In Dynamic Decision Making in Chess former World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand continues his investigation into decision-making at the top level, discussing some of his best games as well as his worst slips, giving the reader a unique insight into the mind of a world-class grandmaster. Grandmaster Boris Gelfand has been an elite player for 30 years, winning the World Cup, Olympiad Gold, Candidates and many other top tournaments. In 2015 Positional Decision Making in Chess won the ECF Book of the Year award. Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard is the only chess writer to win all the major awards for chess writing. 288 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

Decision Making in Major Piece Endings former World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand discusses his path to decision making in endgames involving rooks or queens, as well as the often neglected “4th Phase.” Countless games are decided by good or bad technique in such endgames, so readers are certain to benefit from the insights of a world-class Grandmaster on this vital topic. 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. Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard is the only chess writer to win all the major awards for chess writing. 320 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Quality Chess

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. 320 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

In a sequel to the hugely successful 50 Essential Chess Lessons, Steve Giddins now presents 50 games that each illustrate an important winning method. This engaging and highly readable book is a painless way to build your personal arsenal of techniques and ideas. The games are mostly from the modern era, but with a few classic examples chosen to show key themes in as clear a way as possible. In these cases, the defender may have never seen the critical idea before, and fails to react appropriately. We then move on to more complex examples where the attacker needs to overcome stiffer resistance. Giddins repeatedly shows that despite the tactical complexity of many of these battles, the fundamental concepts can be grasped by all chess-players, and will help them navigate through apparently intimidating terrain.   The many topics include: Attacking weak colour complexes The principle of two weaknesses  Choosing the right exchanges  Devastating opening preparation  Manoeuvring in restraint structures  Handling must-win situations Steve Giddins is a FIDE Master from England who has frequently contributed to the British Chess Magazine. He has gained a reputation as a writer who provides useful, no-nonsense advice on topics of genuine practical importance, drawing especially upon his familiarity with Russian chess literature and training methods. This is his fifth book for Gambit.   175 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Gambit

Danny Gormally is a Chess Grandmaster stuck in a fugue state. He has forgotten how to analyse - blinded by the brilliance of chess engines, every time he gets stuck he turns on the machine. In this book he attempts to discover his love of analysis and the game of chess by attempting different methods of analysis and calculation. He asks what separates the analysis methods of an amateur player with a Grandmaster, and further still what separates the very best players from super computers. It all culminates in the mind-bogglingly complex “Impossible quiz” where some of the most skilled players in chess are confronted by extremely complex positions. If that sounds off-putting it shouldn’t be - Gormally breaks down the material in a way that is comprehensible to any amateur player. 264 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Chess Informant  

Turbo-Charge Your Tactics 1 is essentially a chess puzzle book, but not a typical one. It’s a multi-year effort by GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko and his world-renowned trainer IM Vladimir Grabinsky to introduce you to the world of “unnatural” tactical moves. Presenting examples of extreme beauty, no matter where they come from – be it online bullet or world-class grandmaster praxis – this book will cure your “selective blindness” by destroying the false notion of chess principles being a set of rules, instead of helpful guidelines. Most chess games are decided by tactics, so solving tactical puzzles is the most effective path to improvement. 328 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

Turbo-Charge Your Tactics 2 concludes a multi-year effort by GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko and world-renowned trainer IM Vladimir Grabinsky to create the perfect chess puzzle books. This second volume builds upon the first, using games from the World Champions and their challengers. Most chess games are decided by tactics, so solving tactical puzzles is the most effective path to improvement. This book also contains a special chapter with expert guidance on how to use chess engines. The engines might analyse precisely but they can also harm our chess understanding if followed blindly, so we must know when and how to use them. 280 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

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 time while training. I suggest you take at least an hour and a half for each game and as your coach I will indicate when to guess the moves. Sometimes there will be suggestions — including tricky ones — to measure your concentration level. The ideas behind the moves are always explained. The games have been chosen according to my personal liking and commentaries are based on those by the players themselves, which is a great help in understanding what indeed happened. In some games you will have to guess moves for the losing side too. Indeed, I expect that as you proceed you will become familiar with the question of Mark Dvoretsky: “What could my opponent play?”. Importance has also been given to the practical aspect, which doesn’t always coincide with the suggestions off ered by the engines as best. This is to make it more like ‘a real game’. 288 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Thinker´s Publishing

