Simen Agdestein was awarded the title of chess grandmaster at the age of eighteen, the youngest in the world at the time. Two years later he wrote in his diary that he believed he could become the best in the world.

But chess wasn"t his only passion. He also excelled at football and was selected nine times for the Norwegian national team. Foreign clubs wanted to sign him as a professional.

Simen Agdestein"s combined careers are unique and amazing. "I can"t choose between my left and my right arm", he once said of the choice between chess and football.

His international football career was cut short when he refused to play for Norway in a World Cup qualifier against Scotland. He opted instead to play Garry Kasparov in a chess tournament in Belgrade. A few years later, a knee injury put an end to his footballing dreams.

These days Agdestein is a coach and teacher at the Norwegian College for Top Athletes, a fertile breeding ground where his most successful pupil, Magnus Carlsen, also attended. Agdestein continues to compete in chess. In 2023 he won the Norwegian Championship for the ninth time, 41 years after his first successful bid.

Games and Goals is a gripping biography of a unique double talent, revealing his insecurities and ambitions, his doubts and dreams. The author had access to Agdestein"s private letters and diaries and conducted numerous interviews with relatives, friends and Agdestein himself. 272 PAGES

Victor Bologan is not only a strong and creative chess grandmaster, he has also made a career in Moldovan and world chess politics. His strong will and incredible versatility have enabled him to lead a colourful and interesting life. ‘Believe in yourself’ is his motto and it has taken him to places many of us will never see.

A sparkling description of the many roads Bologan has travelled lies before you. In this autobiography you will read about the adventures of an enterprising youngster in turbulent Moldova, his collaborations with renowned chess coaches such as Vyacheslav Chebanenko, Zigurds Lanka and Mark Dvoretsky, and his alliances with top players such as Alexander Morozevich, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov. The book also offers a candid insight into Bologan's activities as Executive Director of the World Chess Federation FIDE and his career in Moldovan national politics.

Central to this book, of course, is Bologan's chess career. His most impressive tournament victory was in Dortmund in 2003, where he beat both Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. But he also won the incredibly strong Aeroflot Open in Moscow in 1995 and twice came first in a personal favourite, the annual Poikovsky tournament. Bologan has extensively annotated 88 of his best and most attractive games. 424 pages

Zwischenzug! is the first-ever comprehensive guide to the chess tactic also known as the intermediate move, or intermezzo. This exciting manoeuvre can catch opponents off guard because it is against the expected run of play. You will learn how to spot Zwischenzugs, when to look out for them, and how to set them up in your games.

The authors have studied thousands of games and have identified the patterns that appear frequently in practical play. The book categorizes the different types of Zwischenzugs and distils them into easily accessible themes. The concepts are given catchy names to make them more memorable, and historical details and anecdotes are added throughout the book.

Included is an extensive mix of sample puzzles for learning and practice.

When published on Chessable, the course was received very enthusiastically and awarded an average rating of 4.82 out of a possible five stars. Another welcome effect is that the authors are now finding a lot of Zwischenzugs in their own games! 280 pages

Turbo-Charge Your Tactics 1 is essentially a chess puzzle book, but not a typical one. It’s a multi-year effort by GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko and his world-renowned trainer IM Vladimir Grabinsky to introduce you to the world of “unnatural” tactical moves.

Presenting examples of extreme beauty, no matter where they come from – be it online bullet or world-class grandmaster praxis – this book will cure your “selective blindness” by destroying the false notion of chess principles being a set of rules, instead of helpful guidelines. Most chess games are decided by tactics, so solving tactical puzzles is the most effective path to improvement. hardcover 328 pages

Turbo-Charge Your Tactics 2 concludes a multi-year effort by GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko and world-renowned trainer IM Vladimir Grabinsky to create the perfect chess puzzle books. This second volume builds upon the first, using games from the World Champions and their challengers. Most chess games are decided by tactics, so solving tactical puzzles is the most effective path to improvement.

