp’ sets Black complex problems from the very beginning.

This opening manual completes the Black repertoire against the Sicilian that uses the Kalashnikov as the main line. When possible, Black will opt for the adventurous moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5, covered in the book King’s Kalashnikov. But everyone playing 1... c5 has to be ready when White chooses to avoid the Open Sicilian.

The Center Game is a wonderful opening for club players. White starts with a center push, develops quickly, looks for opposite castling, and launches an attack. The setup will feel very familiar to you in no time. And the chess engines show that this opening is both sound and correct, and at least as good as the over-analyzed Ruy Lopez and Italian Opening.

This book advocates the 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 move order for Black with 3.Nc3 Bb4 having been covered in the sister volume Playing the Nimzo-Indian. By waiting for the knight to appear on f3 before transposing to a Queen’s Gambit, Black reduces White’s options.

Spanish GM Renier Castellanos completes his cutting-edge repertoire for Black against 1.d4, with the Vienna Variation (4.Nc3 dxc4) and Catalan (4.g3 dxc4) the biggest topics. This book also provides thorough guidance against all of White’s significant alternatives on moves 2-4.

With thoughtful explanations backed up by precise analysis, Beating the Queen’s Gambit Indian Style! provides everything you need to handle 1.d4 Nf6 variations where White avoids the Nimzo-Indian Defence.

Presents 320 pages of the very best in chess:

Velickovic - Editor's Corner

Speelman - Real-Time Action and British Miscellany

Perunovic - Serbian Chess Championship

Afek - Dutch Chess Championships

Kotronias - Najdorf Variation - 6. h3 e6! Repertoire for Black

Prusikin - Michael's Musings

Perelshteyn - Sicilian Dragondorf

Sprenger - Obstructing the Opponent's Plan

Edwards - Correspondence Chess Matters

Gonen - World of Correspondence Chess

Rogers - Candidates Semifinal Matches, London 1983

Griffin - From the Chess Informant Archives

Traditional sections: 287 games and fragments, combinations, endings, Tournament reviews, the best game 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!

In My First Chess Opening Repertoire you will learn how to play the opening. This book gives you a compact and easy-to-learn repertoire for White, starting with the move 1.e4. And it gives you a similar repertoire for Black, with answers to all of White's approaches.

The book proposes a White repertoire against all variants of the Dutch in the spirit of the London System with 1.d4 f5 2.Bf4.

Georgiev also covers the tricky move orders 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bf4, 1.c4 e6 2.d4 f5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 (4...Bb4 5.Bd2) 5.Bf4, 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bf4 to offer a complete repertoire with Bf4.

The Nimzo-Indian Defence is an ideal weapon for Black at all levels. It has been popular for over a century due to its positional soundness, yet has experienced a revolution in recent years, with modern analysis increasingly highlighting its dynamic potential.

What does it take to become an expert in opening preparation?

How can we learn the secret methods which allow the top players to dominate everyone else in the opening?

The g2-g4 (or ...g7-g5) pawn push is considered unconventional and often associated with backroom chess games or old-fashioned openings like the King’s Gambit.

Despite being one of the most weakening moves available, g2-g4 has been seen more frequently at the top level of chess.

Unlike almost all other books on the Dragon, the focus is not purely on theoretical development. Instead, the author has combined the mist historically important games, the famous players who chose to fight either side (sometimes both sides!) of the opening, and the moist unexpected and interesting stories featuring the Dragon.

World Champions, contenders of the crown, code-breakers, revolutionaries in every sense of the world – all feature in this remarkable and entirely unique look into the history of an opening variation. as the ancient may say: Here be Dragons!

I used to play a lot of chess as a teenager many decades ago. Those days, there were hardly any computers that played the game and there was certainly no Internet. Learning new ideas in the game was possible only through books or magazines and if something was not clear, there weren’t too many people to consult for explanations. 

Although known for a long time, the London started to catch up in popularity just in the last decade or so. I guess the reason for this is probably the desire of many players to focus more on the practical side of chess, with less use of engines and less memorization of long theoretical lines, and more about positional understanding of game. I must say, it received a huge boost not only in the number of games but also in a deeper understanding of the positions arising from the opening. In the past it was used from time to time, but only a few players employed it on a regular basis, such as grandmasters from former Yugoslavia, Milorad Knezevic and Vlado Kovacevic, and the English GM Tony Miles, who used it often.

Presents 350 pages of the very best in chess:

- AFEK – WIJK AAN ZEE 2024

- LEITAO – THE DIFFICULT ART OF DEFENCE IN CHESS

- GORMALLY – DANNY'S CHESS DIARY – MY HASTINGS NIGHTMARE

- KOTRONIAS – KING'S INDIAN DEFENCE – GLIGORIC SYSTEM

- PERELSHTEYN – THE ALEKHINE – EXCHANGE VARIATION

- DAVIES – UNDFERSTANDING THE OPENINGS

- PERUNOVIC – THE SICILIAN OFF-ROAD

- MARIN – OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

- PRUSIKIN – THE CARO-KANN EXCHANGE VARIATION

- BARAK GONEN – WORLD OF CORRESPONDENCE CHESS

- ROGERS – ASIAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – Europe v Asia Match, Batumi 2001

- GRIFFIN – FROM THE CHESS INFORMANT ARCHIVES

Traditional sections: 263 games and fragments, combinations, endings, Tournament reviews, the best game 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 Alterman Gambit Guide: Black Gambits 2 is an instructional manual for improving chess players. Sharpen your tactics and learn to play dynamic attacking chess while studying the most entertaining gambits. This volume deals with various openings after 1.e4 e5, and lines covered include: Marshall Attack, Traxler variation, Frankenstein-Dracula variation, Falkbeer Counter-Gambit and more.

