Excelling at Positional Chess: How the Best Players Plan and Maneuver 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...

Play the London System (Download)  It's no secret why the London System is such a popular opening, especially at club level. White's development plan is very easy to learn, and it can be employed against virtually any defense. What's more,...

Who Dares Wins! Attacking the King on Opposite Sides  Both players are gunning for each other's Kings. Whose attack will break through first? This is a typical scenario in chess games. In such tense battles where one slip can be...

Starting Out: The Queen's Gambit Declined The Queen's Gambit Declined is an opening of great historical importance and Black's fundamental answer to 1.d4. From the very first move Black obtains a firm foothold in the center, something that...

Play the Dutch: An Opening Repertoire for Black Based on the Leningrad Variation  There's no doubt that the Dutch Defense is one of Black's most enterprising openings. Black strives to unbalance the position by creating an asymmetrical...

How to Play against 1.d4 (Download) Finding a suitable defense to 1.d4 isn't an easy task, especially if you don't have endless time available to study all the latest theoretical developments. If you choose fashionable openings, it's imperative...

Seven Ways to Smash the Sicilian  One of the main reasons the Sicilian is the most popular opening is that is it promotes bold and aggressive chess. White will often gain a lead in development and, naturally, will want to use this as the basis...

Dangerous Weapons: The Anti-Sicilians  Do you need a well-deserved break from your normal chess openings? Are you tired of constantly having to keep up with modern chess theory? Or perhaps you simply wish to try out something new and inspiring,...

Dangerous Weapons: The Caro-Kann Defense  Do you need to freshen up your chess openings? Stun your opponents with new and exciting ideas! Dangerous Weapons is a series of opening books which supply the reader with an abundance of hard-hitting...

Winning Chess Combinations  Combinations are the central element in chess; they make the game so magical and captivating. The beautiful point of sacrificing a queen, the strongest piece, in order to checkmate with a lowly pawn brings a...

Starting Out: The Dutch Defense (Download)  The Dutch Defense is an ambitious and underrated counter to the queen's pawn opening. With his very first move Black creates an asymmetrical pawn structure, thus unbalancing the position from a very early...

Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part 4:Kasparov vs Karpov 1988-2009  Between 1984 and 1990 Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov contested five long matches for the World Championship. This fourth volume of the series 'Garry Kasparov on Modern...

Alekhine Alert! A Repertoire for Black against 1.e4 (E-Book Download) Former US Open Champion Timothy Taylor takes a contemporary look at one of Black's most ambitious counters to 1.e4, the Alekhine Defense. This is a sharp opening in which...

Starting Out: Modern Benoni Defense Ideal for those wanting to understand the basics of the Modern Benoni Defense.The Modern Benoni is one of Black's most ambitious and audacious defenses to the Queen's Pawn opening, and it has been used with...

Excelling at Chess  Some players become good at chess, some very good, while others excel at the game. Jacob Aagaard identifies the key factors that separate the very strong players from the rest. He includes chapters on when to calculate, how to...

Play the Sicilian Kan:A Dynamic and Flexible Repertoire for Black The Kan is an ideal choice as an opening weapon against 1.e4, as it is one of the easiest variations of the Sicilian to learn and play. This is because, unlike some variations of...

Starting Out: The Reti Opening (Download) The Reti is a popular opening at all levels of chess. The great advantage it possesses over other openings is that it's a thematic system which can be adopted against many different defenses, and because of...

How to Win at Chess - Quickly! Let's face facts: everyone enjoys winning. And the only thing better than winning is to win quickly! Mistakes are often made in the early part of the game - at all levels of chess - but a key skill is to recognize these...

Mastering the Opening The opening phase of the game throws up difficult questions for those keen to study and improve their chess. In Mastering the Opening, international master Byron Jacobs outlines the key plans and strategies in all major openings...

Play the Nimzo-Indian Defense (Download) The Nimzo-Indian is one of Black's most universally popular and respectable answers to 1.d4. It could be said that no other opening allows Black to play for a win from such a sound positional basis, while its...