This book also contains a special chapter with expert guidance on how to use chess engines. The engines might analyse precisely but they can also harm our chess understanding if followed blindly, so we must know when and how to use them. Hardcover 280 pages

Selected popular chess problems, combining ease of construction with an ingenious and effective solution. The author of the collection, the 14-time world champion in drawing up and solving, the international grandmaster, not only leads the decisions, but also tells about the history, theory, the subject of modern chess composition, the famous compilers of the past and the present. Hardcover 373 pages

Throughout the history of chess, elite players have been studied, celebrated and adored. But there also been  players, while perhaps not regarded as world-class competitors, who had a precious gift, but who did not know (or could not find) the way to success. They were lost in the labyrinth of difficulties that life always places before every human being.

In the end, for various reasons, history forgot this select group of masters. For some, their careers were very bright (as in the cases of von Kolisch, Neumann and Charousek) but also extremely short, limiting their renown and depriving them of deserved laurels. For others, chess turned out to be excessively demanding for which their minds were unprepared. Finally, for a truly unfortunate few, tragedy – always an unwelcome guest – took over their lives and then took life itself from them.

An exceptionally researched historical work, these pages contain the stories of 23 players with a very unique way of understanding chess (sometimes ahead of their time) and who prioritized the artistic side of the game over the results: an approach that was not properly appreciated in their time.

Now, for the first time, Spanish author and chess historian Javier Cordero puts these Forgotten Talents in the limelight. Archival photos and almost 200 selected games nicely supplement the biographies of these star-crossed players who became Lost in the Labyrinth of Life. 288 pages

In my first book I wanted to enlighten the reader on those various lines that were

less explored, and those that have been almost forgotten but were nevertheless

interesting.

However this time the book is about cutting-edge lines, which is a very

modern approach to this fascinating opening. Moreover it is important to say that

when I was writing my first book a few years ago, surprisingly, some of these current

lines simply didn’t exist, or were only discussed in a very minor way.

It is true that the Grünfeld fits in very well with the engines’ way of playing chess,

and in that sense it’s almost the perfect opening with which to implement and generate

such ideas.

Let’s have a look now at what I mean and start reading my findings!

GM Milos Pavlovic, January 2024.

I sincerely hope that you, dear readers, will enjoy the wonderful masterpieces you will find in this book. In addition to the authors, some of Drasko’s contemporaries were also involved in the writing, and they immediately responded with pride and love to the request to keep the memory of the Serbian genius alive. I would like to thank all those who participated in this project.

To the Grandmasters who wrote down their own memories of Drasko Velimirovic, which you will find in this book in special ”boxes”. To the contemporaries, friends, and comrades-in-arms of ”Boss” who remember this or that anecdote, this or that event, this or that memory.

This second volume covers Drasko’s life and chess from 1976 until 2011.

This remarkable book is a tribute to a man who is probably the greatest chess coach of all time. Mark Dvoretsky was a fascinating, intelligent, honest, decent, hard-working and good-natured man who dedicated his life to chess and its players.

When Dvoretsky started coaching after a fairly successful career as a player, he became a kind of doctor who could quickly spot what his students needed help with. He made them better chess players but also better people. In this book, not only his most famous students Artur Yusupov and Sergey Dolmatov explain what made Dvoretsky so special, but also former World Champions such as Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen, and many others.

In addition to a wealth of delightful and often touching stories, Chess Coach contains 39 of Dvoretsky's games, which show what a strong player he was. They have been analysed by Dvoretsky himself and by many of his former students. Several interviews and articles complete this colourful compilation. One of Dvoretsky's own most famous books was called For Friends and Colleagues – as Garry Kasparov writes in his extensive foreword, this book is a worthy reply 'From Friends and Colleagues'.

Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) was known as ‘the strongest International Master in the world’ in the mid-1970s when he decided to pursue a career as a chess trainer. His students Artur Yusupov and Sergey Dolmatov became World Championship Candidates. A meticulous chess analyst, Dvoretsky wrote many highly acclaimed books, his most famous being Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. He became so popular as a coach that dozens of world-class players repeatedly sought his advice. 324 pages

Instruction + exercises according to the old Soviet chess school Experienced Russian Grandmaster Yakov Neishtadt reveals the training material that was used in Soviet times to build up young masters. In the first part of the book Neishstadt teaches a systematic course on the most important tactical themes. The second part consist of an exam with hundreds of tests from real-life chess, in random order so as not to give unwelcome hints on how to solve them. The solutions are not just lists of moves, but include instructive prose. This edtion has been checked with modern engines.

