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Informator 87
£20.95/$32
Volume 87 covers events held between February 1st, 2003 and May 31st, 2003. including Moscow, Reykjavík, Cappelle la Grande, Linares, Monaco (rapid), Dos Hermanas, and Budapest.
The selection of high calibre contributors continues, this time with annotations provided by Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Lékó, Shirov, Svidler, Bareev, Adams, Judit Polgár, Ponomariov,and many others.
All the trademark sections are included: voting for the ten best games and the ten most important theoretical novelties from Chess Informant 86, theoretical survey in the ECO format, selected combinations and endings from recent tournament practice, tournament standings and crosstables, and the best from Bent Larsen's creative output.


Chess Tactics for Kids
Murray Chandler
£9.99/$15.95
Chess enthusiasts of all ages and levels will find this book an instructive delight. In a simple, easy-to-understand format it explains how to bamboozle your chess opponents using commonly occurring tactical motifs. The illustrative positions, all taken from real games, show the 50 Tricky Tactics that experienced chess masters use to win their games. Recognising frequently-occurring tactical ideas is vital to success in chess. One of the fastest and most enjoyable ways to improve at chess is by learning these thematic manoeuvres. Beginners will benefit from the clear explanation of basic concepts, such as how to utilise a fork, pin, or skewer. Advanced players will delight in the many devious middlegame tricks - some classified here for the first time - which can catch out even grandmasters. Chess Tactics for Kids makes improving easy and fun, and is full of helpful explanations on how to approach chess games with confidence - and success.


Starting out Pirc
Joe Gallagher
£ 12.99/$16.95

The very closely linked Pirc and Modern Defences are dynamic systems that are favoured by ambitious, counter-attacking players. Black plays very much in a hypermodern fashion, allowing White to build an unopposed pawn centre with the idea of plotting its eventual downfall. In this revolutionary book, Grandmaster Joe Gallagher goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Pirc/Modern and its numerous variations. Throughout the book there are plenty of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while important strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.


Knockout Nimzo
Tony Kosten
£19.99/$29.95
In this video Grandmaster Tony Kosten hacks a path for you through the jungle of opening theory. He presents a complete and powerful repertoire for Black against the main lines of the Nimzo.
The Nimzo-Indian Defence (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4) offers dynamic winning possibilities for Black that persist throughout the game. Black trades the bishop pair, but in return gains the tactical advantage of quick development, and often also saddles White with long-term pawn weaknesses.

Running time: 2 hours. VHS video, available in PAL or NTSC


Four Knights
Jan Pinski
£ 14.99/$19.95

International Master Jan Pinski delves into the secrets of the Four Knights for the first time, studying the strategic ideas for both white and black players. Pinksi covers both the fashionable main lines and the tricky sidelines, bringing the reaser up to date with the expanding theory.


BCF Grading List
£15
King of the squares or did you take a royal hammering? Find out in this year's new BCF Grading List.


How to Use Computers to Improve your Chess
Christian Kongsted
£ 14.99/$22.95

Computers have permeated almost every facet of modern chess, yet few players know how to gain the maximum benefit from working with them. Computers function as playing partners, opening study tools, endgame 'oracles', tactics trainers, sources of information on opponents and searchable game databases. Kongsted provides practical advice on how to use computers in all these ways and more. He also takes a look at the history of the chess computer, and how its 'thinking' methods have developed since the early days. The book features an investigation of human vs. machine contests, including the recent Kasparov vs. Deep Junior and Kramnik vs. Deep Fritz matches, in which honours ended even.

Secrets of Chess Defence
Mihail Marin
£ 15.99/$24.95

Good defensive abilities earn players a great many half-points and full-points. The climax of the defense is the launching of a devastating counter-attack, a skill at which all the great chess champions have been adept. Of particular interest to club players is Marin's discussion of how to defend against unsound attacks, and the problem of how to parry the attack while retaining winning chances. Other topics include attack and defence in equal positions, where both sides must judge carefully how much of their resources to devote to the attack and the counter-attack. The main subject, though, is the case where the defender is fighting for his life, and must decide how to maximise his chances of survival. Marin considers psychological issues and explains the main options available to the defender: simplification, cold-blooded defence, a positional sacrifice, 'blackmailing' the attacker, or a counter-attack.

