- More accurate and extensive annotations using ChessBase and Stockfish 14.
- Torre’s own annotations to several games have been unearthed and added.
- Added games to give a more rounded view of Torre. Also the six games between players other than Torre that he annotated for the Mexican Championship tournament book.
- Many more diagrams and photographs. Also more thumbnail bios of Torre’s opponents.
- More ancillary material about Torre’s life and career: newspaper articles, pictures, anecdotes, interesting facts, opinions, trivia etc.
- A 1927 interview with Torre, published in the Yucatán magazine Anahuac.
- Excerpts from 64 Variaciones Sobre un Tema de Torre by Germán de la Cruz.
- Columns and articles from newspapers in Torre’s home town of Mérida.
- “A Clash of Opposites,” comparing and contrasting Torre with the notorious Norman Tweed Whitaker.
- The full text of Torre’s 1926 booklet Development of Chess Ability.
- A review of Torre x Torre, a fascinating documentary film.
- A more extensive, more fully informed overall assessment of Torre as a player.
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Here is what has been added to this edition: -
My aim with the book was to provide you with a lot of insights into this remarkable variation, The Ark, and to entertain the reader with spectacular, resourceful lines to illustrate the ideas. Thus, I must stress that my book should also be interesting for those who just enjoy chess in general, not just for the fans of this line seeking new ideas! Of course, you don’t need to memorize everything to be able to play the variation successfully. Longer lines merely tend to be examples of how the game might develop, which help to enhance your understanding. -
• The Barry Attack is a little rebellious but most dynamic opening • It’s one of the fastest ways to outplay your opponent in the opening. • The ‘’super repertoire’’ that always keeps Black under pressure in all variations. • Any reasonable opening set-up can work wonders for White or Black if they know it well. • Anyone who takes the trouble to play through each model example, move by move, note by note, will be rewarded. • Your strategic play will deepen and your tactics will improve along with your assessment skills, and you’ll end up with a great repertoire! -
“With this book, I wanted to revitalise the Benko and show that, although the computer isn’t that happy with Black’s positions in certain lines, his resources are impressive, especially in ‘THE PRACTICAL GAME’, because White will face many difficulties and Black’s counter attacks, no matter how well-prepared he is. Our Beloved Benko is still very much ALIVE!:” ~ Milos Perunovic -
“It just takes some time to become familiar with all the possibilities and ensuing middlegames. But once you finally master the isolated pawn structure, it will serve you well and equip you with a wide selection of tools with which you can outplay your opponent” ~ David Miedema -
“Here we are, together on this page, both interested in the French Defence with 3.Nc3 Bb4.” ~ David Miedema -
“It’s all simple: memorize a few lines and then go fight for the initiative from the very beginning” ~ Yaro Zherebukh -
“Over time, my attention focused on the Modern Benoni. In this opening, the bishop on g7 is the same icon that is the basis of the King’s Indian, but here it can operate on the whole a1-h8 diagonal instead of being locked in by its own pawn on e5, as usually happens in the King’s Indian. Black’s plan is outrageously simple: with pawns on d6 and c5, and sometimes b4, he creates a breakwater that opens up space for his favorite on g7.” ~ Alexey Kovalchuk -
“Learning the Najdorf will help all players to understand Sicilians in a better way. Different aspects of chess such as defence, attack and sacrifice, positional themes and tactical storms, can be found in this book.” ~ Milos Pavlovic -
“A combination of the Queen’s Gambit Declined and Nimzo-Indian is considered one of best ways to play against 1.d4, 1.c4 or 1.Nf3.” ~ Milos Pavlovic -
Á útsölu!
- Jan Boekelman has produced you with a playable repertoire out of a somewhat sideline Opening, which nobody dared to touch to make it into an entire repertoire.
- Try to expand your knowledge in the 3.c3 variation and go beyond the book’s content
- Deepen your knowledge in 3.c4 variation and do not play it before you know it well
- Finally, follow the very strong GM Vladislav Artemiev, who has had a relatively successful run with this opening in rapid online events.