390 pages

Danny Gormally is a Chess Grandmaster stuck in a fugue state. He has forgotten how to analyse - blinded by the brilliance of chess engines, every time he gets stuck he turns on the machine. In this book he attempts to discover his love of analysis and the game of chess by attempting different methods of analysis and calculation. He asks what separates the analysis methods of an amateur player with a Grandmaster, and further still what separates the very best players from super computers. It all culminates in the mind-bogglingly complex “Impossible quiz” where some of the most skilled players in chess are confronted by extremely complex positions.

If that sounds off-putting it shouldn’t be - Gormally breaks down the material in a way that is comprehensible to any amateur player. 262 pages

Do you want to do the same chess homework that world-famous grandmasters Fabiano Caruana, Robert Hess and Peter Heine Nielsen did in their formative years as chess players? This book will test you with hundreds of positions created by their coach Miron Sher (1952-2020). Just like Fabiano, Robert and Peter, you are not supposed to stop after the first move. You have to find the last move of the solution!

Miron Sher is one of those legendary coaches who got their chess education in the Soviet Union and in later years spread their knowledge in Western Europe and the United States. He was born in Ukraine, studied in Moscow, coached the Russian national team and emigrated to New York in 1997. There he taught at various schools and worked privately with dozens of students.

Dream Moves focuses on five themes that Sher considered important for chess improvement.

•     An unprotected piece – the trigger to start thinking tactics!
•     In-between moves – they help you spring a surprise on your opponent
•     Open files – a fundamental element of chess strategy
•     The 20% Rule – if your pawn has advanced to the 5th or 6th rank, moving it forward is quite often your best option
•     Dream Move – dream about the final, decisive move, and you will find the way there

The book contains close to one hundred illustrated games and more than three hundred puzzles. Do as the legends did - and use these puzzles to sharpen your tactical skills and improve your understanding of chess.

Miron Sher (1952-2020) is chess grandmaster and legendary coach. He was born in Ukraine, won a dozen international tournaments as a player, and became famous as a trainer in the United States where he lived since 1997. In New York he taught chess at multiple schools, including the Dalton School, IS 318 and Stuyvesant High School. He worked privately with dozens of students such as Fabiano Caruana, Robert Hess and Peter Heine Nielsen. 304 pages

Georgy Lisitsin (1909-72) was a respected Soviet master, theoretician and writer. In 1958 he published a revised edition of his most ambitious work, entitled Strategy and Tactics of Chess, which became one of the most legendary manuals in the Soviet chess school, and no doubt one of the books that motivated the young Bobby Fischer to learn Russian.

Lisitsin broke down Strategy and Tactics into their key constituent elements, enabling players of all levels to study chess systematically, learning from carefully selected game fragments and studies. Key Elements of Chess Tactics and its companion volume Key Elements of Chess Strategy are the first ever complete English translations of Lisitsin’s classic.

In Key Elements of Chess Tactics, Lisitsin illustrates key tactical concepts such as pinning, discovered attacks and checks, deflection, interference and many more, building a foundation before moving on to more complex and beautiful tactical themes. 392 pages

Georgy Lisitsin (1909-72) was a respected Soviet master, theoretician and writer. In 1958 he published a revised edition of his most ambitious work, entitled Strategy and Tactics of Chess, which became one of the most legendary manuals in the Soviet chess school, and no doubt one of the books that motivated the young Bobby Fischer to learn Russian.

Lisitsin broke down Strategy and Tactics into their constituent elements, enabling players of all levels to study chess systematically, learning from carefully selected game fragments and studies. Key Elements of Chess Strategy and its companion volume Key Elements of Chess Tactics are the first ever complete English translations of Lisitsin's classic.