Winning Chess Brilliancies
Yasser Seirawan
Everyman Chess
£14.99/$19.95
This book by International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan provides a move-by-move account of the best chess games of the last 25 years, played by the world's foremost chess competitors. With an authoritative voice that is by turns poetic and analytical, Seirawan serves as host of a fascinating excursion of the most brilliant chess game, providing highlights into and explanations of each and every move.

Seirawan begins each game with a description of the historical atmosphere of the chess world - and sometimes the world at large - at the time the game was played. When he delves into the game itself, he starts with the reasoning behind the opening moves. From there he provides both a play-by-play description of the game and an analytical commentary, all the while examining the moves in terms of place development and possible tactical and strategic opportunities. Along the way, a handful of the players are profiled in biographies.

In WINNING CHESS BRILLIANCIES you'll get a taste of the most dazzling chess combinations devious strategies, and downright cruel blows as world champions risk it all! This book is truly a celebration of the sport of chess.


Winning Chess Openings
Yasser Seirawan
Everyman Chess

£14.99 $19.95
Start every game with confidence!
The two greatest challenges for beginning chess players are not only to survive the openings phase, but also to choose appropriate attack and defense formations in the process. WINNING CHESS OPENINGS shows you how to do both. In Yasser Seirawan's entertaining, easy-to-follow style, you're shown formations that can be used with other White or Black pieces.
WINNING CHESS OPENINGS will help you develop a solid understanding of opening principles that you can apply to every game you play - without having to memorise a dizzying array of tedious and lengthy opening lines.


Winning Chess Endings
Yasser Seirawan
Everyman Chess
£14.99/$19.95

Approach every endgame with a winning strategy!
Good books about endgames for beginners are few and far between. WINNING CHESS ENDINGS is a great one - a gripping introduction to what you need to know to win chess endings, taught by American Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. His entertaining, easy-to-understand style, incisive stories and insiders advice will help you develop a solid grasp of proven principles that you can apply with confidence whenever a game goes the distance. You'll learn to prevail time and again in endgames with common and uncommon combinations and pieces.
WINNING CHESS ENDINGS teaches endgame strategies in an exciting new way - by putting you in the middle of the action with firsthand stories taken directly from famous matches. Pull up a chair and watch the world's most exciting chess endings. Then become an endgame master!


Chess Strategy
Eduard Gufeld & Nikolai Kalinichenko
Batsford
£15.99/ $24.95

Every chess player knows that the ability to make appropriate plans produces a more purposeful, effective and stronger player. But finding the right plan requires the correct evaluation of the position, which can be done only with knowledge and understanding of the principles of chess strategy.
This practical guide will enable the tournament player to recognize the key strategic features of a position, such as advantages in time or space; strengths and weaknesses of the respective pawn formations; mobility, vulnerability, co-ordination and comparative values of individuals pieces.


The Grunfeld Defence - Revealed
Michael Khodarkovsky
Batsford
£14.99/$21.95
The first book in a new series of innovative books on the major chess openings, incorporating fresh, clear presentation of the key ideas, explained in an entertaining and accessible way.


A Chess Omnibus
Edward Winter
Russel Enterprises
£18.99/$24.95
An exceptionally wide-ranging anthology featuring hundreds of rare games, puzzles, photographs, biographies, exposes, bons mots and much more.


Chess Strategy in Action
John Watson
Gambit
£19.99/$24.95
In this new work, Watson fleshes out the theory he dealt with in his earlier work, Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy and extends it into new areas. He illustrates the modern practice of chess with many examples from imaginative players such as Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Ivanchuck and tempestuous innovators such as Shirov and Morozevich. Those who enjoyed Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy will welcome the clarification of important concepts. Chess Strategy in Action can also be read on its own as an outstanding collection of modern games with thoughtful and enlightening annotations.


Chess Endings Made Simple
Ian Snape
Gambit
£12.99/$19.95
Most chess-players are all to painfully aware of how many half-points and even full points we squander due to poor endgame play. However, we tend to imagine that improving our endgame play involves a massive amount of study of dry technical positions, and prefer to spend our time on other aspects of the game, perhaps in the unrealistic hope of avoiding endgames entirely. In this book, Ian Snape helps us to tackle endgames with more confidence, so that we look forward to playing them, and are more willing to simplify when this is the best course of action.


