Save 10% on ChessBase 10!

ChessBase 10 is coming!

We are offering a 10% discount on this new version
of the most popular stand-alone chess database program.

ChessBase 10 comes with a spruced-up navigation and
a host of updates and improvements, while still containing
the Fritz and Crafty engines.

Better display, extra search boosters, new engine functions,
automatic udates and improved window management are
just some of the new features.

There are three different packages, at different prices, and
the 10% dicount goes for all three of them:
— ChessBase 10 Mega Package
— ChessBase 10 Starter Package
— ChessBase 10 Update from CB 9.0

Save on New In Chess 2007, complete

The beginning of July is always an important moment for those of you who don’t subscribe to our flagship publication: New In Chess, the magazine.

Because NOW you can get the complete 2007 year volume
at a very attractive price!

You pay only €49.95 for 8 volumes with over 800 pages of the very best in chess: Garry Kasparov’s exclusive columns, annotations by the world’s greatest players themselves, interviews, portraits, full colour pictures, essays, columns, book reviews, history, endgame studies & opening surprises, and more.

Jeremy Silman called it “the best chess magazine of all time.”

Warning: New In Chess doesn’t have any federation info, scoring tables of sub-regional competitions, kid’s puzzles, address changes of local chairpersons, and the like.

New: a combative repertoire in the French

We are very proud to announce a new book we just published, written by GM Viktor Moskalenko: The Flexible French.

In his much-praised fresh, explanatory style Moskalenko offers a combative & original repertoire in the French Defence.

The four main parts of the book present a wealth of dynamic options in the Advance, Tarrasch, Classical and Winawer variation.

To this, Moskalenko adds his “Seven Samourai Swords”: sharp surprise weapons, early deviations from established main line theory.

“Moskalenko does not dish out endless variations, but concentrates on the principal and most aggressive plans”, wrote a German reviewer about his earlier book on the Budapest Gambit (currently being reprinted).

An American reviewer called it “a model of an opening book”.

The same goes for “The Flexible French”: it sparkles with original ideas!

We don’t like to show off, but..

This is what some of the critics have to say about
Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan:

“By organizing and explaining the nature of great chess moves
Hertan has brought us all closer to being able to find them.”
Former US Champion GM Joel Benjamin

“An intensive training course for advanced players (…) You will
increase your tactical striking powers a lot.”
Dr Erik Rausch, Rochade Europa

“When the clock is ticking away, and you have too many viable
candidate moves to choose from, remember Hertan’s advice.”
Steve Goldberg, ChessCafe

“The categories in this book are quite unusual (…) An ample and accurate collection of startling problems bulging with combinative surprises.”
Harold Dondis, The Boston Globe

“The price is low for a volume with so many pages and so much content.”
Stephen Dann, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Make a great move, have a look here.

(Dutch post only)

Sorry, but this post is not available in English

New: Accelerated Chaos & other Pirc lines

For those of you who know Part1 it will suffice to know that we have just received from Sofia: Carpathian Warrior 2.

It is, as was Part 1, written by GM’s Bogdan Lalic and Vladimir Okhotnik, and covers some lesser known lines vs the Pirc and Modern.

This Part 2 resembles more an encyclopedia than an instruction manual. It has tons of well structured lines and variations.

It looks absolutely indispensable for Pirc and Modern players with an Elo of over 1850.

We are not so sure about the quality of the full-colour abstract art in this book, but this is only a minor distraction in this solid 366 pages Pirc theory bible.

New: Jose Capablanca & Johan Cruyff

What is the connection between Jose Mourinho’s defensive cunning and the principles of Wilhelm Steinitz?

How does Rafael Benitez compare to David Bronstein, and does Ray Keene in any way resemble Roy Keane?

According to Football & Chess, a book we just got in stock, there are lots of similarities between the two most popular games on earth.

I know there are quite a few footbal fans among chess players, and they will love what author Adam Wells has to say about psychology and tactics, space and timing, initiative and prophylaxis.

This is an amazing and fun book, as you can see here.

GM Danny King’s Powerplay Chess Course

One of the most succesful chess instruction tools today is the PowerPlay DVD series by GM Daniel King.

All produced over the last 18 months this monument of instructional lucidity now consists of six titles:

PowerPlay 1: Mating Patterns
PowerPlay 2: Attacking the King 
PowerPlay 3: Pawn Storm
PowerPlay 4: Opening Play
PowerPlay 5: Pawn Structures
PowerPlay 6: Positional Play
 
Each DVD has many hours of running time, and as an experienced coach King always includes many well selected test positions. I recommend this series to your attention.

A fresh stock of The King by J.H. Donner

We recently reprinted The King by J.H. Donner.

This book will not make you a better chess player, so you can safely neglect this post if that is the only thing you are interested in.

