Ntirlis and Aagaard radically change the theoretical lanscape for this classic opening.
First published in Russian in 2004 and now available in English for the first time, The Lubyanka Gambit is a classic work investigating the darkest side of chess history in the Soviet Union. It is the culmination of nearly two decades of research by Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, historian and human rights campaigner Sergei Grodzensky, whose own father was sent to the Gulag in Stalin’s times. It describes the careers and life stories, based on archival documents and witness testimony, of Soviet chess composers, players and famous amateurs who were repressed by the Soviet authorities, ending up either executed or sent to the Gulag. Featured names include Lazar Zalkind, Arvid Kubbel, Vladimirs Petrovs, Petr Izmailov, Georgy Schneideman, Nikolai Krylenko and Natan Sharansky, among many others. The theoretical contribution to the history of composition is one key theme in this work.
The Lubyanka Gambit also looks in detail at the historical context of the purges of chess players and describes how chess was played by prisoners in the Gulags and internal exile. Perhaps the icing on the cake is provided by Grodzensky’s personal memories of the Soviet Union’s foremost Gulag writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn (his schoolteacher) and Varlam Shalamov (his father’s close friend). This book contains 72 full games and fragments analyzed by the participants, contemporaries, the author and other leading players, as well as 145 computer-checked compositions.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 136th ADVENTURE
Where Chess and Football Meet
CONTENTS:
THE FIDE WOMEN'S WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH 2018 GM Danilo Milanović
THE 4TH MUSKETEER RISES GM Danilo Milanović
EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 GM Ivan Šarić
ATTACKING WITH SIMPLE MOVES GM Mihail Marin
TRICKY AND AMBITIOUS WAY OF TACKLING THE CARO-KANN GM Ferenc Berkes
HOW TO AVOID THE PETROFF IN STYLE GM Markus Ragger
THE SEMI-SLAV DEFENCE GM Aleksander Delchev
NEW IDEAS IN THE REALMS OF ANTI-MARSHALL GM Shyam Sundar Mohanraj
THE SICILIAN OFFROAD II GM Miloš Perunović
THE BEST OF CHESS INFORMANT – Anish Giri
Traditional sections: games, combinations, endings, problems, Tournaments review, 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!
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. Cyrus Lakdawala’s search starts with a series of Magnus wins and draws to give the reader a feel for how incredibly difficult it is to beat him. The World Champion’s arsenal is awesome: a superlative ability to calculate, near-perfect intuition, probably the best endgame technique ever, a wide and creative opening repertoire, a willingness to unbalance the position almost anytime, and last but not least: his unparalleled will to win. How to Beat Magnus Carlsen has a thematic structure, which, together with Lakdawala’s uniquely accessible style, makes its lessons easy to digest. Sometimes even Magnus gets outplayed, sometimes he over-presses and goes over the cliff’s edge, and sometimes he fails to find the correct plan. And yes, even Magnus Carlsen commits straightforward blunders. Lakdawala explains the how and the why. It’s wonderful to have a World Champion who is not just incredibly strong, but who is also happy to experiment and take risks. That’s what makes Magnus Carlsen such a fascinating chess player. And that’s why he is the hero of this book. There is no doubt that Carlsen has examined all his losses under a microscope. If he benefits from this process, then so will we.
The Réti is a popular opening at all levels of chess. The great advantage it possesses over other openings is that it's a thematic system which can be adopted against many different defences, and because of this it's a firm favourite amongst those who prefer the understanding of ideas over dry memorization of moves.
In this book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald examines the Réti by going back to basics, introducing the key moves and ideas, and taking care to explain the reasoning behind them - something that has often been neglected or taken for granted in other works.
The Starting Out series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming chess players. These books are ideal for enthusiasts who don't necessarily have extensive knowledge of the openings in question and who wish to appreciate the essential principles behind them.
The Budapest Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5) is an aggressive, dynamic approach for meeting 1.d4 and is a great line for throwing opponents onto their own resources. It is certainly double-edged as Black moves the same piece twice early on and also sacrifices a pawn. This pawn is often quickly regained but one of the great advantages of the Budapest is that if White tries to hang on to the pawn (and many players do) Black can quickly whip up a ferocious attack. A great number of materialistic but unprepared White players have found themselves swiftly demolished by Black’s tremendously active pieces. When White is more circumspect and allows Black to regain the pawn, play proceeds along more sedate strategic lines where Black enjoys free and easy development. Experienced chess author and coach Andrew Martin examines all key variations of the Budapest. There is an emphasis on typical middlegame structures and the important plans and manoeuvres are demonstrated in numerous instructive games. – Includes complete repertoires for Black with both 3...Ng4 and 3...Ne4; – Comprehensive coverage featuring several new ideas; – Take your opponents out of their comfort zone!
In 2013 chess returned to world headlines.
CHESS INFORMANT’S 157th ADVENTURE
OMNIPRESENT
• 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)
• 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.