Comme la position de départ est la seule que l’on retrouve dans toutes ses parties, l’étude des ouvertures s’impose. Souvent, on commence par examiner un début que l’on trouve attrayant, et cela prend déjà beaucoup de temps. Puis, on s’intéresse à un ou deux autres systèmes, sans trop se préoccuper de leur éventuelle complémentarité. Avant d’avoir pu se pencher sur toutes les variantes que l’on voudrait jouer, on a subi un revers avec une des ouvertures que l’on croyait connaître et on déc...

Twenty years ago New in Chess magazine introduced a back page column in which a chess personality is asked to name their favourite items in many areas: food, drink, films, art, music, etc. One of the questions has always been: What is the most exciting game of chess you ever saw?After dozens of such questionnaires, a large body of games was nominated by chess greats such as Anand, Shirov, Short, and Ivanchuk and chess aficionados such as Jeremy Silman, Jennifer Shahade, and Tania S...

The back catalogue of New In Chess magazine is a fabulous source of chess instruction. For more than three decades every issue has been full of detailed and highly enlightening annotations by the world’s best players of their own best games.Acclaimed chess author Steve Giddins is firmly convinced that for the average player, the study of well-annotated master games is the best way to learn the skills that really matter. Therefore he has revisited the New In Chess vault and assemble...

Chess players are known to be obsessed by openings. However, world champions have recommended that up-and-coming players should actually begin by studying the endgame first. This is because only by studying simplified positions can one fully develop an understanding of how chess pieces work - both in isolation and with each other. It is also the endgame where the true depth and subtlety of chess is revealed. In this instructive and entertaining book, renowned endgame expert Steve Giddins s...

David Bronstein is one of the greatest and most loved chess players of all time. He won numerous major tournaments and for many years he was one of the world’s strongest grandmasters. In 1951 he came agonizingly close to winning the World Championship title, drawing 12-12 against the reigning champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Bronstein was one of the most creative geniuses the chess world has ever seen, and he left a legacy of wonderful games. In this book, FIDE Master Steve Giddins selects and ...

Alexander Alekhine was a two-time World Chess Champion and is widely regarded to be one of the greatest chess players of all time. During his best years he dominated tournaments, and in 1927 he defeated his great rival José Raúl Capablanca to win the world title. Alekhine was renowned both for his fierce competitive nature and his dazzling combinative play. He had a phenomenal ability to unleash combinations even from seemingly harmless positions, and he is undeniably one of the best attac...

The Lasker Method to Improve in Chess is an efficient toolkit as well as an entertaining guide. After working with it, players will dramatically boost their skills, without carrying the excess baggage that many of their opponents will be struggling with.

Are you ready for the truth about forty of the most fascinating and complex chess games ever played by World Champions and other top grandmasters? Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and renowned chess writer Steve Giddins take a fresh look at some classic games ranging from Anderssen – Dufresne, played in 1852, to Botvinnik – Bronstein (1951) and Geller – Euwe (1953) played a century later. They unleashed the collective power of Leela, Komodo and Stockfish to help us humans understand what really ...

The average chess player spends too much time on studying opening theory. In his day, World Champion Emanuel Lasker argued that improving amateurs should spend about 5% of their study time on openings. These days club players are probably closer to 80%, often focusing on opening lines that are popular among grandmasters. Club players shouldn’t slavishly copy the choices of grandmasters. GMs need to squeeze every drop of advantage from the opening and therefore play highly complex lines tha...

The Basman-Sale Variation is a relatively unexplored weapon for Black in the Sicilian Defence. After the perfectly normal moves 1.e4 c5, 2. Nf3 e6, 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Black lashes out with 4…Bc5! English IM Michael Basman and Croatian IM Srdjan Sale were the pioneers of this cunning chess opening system. The advantages are clear: it is surprising, aggressive and easy to learn. Compared to the complexity of mainstream Sicilian variations it requires little theoretical preparation, while you...