But Richard James and the late Mike Fox said it was “A magnificent portrait of a remarkable man, as well as on of the funniest chess books ever written.”

The Washington Post called it a “masterpiece”.

John Saunders said, in British Chess Magazine, it would be his “only desert island chess book.”

Mark Donlan wrote, in Chess Horizons, that it made him laugh aloud, an added: “it is the only chess book that similarly amused my wife.”

Believe us: The King is the best book we ever published.

Has the chess world gone crazy?

This Crazy World of Chess is the title of Grandmaster Larry Evans’ new book.

It is a collection of 101 entertaining dispatches from the back door of chess: fun, intrigues, bizarre anecdotes, scandals, great games, and high-level gossip.

Inevitably, there is a lot of Bobby Fischer in this book, as Evans was Fischer’s best friend during a crucial period in his life.

But quite a few other celebrities turn up in this swinging volume: Garry Kasparov, Charlie Chaplin, Anatoly Karpov, Artie Shaw, Sammy Reshesvky and Ray Charles.

There is another intriguing aspect of this 294 pages book: it costs only € 11.50! Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand how Cardoza, Evans’ publisher, manages to make any money on this.

In short: an extremely entertaining read at a ridiculously low price.

New: 222 opening traps after 1.e4

How much book do you need to know?

“The bare minimum is”, said GM Andrew Soltis, “you need to know the traps that come up in your openings.”

222 Opening Traps after 1.e4 is the title of a new book we just received, published by the respected house of Olms in Switzerland.

It’s authors are two German GM’s: Karsten Müller and Rainer Knaak, and it was about time that the old Znosko-Borowsky books were replaced with something up-to-date and thorough.

Müller and Knaak have expanded the concept of a trap just a little, and also include typical mistakes that are not the result of a line deliberately chosen by the one who sets the trap.

An important part of their book is devoted to “normal” looking moves which are met by unusual tactical blows.

New & full of novelties: Yearbook 86

Yearbook 86 has just arrived from the printers. In the 250 pages of this issue of The Chess Player’s Guide to Opening News you will get an answer to the following questions:

• What did Sosonko have in store against the sharp 5…b5 in his Catalan years?
• Is the Riga Ruy Lopez busted by a reader from Austria?
• Has Magnus Carlsen found the easy way to beat the Najdorf?
• Whose Caro-Kann book is best: Karpov’s, Houska’s or Wells’s?
• Is Black OK after Evgeny Naer’s deep novelty in the Poisoned Pawn?
• Which obscure French line is a specialty of two 18-year-old top talents?
• What is Zviagintsev’s latest experiment — in the Caro-Kann this time?
• Can Etienne Bacrot play …d5 in all Spanish lines?
• Has Tkachiev found the antidote to the popular 7.d5 gambit in the Nimzo QI?
• Which colour does Kasimdzhanov prefer in the Paulsen Sicilian?
• Is pawn c5 in the Sämisch King’s Indian poisoned?
• Is Karpov’s treatment of the Rauzer too passive?
• Does Gata Kamsky’s novelty put an entire Benoni line in revision?
• Will Kortchnoi’s 4…Nd4 be the new craze in the English Opening?
• And much more…

Please have a look at this “must-have book for both chess enthusiasts and chess professionals” (as Carsten Hansen said about the Yearbook on ChessCafe).

ChessCafe 2007 Book Award: Jeremy Silman!

Jeremy Silman has just won the 2007 ChessCafe Book-of-the-Year Award. His Silman’s Complete Endgame Course was the favorite in a worldwide internet voting round.

We wouldn’t have minded if one of the other two shortlisted books, our own From London to Elista or Quality Chess’s San Luis 2005, would have won, but it is obvious that the voters have made a very fine coice.

Silman’s endgame book is revolutionary. It does not just pile one theoretical position upon the other, but it is driven by what you need to know at your present playing level. Each chapter adds on the building blocks of the preceding one.

And Silman’s writing, his tone of voice, is unique. John Watson, no mean educational author himself, said (at The Week in Chess) that this book confirms Silman’s status as “the king of instructional writing.”

Silman is so good at getting your attention and keeping it, that you will digest this FAT book (530 pages - at just € 24.95!) faster than the 230 pages endgame book you currently own (by the way: did you finish that one?).

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course will be around for many years. But do not let that keep you from ordering this instructional prize-winning classic today.

Save 45% on Yearbook 2006-set: 1,000 pages!

The 2006 Year Volume of the Chess Player’s Guide of Opening News has just become available!

We are offering all 4 issues of the 2006 Yearbook (78-81), paperback edition,
for only € 47,95 (was € 103,80). That’s more than 1,000 pages!

That means you now can get hold of a massive load of:

• chess opening theory
• chess opening book reviews
• chess opening ideas
• chess opening discussions

at a super-affordable price.

This year set contains more than 130 Opening Surveys by expert Masters and Grandmasters from all over the world.