I hate introductions so I’ll keep this short. (A bit like the good moments in my chess career.) The inspiration for this book came from a golf tournament on the PGA tour I was watching recently. They’ll be plenty of golf and sportinganalogies in this book, so if these annoy you, then probably you should try another book. (Tough cookies if you’ve already bought.) Jason Kokrak won it, his first PGA tour event. He’s a solid professional player, but nothing special. Thirty-five years of age. Obviously, I had my usual losing bets on people like Matthew Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood. Neither of those have ever won on the PGA tour, despite having much higher world rankings than Kokrak. So how was Kokrak able to break through, and they still haven’t? It’s true that Kokrak has plenty more PGA tour events under his belt than the other two. But given that Fleets and Fitzy have several European tours wins to their name (admittedly a slightly weaker tour) then you might have expected them to have broken through by now. You could suggest that they might have choked in some of the near misses they have had, and you might well be right. Fleetwood came very close at the Honda classic this year, before he struck his second shot on 18th into the water. A birdie there would have got him into a play-off , an eagle would have got him the outright win. But perhaps the biggest reason why they hadn’t won yet is their level of comfort. Simply put, these are two players who have grown up on European style layouts, on links courses. They just don’t have the total comfort zone of having grown up on American courses. To add to Kokrak’s comfort zone, he was also winning at a course where he was a member and had played many times. When Fleets and Fitzy play on the PGA tour, it’s an away game for them, whatever their skill level. I’ve become increasingly convinced of this comfort zone theory to the degree where I’ve started to apply it to chess. To use the same logic, I believe a chess player is more comfortable in an opening that they have played since childhood. They’ll be less likely to make mistakes in that opening. You can also apply it to tournaments as well. During the course of the book, I’ll talk about the tournaments that I felt comfortable in, and by the same token the opponents that I felt comfortable facing and the ones that I didn’t feel so happy to play. Ok, so when I talked about this introduction being short, I lied. Spoiler: I lie a lot. So should you, especially over the chess board. Lie about what move you are going to play to your opponent. Lie about how you are feeling. If you are in your comfort zone, then give the impression that you are not. Anyway, enough babbling. Let us get on with it. 264 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Thinker´s Publishing

Every chess player loves to attack the enemy King. Your goal is clear, your thinking is concrete, your creativity is flowing and direct victory is just around the corner. Few things in life are better than successfully conducting a blistering attack on your opponent’s King! But how good are you actually at attacking? Have you ever analysed your efforts? Looked at calculation errors, missed opportunities and derailed efforts? After the immense success of his award-winning classic Chess Strategy for Club Players, Herman Grooten has now written an equally accessible follow-up primer on attacking chess. He teaches you how to spot opportunities, exploit weaknesses, bringing your forces to the frontline and striking at the right moment. Grooten concentrates on training the most valuable skills for this process: visualizing, structuring, anticipating, calculating, memorizing and other mental aspects. This is not just another collection of useful thematic moves and motifs but a complete and highly structured course of attacking techniques. And with fantastic new examples, clear explanations and many instructive exercises.International Master Herman Grooten is a chess trainer with over 30 years of experience. Several of his pupils have gone on to become grandmasters. His prizewinning Chess Strategy for Club Players was a worldwide bestseller.   351 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag New In Chess

Once a player has learned how the pieces move, the next task is to put them to work – that is, to study tactics. For all players, from beginners to champions, tactical skill is the main component of chess ability. And this skill must be constantly practised and improved. This book provides a systematic course in chess tactics and hundreds of exercises to sharpen and measure your skills. With Antonio Gude’s assistance, you will understand how the pieces work, so you can carry out your strategic plans and launch devastating attacks. And even in those games where things go wrong, you will always be ready to pounce when given the chance. The book is packed with entertaining and inspiring examples, brought to life with information and stories about some of the more notable figures in chess history. This is a companion volume to Gude’s much-acclaimed Fundamental Checkmates: “Books offering tactical positions to solve are universally agreed upon as first-rate training, but before starting out it makes sense to first have a solid grounding in the fundamentals. This book will do that and more.” – IM John Donaldson, USA Team Captain “[Gude] is well-read, knows important games from the past and present, and uses famous endgame compositions to create a useful mating manual for wide readership” – GM Lubosh Kavalek, HUFFINGTON POST Antonio Gude is a well-known chess writer and teacher from Spain who has represented his country in international correspondence chess events. His previous book for Gambit, Fundamental Checkmates, was shortlisted for the English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award. 335 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Gambit

