These days the move 1 d4 is often used as the precursor to quieter opening choices such as the London System, the Colle System or the Trompovsky. In this book the highly experienced chess author and coach Cyrus Lakdawala goes back to basics, outlining an aggressive repertoire for White based on 1 d4, following up with the traditional 2 c4. The emphasis of the repertoire is to gain space as quickly as possible and set Black the task of finding quick counterplay or face the risk of being overrun. Lakdawala recommends lines with f2-f3 against the Nimzo-Indian, the Petrosian System against the King's Indian and the Flick Knife (f4 with Bb5+) against the Benoni. With thorough explanations on pawn structures and piece placement, this book provides insight to both strong masters and less experienced players alike. The format is ideal for the chessplayer keen to improve their game. While reading you are continually challenged to answer probing questions - a method that greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of chess knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. * Presents a powerful, aggressive repertoire starting at move one. * Thorough explanations of typical pawn structures and piece manoeuvres. * Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study.

Start every game with confidence
The two greatest challenges for beginning chess players are not only to survive the openings phase, but also to choose appropriate attack and defence formations in the process. "Winning Chess Openings" shows players how to do both. In Yasser Seirawan's entertaining, easy-to-follow style, they are shown formations that can be used with other White or Black pieces.
"Winning Chess Openings "explains how to:
*Build a safe house for a king
*Estimate losses of ten moves or fewer
*Utilise the elements: time, force, space, and pawn structure
*Plan strategy based on time-tested opening principles of play
*Employ a defence for Black against any White opening
*Apply an opening for White used by World Champions
"Winning Chess Openings" will help readers develop a solid understanding of opening principles that can be applied to every game they play--without having to memorize a dizzying array of tedious and lengthy opening lines.

These books are perfect for enthusiastic chess players who are starting out in the game, and who are seeking to understand the basic principles behind these important openings: the Ruy Lopez and the English. Both books are written in a user-friendly style with an abundance of notes, tips, and warnings scattered throughout, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.The authors of these books are very skilled and experienced chess writers, who are used to writing for players of all levels and are renowned for their ability to explain ideas in a lucid and straightforward manner.These books will be especially beneficial to those players who have previously sharpened their chess skills with the earlier books Starting Out in Chess, Tips for Young Players, and Improve Your Opening Play.In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald revisits the basic principles behind the English and its many variations. Throughout this easy-to-read guide readers are aided by a wealth of notes, tips, and warnings from the author, while key strategies, ideas, and tactics for Doth sides are clearly illustrated. This book is ideal for the improving players.

Are you bored of playing the same old openings time and time again? Fed up with constantly having to keep up with modern chess theory? Or perhaps you simply wish to play something new and exciting, but cannot decide between the numerous choices available? Don't despair - help is on hand!' In "Dangerous Weapons: The Sicilian", John Emms and Richard Palliser team up to investigate by far the most popular and widely-played chess opening, but in a revolutionary way. They concentrate on fresh or little-explored variations of the open Sicilian, selecting a wealth of ideas and options for both colours. Many of the carefully chosen weapons are innovative, visually shocking, incredibly tricky, or have been unfairly discarded; they are guaranteed to throw even your most experienced opponent off balance. Whether playing White or Black, a study of this book will leave you assured and fully-armed, and your opponents running for cover! "Dangerous Weapons" is a brand-new series of opening books that provide the reader with an abundance of hard-hitting ideas to revitalize his or her opening repertoire.

These books are perfect for enthusiastic chess players who are starting out in the game, and who are seeking to understand the basic principles behind these most important openings: the Sicilian, the King's Indian, the Nimzo-Indian, and the French. All four books are written in a user-friendly style with an abundance of notes, tips, and warnings scattered throughout, while key strategies, ideas, and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. The authors of these books are all very skilled and experienced chess writers, who are used to writing for players of all levels and are renowned for their ability to explain ideas in a lucid and straightforward manner.
-- User-friendly design to help readers absorb ideas
-- Concentrates on the fundamental principles of the openings
-- Ideal for the improving player

The middlegame can prove to be a minefield for many players, throwing up numerous difficult questions. Is this a good time to get active or should I consolidate my position? Should I have a long think in this position, or save time for later? Are desperate measures called for or should I just try to defend solidly? In Mastering the Middlegame, International master Angus Dunnington answers these and other questions that frequently baffle players of all levels.This guide explains how strong players approach tactical and positional play; numerous test positions enable readers to gauge their progress; revolutionary layout allows readers to absorb the key ideas. (7 x 9 1/2, 144 pages, diagrams)

