Exercises and Training for 1500-1800 Elo

This second-volume workbook in Davorin Kuljasevic's How to Study Chess on Your Own series is optimized for chess players with an Elo rating between 1500 and 1800 but is helpful for anyone between 1200 and 2000. The astounding success of his How to Study Chess on Your Own made clear that thousands of chess players want to improve their game and like to work on their training at least partially by themselves. 

Endgame Labyrinths presents the reader with 1002 challenging studies selected and truncated, with their usefulness for the practical player in mind. It is common for studies to be extended by less interesting manoeuvres or by incomprehensible sequences, before the main themes come into play. 

From Bobby Fischer to Ding Liren

Chess players can look ahead, formulate a clear plan, and act accordingly. That's why chess is the perfect learning environment for becoming a strategic expert. But how do you train this? It starts with playing many games and analysing them carefully afterwards.

It is amazing how much play you can create in a seemingly equal chess position - if you persevere. In this book, the greatest chess player of all time, Magnus Carlsen, and his friend, Grandmaster David Howell, explain how to win these kinds of chess games.

All through his career Jan Timman has been captivated by the mystery and splendour of endgame studies. Even during his most successful and busy years as a world-class player, Timman continued to compose studies and admire those of others. For him, there has never been any doubt that his journeys in this magical world helped him to grow as a player.

The English Opening arises after 1.c4, and is a great practical weapon for players of all levels. White dictates the opening from the very first move, and often reaches positions where understanding themes and plans is more important than the latest computer-generated analysis.

Informant’s Collection of Instructive Tactics and Studies

- 500 carefully selected puzzles

- 5 levels of difficulty

- 60 instructive, prizewinning studies

Study, practice and improve with our selection of tactical jewels!

Kompletny repertuar dla czarnych na 1 d4

The Queen’s Gambit Accepted (1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4) has a long history and has always been popular at all levels of play. However, in the past few years it has undergone an explosion of interest, thanks to many new discoveries of possibilities for very dynamic play from Black. 

Strategic Ideas and Powerful Weapons

The Pirc Defence and the Modern Defence are two naturally entwined chess openings that are both flexible and rich in strategic and tactical ideas. They feature in the repertoire of great players like Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Nakamura and Carlsen.

A unique and informative insight to those wanting to get more out of their chess studies

Are you a parent of a junior chess player who feels that because you don’t know how to play chess, you can’t help your child? Or are you an adult or junior chess player who has taken private chess lessons for years, but feels you haven’t been progressing?

Lata 1945 - 1968

Viktor Korchnoi (1931 to 2016) was a giant of the chess world with a career embracing seventy years and over 5,000 recorded games. He contested two world championship matches against Anatoly Karpov, coming within a whisker of being crowned World Champion in 1978. He was a world championship candidate, Soviet champion and Olympiad medal-winner on numerous occasions.

World Chess Champion Max Euwe, who held the title from 1935-1937, is one of the greatest chess players in history. Much has been written about him, and he authored dozens of books himself. But missing was an outstanding collection of games of this 'efficient, man-eating tiger' as the American grandmaster Reuben Fine once called Euwe.

Presents 350 pages of the very best in chess:

- Gormally – World Chess Championship – Nepo – Ding (Review)

- Shyam Sundar – World Chess Championship – The Most Instructive Moments and Positions

- Miodrag & Milos Perunovic – European Chess Championship (Tournament Report)

- Leitao – The English Opening (WCH Edition – Theoretical Survey)

- Foisor – Woman’s Candidates Final (Instructive Review)

- Prusikin – The Power of Knight Pair(Instructive Lesson)

- Davies – The Maroczy Bind (Theoretical Survey)

- Kotronias – The King’s Indian Saemisch (Theoretical Survey)

- Perelshteyn – The Alekhine Defence (Theoretical Survey)

- Rogers – Telechess Olympiads (Roger’s Reminiscences)

- Griffin – Vaganian – Gulko, Baku 1977 (From Informant Archives)

- Barak Gonen – Correspondence Chess (Review)

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!

A complete repertoire for White

The Russian Boris Spassky was the perfect gentleman. He was a chess genius who became World Champion in 1969. But he was also gracious in defeat after he lost his title to the American Bobby Fischer in 1972 in the Match of the Century.

Genna Sosonko is widely acclaimed as the most prominent chronicler of a unique era in chess history. In the Soviet Union chess was developed into an ideological weapon that was actively promoted by the country’s leadership during the Cold War. Starting with Mikhail Botvinnik, their best chess players grew into symbols of socialist excellence. Sosonko writes from a privileged dual perspective, combining an insider’s nostalgia with the detachment of a critical observer. He grew up with legendary champions such as Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi and spent countless hours with most of the other greats and lesser chess mortals he portrays.