The Marshall Attack
Bogdan Lalic
Everyman Chess
£14.99/$19.95
The Marshall Attack is one of the oldest and most important openings in the history of chess. Black sacrifices a pawn against the Ruy Lopez in exchange for a long-lasting attack. Generations of the world's top players have fought on the Marshall battleground, but the final verdict on its soundness has not yet been reached. However, of one thing you can be sure: Black certainly has a lot of fun trying to checkmate the white king! It is perhaps because of this reason that as White, many Grandmasters, including the world number one Garry Kasparov, have decided to avoid the issue altogether, preferring the more tranquil waters of Anti-Marshall systems. The ideas and strategies of both approaches are studied in depth here by a renowned openings theoretician.


The Veresov
Nigel Davies
Everyman Chess
£14.99/$19.95
Looking for a new opening?
The Veresov could be the one for you!
It is a surprisingly tricky system that, in the right hands, can be forged into a powerful attacking weapon. White forgoes the normal queen's pawn opening ideas in favour of speedy development of the queenside pieces. On advantage of this underrated line is that players with the black pieces are less likely to be familiar with all the subtleties here than in a more mainstream opening.
In this book, Grandmaster Nigel Davies arms the reader with a complete repertoire with white pieces, with the Veresov being the central line. Davies delves into the secrets of the opening, explaining tactical and positional ideas, and highlighting the main plans for both sides.


Play the Najdorf: Scheveningen Style
John Emms
Everyman Chess
£14.99/$19.95
The Najdorf Sicilian is one of the most sharp, dynamic and popular openings that Black can play and is a firm favourite amongst the world's elite players, including world number one Garry Kasparov. From very early on, Black unbalances the game to reach a position in which one can play for the win without exceptional risk.
The soundness of the Najdorf has never been seriously doubted, but some players can be put off by the ever-spiralling amount of theory amassed on this great opening. In this book, John Emms condenses this mountain to produce a workable black repertoire against all of White's possible options. Emms concentrates on lines where Black adopts a very early ... e7-e6, thus establishing the well-known Scheveningen pawn structure.


Leko's One Hundred Wins
Sergei Soloviov
New Chess Stars
£17.99/$24.95
Here is a very worthwhile addition to your chess collection. This book of Peter Leko's 100 wins is superbly annotated by various Grandmaster, such as Khalifman, Shipov, Bezgodov, Goloshchapov, Sakaev and Solozhenkin. It gives the reader and insight into one of the great players of the modern game.


Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings A - 4th Edition
Informator

£24.95/$39.95

Excelling at Positional Chess
Jacob Aagaard
Everyman Chess

£16.99/$25.95

Positional chess remains a mystery to many and yet an understanding of the finer points of the game so often makes the difference between two equally matched players. Improve your positional play and you will see chess in a totally new dimension! In this unique book, International Master, Jacob
Aagaard selects many original examples of positional chess, the creme de la creme of those that he uses for training and study. Aagaard also delves deeply into the ideas of positional evaluation and analysis.


Chess Psychology
Angus Dunnington
Everyman Chess

£13.99/$19.95

Why do so many chess players only draw winning positions, or lose drawing ones? Why do many continually slip into time trouble, despite vowing after every game to move more quickly? How can a player perform like a Grandmaster on one day and a complete novice the next? What's the best way to beat a lower rated player and what gives you the best chance against a
higher rated one? In this book International Master, Angus Dunnington answers these questions and more as he takes a fresh look at the value of studying psychology in chess. Read this practical guide, eliminate your mistakes, punish your opponents' and improve your results!


Starting Out: The English
Neil McDonald
Everyman Chess

£12.99/$16.95

This book is ideal for those wanting to understand the basics of the English Opening. The English is a sophisticated and popular opening system that is suitable for all types of players and can lead to both positional and tactical middlegames. Many of the world's top players, including Kasparov and Kramnik, include the English in their openings weaponry. In this groundbreaking book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald revisits the basic principles behind the English and its many variations. Throughout this easy-to-read guide the reader is aided by a wealth of notes, tips and
warnings from the author, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. This book is ideal for the improving player.