Have you ever wondered how chess grandmasters always seem to know which pieces need to be exchanged? Have you ever wondered how chess grandmasters always seem to know which pieces need to be exchanged? Or how an attack is influenced by the number of pieces on the board? When should we keep the queens on, and when should we switch to an endgame? Understanding Chess Exchanges shares expert insights into using exchanges as a strategic weapon. Your newfound knowledge will then be tested using exercises taken from elite modern practice. With a particular focus on Magnus Carlsen - the master of exchanges - this book reveals the principles behind a vital part of chess strategy. Chess mastery is the art of knowing when principles should be followed and when they must be broken. This book guarantees that you will not only become familiar with the typical guidelines, but also learn about their exceptions. Filled with tips, principles and practical advice, Understanding Chess Exchanges is an invaluable asset to a chess player’s arsenal! Grandmaster Amir Bagheri is an experienced player and coach from Monaco, and was the second-ever Iranian to achieve the grandmaster title. Mohammad Reza Salehzadeh is a FIDE Trainer and respected chess coach from Iran. 352 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Ches

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. 40 chess puzzles were shown to a panel of players ranging from occasional club players up to Super-GM and co-author Michael Adams. Researcher Philip Hurtado recorded not only the moves chosen, but also the detailed thought processes of every player in order to shed light on the mystery as to what exactly defines superior chess strength. This book offers a unique opportunity for readers to not only solve the puzzles, but also compare their thinking to that of club players, strong amateurs, IMs, GMs and Michael Adams himself. With an additional Bonus Puzzle section and a fascinating Eyetracker experiment showing where different players focused their attention on the board, this is a chess improvement book like no other. GM Michael Adams is a World Championship finalist and long-time British number one, with a peak ranking of 4th in the world. Philip Hurtado is an engineer, physicist, statistician and passionate amateur chess player. 464 Seiten , gebunden, Quality Chess

“To be able to raise your level of play you will need to work hard on your chess. This book will arm you with some important chess ideas and skills but, more importantly, you will get into the grandmaster’s mind. I don’t want you to play chess the following way: he attacked me — I need to move away, I attacked him — he needs to retreat. Everyone can play like that. No, I want something completely different, I want you to think this way: how can I make a counterattack? He is controlling that square, I can’t put my piece there, wait, or can I? By this critical and creative thinking you will dig deeper into the positions and be able to spot moves or bonds between pieces which you couldn’t see before. And, what’s even more important, you will see more than your opponent!” ~ Grandmaster Alojzije Jankovic 200 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Thinkers Publishing

  Strategic Ideas that Masters Never Fail to Find When a chess master finds a winning strategic idea it is seldom by accident. An amateur, staring at a position on the chess board is often fumbling in the dark, his head spinning with a multitude of general rules and vague notions. The master’s approach is concrete. He knows how and where to look, because he has studied the games of other masters.In this book, grandmaster Sarhan Guliev presents a wide range of strategic manoeuvres that have been repeatedly employed by great chess players. He shows how masters generate ideas from the games of other masters:-- positional sacrifices-- amazing counterplay concepts, -- unorthodox exchanges-- winning with g2 – g4 or h2-h4-- overcoming a blockade-- the advantages of double pawns-- the e5 pawn wedge-- the uses of the queen-bishop battery-- and much more.Winning Chess Manoeuvres is brimming with interesting and instructive stories about the chess greats, and written in an accessible and entertaining style. After studying this book, ambitious chess players will find winning strategic manoeuvres quicker and more often. They will not find them by accident or by relying on general principles, but because they have built up a large stockpile of highly practical ideas. International Grandmaster and FIDE Senior Coach Sarhan Guliev won the championship of Azerbaijan three times. He is a highly experienced chess teacher, coach and writer.   236 Seiten, kartonier, Verlag New In Chess

