Pièces d'échecs Mid Century

Mikhail Tal's splendid account of his world championship match victory is one of the masterpieces of the golden age of annotation-before insights and feelings and flashes of genius were reduced to mere moves and Informant symbols. This is simply the best book written about a world championship match by a contestant. That shouldn't be a surprise because Tal was the finest writer to become world champion.-International Grandmaster and popular chess columnistAndy Soltis

Do you want a simple and practical method to counter Black’s kingside fianchetto defences after 1 d4? A line that takes the initiative from a very early stage and creates difficult practical problems? If so, then The Harry Attack (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 h4!) is for you.

At first this looks like some sort of joke or, at the very least, a weird outlandish line. Aren’t we all taught to focus on development and control of the centre in the early stages? What’s 3 h4 got to do with that?

Perhaps surprisingly, this is a very difficult line for Black to counter effectively. This applies not just in practical play but also theoretically, where it is far from straightforward for Black even to find a route to equality. And when Black gets it wrong they are often on the receiving end of a very unpleasant miniature.

You may be thinking that surely the best chess engines can show how to counter this line? No! One of the unexpected features of leading engine play is their enthusiasm for shoving the h-pawn up the board and they fully concur that 3 h4! is a very decent move for White. Many leading players have taken the hint and 3 h4 is frequently seen at elite level.

Richard Palliser and Simon Williams (the GingerGM) provide a thorough guide to this fascinating line. They show how to adapt when Black chooses a King’s Indian set-up, a Grünfeld set-up, a Benoni set-up or even plays in Benko style.

The Harry Attack is easy to learn and is perfect for unsettling players steeped in the theory of their favourite Indian defences.  238 pages

This beautiful Staunton chess pieces earn a point in their history; in the 19th century, London was a major center for the production of chess pieces. John Jaques, one of the main ivory and wood turner then, decided to better the appearance and it's function of the chess pieces. Together with his partner Nathaniel Cook, they finish their model in 1849 and record it in honor of Howard Staunton, a former charismatic chess player and journalist. A kind of marketing hit ahead of its time.

The Staunton chess pieces are stable by their broad base and the general aesthetics of the pieces is transformed: The tower is an impregnable fortress, the line of pawns is refined, the miter of the runner is simplified, it is now more easier to distinguishes the crown of the king thanks to the cross, from the lady her pointed collar. And above all, the ultra-realistic appearance of the horse raises the desire to fight on. Style which we clearly find inspiration back in the frieze of the Parthenon, a masterpiece of Greek sculpture in the 5eeuw BC. which is largely preserved in the British Museeum London.

The Staunton pieces quickly had a great success and were officially prescribed in 1924 for competion. Different variants of Staunton since the original model made in 1849 are now all over the world available for chess players, but they remain faithful to the "John Jaques style".

The Supreme Staunton chess pieces are felted and weighted. They are cut in a dense, valuable ebony, an exceptional deep black. They are perfectly polished, smooth and shiny, and fine glittered with oxalic acid crystals. Giving them as recollected more brilliance to light.

They will perfectly suit on a chess board with squares of 55 mm.
 

Chess set for visually impaired people. Easy to use:

Chess pieces have a little stick on the bottom who can be fixed in holes on the chessboard. Making them standstill and comfortable to touch.
All black pieces have a little stick too on their head, allowing to recognize them easily from whites.

Even the chessboard is thoroughly thought: All black squares are a little bit raised to make them easy to recognize.

Uniquely designed for the World Chess Championship, and adopted by the Mozart of chess – Magnus Carlsen, this Official FIDE chess set of pieces design has all the hallmarks of excellence of design one expects in a luxury set. With a contemporary atmosphere, the FIDE ebonised design was designed in line with chess playing aesthetics, and with white and black corresponding base felts. This is the official World Chess Championship set approved by FIDE. Each set is beautifully presentation boxed with individual pieces hand packed and secured inside the box. We propose with this nice set of pieces a luxury and beautiful chessboard in maple burr inspired by the Netflix Serie Queens' Gambit.  Size of the king 9,5 cm, pieces are weigthed and felted, chessboard 54 cm and square 5,5 cm.

Si quelqu'un s'y retrouve, il me fait signe Voici donc (au choix) le premier volume d'une triplette baptisée Chess Evolution, ou le troisième d'un trio dénommé The Fundamentals - à moins qu'il s'agisse simplement du septième tome d'un projet global qui en comportera neuf Ce qui est sûr, c'est que les 24 nouveaux chapitres truffés d'exemples et bardés d'exercices présentés ici vous feront cogiter quelques dizaines d'heures, et seront certainement profitables. Au boulot !