Starting out: The Ruy Lopez
John Shaw
Everyman Chess
£12.99/$16.95
Ideal for those wanting to understand the basics of the Ruy Lopez.
The Ruy Lopez is one of the most famous of all chess openings. It has a long and distinguished history and has been played by virtually all of the strongest Grandmasters: Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand - the list goes on! From very early on White activates his pieces, takes the initiative and sets about building a dominant centre. In this user-friendly book, John Shaw goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Ruy Lopez and its many variations. Throughout the book
there are an abundance of notes, tips, warnings and exercises to help the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.


Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings
Eric Schiller & John Watson
Cardoza Publishing
£14.95/$17.95
This book gives you the artillery to defend yourself against problematic openings such as the Fried Liver Attack, Latvian Gambit and Elephant Gambit. Schiller and Watson. both experienced trainers and professional players, give you everything you need to know to handle such sharp Classical (1.e4 e5) openings with comfort and ease.

Diagrams and charts display the best response to sneaky openings in the Open Games as white or black. Whether you are a beginning, intermediate, or advanced chess player, you will learn to overpower otherwise annoying openings by reading this book.


Bashing the Sicilian with Bb5
Volume 1: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5

Murray Chandler
Bad Bishop

£19.99/$29.95

The move 3 Bb5 against the Sicilian is enjoying a renaissance as a sound and forceful attacking system for White, as well as one which sidesteps the huge mass of normal Sicilian theory. Converts include Gary Kasparov, Vishy Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov. In this video, Grandmaster Murray Chandler presents a cunningly selected and superbly consistent repertoire to counter every important Black response. Using 16 outstanding illustrative games, White's optimum strategies are clearly explained, and the lessons are reinforced by easy-to-understand summaries.
This video, volume 1, deals with lines after 2...Nc6. Volume 2 of Bashing the Sicilian with Bb5 covers the variation 2...d6 3 Bb5+.

Running time: 90 minutes. VHS video, available in PAL or NTSC.


Bashing the Sicilian with Bb5
Volume 2: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+

Murray Chandler
Bad Bishop
£19.99/$29.95
The system 3 Bb5+ against the Sicilian is an excellent weapon for White - and has the bonus of cancelling out defences such as the Najdorf and the Dragon. In this video, Grandmaster Murray Chandler presents an aggressive repertoire to deal with every important Black response. Using 15 outstanding illustrative games - including some from Michael Adams, Sergei Rublevsky and Vladimir Kramnik - White's optimum strategies are clearly
explained. The lessons are reinforced by easy-to-understand summaries, giving the viewer an instant new way to Bash the Sicilian.

This video, volume 2, deals with lines after 2...d6. Volume 1 of Bashing the Sicilian with Bb5 covers the variation 2...Nc6 3 Bb5.

Running time: 2 hours. VHS video, available in PAL or NTSC.


New In Chess Yearbook 67
£16 / $25.95

New In Chess Yearbooks have become an important addition to any aspiring chess players book shelves, and so we always look forward to the latest offering. The sixty-seventh edition sees all of the usual features - Sosonko's Corner, the New In Chess Forum, Book reviews by Glenn Flear - as well as 36 detailed surveys on openings including the Sicilian Najdorf, Caro-Kann Advance, French Winawer, Nizmo and Kings Indians.


Secrets of Positional Chess
Drazen Marovic
£16.99/$25.95
How can one determine if a piece is weak or strong? Or if a square is weak or strong? These are the principal questions that grandmaster and trainer Drazen Marovic addresses in this important book. By discussing carefully-chosen games and positions, Marovic explains how to recognize good and bad features of positions, and how to make use of one's advantages and exploit the opponent's weaknesses. One repeatedly sees 'weaknesses' that are unexploitable (and therefore are not weaknesses at all), possibilities of surrendering certain squares in order to gain more important ones, and material sacrifices to exploit major weaknesses. Topics include: outposts; strength and weakness on files and diagonals; vulnerabilities on the first and second ranks; static weakness and attack; and characteristics of the pieces.