The test positions in this instructive book cover the entire spectrum of what a modern club player should know. The reader is invited to find tactical blows, deep strategic manoeuvres, opening traps, standard endgame plans and other principles in action.   Sarhan Guliev and his brother Logman Guliev have carefully selected the positions from their own games. That is why these puzzles are largely unknown outside the former Soviet Union. The fact that the tests originate from real games guarantees that they are practical, not artificial. The solutions rarely involve spectacular fireworks, as is the case in most chess puzzle books. Instead, you may be asked to find a quiet move or a reasoned evaluation. In the solutions the Guliev brothers clearly explain the underlying ideas and the principles that are involved. They always offer a general conclusion and have added thought-provoking and entertaining aphorisms. Solving the puzzles in this unusual and entertaining book is a most effective way to improve your chess. It will help you to develop a vital skill: the ability to take practical decision in critical moments.   Praise forWinning Chess Manoeuvres by Sarhan Guliev:   "A very original book, with a wealth of instructional material which is well presented and the topics are clearly explained." British Chess Magazine"I learned so much new from this book!" Grandmaster Matthew Sadler, former British Champion"Both highly original and highly instructive. I recommend that anyone who is serious about improving at chess purchases this book and works through it."Chris Wainscott, ChessIQ Sarhan Guliev is an International Grandmaster and FIDE Senior Coach. He won the championship of Azerbaijan three times and is a highly experienced chess teacher, coach and writer. His previous book with New In Chess was Winning Chess Manoeuvres. Sarhan’s brother Logman Guliev is an International Master.   180 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag New in Chess

 Learn from the legacy of one of the most talented players to ever grace the chess world. All elements of the game explained in an easy-to-digest and highly entertaining fashion. Dear readers, it is both our solemn duty and exceptional honour to present you a collection of Ivkov’s instructive explorations on various chess themes. In this book you will find a great number of intriguing anecdotes casting a new light on some of the greatest chess players of all time, and some lesser known heroes of our bellowed game. Also, this book can serve you as an inspiration to investigate a bit deeper in the areas of strategy, planning and tactics learning chess in the “good, old way” unpolluted by the excessive engine usage. Finally, you can simply browse through the material and enjoy solving numerous riddles, studies and puzzles, picking up bits of chess wisdom along the way. We hope that you will find as much enjoyment reading this book as we experienced ourselves editing it for your pleasure. 224 Seiten, gebunden, Chess Informant

Dear readers, the book in your hands is the second part of Ivkov’s “Chess Parallels”, the last book of his extraordinary career of chess player and analyst. In this tome Ivkov deals with endgames and various types of queenless middlegame positions (early endgames). The examples he selected are both entertaining and highly instructive. Many of those jewels are not widely known, so a diligent reader should benefit quite a lot by examining them with patience and willingness to learn. Of course, the book could serve you well as a source of reference, as well as a collection of extremely interesting and captivating positions to delve deep into and put your brain to some severe tests! Either way, you are guaranteed to have a lot of fun and to pick up bits of chess wisdom on your journey through this book. We hope that you will find as much enjoyment reading this book as we experienced ourselves editing it for your pleasure, since you are now well acquainted with Ivkov’s thought process and mastery by absorbing the material from “Chess Parallels I&II” 210 Seiten, gebunden, Chess Informant

The vast majority of chess games witness familiar strategies and well known tactical motifs. These are the games that you will find in the anthologies and opening repertoires. Sometimes however, games appear that seem to have been played on a different planet.  Conventional strategies go out of the window. Familiar tactical themes are nowhere to be seen. Chaos has broken out. The pieces appear to be in open rebellion and are steadfastly refusing to do the natural jobs that they were designed for.  Having to navigate a path in such a game can be a nightmare. Do you rely purely on calculation? Is it better to trust your instincts? Can you assess the position using “normal” criteria? In order to answer these questions, prolific chess author and coach Cyrus Lakdawala has assembled a collection of brilliantly unconventional and irrational games. The positions in these games appear almost random. Kings have gone walkabout, pieces are on bizarre squares, huge pawn rollers are sweeping all before them.  Irrational chess is like nothing you’ve seen before. As well as being highly instructive this is a hugely entertaining book.  Do not adjust your set. It’s chess, Jim, but not as we know it. Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master, a former National Open and American Open Champion, and a six-time State Champion. He has been teaching chess for over 30 years, and coaches some of the top junior players in the U.S. 400 Seiten, kartoniert, Everyman Chess Verlag

