Karsten Muller

Phil Adams

Wolfgang Pajeken

In this companion volume to Fundamental Chess Endings, Müller and Pajeken focus on the practical side of playing endgames. They cover all aspects of strategic endgames, with particular emphasis on thinking methods, and ways to create difficulties for opponents over the board. Using hundreds of outstanding examples from modern practice, the authors explain not only how to conduct 'classical' endgame tasks, such as exploiting an extra pawn or more active pieces, but also how to handle the extremely unbalanced endings that often arise from the dynamic openings favoured nowadays. All varieties of endgames are covered, and there are more than 200 exercises for the reader, together with full solutions. Major topics include: * Basic Principles and Methods * Activity * Schematic Thinking * The Fight for the Initiative * Prophylaxis and Preventing Counterplay * The Bishop-Pair in the Endgame * Domination * The Art of Defence * Typical Mistakes * Rules of Thumb

How to Play Chess Endgames

Reinaldo Vera

Chess Explained books provide an understanding of an opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have. The Nimzo-Indian is one of the most important of all chess openings, and popular at all levels of play. Together with the Queen's Indian (also covered in this series), the Nimzo has provided the backbone of the opening repertoire of a large portion of the world's top players over the last 80 years. It is considered a fully reliable defence, and provides winning chances for both sides as it leads to structures of great strategic variety and complexity. Key battlegrounds in the Nimzo include the blockade, IQP positions, the handling of unbalanced pawn-structures, and the struggle between bishop and knight. All these topics are covered in depth in this book, and an understanding of them will prove valuable in a much broader context than just the Nimzo-Indian.

The Nimzo-Indian

Chess Explained

Stefan Kindermann

The Spanish Exchange Variation lets you play one of the major chess openings, the Ruy Lopez, without the risk of drowning in the huge flow of information now available to the modern chess-player. White's play in this opening is often very thematic, thus an understanding of the typical positions is more important than concrete knowledge of variations. It is a sound and solid opening, yet gives good winning chances for White. In contrast, it can be hard for Black to win without taking considerable risks. If Black survives the middlegame, there is often an unpleasant endgame lying in wait. This opening has been played by many top players over the years (Lasker,Fischer, Timman, Shirov...). In recent times it has scored well for White in the hands of specialists such as Rozentalis and Glek. In 2004 it was used by the new FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov to defeat super-grandmasters Adams and Grischuk on his way to the title. Grandmaster Stefan Kindermann, who plays the Spanish Exchange Variation himself, provides clear explanations, as well as instructive analysis of carefully selected examples, and he reveals many new ideas and fresh assessments. Although this is a repertoire book for White, the author's treatment is objective, and a special chapter is even devoted to what he considers to be Black's best choice against this formidable weapon. A key feature of the book is the chapter on typical positions, which should quickly provide you with enough basic strategic understanding of this opening to allow you to start playing it with confidence.

A Fischer Favourite - White Repertoire for Tournament Players

The Spanish Exchange Variation

'Other men's minds would be over-heating by now but Denver's was cool: he'd done this a hundred times before. The voices trailed away: dust particles danced in the glow of the few wall lights that still worked. It was too quiet. Something wrong, he knew it.' What Mack Denver doesn't know is that many things are wrong. But how could he? He's a cool, tough PI in 1950's Boston. Dave Newton, on the other hand, is a weary and accident-prone PI in a grimy Midland town. Mack's fictional adventures are Dave's obsession but Dave's reality includes stolen goods, bingo-halls, sinking boats, Moravian midgets and a client called Gumpett. But who are they and why has his world collided with theirs? Why did he take up her case? Why does it make him feel like the curled-up hedgehog on his business card? Will his SAS-trained secretary never let him enjoy a Mack Denver novel in peace? No, she won't. Because there are heinous crimes to solve and the name of Gumpett is at their centre, mocking him, drawing him on, dancing before his eyes in a way that Dead Dames never could. Michael Thomas, novelist, poet and critic.

Phil Adams

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