For the first time in history, a chess player from North Korea takes part in the North Sea Chess Tournament. She is under pressure to perform, as are her opponents, including a cheating Italian, an Icelandic womaniser, a Tunisian fundamentalist and Dutch talent Christiaan N'Koulou. Inside and outside the arena, the boundaries of the game are sought and transgressed. Even the secret services interfere with the moves on the board. When the American player is found dead in his bathroom on the...

Russell Enterprises has been publishing chess books for over 35 years. Although an individual excerpt is available for each of our current titles (see https://www.russell-enterprises.com/russell-enterprises), we thought combining many of them into one eBook would be helpful and welcomed by chessplayers. The result is an eBook which is the equivalent of almost 250 printed pages containing excerpts from 20 REI titles. Each excerpt has the book’s table of contents, introduction, foreword and ...

WINNING FAST IS FUN!This book is a representation of the previous nine volumes, picking something of the best from each of chapter in the preceding volumes, to give you an opportunity to look through the window and see if those other books are something for you.This is the book where you will see how:Kramnik as Black beat Jobava in only 15 moves.Shirov lost in 13 moves to English Grandmaster Wells

'All my life my Stradivarius had been waiting for me, as I had been waiting for her . . .'At 7 years old Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever pupil at the Purcell School of Music. At 11 she won her first international prize. She worked with many violins, waiting for the day she would play 'the one'. At 21 she found it: a rare 1696 Stradivarius, perfectly suited to her build and temperament. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planne...

Garry Kasparov is considered by many to be the greatest chessplayer ever. Until the turn of the 21 st century, there did not appear to be anyone who could successfully challenge him. However, in October 2000, Kasparov met another Russian, Vladimir Kramnik, in a title match.Sponsored by BrainGames, the match would be 16 games, with the winner being the first to score 8 points. Kasparov would keep his title in the event of an 8-8 drawn match. The world watched with great interest as Garry Kaspa...

Ed Le Brocq invites you to come on a journey with him through a living tradition that spans a millennium - the tradition of Western classical music.Have you ever wondered where our music comes from? How did we arrive here, a place where we can have a hundred musicians on stage executing the wildest rhythms, a singer performing the most heartbreaking of melodies, or a solitary pianist playing an instrument that weighs half a tonne? How did the melodies and harmonies...

This very instructive book combines clear discussions of tactical themes with over 600 well-chosen positions to test, challenge and teach. Although the classic combinations are not ignored, the emphasis here is on positions from modern tournament practice of the last decade. Tactics is a very important part of the game of chess and conscientious study and application of tactical principles is crucial to success. This book offers every type of tactical motif imaginable, from the more common...

“A refreshingly fun guide” that reads “as if you’re a fly on the wall in conservatory auditions, cutthroat competitions and the obsessive practice routines of professional musicians.” (The New York Times)Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch’s life-long fascination with classical music has taken her through Juilliard and into the shiny world of symphony halls and international concert tours. She’s loved classical music her whole life. But she’s also hated classical mus...

Magnus Carlsen Becomes World Champion! It was the match that the chess world had been anticipating for several years. Norway’s wunderkind, Magnus Carlsen had qualified as the official challenger for the world chess championship. He was facing the reigning world champion, Viswanathan Anand from India. Would Anand’s enormous match experience and years at the top be enough to stop the young Norwegian grandmaster? Magnus was heavily favored, and he did not disappoint. With the help of Germ...

The stirring memoir of one of the greatest pianists of the postwar era—an inspiring tale of triumph over crippling incapacity that rivals Shine.The pianist Leon Fleisher—whose student–teacher lineage linked him to Beethoven by way of his instructor, Artur Schnabel—displayed an exceptional gift from his earliest years. And then, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, he was struck down in his prime: at thirty-six years old, he suddenly and mysteriously became un...

The only autobiography of „the greatest violinist of his generation“ (Yehudi Menuhin)The road to the pinnacle of violin-playing has not been an easy one for David Garrett. His childhood revolved around discipline and working daily with his father, who fostered his talent and supported him, while also being an ambitious driving force. From the tender age of ten, he was already performing on stage with the world’s greatest orchestras, later playing all the classical ...

Both a fascinating challenge and a great training tool, these tricky tactical problems are not only fun to solve, but great for advanced beginners, intermediate, and expert players to use as tools to improve their game.  Tactics are presented in order of difficulty, so that players can advance from simple to complex positions.  Examples from actual games illustrate a wide range of tactics from the classics right up to the current games.  You'll learn to use pins, single and double forks, doub...