Repertuar dla czarnych

The Early Equalizer

In response to 1.e4, White’s most common first move, it has long been recognized that when and if Black can play ...d5 safely, the result is approximate equality. Scandinavian devotees argue all that can happen on Move 1! But it’s hardly a ”peaceful“ equality.

Книга посвящена интересному гамбиту, который чёрные предлагают уже на втором ходу: 1.е4 е5 2.Kf3 d5. Подрыв центральной пешкой возникает на доске неожиданно, и требует от неподготовленного соперника чётких знаний. Для любителей активной игры есть очевидные преимущества: большое количество ловушек, лёгкость и быстрота запоминания основных вариантов.

Presents 350 pages of the very best in chess:

- In Memoriam – Remembering Aleksandar Matanovic

- Leitao – World Cup 2023 (Tournament Review)

- Shyam Sundar – This or that? – World Cup Edition

- Perunovic – Instructive positions from the World Cup

- Foisor – Women FIDE World Championship Match (Tournament Review)

- Gormally – British Chess Championship (Tournament Review)

- Moradiabadi – Biel Chess Festival (Tournament Review)

- Yochanan Afek – Prague Chess Festival (Tournament Review)

- Kotronias – The Classical Scotch 4…Bc5 (Theoretical Survey)

- Davies – The Sandipan Dutch (Theoretical Survey)

- Prusikin – The Exchange Slav Ideas (Instructive Lesson)

- Davies – The Catalan 7.dc5 (Theoretical Survey)

- Szabo – The King’s Indian Defence E91 (Theoretical Survey)

- Perelshteyn – The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (Theoretical Survey)

- Petrov – World Championship Game Changers – part 7

- Rogers – The Japan 1978 Zonal Tournament (Roger’s Reminiscences)

- Griffin – Spassky-Portisch, Toluca Interzonal 1982 (From Informant Archives)

- Barak Gonen – Correspondence Chess

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!

This book presents a multi-faceted approach to the Reti – 1.Nf3 d5, followed by c2-c4. The core of the proposed repertoire is the topical system 2.e3 Nf6 3.c4 and 2.e3 c5 3.c4 d4 4.b4. Play often transposes to the English Opening with White having sidestepped 1.c4 e5.

An informative guide to understanding and implementing the fundamentals of the Caro-Kann, the easy way.

The Caro-Kann defence, named after the German chess players Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann, is notorious for its simple solidity and is a popular chess opening that players of all levels benefit from having in their arsenal. It is a firm favourite of grand masters past and present, including Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Anand.

Nikola Sedlak is a renowned chess player known for his expertise in the London System. He is a grandmaster from Serbia who has been considered one of the strongest players in the country for many years. Sedlak is also a well-known chess trainer and author, who wrote several books on the London System and other chess openings.

A repertoire for Black providing all answers to White’s options.

Paced with exciting games, original ideas and analysis.

Thorough and up-to-date coverage of one of the most topical openings.

Positionally motivated lines, but none the less never forgetting the needed dynamics.

Aggressive ideas to tackle head-on white’s solid set-ups.

For almost two centuries the French Defense has been a universally popular opening. Many authorities have made their contribution to establishing the theory. Thanks to their efforts, players nowadays can easily make a choice between the many and various options, whether peaceful or sharp, whether statically or dynamically orientated. Just as importantly, if not more so, fans of the French worldwide can today find good options to play both for a win and a draw! All this makes the French Defense very popular. However, the authors think that many lines have not been well explained or should be revisited. Some other lines deserve a better reputation. Finally we have also suggested some new approaches. Simply speaking, the French Defense looks to be inexhaustible and there cannot be enough books dedicated to it. This book takes a step in the direction of revitalizing our favorite opening!

This book is about the Nimzo-Indian Classical line 4.Qc2 (also known as the Capablanca Variation) and the 4.Bd2-line, for which basically I could not find an established name.

The Nimzo-Indian Defense has been one of the most trusted defenses against 1.d4.

It combines fast development with a solid pawn structure, control over the center and great flexibility.

Repertuar dla czarnych bazujący na: 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6

Całkowicie zmienione wydanie, które zachowuje strukturę pierwszego wydania, ale opiera się na nowej analizie wszystkich krytycznych linii.

This book presents a Black repertoire based on the Scandinavian Defence with 3...Qd6. This is the safest yet aggressive queen retreat. It allows Black to increase pressure on d4 with ...0-0-0 or ...Rd8 while keeping coordination in the centre. Kotronias offers new plans for Black in the most topical lines. They are backed with deep analysis based on solid chess understanding.