In Key Elements of Chess Strategy, Lisitsin breaks down the Foundations of Strategy into categories such as piece placement, exchanges, weaknesses and prophylaxis, followed by a section on Devising a Strategic Plan, including concepts such as blockading, undermining, the initiative, pawn chains, and planning in the opening.  Hardcover 206 pages

The second volume of Elk and Ruby’s treatise on Viktor Korchnoi, penned by FM Hans Renette and IM Tibor Karolyi, covers the period 1969-1980. This encompasses Korchnoi’s famous world championship fight with Karpov at Baguio City in 1978, his candidates final matches against Karpov in 1974 and Hubner in 1980, as well as the related candidates cycles and major tournament performances. Much biographical colour is supplied on his life and character, with this period including his defection from the Soviet Union to the West in 1976. Like in Volume I, original material is provided from interviews with key protagonists and their relatives, while sources in Russian, German, Dutch and Hungarian as well as English are used to paint the most comprehensive portrait of Korchnoi available.
140 games and fragments are analysed in detail in this work. As well as Karpov and Hubner, opponents include Fischer, Spassky, Petrosian, Smyslov, Portisch, Geller, Najdorf, Timman, Larsen, Mecking, Sosonko, Andersson, Ljubojevic, Polugaevsky, Nunn, and Miles among others. Many new discoveries are made in the analysis. In particular, the authors identify that Korchnoi worked hard to improve his endgame ability significantly during the time that he was boycotted in tournaments by the Soviets, which is most surprising given that he was in his mid-forties by then, and was the best player of his time at endgame tactics. Further, the authors found that his reputation as a pawn grabber was highly exaggerated, and that he carried out a huge number of king attacks on the h-file. They also discovered that Korchnoi more than matched Karpov for openings in the 1978 title bout despite the unprecedented preparation of the Soviet chess machine, and that the key reason he lost that match was time trouble.
The book is supplemented with a generous supply of photos, many taken from the Korchnoi family archive and never before published. 518 pages

The book is in three parts. Part One, besides introducing the book generally, covers the very first moves of the Scandinavian Defense and White’s early deviations. Anyone who plays the Scandinavian will find this section quite helpful. Then Part Two covers Qd6 + g6 systems, while Part Three covers the very different Nf6 system. 176 pages

Sergei Tiviakov was unbeaten in a streak of more than a hundred chess games as a professional player. Who better to share the secrets of Rock Solid Chess and the activity and value of pieces than Tiviakov?

The highly acclaimed first volume of his chess strategy trilogy dealt with pawn structures. In this second volume, Sergei moves on to discuss piece play and unique chessboard situations. Topics covered include the bishop pair, opposite-coloured bishops, centralization and the almost-ignored question of when and whether to castle.

Tiviakov also demonstrates how the value of pieces can vary drastically depending on their exact position. He shows how the entire assessment of a position, and the correct strategy for playing it, can be changed by moving a single pawn from one square to another.

In the final chapters, Tiviakov discusses how to play cramped and passive positions, how to play for a win with Black and how to choose your strategy, based on the opponent’s style and other psychological factors.

Illustrated with examples from classic games and from his own games, and supported by instructive exercises, Volume Two of Rock Solid Chess offers invaluable and unique instruction on topics not covered in traditional textbooks. These strategy lessons will significantly improve your chess and are suitable for all readers, from club players to grandmasters.

Sergei Tiviakov is a grandmaster, Olympic gold medallist, three-time Dutch Champion and European Champion.
Yulia Gökbulut is a FIDE Women's Master, chess author and sports writer from Turkey. 251 pages

 Boris Spassky is the most underappreciated World Champion in chess history, remembered as the Soviet who lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972. In this two-volume work, biographer extraordinaire Tibor Karolyi puts the focus on Spassky’s brilliant career and life story.

Born in 1937, Spassky barely escaped with his life when evacuating from the Siege of Leningrad as a young boy. This book tells the story of how that boy subsequently learned to play chess and rose through the Soviet ranks to become the strongest player in the world in the late 1960s.

International Master Tibor Karolyi is a renowned author and trainer from Hungary. His biographical works for Quality Chess have received glowing praise from readers and reviewers.

Understanding Chess Exchanges by Bagheri & Salehzadeh. Have you ever wondered how chess grandmasters always seem to know which pieces need to be exchanged? Or how an attack is influenced by the number of pieces on the board? When should we keep the queens on, and when should we switch to an endgame?
 
Understanding Chess Exchanges shares expert insights into using exchanges as a strategic weapon. Your newfound knowledge will then be tested using exercises taken from elite modern practice. With a particular focus on Magnus Carlsen – the master of exchanges – this book reveals the principles behind a vital part of chess strategy.
 