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The positions arising from the Open Spanish contain ideas so different from the usual Ruy Lopez that I sometimes wonder whether it should really be considered part of it at all. It is an open game with unbalanced structures and sharp play but compared to the Sicilian, for instance, for which the previous description would also apply, there is an important difference; there is a certain degree of stability and solidity in the Open Spanish which distinguishes it from the sharper realms of the Sicilian and puts this line in its own unique category of opening ideas. -
Nýr titill! Biblía Philidor skákmannsins. Virkilega vel unnin bók sem hefur fengið mikið lof. Óhætt að mæla með þessari. “Pawns are the soul of chess.” We have all heard this phrase more than once in our chess life and we owe it to the great French player François-André Danican, so-called Philidor, considered one of the best chess players of the 18th century. -
“Contrary to what critical pessimists might say, the Reti opening is an ambitious weapon for White. By avoiding the main theoretical debates, White tries to reach an unbalanced position from an early stage of the game, with many different plans available.” ~ Adrien Demuth -
“Credit can mostly be given to Kasparov for reviving this old opening, but there are many others who have contributed to exploring new ideas and forging new paths. A lot of discoveries have been made by some young grandmasters who don’t shy away from analysing deep tactical solutions with the aid of the silicon beast.” ~ Milos Pavlovic -
- The spirit of Indian Defenses is based on flexibility and harmony.
- Most of the lines are positional, not tactical in character.
- While playing Black, you have to accept that occasionally you will not equalize, or get surprised or out-prepared.
- Learning the material from this book should sharply limit the extent of such instances, thus improving your overall results.
- Finally, we have an important piece of advice: remember about color strategy!
- The Bogo-Indian is mainly based on dark-squared control, while the Nimzo-Indian does so on the light squares. In case you forget what to do, this may prove a very useful guideline when choosing a move.
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The Nimzo-Indian Bible for White – Volume 2
• The Nimzo-Indian Defense has been one of the most trusted defenses against 1.d4. • It combines fast development with a solid pawn structure, control over the center and great flexibility. • This book supplies an unique repertoire built upon positional principles, offering active piece play and a fight for the initiative. • This ground-breaking and well-structured book presents a new look at the Nimzo-Indian for White. • Playing this opening requires a thorough positional understanding, the author shows you how to implement his new ideas in the best ways possible. • Milos Pavlovic presents fresh ideas in the various continuations, as well as quite a few novelties and previously unknown resources for both Black and White. -
“A passed pawn must be blockaded, so as to have its power restrained as much as possible. The minor pieces (knight or bishop) are ideal for this purpose, as they can rarely be forced to retreat by enemy action. On the other hand, the major pieces (queen and rook) find it difficult to achieve a stable blockade as is easy to harass them, while one must also consider that, for such valuable pieces, dealing with a mere pawn cannot be an efficient form of employment. Taking the above into account, it becomes clear that the side with the passed pawn should seek to exchange minor pieces and retain the major ones; the opposite applies to the defending side.” -
“The key to each pattern is the status of the squares surrounding the king: which ones are obstructed, which are potential flight squares that can be controlled with the available pieces. Players are advised to know these patterns forwards, backwards and upside down!” ~ Efstratios Grivas -
n addition to the basic Taimanov ideas we had to keep, we followed – in an original manner – our two main concepts: ‘almost never play an early …d6’ (Scheveningen-style) and ‘push …h5 whenever you can’ (Paulsen-style). The latest fashion, which we have to mention, did not even exist when we started to write our book – the 7.Qf3 line. Readers will have the choice between the peaceful 7…Bd6, and 7…d6 where we head for a sharp Sicilian, true to its style. In the famous English attack with Be3 – Qd2 – 0-0-0, in addition to the well-known …Bb4 and …Ne5, our second proposal – of which we can safely state that we are most proud – is called the “Serbian variation” starting with …Bb4 and …0-0. About the specific move order in reaching our Paulsen-Taimanov variation, there are two possibilities. The first possibility is to start with 2… e6 and 4… Nc6, and the second one is revealed by 2…Nc6 with 4…Qc7. We decided on the move order 2…Nc6 and 4…Qc7 firstly because we all learned this way in the Paulsen-Taimanov variation, but also for practical reasons. Firstly, we avoid 5.Nb5, which results in typical Hedgehog set-ups, and these positions are not to everyone’s taste.- Another reason is to keep in reserve the option of playing …e5 at once, or sometimes even …g6 without touching the e-pawn. This book is the result of twenty years of our work and playing the Taimanov combined. We have played over 500 games in this variation and we desired to show all the beauty and richness of “our” variation. We hope that our book will conjure all this and more, and will help our readers into the labyrinths of our Taimanov Bible.
