KING - Power Play 21: A Repertoire for Black Against the Anti-Sicilians

Christof Sielecki is a popular author with club players, but this time he is offering a book dedicated to beginners who want to get to grips with the game with the essential theoretical foundations. It contains the main principles of the opening, as well as the possibility of building a first repertoire for both white and black. For details of the openings studied, take a look at the book's table of contents in the photos.

264 pages

On 30 April 2023, in Astana, Kazakhstan, Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren sensationally defeated Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in a dramatic battle for the chess crown. Ding Liren not only became the 17th World Chess Champion, but he also won the hearts of chess fans across the globe with his incredible fighting spirit and disarming interviews. At the final press conference, the new champion said the match ‘reflected the deepest of his soul’.

Humble and almost vulnerable in his demeanour, Ding Liren is a formidable fighter with a rich inner chess world. Throughout his career, his creative output has been immense. His games feature outstanding precision, rationality and superior endgame technique on the one hand and a talent to find brilliant, imaginative solutions on the other. His stoicism in the face of adversity and ability to quickly learn from mistakes and adapt to his opponents is unique.

Few chess greats can boast that they reached first place in both the blitz and rapid world rankings and became World Champion in classical chess. Even fewer can claim an unbeaten streak of 100 classical games. That’s how special Ding Liren is.

In this best games collection, grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic follows and explores Ding Liren’s rise from his first chess steps in provincial China to the top of the chess world. Making no secret of his admiration for this extraordinary chess genius, the author describes Ding Liren’s successes and setbacks and how these experiences shaped him as a player and a person.  328 pages

Davorin Kuljasevic is an International Grandmaster born in Croatia. He graduated from Texas Tech University and is an experienced coach. His first book Beyond Material: Ignore the Face Value of Your Pieces was a finalist for the Boleslavsky-Averbakh Award, the best book prize of FIDE, the International Chess Federation. His second book, How To Study Chess on Your Own, was an international bestseller.

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