Two great books from the Everyman Chess Library, Starting Out: The Nimzo Indian by Chris Ward and Starting Out: The Queen's Indian by John Emms, brought together in one volume. The Nimzo-Indian is one of the soundest and most popular defences against 1 d4, offering Black the chance to unbalance the game early on and play for a win without undue risk. Advocates include virtually all of the world's top players, including Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand and Anatoly Karpov. In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Chris Ward revisits the basic principles behind the Nimzo-Indian and its many variations. Throughout this easy-to-read guide the reader is helped along by a wealth of notes, tips and warnings from the author, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. This book is ideal for the improving player. The Queens Indian is one of Black's most dependable and respected defences to the queen's pawn opening. It is an established favourite amongst world-class Grandmasters such as Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Michael Adams and Judit Polgar, not to mention Anatoly Karpov, who has been a loyal Queens Indian supporter and theory developer for over three decades. Rather than classically occupying the central squares with pawns, Black adopts a hypermodern approach and endeavours to control this key area with pieces. This procedure leads to rich and varied positions that will appeal to players who like complex play. In this easy-to-read guide, Grandmaster and Queens Indian expert John Emms goes back to basics, studying the essential principles of the Queens Indian and its numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.

The Grunfeld Defence is a dynamic and popular counterattacking weapon for Black against queen's pawn openings. Former World Champion Bobby Fischer and current world number one Garry Kasparov head a long list of grandmasters that have utilised this opening with continued success. In this book, grandmaster and renowned chess teacher Nigel Davies explains the key ideas and tactics for both White and Black. Using illustrative games, Davies guides the reader through both the fashionable main lines and the tricky side variations, and provides his opinion on all the crucial questions arising from this opening. *Up-to-date coverage of one of Black's most important defences *Strategies and tactics revealed for both sides *Written by an experienced chess teacher and author Nigel Davies is both an experienced grandmaster and chess trainer. A former British Open Quickplay Champion, Davies is an author of several successful chess books and is highly experienced in chess publishing. This is his second book for Everyman Chess; his first was Alekhine's Defence.

This is the ideal book for serious adult players who want to improve. It describes a study plan that came about thanks to a re-evaluation of standard chess teaching and includes several unique components aimed at improving deficiencies in the play of adult players.This book is the only one of its kind for the simple reason that it has been written by an author who hugely improved his own rating over a twelve month period by following his own advice. He therefore fully understands the challenges faced by enthusiastic players who are relatively new to the game. This is in sharp contrast to most books aimed at this level which are usually written by very strong players who have long forgotten what it feels like to be starting out in the game. (6 1/4 x 9 1/4, 128 pages, diagrams)

The Nimzo-Indian Defence continues to be one of Black's most reliable ways of meeting the queen's pawn opening. It's popular at all levels of chess and a constant source of anxiety for White players. How can White find a worthwhile line against this incredibly firm defense? How can White set his Nimzo opponent difficult tasks from the outset? Perhaps it's time to look somewhere different from the well-trodden main lines.
In this book Grandmaster and renowned openings expert Chris Ward investigates unusual white tries, including three uncompromising and underrated ways of battling against the Nimzo: the Samisch, the Leningrad and the 4 f3 variation. Each line is ideal for putting your opponent under immediate pressure from the start of the game. By studying the various strategies and tactics in these variations, White players can confidently arm themselves with three new menacing lines against the Nimzo, while Black players must again search carefully for antidotes!
*All the principal lines are covered
*Written by a renowned Nimzo-Indian expert
*Explains the basic elements, strategies and tactics for both sides
*Ideal for club and tournament players

The Ruy Lopez Exchange (or Spanish Exchange) is a classical and well-respected opening that is a favorite among Grandmasters and club players alike. It has provided the battle scene for many heavyweight clashes between the world's elite, including (among others) Alexei Shirov, Jan Timman, Nigel Short, and Michael Adams. Very early on in the game, a distinctive pawn structure is obtained, and in this particular opening it's the understanding of key ideas, plans, and structures that's more important than the memorization of long theoretical variations.
In this book, noted opening theoreticians Krzysztof Panczyk and Jacek Ilczuk explain the crucial strategies and tactics of the Ruy Lopez Exchange. Using model games for both White and Black, the authors provide a thorough schooling in the key ideas of both the fashionable lines and the more offbeat variations. In this way, players of all standards can quickly and confidently begin to play the Ruy Lopez Exchange with either color in their own games.
An opening originally championed by the great Bobby Fischer
Ideal for club and tournament players
Start playing the opening straight away