Do you want a simple and practical method to counter Black’s kingside fianchetto defences after 1 d4? A line that takes the initiative from a very early stage and creates difficult practical problems? If so, then The Harry Attack (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 h4!) is for you.

Based upon Dvoretsky’s famous card files

Самый юный перворазрядник в СССР, чемпион мира среди юношей, участник турнира претендентов в 19 лет – взлет Бориса Спасского был стремительным. 

Лучшие шахматные этюды оказывают огромное эстетическое воздействие и надолго запоминаются, поэтому решение или даже просто разбор этюда представляет собой эффективный метод изучения стратегических и тактических элементов игры. Центральная глава книги – «Этюдные термины и темы», в двух других автор делится собственным опытом составления и решения. В заключение предлагаются для самостоятельного решения 72 этюда на 12 наиболее популярных тем, таких как доминация, крепость и борьба с ней, тактические удары и комбинации и др.

Книга адресована, в первую очередь, достаточно опытным шахматистам, которые имеют пока что поверхностное представление об этюдном творчестве. В то же время она будет полезна и поучительна для тех, кто уже поднаторел в решении и составлении шахматных этюдов.

A Modern Counterattack in an Ancient Opening
Forging New Paths in an Ancient Opening

ECE V – Bishop & Knight (Minor pieces)

131 mistrzowskich gier od arcymistrza!

Кто научился играть пешечный эндшпиль – тот научился играть в шахматы! В данной книге 64 урока по пешечному эндшпилю. Сложность уроков нарастает постепенно от уровня начинающего шахматиста в начале книги и до уровня перворазрядника и кандидата в мастера в конце.

При написании книги автор использовал 40-летний опыт работы тренером – от групп начинающих юных шахматистов в детсадах и начальных классах до группы высшего спортивного мастерства.

Учебник очень удобен для работы тренеров с группами юных шахматистов, поскольку содержит готовые конспекты уроков с учебным материалом, а также 700 позиций для решения и учебного разыгрывания.

Книга содержит большое количество определений и правил, в том числе оригинальных, придуманных самим автором в процессе многолетней тренерской работы. Материал удобен также для самостоятельного изучения.

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.

Are you ready for new strategic insights about thirty-five of the most fascinating and complex chess games ever played by World Champions and other top grandmasters? Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and renowned chess writer Steve Giddins take a fresh look at some classic games ranging from Anderssen-Dufresne, played in 1852, to Botvinnik-Bronstein (1951) and Geller-Euwe (1953). They unleashed the collective power of Leela, Komodo and Stockfish to help us humans understand what happened in games of fan favourites such as Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Bent Larsen and Bobby Fischer.

The Sicilian Defence is the most attractive and most complicated opening in chess. If you don't play the Sicilian with White or Black, you miss much of the beauty and the challenges our royal game offers. For White 1.e4 players, building a repertoire against 1...c5 should be their priority.

Croatian top grandmaster Ivan Saric is one of today's greatest Sicilian experts. He plays 1.e4 with White and the Najdorf with Black! WithThe Open Sicilian, based on his highly acclaimed Chessable course, he has managed something impressive: a watertight repertoire against the Sicilian of just over 400 pages. But reading this one volume, your knowledge of this opening and chess, in general, will make a spectacular jump.

Tried and True for More than Two Centuries

The Scotch Game is a solid opening that has been tried and tested in practice by some of the strongest chessplayers in the world for more than two centuries. The idea behind the Scotch Game is simple and easily understandable. White eliminates - in a purely mechanical fashion - Black’s e5-pawn which initially impedes his ambition to dominate in the center.

This is very appealing for White, as he controls the direction of the struggle’s development, while Black can only try to keep pace. Furthermore, there are relatively simple schemes in the white repertoire in which it is enough to remember the main plans of both sides and typical maneuvers.

This is the second edition of Vladimir Barsky’s book that first appeared in 2009. The new edition consists of seven chapters dealing with the core ideas and variations of the Scotch, supplemented by 79 Illustrative Games. The authors not only present detailed analysis of all lines but are also careful to discuss the ideas behind the opening. If you already play the Scotch, you need this book. If you don’t, find out what you have been missing.