Please have a look at this fantastic bargain here.

We don’t like to show off, but…

This is what some of the critics have to say about From London to Elista:

“Simply breathtaking.”
- ChessVibes

“Absolutely riveting.”
- British Chess Magazine

“Undisputably the best chess book of 2007 (…) A terrific read.”
- Former Dutch Champion IM Gert Ligterink, de Volkskrant

“If you have ever wanted to be a fly on the wall observing what takes place ‘backstage’ with world championship contenders, this is your book.”
- Steve Goldberg, Scholastic Chess Gateway

“Excellent.”
- Former British Champion GM Jonathan Rowson

“I can assure you that this is one of those books that you cannot put down.”
- Elburg Chess Reviews

If you can stand more praise, than please have a look here.

Tactics in the chess opening, complete

Our series Tactics in the Chess Opening has recently been completed. The last issue came out in the autumn of 2007.

This means that the tactical themes and typical traps in all main line chess openings have been covered.

We are now introducing this series as a collection, with an attractive discount if you order in one go:

Part 1: Sicilian Defence
Part 2: Open Games
Part 3: French Defence & other Semi-Open Games
Part 4: Queen’s Gambits, Trompowsky & Torre
Part 5: Indian Defences, Catalan & Benoni
Part 6: Gambits & Flank Openings

On more than 1,400 pages, over 1,000 short games illustrate how you can recognize opportunities to attack early in the game and how you should avoid standard pitfalls in the opening.

You can now order the entire series with a 10% discount.

Why do computers outwit us in chess tactics?

We can no longer deny it, computers outdo us humans when it comes to tactical vision and brute force calculation.

But American FM Charles Hertan says: if you can’t beat them, join them!

Charlie Hertan made an astonishing discovery during several decades as a chess coach. He found that you can overcome your human bias against finding many winning moves by using COMPUTER EYES.

Meaning: always look at the most forcing sequence first!

Hertan has written a revolutionary book about it, which we have just published:
Forcing Chess Moves, the Key to Better Calculation.

If you study the book’s sparkling fresh training material according to
Hertan’s method you will:

• develop analytical precision
• improve your tactical vision
• and overcome human bias and staleness.

Please have a look here to see if you like the concept of this book.

After four losses, Bobby started crying …

“At one point, however, I had beaten him four times in a row, and he cried at least once, revealing the depth of his intensity for the game. But one night at the Marshall Chess Club rapids we played a French Defence, and a very peculiar thing happened. In the middle of the game Bobby made ….”

This is from a new and very special book we just published: Hooked on Chess, by Bill Hook.

In his memoir Bill Hook looks back on his long life in chess, art and gambling. He played with a motley crowd of amateurs, hustlers and celibrities like Marcel Duchamp, Stanley Kubrick and Miguel Najdorf.

He participated in a record 16 chess olympiads for the British Virgin Islands, winning the gold medal on first board in 1980. The book contains dozens of Hook’s fine photographs.

“A good read, a colorful document, and an admirable life”, commented The Washington Post chess writer Lubosh Kavalek.

Please have look at this wonderful memoir of chess and gambling.

Kasparov is back: New In Chess 2008 # 01

Columnist Garry Kasparov is back in New In Chess 2008 # 01!

After an absence of a couple of months because of political time trouble, Kasparov writes on the butterflies he had in his stomach during his first world championship matches with Anatoly Karpov.

Further in this issue:

• on-the-spot reports from Hastings, Moscow, Siberia, Merida and Pamplona
• a lesson in positional understanding from Mark Dvoretsky
• unpredictable genius Alexander Morozevich on his Russian Championship (six wins in a row!)
• annotations by Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Cheparinov and many others
• Jonathan Rowson on Zhenya Bareev’s legs
• Danny Gormally on his modelling contract for Dolce & Gabbana
• progressive paranoia by Hans Ree
• Timman on Kamsky
• and much more

Please have a look at the full contents

Finally: Shirov on the Sveshnikov

The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence is quite popular with both top grandmasters and club players, and it is easy to see why.

It is one of the most promising replies to 1.e4, often giving rise to sharp and complex positions which require precise and inventive play from both sides.

That is probably why Alexei Shirov has included it into his repertoire with both White and Black. Shirov loves and knows the mutual tricks and traps.

We just received from our friends at ChessBase in Hamburg a new 4-hour DVD,
a masterful course on the Sveshnikov by Shirov himself.

The genius from Latvia presents and explains his best Sveshnikov games, from his first successes in 1992 to his latest achievements in the year 2007.

You will see the typical opening plans for both sides, receive explanations on strategy and tactics in the middlegame, and learn how to convert obtained advantages in the endgame - and all this in a most entertaining way.

Please have a look at Alexei Shirov’s My Best Games in the Sveshnikov

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