The third instalment of the best-selling series of attack books - Formation Attacks, Formation Attack Strategies, and now, Positional Attacks is another 500 page book, full of great attack information with 532 fabulous attack games from all openings and all eras.The aim of Positional Attacks is to uncover the artistic side of attacking, one that is primarily centered on the creation and exploitation of weaknesses. Oh sure, there will be tactics; after all they cannot be avoided in chess - nor would we want to exclude them. But there is nothing quite like witnessing chess masters dissect their opponents with smooth, elegant, aggressive, positional attacking manoeuvres. And, once again, the games provided in the book came from an in-depth global search for unique, inspirational, and original attacks from some of the world’s greatest attackers. Many of them toil in remote areas of the planet and have only a local following. Joel Johnson earned the National Master title in 1978 and later the Life Master title. Joel is a tactical chess player that has won many chess tournaments during his roughly thirty-five years of playing chess at Master Level. In 2007, he won the U.S. Senior Chess Championship. Joel was an award winning Editor of "Chess Horizons", the official state chess magazine for the state of Massachusetts and is currently the Games Editor for the magazine.   500 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Lulu

Lisitsin broke down Strategy and Tactics into their key constituent elements, enabling players of all levels to study chess systematically, learning from carefully selected game fragments and studies. Key Elements of Chess Strategy and its companion volume Key Elements of Chess Tactics are the first ever complete English translations of Lisitsin’s classic. In this volume, Lisitsin breaks down the Foundations of Strategy into categories such as piece placement, exchanges, weaknesses and prophylaxis, followed by a section on Devising a Strategic Plan, including concepts such as blockading, undermining, the initiative, pawn chains, and planning in the opening. Georgy Lisitsin (1909-72) was a respected Soviet master, theoretician and writer. In 1958 he published a revised edition of his most ambitious work, entitled Strategy and Tactics of Chess, which became one of the most legendary manuals in the Soviet chess school, and no doubt one of the books that motivated the young Bobby Fischer to learn Russian. 208 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

Lisitsin broke down Strategy and Tactics into their key constituent elements, enabling players of all levels to study chess systematically, learning from carefully selected game fragments and studies. Key Elements of Chess Tactics and its companion volume Key Elements of Chess Strategy are the first ever complete English translations of Lisitsin’s classic. In Key Elements of Chess Tactics, Lisitsin illustrates key tactical concepts such as pinning, discovered attacks and checks, deflection, interference and many more, building a foundation before moving on to more complex and beautiful tactical themes. Georgy Lisitsin (1909-72) was a respected Soviet master, theoretician and writer. In 1958 he published a revised edition of his most ambitious work, entitled Strategy and Tactics of Chess, which became one of the most legendary manuals in the Soviet chess school, and no doubt one of the books that motivated the young Bobby Fischer to learn Russian. 392 Seiten, gebunden, Verlag Quality Chess

The distinction between strategy and tactics is one of the first things any chess player learns about, but have you ever heard about statics and dynamics before? Did you know that nearly every critical decision you take in a game of chess is governed by the rules of the so-called static/dynamic balance? If not, for the sake of your own chess development, you might want learn more about it from this very book! In ‘Supreme Chess Understanding: Statics & Dynamics’, GM Moranda meticulously explains rules governing the physics of the game, focusing in particular on the interplay between static and dynamic factors. In today’s dog-eat-dog chess world it is namely not enough to know the general principles, but rather to grasp when, how and why can these be bent… or even broken. Thanks to the knowledge gained by studying this work, navigating through the maze of positional transformations is going to become a piece of cake! The 65 carefully selected exercises are going to make your chess senses tingle with learning excitement. Apart from that, you shall also benefit from the massive amount of practical advice and psychological tips provided by the author. Finally, the book’s quiz format will make the study process not only fruitful, but above all fun! 256 Seiten, gebunden,Thinkers Publishing

In his new, ground-breaking series, The Power of the Pieces, Belorussian grandmaster Sergey Kasparov examines the strengths, weaknesses and overall characteristics of each piece on the chessboard. This first volume in the series is about the bishop. Its role in the opening, middlegame and endgame is discussed in detail, amply supported by over 140 examples from tournament praxis. Topics include: Bishops of the Same Color Opposite-Color Bishops Bishop vs. Knight Bishop vs. Rook Two Bishops vs. Knight and Bishop Bishop vs. Pawns The King’s Indian Bishop The French Bishop The Nimzo-Indian Bishop The Fianchetto on g2 The Stonewall Bishop The Advantage of the Two Bishops The “Bad” Bishop The Attacking Bishop Opposite-color Bishops in the Middlegame. Popular chess author Sergey Kasparov is known for his entertaining writing style. His books are always instructive and insightful. Books previously published include The Exchange Sacrifice and Doubled Pawns. 248 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Russell