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! The authors have decided to set the book in order from the less to the more popular and complex lines. In the case of the most popular moves 3. e5, 3. Nd2 and 3. Nc3, we decided to offer two options for Black – one aims to lead to calm play, taking care first with finding balance and equalizing; the other aims to lead to a direct game. Needless to say, we wish to arm the reader in all scenarios that can arise in a practical game of chess, depending on their intentions, wishes, preparation, motivation level, and standings etc.  

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2022, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, during September 26-30, 2022. The 17 full papers and presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions. They were organized into the following as follows: mathematical programming; global optimization; discrete and combinatorial optimization; optimal control; optimization and data analysis; and game theory and mathematical economics.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Advances in Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2022, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, during September 26-30, 2022. The 13 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: mathematical programming; global optimization; discrete and combinatorial optimization; optimization and data analysis; game theory and mathematical economics; and applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2021, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in September - October 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was partially held online. The 19 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on mathematical programming; global optimization; stochastic optimization; optimal control; mathematical economics; optimization in data analysis; applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2021, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in September-October 2021. The 22 full and 3 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers are organized into the following topical sub-headings: mathematical programming, global optimization, discrete and combinatorial optimization, optimal control, optimization and data analysis, and game theory and mathematical economics.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2019, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in September-October 2019. The 35 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 117 submissions. The papers cover such topics as optimization, operations research, optimal control, game theory, and their numerous applications in practical problems of operations research, data analysis, and software development.

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! The authors have decided to set the book in order from the less to the more popular and complex lines. In the case of the most popular moves 3. e5, 3. Nd2 and 3. Nc3, we decided to offer two options for Black – one aims to lead to calm play, taking care first with finding balance and equalizing; the other aims to lead to a direct game. Needless to say, we wish to arm the reader in all scenarios that can arise in a practical game of chess, depending on their intentions, wishes, preparation, motivation level, and standings etc.  

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2018, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in October 2018.The 35 revised full papers and the one short paper presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 103 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on mathematical programming; combinatorial and discrete optimization; optimal control; optimization in economy, finance and social sciences; applications.