Super Tournaments 2002
ed. by Sergei Soloviev
£19.99/$29.95

This book of outstanding quality and value contains 224 extensively annotated games from the top tournaments of 2002 with text commentary and analysis by GMs Khalifman, Goloshchapov, Golubev, Sakaev and Shipov plus IM Notkin. It features in depth coverage of Corus Wijk aan Zee, Linares, NAO Chess Masters, Dortmund and the final of the FIDE World Championships with crosstables, player interviews, annotated games and 16 pages of colour photos. The world's top players feature heavily with several games each from Kasparov, Ponomariov, Anand, Khalifman and Karpov.


Tony Miles: 'It's Only Me' - Englands first Grandmaster
Compiled by Geoff Lawton
£17.99/$27.95

A fascinating and entertaining collection of games articles, annotations and reviews by Britain's first Grandmaster. It is the book that Tony Miles should have written had he not died so prematurely in 2001. The compilation includes all his most famous wins, some of his losses, hitherto unpublished games from Tony's earlier years, and - in addition to the famous game against Karpov with the St George's opening 1 e4 a6 - a much less well-known win over the then world champion from a television tournament. Nearly all of the games have annotations by Tony - in his own inimitable style. As well as being one of England's greatest players, Tony was, as this book demonstrates, one of the funniest writers on the game.


Winning with the Trompovsky
Peter Wells
£15.99/$24.95
The accelerated development of the White queen's bishop after 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 was for many years considered a bizarre chess opening, practised only by a few individual 'eccentric' chessplayers scattered around the globe, including the Brazilian Octavio Trompowsky, after whom the variation was named. Then in the 1990s, after a chance discovery, the young English grandmaster Julian Hodgson started to play it on the UK and international chess circuit with dramatic success, scoring many short wins with dashing attacking play. By force of example, the opening then saw a rapid increase in popularity - to the extent that it is now regarded as 'main line' theory! This book presents a thorough survey of the development and latest trends in this exciting opening, together with illustrative games. A must for any competitive player.


Garry Kasparov on my Great Predecessors, part 1
Garry Kasparov
£25/$35

This magnificent compilation of play from the early days of chess forms the basis of the first part of Garry Kasparov's definitive history of the World Chess Championship. Garry Kasparov, who is universally acclaimed as the greatest chessplayer ever, subjects the play of his predecessors to a rigorous analysis – this examination being enhanced by the use of the latest chess software.

Part one features the play of champions Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894), Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921), Jose Capablanca (1921-1927) and Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935 and 1937-1946).
This book is more than just a compilation of play of the early greats of chess. Kasparov’s biographies place them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

For more information click here


French Defence 3 Nd2
Lev Psakhis
£15.99/$24.95

Past and present, the French Defence has been and remains a popular choice against White’s king’s pawn opening with top class grandmasters such as Korchnoi, Morozevich, Bareev and Short continuing to practise it with success. Since the publication of The Complete French in 1992 - a highly acclaimed standard work on the subject - the volume of theory has increased to such an extent that the author has produced three volumes to cover it all. This first volume - covering the sequence 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 - features a wealth of illustrative games as well as up-to-date theory. Known as the ‘Tarrach variation’, it has long been known to provide excellent attacking prospects for White but, as the younger generation has amply demonstrated, Black has many exciting counterattacking resources too!


Bobby Fischer Rediscovered
Andy Soltis
£15.99/$24.95
Although 30 years have passed since Bobby Fischer single-handedly wrested the world chess title from the former Soviet Union, admiration for his beautiful play remains as strong as ever. As copies of My 60 Memorable Games by Fischer are elusive and the book only covers material up to 1967 in any case, the author has provided a timely volume that retraces Bobby’s chess career from his teenage years in New York right up to his final matches with Boris Spassky, taking a fresh look at the chessboard masterpieces that have made him a living chess legend.


The Magic of Chess Tactics
Claus Dieter Meyer & Karsten Muller
£16.99/$19.95

Although basic tactics are covered in a number of good books, complicated tactics - the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack - require intuition, imagination and precision. The Magic of Chess Tactics aims to develop those qualities. Provides a number of examples, as well as detailed explanations and exercises.

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