Avrukh - Grandmaster Repertoire, 1.d4 King's Indian & Grünfeld

OUT OF STOCK

Akiba Rubinstein is universally considered one of the strongest chess players who never won the world crown. From a modest upbringing in the Polish city of Lódz, he rose to become the principal challenger to the world champion Emanuel Lasker in the years leading up to the First World War. Although their world title match failed to take place, mainly due to the outbreak of wartime hostilities, Rubinstein's legacy has remained equal to that of any world champion.

His best games are conspicuous for their power and clarity and reveal his deep positional comprehension, brilliant combinational abilities, and virtuosic endgame technique. Rubinstein also pioneered many innovative and pragmatic ideas in all phases of the game that continue to influence the theory and praxis of modern chess.

Initially published in Russian, Akiba Rubinstein by Yuri Razuvaev and Valery Murakhveri is widely acclaimed as one of the most outstanding chess books of the latter part of the twentieth century. This work comes up repeatedly when today's top chess players name books that have significantly influenced their understanding of the game.

After an in-depth biographical chapter, most of the book consists of detailed annotations to more than 60 of Rubinstein's finest games against players like Alekhine, Bogolyubov, Capablanca, Euwe, Lasker, Marshall, Nimzowitsch, Schlechter, Spielmann, Tarrasch, Tartakower, and other prominent masters. Grandmaster Razuvaev's copious notes to the games are distinguished by his clear and insightful explanations that are revelatory and highly instructive to keen players of all abilities. 571 pages Hardcover

The Scotch Game is a solid opening that has been tried and tested in practice by some of the strongest chessplayers in the world for more than two centuries. The idea behind the Scotch Game is simple and easily understandable. White eliminates – in a purely mechanical fashion – Black’s e5-pawn which initially impedes his ambition to dominate in the center.

This is very appealing for White, as he controls the direction of the struggle’s development, while Black can only try to keep pace. Furthermore, there are relatively simple schemes in the white repertoire in which it is enough to remember the main plans of both sides and typical maneuvers.

This is the second edition of Vladimir Barsky’s book that first appeared in 2009. The new edition consists of seven chapters dealing with the core ideas and variations of the Scotch, supplemented by 79 Illustrative Games. The authors not only present detailed analysis of all lines but are also careful to discuss the ideas behind the opening. If you already play the Scotch, you need this book. If you don’t, find out what you have been missing.  224 pages

The seconds tick down relentlessly toward zero just as your game approaches the critical stage. Your higher-rated opponent is putting your game under severe pressure, so extreme accuracy is needed to hang tough and avoid falling into a losing position. What do you do now – should you exchange pieces to relieve the pressure, lash out with a sacrifice, probe for weaknesses in the opponent's camp, or maybe just give up and get a lesson on how to bring the point home?

The answer is… none of these! At such do-or-die moments, says Steve Hrop, the first thing to do is to sit on your hands and take a few deep breaths. In Defending Under Pressure and Managing Your Emotions at the Chessboard, the author uses critical moments from his own tournament games (most of them against players rated above 2200) to describe the difficulties of thinking straight when the enemy is at the gates, and then outlines methods and techniques to clear your head, evaluate the position, and find your way to the best move. Techniques include how to avoid redundant pieces that critically limit your mobility; when visualization is more important than calculation: and “freeze-framing” positions to eliminate blunders.

Save the draw – or turn a looming defeat into an astonishing victory – with the tips in this practical training manual! 236 pages

System requis: Pentium-Processor à 300 Mhz ou +, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista,
DVD drive, mouse, soundcard

En fait de stratégie, c'est plutôt un dictionnaire des concepts échiquéens dont il s'agit. Pour mémoire, car l'intérêt pratique de l'ouvrage semble limité.