Chess mastery is the art of knowing when principles should be followed and when they must be broken. This book guarantees that you will not only become familiar with the typical guidelines, but also learn about their exceptions. Filled with tips, principles and practical advice, Understanding Chess Exchanges is an invaluable asset to a chess player’s arsenal! 352 pages

In his heyday, Samuel Reshevsky was one of the great contenders for the world title and, according to Bobby Fischer, for a period of about ten years, from 1946 to 1956, he was the best player in the world.

This book contains sixty of his best games, all analysed and annotated.

It also includes exercises and answers to various questions that might arise in the mind of the reader.

I believe this is a good method, both for teaching and learning.

The author hopes that in this way the reader will learn from the magnificent play of Sammy Reshevsky, and grow to admire it as much as I do. 424 pages

Have you ever wondered why it takes grandmasters just seconds to see what's happening in a chess position? It's all about pawn structures, as Ivan Sokolov explained in his groundbreaking book Winning Chess Middlegames.

In his 2010 bestseller, Grandmaster Sokolov focused on structures arising from 1.d4 openings; in this new companion guide, 1.e4 players get their turn. This new volume covers a dozen topical structures including various pawn formations in the flexible Ruy Lopez, Italian and Petroff openings. But also Black's doubled f-pawn in the Rauzer Sicilian, the notorious Maroczy Bind, the mysterious Hedgehog, the versatile Sveshnikov and the paradoxical French Winawer. Deeply analysed top-level games illustrate the motifs in all these structures.

Club players who study Winning Chess Middlegames 1.e4 or 1.d4 will:

• significantly improve their middlegame skills
• develop an accurate sense of which positions suit their style
• gain new strategic and practical knowledge of openings

Ivan Sokolov's analysis is profound but accessible, and he doesn't take anything for granted. As reviewer Sean Marsh wrote of the first volume: "The lucid and informative explanations convey a large amount of genuine Grandmasterly wisdom. This is easily one of the best middlegame books of recent times."

Ivan Sokolov is a top grandmaster who was born in Bosnia and lives in the Netherlands. He is a former Yugoslav and Dutch Champion and has beaten World Champions Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. As a coach, he led Uzbekistan to victory at the 2022 Chennai Olympiad. Sokolov has written a dozen highly acclaimed books.

The author Bruno Dieu is a FIDE Master and became French Correspondence Chess Champion in 2000. He has a rich experience in chess, having participated in various chess tournaments, both over the board and in correspondence.
It's fascinating that he has competed with notable experts and writers on the 1 Nc3, such as Dick Van Geet, Anker Aasum, and Harald Keilhack. The mention of a book being a token of his experience suggests that he has documented his insights and knowledge about this opening.
Overall, this is a most promising exploration for those interested in chess and this specific opening.
We are convinced you will enjoy the chess ride Bruno provided in his excellent researched book. 470 pages

"For me, a draw is not a result at all. If the game develops normally, I never think about a draw. I always think about playing to win. I blame all chess players who play chess to make draw and thus degrade this ancient game!"

"I like fast, "rocket" chess and always play to win. It seems to me that chess was invented precisely to have winners and losers. If someone offers me a draw, I take it as an insult."

"I start every game with the firm intention of finishing it with, or on, the shield!"

"One pawn more or less. I have 8 of them, don't I?"

"I am very pleasant to talk to and very unpleasant to play chess with!"  307 pages Hardcover

Andrew Burnett is a Scottish FM who has represented his country on several occasions. He is the author of cult classic Streetfighting Chess and his love of the Dragon opening stretches back to his teenage years when he was looking to escape from 1.e4 e5! He is currently working on the second volume of DragonMasters.
DragonMasters volume 1 charts the history of the most exciting and dangerous opening known to chess: the Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence.
Unlike almost all other books on the Dragon, the focus is not purely on theoretical developments. Instead, the author has combined the most historically important games, the famous players who chose to fight either side (sometimes both sides!) of the opening, and the most unexpected and interesting stories featuring the Dragon. World champions, contenders for the crown, codebreakers, revolutionaries in every sense of the word, all feature in this remarkable and entirely unique look into the history of an opening variation. As the ancient maps say: Here be Dragons! 404 pages Hardcover