This is a major event in chess publishing. Two German endgame experts have produced a masterful one-volume encyclopedia which covers all major endgames. This, the first truly modern single-volume endgame encyclopedia, supersedes all previous works of this type by being far more accurate and readable. This is no dry reference work; throughout the work, the authors emphasize the practical elements of endgame play: principles, rules of thumb and thinking methods. They also provide a feast of detailed analysis for those looking to study the endgame in depth. Unlike previous books of this type (the most recent of which is now eight years old), Fundamental Chess Endings makes full use of endgame tablebases and the analytical engines that access these tablebases. As a result, where previous authors could only make educated guesses, in this book, the authors can often state the definitive truth, or get much closer to it. Throughout, the emphasis is on the general principles that can be extracted from detailed theory, making Fundamental Chess Endings both an ideal endgame reference work and a book that can profitably and enjoyably read from start to finish. With new time controls meaning that competitive games are played to a finish, it has become especially important that chess-players understand the main endgame principles. Fundamental Chess Endings sets the mark for which all others will aim.

John Healy's The Grass Arena describes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. This Penguin Classics edition includes an afterword by Colin MacCabe. In his searing autobiography Healy describes his fifteen years living rough in London without state aid, when begging carried an automatic three-year prison sentence and vagrant alcoholics prowled the parks and streets in search of drink or prey. When not united in their common aim of acquiring alcohol, winos sometimes murdered one another over prostitutes or a bottle, or the begging of money. Few modern writers have managed to match Healy's power to refine from the brutal destructive condition of the chronic alcoholic a story so compelling it is beyond comparison. John Healy (b. 1943) was born into an impoverished, Irish immigrant family, in the slums of Kentish Town, North London. Out of school by 14, pressed into the army and intermittently in prison, Healy became an alcoholic early on in life. Despite these obstacles Healy achieved remarkable, indeed phenomenal expertise in both writing and chess, as outlined in the autobiographical The Grass Arena. If you enjoyed The Grass Arena, you might like Last Exit to Brooklyn, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Sober and precise, grotesque, violent, sad, charming and hilarious all at once' Literary Review 'Beside it, a book like Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London seems a rather inaccurate tourist guide' Colin MacCabe

The 'Anti-Sicilians' have invariably been a popular choice at all levels of the game. Analysis of this opening in previous literature has rarely been extensive due to the misconception that Anti-Sicilians are simplistic and thus, easy to play 'by hand'. While maintaining the ideals of straightforward plans and digestible variations, this series of volumes will attempt to integrate 'Anti-Sicilians' into mainstream theory - with a particular focus on negating Black's attempts to achieve any significant activity. This first volume provides significant coverage of the Rossolimo variation - perhaps the most pertinent example of how an 'Anti-Sicilian' has emerged to become arguably even more popular than its counterpart, 3.d4 after 2...Nc6. With a particular emphasis on analysing multiple alternatives within each critical variation, this book should appeal to anyone wishing to update and expand their knowledge and understanding of the fashionable Rossolimo.

In "The Duel", Alessandro Bossi and Claudio Brovelli go deep into the lives of these two legendary World Champions, who have left their mark in an unforgettable manner on their epoch (the first forty years of the 20th century) and who remain - in part, due to their very different personalities and relationship with the game - inimitable examples for all the chess-playing generations to come. The choice to present in parallel the two biographies (in my opinion quite rightly so), shows clearly and effectively similarities and differences, not only in the style of play, but also in the approaches to life of the two protagonists. With very precise historical descriptions and presenting the events in chronological order, the authors accompany us on a journey alongside the lives of these two legends of chess. In this fashion the personalities emerge, in many ways antithetical but equally fascinating: Capablanca, friendly and charming in society, precocious, genial and nearly invincible on the chessboard, and Alekhine, who combined a wonderful talent with a capacity for work, a competitive attitude and an energy which was truly enviable.

