Gambit Chess Books

The French is a sound and resilient defense, which also provides abundant opportunities for counter play. As a result it has been favored by such great fighting players as Lasker, Botvinnik and Korchnoi. Current adherents include Short, Shirov, Morozevich and Khalifman. By playing 3 Nc3, White confronts the French head-on. The upshot is often a ferocious battle as Black tries to destroy or dama...

The Meran is an opening rich in both strategy and tactics, making it ideal for players seeking to win with either color. It occupies an important place in the repertoires of many of the world's top players, with Anand, Kramnik, Kasparov and Karpov regularly taking one side or the other. The book provides the most detailed coverage to date of the Meran, together with several related variations, ...

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Very occasionally, a chess move is played that astonishes the whole world. It may be a move of astounding complexity, unearthly beauty, deep paradox... or all three. The move is discussed and analyzed around the world as chess-players attempt to fathom both why the move works, and how on earth anyone thought of it in the first place. In this book John Emms has selected, from hundreds of candida...

Ever since Nimzowitsch introduced his flexible, dynamic defense to the queen's pawn, debate has raged over White's best reply. Many variations have been in and out of fashion, but one line in particular has proved an enduring weapon - the sound and solid 4 e3 line, known as the Rubinstein Variation. The 4 e3 Nimzo is extraordinarily rich in strategy. All manner of different central pawn-structu...

The Petroff has for a long time been regarded as a very solid defense. Black avoids the perils of the Scotch, the Italian Game and above all the dreaded Ruy Lopez, and instead opts to neutralize White's initiative with active piece-play. In the Petroff, it is quite common for Black to launch an early counterattack, often gambiting a pawn to do so. For many years, the Petroff enjoyed a steady fo...

Every chess-player needs a reliable defense against the Queen's Pawn Opening. The fundamental question is whether to go all-out for counter play, which may involve a great deal of risk, or to adopt a more solid, classical approach, and first carefully neutralize White's initiative.This book shows the potential of the latter approach. By defending the Queen's Gambit Declined, Black puts a firm r...

Everyone loses chess games occasionally, but all too often we lose a game due to moves that, deep down, we knew were flawed. Why do we commit these chess-board sins? Are they the result of general misconceptions about chess and how it should be played? And how can we recognize the warning signs better? In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, Jonathan Rowson investigates, in his inimita...

The Slav's great popularity is due to its extreme solidity and abundant possibilities for dynamic counter play. This book provides detailed coverage to help players as both White and Black face the challenges of this tough yet rewarding opening. All lines after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 are discussed, except those that transpose to the Semi-Slav. The sharpest tactical lines of the Slav receive especially...

For all chess-players - from beginners to grandmasters, and whatever their style of play - one thing is certain: rook endings will arise in a great many of their games. Yet it is precisely in this area of the game that many players give away hard-earned points, either through lack of knowledge or inadequate understanding. Previous books on the subject have been extremely technical and theoretic...

The Symmetrical systems of the English Opening constitute a large and important area of modern opening theory. The strategic variety to be found within this book is staggering: from the sedate Symmetrical Variation to the wild gambit lines of the Anti-Benoni, and almost everything in between! The book provides detailed coverage of the theory of all lines stemming from 1 c4 c5. It includes many ...

American Hans Berliner is one of the most successful correspondence chess players of all time, and was utterly dominant in the 5th World Championship. Here, for the first time, he explains the set of principles - The System - that he used to guide him to the right moves. Readers will be astonished by the simplicity and power of Berliner's methods as he takes several major openings and subjects ...

The Taimanov Variation is one of Black's most flexible approaches to the Sicilian. With his 'ideal' move-order, Black maintains plenty of options while side-stepping some of White's most dangerous attacking plans. The main game-plan is counterattack, but, unlike in many Sicilian lines, Black can tailor his plan of development according to how White arranges his pieces. The Taimanov has been use...

The opening is reaching its end, and we must make a pivotal decision: what shall our middlegame strategy be? Do we seek an active plan to profit from our strengths and highlight the opponent's weaknesses? Or do we adopt prophylaxis, attending to our own position's shortcomings and hindering the opponent's plans? Alternatively, are there any ready-made plans that we know from other games that ca...

The Leningrad System of the Dutch Defense is an interesting hybrid of the Dutch and the King's Indian. For many years, it was viewed with some suspicion in view of the slight positional weaknesses created in Black's position. However, in the 1980s dynamic new approaches were introduced by such players as Sergei Dolmatov, Evgeny Bareev, Mikhail Gurevich and especially Vladimir Malaniuk. These pl...

James Rizzitano, an experienced international master, has reassessed games from the whole of his career, and in this book presents the lessons from them that will be most relevant to club and tournament players. A common problem for the typical weekend competitor or club player is that his time available for studying chess is very limited. What should he study? Grandmasters from Botvinnik to Ye...

The London System is a perennial favourite of club players, as it is a very sound and solid system with a real practical sting. The authors of this new book seek to maximize this sting in two principal ways. Firstly, by explaining in detail the typical plans for White, they help readers to make the most of their chances, whether they are based on a kingside attack, queenside penetration, centra...

Zenon Franco has regularly annotated top-level games for more than a quarter of a century. He has drawn upon this vast experience to present 50 hugely instructive games illustrating a wide variety of chess ideas. Key themes are illustrated by several games, so that we gain a well-rounded appreciation of the relevant ideas, and develop foresight that will enable us to make the right decisions at...

It is rare that a Correspondence World Champion annotates a collection of the finest games from his career with detailed notes that penetrate deeply into the analytical and decision-making process. Yet this is precisely what Grigory Sanakoev (12th World Correspondence Champion, 1985-92) has done, and the result is a book packed with entertainment and instructive value, ideal for study by ambiti...