The English Defence (1 d4 e6 2 c4 b6) is a dynamic, counter-attacking line, initially investigated by English grandmasters. Black aims to set White difficult problems to solve at the very earliest stage of the game. Black’s play is provocative – aiming to lure White into establishing a big pawn centre. This is a risky strategy as White falls behind in development and Black switfly becomes very active. However, if White’s response is more circumspect then Black can often manoeuvre into favourable structures reminiscent of positions arising from the Nimzo-Indian Defence, the Queen’s Indian Defence or even the Dutch.

José González provides an excellent analysis of this complex opening and carves out a powerful repertoire for Black covering all lines after 1 d4. It is possible for White to avoid the "English battle" by playing either 2 Nf3 or even 2 e4 (a rare move for 1 d4 players but seen occasionally). Gonzalez champions an aggressive variant of the Dutch against 2 Nf3 and outlines a simple but effective French Defence repertoire to counter 2 e4.

- A complete repertoire for Black to counter 1 d4

- The question and answer approach provides an excellent study method

José González is a grandmaster and a FIDE Trainer. He has been teaching chess for over 25 years and currently coaches some of the top junior players in Catalonia. He is the author of many articles written in Spanish and has created various theoretical works including a Chessable course on the Queen’s Gambit Accepted.

The Give and Take of Chess Tactics

Chess students love a Puzzle Rush. And solving tactics puzzles certainly helps you improve your pattern recognition and will help you find good moves in tournament games. But there is a downside to most tactics puzzles we always know who is supposed to win!

Presents 350 pages of the very best in chess:

Leitao – Brazilian Champion in Wijk aan Zee (Tournament Review)

Moradiabadi – Tata Steel 2023 Wijk aan Zee (Tournament Review)

Yochanan Afek – Perls from Wijk (Tournament Review)

Perunovic – Instructive positions from Wijk

Foisor – Women FIDE Grand Prix Munich (Tournament Review)

Shyam Sundar – This or that? (Instructive Lesson)

Gormally – 4NCL (Review)

Prusikin – The Uncastled King (Instructive Lesson)

Davies – The Catalan 7.dc5 (Theoretical Survey)

Kotronias – The King’s Indian 5.h3 (Theoretical Survey)

Szabo – The French C11 (Theoretical Survey)

Perelshteyn – The Ruy Lopez Nerwegian Variation (Theoretical)

Petrov – World Championship Game Changers – part 6

Rogers – Belgrade Open 1984 (Roger’s Reminiscences)

Griffin – Ljubojevic – Miles, Olympiad 1980 (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 book presents a Black repertoire based on the Nimzo-Indian Defence.

From the "Preface:

"I wrote this book for the adventurer who wants to start playing the Nimzo but is afraid of drowning in its lines. My creative task is to provide the reader with useful practical advice while sparing him unnecessary learning overhead."

Igor Lysyj

The author proposes a full repertoire against 1.d4 and 1.c4, which is theoretically sound and leads to sharp, strategically unbalanced positions. It is based on the so-called English Defence 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 or 1.c4 b6. A great deal of the book is devoted to White's tries to deviate from theoretical dispute and transfer the game into the Queen's Indian with g3.

During his long journey as a chess player and coach, GM Axel Smith came to the realization that understanding colour-complex strategies is one of the key differences between strong and weak players. After many years of delivering lectures and training material to his students, Smith produced a Chessable course on the topic, which has been extensively edited and reorganized by Quality Chess to produce this book.

In these pages, the award-winning author breaks down colour complexes into various sub-topics such as blockades, opposite-coloured bishops and exchange sacrifices, with carefully chosen exercises to test and reinforce the reader’s newfound understanding. Use Black & White Magic to improve your chess strength!

1,205 best tactical positions, grouped according to their topics. Intended for chess players with ELO 1600-2400. This chess exercise book is written by an experienced coach, International Grandmaster of ICCF. It contains more than 1400 exercises that are arranged very precisely after various combinational motifs.

The fundamental concepts to torture your opponents mercilessly.

Having you ever been tortured at the chessboard? If so, then you have probably been a victim of pressure play.

"Throw Down the Gauntlet from the Very First Move!"

A Counterpunching Repertoire for Black

The Modern Defense has been popular for decades. However, within the purview of this defense, there is a system that challenges White right from the get-go. The brainchild of Georgian grandmaster Bukhuti Gurgenidze, Black plays 1...g6 and follows with a timely ...c6 and ...d5. Occasionally classified as part of the Caro-Kann, it draws battle lines immediately.

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.

Magnus Carlsen’s brilliant endgame play is one of the key reasons for his success. The World Chess Champion can win positions which look drawn to anybody else. And more than any other player, he is able to save bad endings.