Books on how to improve your results over the board have been written before but in these changing times when chess has propelled onto the public consciousness, an update is badly needed. Grandmaster Daniel Gormally uses his 25+ years of experience to take the readers through the fires of the tournament cauldron, while illustrating some of his battles with the best players in England.
Along the way he tackles how to approach online play, an increasingly important issue as this form of chess has increased in popularity. Do you need a coach ? Will streamers relly help you to improve ? And should you turn off your computer ? Gormally emphasizes the importance of independent analysis in enabling the player to make progress and explains how he himself suffered in his results due to an over-reliance in chess engines.
And then there is the nitty gritty of tournament play itself. Gormally grapples with subjects that aren't covered in normal tournament books, from what hotels you should choose, to what kind of diet you need to follow, while also concluding that he lacks the awesome physical fitness of the Norwegian chess god Magnus Carlsen.
It all culminates in an explosive Hastings diary, where the author uses his acerbic wit to pull apart the vagaries of preparing for international competition in an account that verges on comic-tragic. 348 pages

The English Opening is very popular nowadays, but 1.c4 e5! is a serious challenge and not to everyone's taste. Here comes 1.Nf3, with the idea to transfer the game into the English with c2-c4 to follow. The only hurdle on that path is 1...d5. Then White is at a crossroads. 2.c4 allows 2...d4 3.b4, while 2.e3 is an attempt to deny ...d4. Black can revive the threat with 2...c5, and again, White has a choice. 3.c4 d4 4.b4! leads to the Blumenfeld with reversed colours. Or he can continue to fight against ...d4 with 3.b3. White's decisions on the second and third move depends on the way he wants to meet the Queen's Gambit and the Slav/Meran/Chebanenko. Semkov covers in detail the different options, and also devotes several chapters on 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 and 3...e6 4.b3! (avoiding the innocuous version of the QGA after 4.Nc3 dxc4). There is another chapter on 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.c4 dxc4, where the absence of Nc3 allows White to get some pressure by refraining from d2-d4.   244 pages

In Black and White is probably the most honest autobiography ever published by a chess grandmaster. It covers Paul van der Sterren’s rise to the chess elite, but above all, his struggle to become a better player, his insecurities and the difficulties he encountered.

This book provides a hugely illuminating insight into the life of a chess professional, but there is a lot in his story that will resonate with players of any level. From his first moves on the chess board to his Candidates Match against Gata Kamsky, only four steps away from the World title – everything is described in great detail and with the utmost frankness by the Dutch grandmaster. The story doesn’t end there – the book’s final part describes the slow decline of an ageing pro and his eventual shift to meditation and mindfulness.

The Dutch edition of In Black and White, which contains more than 300 deeply analysed games and fragments, was published in 2011 and has achieved cult status. With this English translation, it will finally get a well-deserved wider audience.

Paul van der Sterren (1956) was a professional chess player for over twenty years. He won the Dutch Championship in 1985 and 1993 and played for the Dutch team at eight Olympiads. Van der Sterren lost to Gata Kamsky after a great fight in a Candidates Match in 1994. He has written several chess books, of which Fundamental Chess Openings (2009) is the best known. In Dutch, he has also written several books on mindfulness. 768 pages

The Dutch Grandmaster Paul van der Sterren was a professional chess player for over twenty years. At the peak of his career, he qualified for the Candidate Matches for the World Championship - and was only four victories away from the World Title. In Mindful Chess, you will get his long and short answer to whether meditation or mindfulness will help your chess.

As a boy, Van der Sterren became fascinated by chess and became a gladiator at the chess board. To quote Theodore Roosevelt, he met with both victory and defeat, much joy and suffering. When, later in life, he discovered vipassana meditation, he met again with joy and suffering - and approached these issues with the same total devotion as he had brought to chess - thousands and thousands of hours on the cushion and studying Buddhist literature.

The reader will follow the two journeys through chess and meditation. And find answers to questions such as: What is chess? What is meditation? Who am I? What is I? Or will the answer elude you, is too much inexplainable and unknowable?

