Take Black out of his stride with 1.b4!

If you are interested in taking your opponent out of his comfort zone at the very first move, then the new book Play 1.b4! may be just the ticket for you.

With this aggressive pawn lunge you avoid the many theoretical landmines of main line opening theory and you force Black to think for himself.

Ukranian IM Yury Lapshun, the main author, is an expert in this rare system and the book is illustrated with dozens of high-level games.

It provides options against all of Black’s main defences, and highlights key ideas and tactics for both sides.

If you are adventurous and ambitious, please have a look here.

Kasparov’s secret laptop in New In Chess 2008/3

Garry Kasparov finally opens his laptop in New In Chess 2008#3!

In his column Kasparov reveals some stunning analysis he discovered in the Sicilian, but which he did not get to use during his career as an active player.

Further in this issue, among much more:

• on-the-spot reports from Moscow, Linares, Mexico, Nice, Istanbul and Reykajvik
• exclusive analysis by the heroes themselves: Anand, Topalov, Carlsen, Aronian, Caruana, Radjabov and many others
• Genna Sosonko on the forgotten legend Abram Khasin
• Jonathan Rowson on the downside of writing reviews: the books
• Jeremy Silman reveals his greatest fear: “to be reborn as a Siamese twin with ….”
• Hans Ree on Duncan Suttles.

The full contents you can find here.

“If a sacrifice looks good, it IS good”

“If a sacrifice looks good, then it is good”.

Sounds unfamiliar? Sounds blasphemous? It is from Blitz Theory, a book we just received in stock.

It reminded me of what Genrikh Chepukaitis, the famous SmartChip blitz legend from Genna Sosonko’s marvelous book, used to say: “Confusion is adequate compensation for a sacrified piece”.

Blitz Theory is a naughty little book, written by Jonathan Maxwell, full of extremely interesting stuff, but only for those who really want to win at blitz.

In his Endorsement of this book GM Walter Browne specifically excludes Maxwell’s “Pseudo Check”, a very nasty and unfair beast indeed!

Please have a look here, if you dare.

1.Nf3 expanded

If you play what Alexander Khalifman recommends, you will not be surprised by simple refutations.

That is why strong players (up to Masters) use his opening books. But what about club players?

Khalifman is a brilliant teacher, and points out the essence of all important positions. He explains themes and plans in a very accessible way, always summarizing conclusions.

So we can recommend the completely new and expanded edition of Part 2 of his 1.Nf3 series to amateur players, too.

This book is mainly devoted to 2. ..e6, 2. ..b6 and 2. ..c5 (after 1. ..Nf6 and 2.c4). It has a large amount of fresh analysis, but will also increase your understanding of chess in general.

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.

New: tribute to Bobby Fischer, a 3-hour DVD

Our shop just received an interesting new DVD: A Tribute to Bobby Fischer.

It is made by legendary Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, and is full of engaging stuff:

• Never published commentary & facts about Fischer’s life
• The evolution of Bobby Fischer from age 12
• How the Soviet Union ordered all their greatest GMs
• to prepare Spassky to beat Fischer in 1972
• how Fischer requested to play Roman in the eighties
• Dzindzi’s favourite Fischer games, rarely analyzed
• Fischer vs Karpov: who was better?
• and who was better, Fischer or Kasparov?
• Karpov speaks out on Fischer, annotates the 1972 Match.
• rare footage from the Fischer-Spassky 1992 rematch.

More than 3 hours of video, please have a look 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.

“The best repertoire book ever written”

Jeremy Silman called Beating the Open Games by Mihail Marin “the best repertoire book ever written”.

Now the second edition of this classic has appeared, and it is even better, with 48 extra pages of updates, corrections and expansions.

Marin reveals his own opening repertoire after 1.e4 e5 but does much more than that. So good are his strategic explanations that Marin has in fact written a middlegame book disguised as an opening book.

In his higly critical review column in our own Yearbook Glenn Flear called Marin’s work “sensational”.

If you want to know the essence of the King’s Gambit, Vienna, Centre Game, Four Knights, Evans Gambit, Giuoco Piano, Two Knights, Scotch AND the Ruy Lopez Exchange variation, then here is your book.

The Nimzo-Indian for amateurs

The Nimzo-Indian has arguably the best reputation of all defences against 1.d4. Why is this?

Basically because of the logic and simplicity of the NI formation. Black’s first three moves adhere to the classic opening principles: development, control of the center and preparation for castling.

While doing this Black retains great structural flexibility, rarely falls behind in development, and is almost never overwhelmed by a surprise attack. All this for just giving up his dark-squared bishop.

We have just received a new and very concise (111 pages) book on the Nimzo, by Cuban GM Reinaldo Vera. It is part the very succesful ‘Chess Explained’ series, and covers all main variantions.

In 26 games Vera explains the basic plans and the key battle grounds: handling the unbalanced pawn structure, blockading the position, the isolated Queen pawns and the struggle between Bishop and Knight.

It has all it takes to start playing this opening. Please have a look here.

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.

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