LIBISZEWSKI - Les Professionnels

Rook endgames are the most frequently recurring endgames and also one of the most exciting areas of chess, with mind bending tactical opportunities and dizzying nuances available. They have unsurprisingly been a big topic in endgame literature, with a heavy focus on the set theoretical positions and their logic and fixed conclusions (see the excellent Theoretical Rook Endgames by GM Sam Shankland, published as a sister volume to this book as the peak example of this).

Conceptual Rook Endgames goes in a different direction. Focused on two dozen major concepts, the book explains the mechanisms of rook endgames in a novel way, by building foundations with simple examples, which can be seen in the most complicated examples as well. Rook endgames will remain rich and surprising, as they are for the greats, but armed with this book, your comprehension of them will skyrocket.

Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard is the most talented chess writer of his generation. He won the British Championship in 2007, but is mostly known for his multi-award winning books and his work with students that have won club, country, state, national, continental and world championships, as well as Olympiad golds (board and overall), the World Cup and Candidates tournament. Hardcover. 416 p.

Viktor Korchnoi (1931 to 2016) was a giant of the chess world with a career embracing seventy years and over 5,000 recorded games. He contested two world championship matches against Anatoly Karpov, coming within a whisker of being crowned World Champion in 1978. He was a world championship candidate, Soviet champion and Olympiad medal-winner on numerous occasions.In this first of four volumes on Viktor Korchnoi's chess career, FIDE Master Hans Renette and International Master Tibor Karolyi deeply analyse 181 games and fragments up until 1968. This period encompasses his bitterly tough childhood involving the Second World War and poverty, the death of his father and grandmother, his mother's mental health problems and his loyal support from his step-mother, but also his chess beginnings and early coaches, his marriage and the birth of his son. We learn about his early rivalry with Mark Taimanov and Boris Spassky in Viktor's hometown of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and his later rivalry with Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian. He exchanged blows with Bobby Fischer on equal terms.Korchnoi won three of his four Soviet championship titles during this period, for the first time in 1960, and according to Chessmetrics rating calculations he began a four-month stint as world number 1 in 1965. He played at the 1962 candidates tournament in Curacao and reached the 1968 candidates final versus Spassky. This volume concludes with two of Korchnoi's most impressive international tournament wins, at Wijk aan Zee and Palma de Mallorca in 1968.The work is supplemented with a generous portion of photos taken in particular from Soviet-era chess publications and the Korchnoi family archive.Hans Renette, a FIDE Master with two International Master norms, is a historian and chess coach. He has written chess biographies of the great players Emanuel Lasker, Henry Edward Bird, Louis Paulsen, Gustav Neumann and John Wisker. Tibor Karolyi is an International Master and chess coach who has written games collections of Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian and Mikhail Tal, among many other chess books. 550 pages

Deze prachtige Staunton schaakstukken verdienen een punt in hun geschiedenis; in de 19e eeuw was Londen een belangrijke centrum voor het productie van schaakstukken. John Jaques, een van de belangrijkste ivoor- en houtdraaier toen, besloot om het uiterlijk van de schaakstukken mooier en functioneler te maken. Samen met zijn partner Nathaniel Cook, gaan ze in 1849 hun model afwerken en registreren ter ere van Howard Staunton, een voormalige charismatieke schaakspeler en journalist. Een soort marketingstunt vooruit op zijn tijd.
De Staunton stukken zijn stabieler door hun brede basis en de algemene esthetiek van de stukken is getransformeerd: De toren wordt een onneembare vesting, de lijn van de pionnen is verfijnd, de mijter van de loper is vereenvoudigd, men onderscheid beter de kroon van de koning, dankzij het kruis, van diegenen van de dame met haar puntige kraag. En bovenal, het ultra-realistische uiterlijk van het paard roept resoluut een gevecht op. Stijl waarvan we duidelijk de inspiratie terug vinden in de fries van de Parthénon, meesterwerk van de Griekse beeldhouwwerk in de 5eeuw v.Chr. die grotendeels bewaard is gebleven in het Britisch museeum van Londen.
De Staunton stukken kenden snel een groot succes en werden in 1924 officieel voorgeschreven voor competie. Sinds het oorspronkelijke model van 1849 werden verschillende varianten van Staunton gemaakt en zijn nu over de hele wereld beschikbaar voor schaakspelers, maar ze blijven trouw aan de "John Jaques stijl".
Deze Supreme Staunton schaakstukken zijn gevilt en verzwaard. Ze zijn gesneden in een dicht, imitatie  ebbehout, van een uitzonderlijke diepe zwarte. Ze zijn perfect gepolijst, glad en glanzend, en fijn geglitterd met oxalzuur kristallen. Waardoor ze bij licht een zo bezondere schittering hebben.

Deze spectaculaire stukken zijn driedubbel gelood, en hun afmetingen vereisen een schaakbord met vierkantjes van 55 mm 

De koning is 10,6 cm hoog en 4,60 cm breed, de toren is 6,3 cm hoog en 4,00 cm breed.

De onderkant is van leder, niet van het gebruikelijke vilt.

De stukken zijn fijn gesculpteerd en het paard, de representatieve figuur in een schaakspel, is bijzonder goed gedaan!

In this volume, experienced authors Lakdawala & Hansen take the Basmanic plunge and examine some of International Master Michael Basman's most remarkable victories with 1.g4 or 1...g5, along with some of his less successful tries, as well as some games by other occasional adherents, like Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.
This should not become a cornerstone of your repertoire, but you are guaranteed a bunch of fun and entertaining games. 320 pages

Perpetual Chess Improvement : Practical Chess Advice from World-Class Players and Dedicated Amateurs, by Ben Johnson. In a world awash in educational chess content, knowing how to study the game most effectively can be challenging.

As the Perpetual Chess Podcast host, USCF Master Ben Johnson has spent hundreds of hours talking chess with many of the world’s top players and most accomplished trainers. In the popular Adult Improver Series, he has spoken with dozens of passionate amateurs who have elevated their games significantly while pursuing chess as a hobby.

Guests like former World Champion Viswanathan Anand and YouTube Stars IM Levy Rozman and GM Hikaru Nakamura have shared insights and told memorable stories. And Ben has learned just as much from the many dedicated amateurs who applied their considerable professional (non-chess) experience to their chess learning.

In Perpetual Chess Improvement, Ben looks for common ground and shared principles in all chess advice given on the podcast. Chess players do not always agree on the best improvement methods, so he even adjudicates a few disagreements! The book will show you the following:

•     How to approach and study different aspects of the game, including openings, endgames, tactics, tournament games, and speed chess.
•     How to find a chess coach and a like-minded chess community.
•     How to properly utilize all the powerful chess study tools available.
•     Instructive chess positions illustrate the topics discussed.

The guests shared a wealth of beautiful stories, and chess study advice on the Perpetual Chess Podcast. This book compiles the highlights and will help you make a holistic plan for your chess studies.

Ben Johnson is a USCF Master and accomplished chess coach. In 2016, he started the Perpetual Chess Podcast, the most successful chess podcast, with over five million downloads and streams in over a hundred different countries - and counting. Ben grew up in Philadelphia and lives in New Jersey with his family. Before dedicating his life to chess, he was a professional poker player and a stock trader.

245 pages