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Not every reader is ambitious enough or has enough time to work very hard on his chess. That’s quite understandable and nothing to be ashamed of. You can enjoy chess very well without being a strong tournament player. You could just entertain yourself by playing through interesting combinations. In this case don’t try too hard to solve the Advanced Lessons or Master Class exercises. Have a look to make yourself familiar with the position, than look at the solution and enjoy the surprising combinations. You won’t learn as much as you would by racking your brain to crack the hard nuts. But some knowledge and experience will certainly rub off and increase your understanding of chess. I hope this book will help you to work towards your goals and let have you fun with chess, Thomas Luther, September 2022 -
Crucial Exercises To Sharpen Your Understanding This is the third book of the Thinkers’ Chess Academy series. I thought long and hard about the best way to structure this Workbook. My idea was to make a book with additional exercises for readers of my earlier books Thinker’s Chess Academy Volumes 1 & 2 (TCA1 and TCA2 for short) while working with these books, plus material for really interested and ambitious readers to maintain and broaden the skills they have already learned. -
“Together With Mamedyarov” is not a collection of his selected games but it is primarily a study-book. It contains test positions taken from games of the famous Azeri grandmaster with detailed comments on the solutions to the tasks. In this book the solutions have been placed right after a diagram with a test except for the six positions given as a warm-up in the beginning of the chapter one. For those of you who work without the assistance of a coach would recommend that you cover the answer with a sheet of paper to avoid spoiling the benefit of solving the problem. -
This book invites the reader to enter the wonderful elite chess world with one of the most creative GM’s of all time, Alexander Morozevich. It tells about his approach to the core of fighting, about his strongest points but also about his weaknesses. It presents masterpieces and painful losses. However, the author not only shows a panorama of his creativity but also offers the reader to think over the problems together with ‘Moro’. You can simply take place in his seat, look through his eyes and finally play like Morozevich! -
Nýtt inn! Vertu öðruvísi og hugmyndaríkur við skákborðið. Komdu andstæðingum þínum á óvart. This book is written with the intention to introduce the reader to the creative chess ideas of Michael Basman. He gave up more intense regular tournament chess around the turn of the millennium, to concentrate his energy on the development of school chess. And that is what he is mainly known for in recent times, as the motor who made the UK Chess Challenge blossom. Nowadays the yearly nation-wide school competition still attracts around 40,000 children, and that is not even the record. […] -
What you are holding in your hands is the natural follow up of Volume 1 where some “lesser” openings aft er 1.d4 d5 2.c4 were examined, as well as a couple of less popular variations of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. This second Volume comprises all of the established main lines of the QGA aft er our recommended 3.e4 with the intention of giving you a full picture of this topical opening while helping you build a repertoire based on aggressive ideas. Objectively speaking, it is very hard for White to find an advantage in the event of the absolute main lines 3…Nf6 and 3…e5, but we believe we have done our duty. We scrutinized multiple interesting variations with the help of engines while applying our human understanding to select those lines that would be the most unpleasant for Black. Additionally, we tried to provide you with as many alternatives as possible so as not to become “victims” of a narrow repertoire. -
Grandmasters Kotronias and Ivanov are renowned as leading theoreticians and chess trainers. They offer a unique and world-class repertoire based on 1.d4! They advocate an ambitious approach for White, with the aim to fight for an advantage in any position. This is their first joint effort; they tackle the ever-popular Queen’s Gambit Accepted and their sidelines in Volume 1A and 1B. We at Thinkers believe their job could not have been done any better. -
There are two parts to this book. The first 17 chapters elaborate on the most important motifs in practical chess. The remaining 8 chapters showcase the art of attack and defense. Certain motifs feel like they belong together and the order of the chapters in which they are discussed reflects that. All 25 chapters of this book begin with an introduction which is always designed to clearly illustrate the motif or theme at hand. Most but not all of the games here are classics. All the introductions are followed by training puzzles in order to reinforce pattern recognition and learning for what has been discussed beforehand. -
“The endgame is the moment of truth. It is the phase of the game where we will try to reap the seeds of our effort regardless of whether that is the full point of victory or the half point of the draw. The significance of errors increases in the endgame as the opportunities for correcting them are few.” ~ Efstratios Grivas
