Treasures

Chess Informant 163 “Treasures” presents:

1. In Memoriam BORIS SPASSKY

2. WIJK AAN ZEE 2025 by GM Yochanan Afek

3. PRAGUE INTERNATIONAL CHESS FESTIVAL 2025 by GM Yochanan Afek

And other tales from 'Dana blogs chess'

Dana Mackenzie celebrates the joy of chess - the ordinary, everyday chess we amateurs play. For this book, he has selected forty of his favorite posts from his award-winning chess blog, including a diverse mix of stories, philosophical musings, chess improvement tips, and game analysis.

A Grandmaster Guide

Material imbalances are a fundamental part of almost every chess game, yet have not received much attention in chess literature. In this illuminating book, GM Mauricio Flores Rios breaks down this universal topic into categories such as bishop vs knight, opposite-coloured bishops, possessing and playing against the bishop pair, and various scenarios with a queen or rook being traded for a number of pieces. With well-chosen examples, insightful commentary and exercises to test your newfound understanding of all types of material imbalance, this book is an essential tool for chess improvement.

Chess Opening Repertoire

Chess theory ebbs and flows. Lines that have been discarded for decades suddenly become all the rage and everyone starts playing them. A case in point are queenside openings where White plays Bf4. For years these had been the chess equivalent of flared trousers but in recent times they have been reinvented and even the best players in the world are now sporting them.

Chess Opening Repertoire

One of the sharpest lines to meet 1 d4 is the Modern Benoni (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6). The hallmark of this opening is that Black makes the positional concession of allowing White a central majority and in return hopes for counterchances via active piece play. However, there are many other weird and wonderful ways to handle these "Benoni structures" as the very experienced chess coach and author Andrew Martin demonstrates in this highly engaging book.

This book serves as a guide to navigating the complexities of dynamic chess middlegames by connecting strategic concepts with dynamic, tactical play. You will discover how to create positions that require not just precise calculation but also an intuitive understanding of strategic principles. Whether you are aggressively attacking or counterattacking, this balance between logic and flair is the key to mastering dynamic chess. This book consists of six chapters that cover topics relevant to modern chess:

Danny's "impossible" quiz inside!

English chess grandmaster Daniel Gormally is a man with a plan. He wants to develop a chess analytical quiz, to help amateur players discover what type of chess player they truly are. While putting together this quiz, Gormally also shares his chess philosophy and his experience of playing chess tournaments up and down the breadth of the United Kingdom and beyond.

Entscheidende Momente der Weltmeisterschaften

Die Weltmeisterschaften sind zweifelsohne sportliche Höhepunkte des Schachkalenders. Dabei wurden diese Wettkämpfe in höherem Sinne manchmal nur durch eine einzige Partie entschieden.

Systeme nach 1.c4 e5

Was braucht der Schachspieler, wenn er die Spielregeln beherrscht, aber oft bereits in der Eröffnungsphase in Schwierigkeiten gerät? Diese Frage stand im Mittelpunkt, als unsere Autoren eine dreibändige Buchreihe über die Englische Eröffnung geschrieben haben. Im ersten Band haben sie 2024 bereits die über 1.c4 c5 eingeleitete Symmetrievariante sowie selten gespielte Nebenwege vorgestellt.

of the Queen' Gambit Declined

The primary goal of this work is not to recount a story or to acknowledge the creative efforts of a friend, although those are satisfying perks I allow myself. This is a theoretical book about a chess variation that (it could not be otherwise) I will call the Del Rio Variation. It is one of the most fascinating openings that can be played today, leading almost immediately to highly dynamic and complex positions.

Decoding the Chess Universe

This book is written for beginners who are interested in the game and would like to learn more about its various aspects. It covers the technical aspects of chess: the use of algebraic notation (Chapter 3), chess evaluation (Chapter 4), the opening phase (Chapter 5), the middle game (Chapter 6), the endgame (Chapter 7), and the chess rating system (Chapter 8). It introduces a number of chess problems, formulated with a chess board and chess pieces and presupposing a working knowledge of chess (Chapter 9). It offers an account of variants of chess such as Fischer random chess (Chapter 10).

Welcome to the Modernized Bird Opening!

I began studying the Bird in January 2023 and this book marks a summation of 2 years of deep analysis. When I had originally started building the repertoire, I assumed it would take a few months and be a walk in the park. How naive I was! Bird´s opening turned out to be one of the most complex openings I´ve ever had to analyze in my life. Having spent an enormous time analyzing, and checking over the material I can confidently say I´ve given this my very best. It's taken months of sleepless nights and chaotic days but finally the book is done.

Das Standardwerk der Eröffnungstheorie

Wer sich ernsthaft mit Eröffnungen beschäftigt, kommt am Eröffnungslexikon nicht vorbei. Ob Einsteiger oder Großmeister. Das Eröffnungslexikon ist das mit Abstand umfassendste Theoriewerk für den Schachsport!

Grandmaster Training

Endgame Labyrinths presents the reader with 1002 challenging studies selected and truncated, with their usefulness for the practical player in mind. It is common for studies to be extended by less interesting manoeuvres or by incomprehensible sequences, before the main themes come into play. The studies in this book have been pruned to leave the reader with 1002 clear and solvable challenges.

Manoeuvre!!

Chess Informant 162 “Manoeuvre!!” presents:

1. World Championship Match Ding Gukesh, analysis by GM Ivan Ivanisevic

2. European Individual Chess Championship, analysis by GM Milos Perunovic

. The Budapest Gambit, theoretical survey by GM Vasilios Kotronias

4. The King’s Gambit,

5.h3 Variation by GM K. Szabo