Paul van der Sterren (1956) was a professional chess player for over twenty years. At the peak of his career, the Dutch grandmaster qualified for the Candidate Matches for the World Championship – and was only four victories away from the World Title. He is the bestselling author of Fundamental Chess Openings (Gambit Publishers). In 2023 New In Chess will publish his books: Mindful Chess and In Black and White - a spiritual and a chess autobiography. 127 pages

The best chess training closely resembles the activity you're training for. This book provides you with an essential component - decision-making in the crucial positions of a real game of chess, played by club players rather than grandmasters. You have to answer the same questions that you face when you stare at the chess board and have to find a move.
Amateur games can be very instructive. Studying the games of top players will undoubtedly help you to improve. However, it is often more enlightening to make decisions or see mistakes at a lower level, as they are easier for most of us to relate to.
Thomas Willemze has carefully selected thirty games that illustrate an important theme, for example:
- Dealing with irreversible moves
- Rerouting your rooks
- Aligning your bishop and pawns
- Converting a long-term advantage
- Taming the London
Willemze is a master at choosing just the right positions to help you improve your chess knowledge and understanding.
Thomas Willemze is an experienced chess trainer and International Master from the Netherlands. All thirty games in What Would You Play have been published in New In Chess magazine. Willemze has written five books for New In Chess, all of which are available as courses on Chessable. 230 pages

Positional Sacrifice in Modern Chess (hardcover). A Word from the Authors : "The sequel, or the second part of the “Secrets of Positional Sacrifice” manual is titled “Positional Sacrifice in Modern Chess”. We assume that readers will conclude that the subject of our analysis are recently played games, especially the games played over the last few years. The book is intended for chess players who aspire to raise the level of positional play in this particular field of expertise, as well as coaches working on chess education. Like the previous book “Secrets of Positional Sacrifice”, the book in our hands is divided into chapters according to the material that is the subject of the sacrifice: the positional sacrifice of a pawn, exchange, piece, rook, and queen. Finally, the last chapter deals with “hot games” and contains six games played during November and December 2021. We believe that the book is as interesting and instructive as its prequel. However, the examples are a tad more complicated, primarily because of the positional rook sacrifice section. In actual fact, the examples on this kind were verydifficult to find in practice, and processing them in the right way was a particular challenge for us. The first section, the positional pawn sacrifice, should encourage the reader to execute one of the most complicated positional sacrifices in practice as often as possible. On the other hand, the sacrifice of exchange is the most common and easiest to apply and can very successfully serve as a means of relieving the fear of possible sacrifice of material. Asymmetric positions, i.e., positions with an unusual distribution of material, are mostly featured in the positional piece and queen sacrifice positions. In the last chapter entitled “Hot Games,” we present the analysis on the topics of various fascinating examples, from the latest games of today’s great players. We tried to choose the examples that were easy to follow, so they are embellished with diagrams and explained verbally as well. We paid more attention to the analysis of the positional sacrifice from the moment of its execution to the end of the game. Hence, the introductory part of each example may be somewhat shorter in relation to the first book. Finally, the invaluable exercises at the end of the book should be mentioned. The tasks cover four topics to make them as interesting and easy to solve as possible. The exercises are based on the correct assessment of asymmetric positions and, of course, on concrete calculations. In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that the book highlights the beauty of human ideas and their practical application. In some cases, the authors give preference to the human idea over the assessment of the computer. When a player cannot calculate complicated lines accurately, he should look for an alternative solution of the similar quality. One of the possible answers is the positional sacrifice that leads to asymmetric material and thus the change of the character of the fight. " 307 pages

An informative guide to understanding and implementing the fundamentals of the Caro-Kann, the easy way.

The Caro-Kann defence, named after the German chess players Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann, is notorious for its simple solidity and is a popular chess opening that players of all levels benefit from having in their arsenal. It is a firm favourite of grand masters past and present, including Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Anand.

This is the fifth book from International Master Thomas Engqvist, and it avoids overcomplicated details and endless computer variations, focusing instead on key variations of the Caro-Kann that can be committed to memory. Examining classic games to demonstrate key moves in action, Engqvist brings the defence to life and provides you with the knowledge you need to put strategy into practice. 330 pages