The very closely linked Slav and Semi-Slav Defences are two of the most popular and combative openings that Black can play against the Queen's Gambit. They have provided the battleground for thousands of exciting encounters between the world's chess elite, including Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov and Alexander Morozevich. Players of all levels are attracted to the Slav and the Semi-Slav because they are solid, dependable defenses that do, however, promise abundant possibilities for dynamic counterplay.
In this easy-to-read guide, Grandmaster and openings expert Glenn Flear goes back to basics, studying the essential principles of the Slav and Semi-Slav Defences and their numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.
*User-friendly layout to help readers absorb ideas
*Concentrates on the key principles of the Slav and Semi-Slav
*Ideal for the improving player

Nimzowitschs ideas about how to play better chess have had a profound influence on modern chess thinking. It is commonly agreed that almost every chess master in the world has studied Nimzowitschs work.

From a theoretical backwater to a fully blown main line opening, the rise of the Scandinavian Defence (1 e4 d5) has been nothing short of meteoric. Over the past fifteen years the Scandinavian has become more and more popular both at club and Grandmaster level. It even managed to obtain an ultimate seal of approval when Vishy Anand employed it in his World Championship match with Garry Kasparov!
In this book Grandmaster John Emms explains the strategies and tactics of this dynamic and fashionable opening. Through the use of model games for both sides, the author provides a thorough grounding in the key ideas, so that players of all standards can quickly and confidently begin to use the Scandinavian in their own games.
This book provides a complete update of Emms's original and best-selling edition of The Scandinavian, published in 1997. Since then there have been many new and important discoveries from both sides of the board, and these are included here.
*Ideal for club and tournament players
*Explains the basic elements, strategies and tactics for both sides
*Written by a leading expert on the Scandinavian
*Provides everything you need to know to start playing the opening straightaway

One of the finest chess books ever written, the Art of Attack has been transcribed into algebraic notation for the first time. In this revised edition of the great classic, the author expounds both the basic principles and the most complex forms of attack on the king. A study of this masterpiece will add power and brilliance to any chess enthusiast's play. (5 3/4' X 8 1/4', 352 pages, illustrations, index)

A comprehensive book for players of all ages, Grandmaster Kallai provides a straightforward guide to surviving the maze of chess openings, covering all the popular modern openings starting with 1 d4, 1 c4, and 1 Nf3, as well as some of the lesser known alternatives to 1 e4.Rather than present a mass of bewildering variations, Kallai concentrates on developing solid understanding of the ideas behind each opening.The companion volume to this book, Basic Chess Openings, covers all the openings starting with 1 e4, and is also available from Cadogan.

Most players would rather attack than defend , with the result that defensive technique is often the weak est part of their game. This book, translated by Ken Neat, e xplains the basics of defensive play & contains many tests f or readers to practice on '

Grandmaster Chris Ward explains the important ideas behind every major opening, unraveling among others the secrets of the Sicilian, the mysteries of the Modern and the fundamentals of the French. He emphasizes the need to understand the key elements of each opening rather than simply memorize a series of complicated variations that leave you stranded if the opponent varies from the expected route. This book deals with every important opening, focuses on the application of simple principles and has a revolutionary layout to help readers absorb the key ideas. (6 7/8 x 9 5/8, 144 pages, b&w illustrations)

The Sicilian Kan is one of the most flexible and easy-to-play variations of the entire Sicilian complex. In contrast to opening monsters such as the infamous Dragon and Najdorf Variations, Black players are not forced to memorize massive chunks of opening theory. Success in the Sicilian Kan is more dependent on understanding certain principles and a system of development. Another point in its favor is that even more experienced White players are often flummoxed by Blacks elastic approach. Recently the Kan has received a seal of approval from the highest places, with both Kasparov and Kramnik employing it in the last couple of years.
In this book, Grandmaster John Emms considers both the popular main lines and the tricky sidelines of the Sicilian Kan. Using illustrative games, Emms guides the reader through the positional and tactical intricacies of this modern opening.
*Written by a leading openings expert
*Includes games from world class grandmasters
*An ideal weapon at all levels

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. Points are awarded for the 'right answers' as well as for some other moves, and at the end there is a general assessment plus a review of some of the things to be learned from the game. During my coaching period I was able to witness how motivating it is for kids to receive points for the right answers, their 'lives are at stake' when they try to find the answers, and it is a challenge much appreciated by them. Later I also noticed a similar effect with adults although, unlike the kids, the older students try to hide it. The final score is not that important; it is not scientifically based. But of course the more points you get the better you 'would have played'. The effort you put into trying to find the best move every time is what matters most. I firmly believe it really helps to learn a little more about playing chess with every game. The methodology recommended for solving the exercises is the 'old-school' one of using a piece of paper to cover the text and scrolling down the page as you advance.