Play with Honor Pin

Bird-Larsen Attack

When faced with the Sicilian Defense, you have to make the choice to either wade through a maze of variations in the main line or diverge early into a relatively lesser known system. The early advance of white's f-pawn fits this objective perfectly. White gains more space in the center and kingside with 2.f4, forming the basis for lasting pressure and often leading to violent attacks against the black kingside. After 1.e4 c5 2.f4, this variation fell out of fashion int he early 90's due to 2..d5. But take heart! Smith and Hall show that this variation still has some venom!

New opening ideas are created frequently, but few have had the meteoric career of Nigel Short's system against the Caro-Kann defense. Virtually unknown before 1988, it has become a regular customer in super tournaments since the 1990's. And yet it is so simple to handle that a Class B player can master most of the strategies in an afternoon. The British GM's system consists of playing the Advance variation of the Caro-Kann with a relatively modest form of development- modest yet it can pack quite a wallop. What short discovered was not just a new move, but a new concept. Despite the presence of the annoying bishop on the excellent b1-h7 diagonal, Black had not equalized, he announced. Short demonstrated that the bishop could, in fact, become a liability that would be attacked in the general expansion of white's pawns on the kingside. 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5(as well as 3..c5 and 3..Na6)-new strategy against each one.

This much-await clash between two giants of the chess world attracted vast interest among all chess players.

Garry Kasparov, the 20-year old Grandmaster from Baku, is already the second highest ranked player in the world and has won several top tournaments including the Soviet Championship. 52 year old Victor Korchnoi was a Grandmaster before Kasparov was even born and already had played two matches for the world title.

This book challenges you right in the opening to come up with ideas by answering the tests. Then you are tested in the strategy of the middlegame, which in some cases evolves into the final stage - the endgame. You can take the tests and be evaluated on how well you do from Class C to and including Master. Or you can just enjoy and learn from the deep, deep annotations. Either way you win because they are among the most extraordinary games played from 1955-1992.

Chess devotees simply can't get enough of Bobby Fischer. Every facet of his personality and his play unfolds in this biographical study. In addition to analyzing his exceptional talent, it captures and puts into perspective his tough youth, anti-social tendencies, fights against the chess authorities, and growing mental illness.

An intriguing book with 120 diagrammed positions each with a multiple choice question attached. The questions are all along the lines of a) White is Winning b) It's even c) Black is winning: which is correct? The tests become gradually more difficult as the book progresses; the author provides a scoring system and solutions are included at the end.

In the past many masters have tried to solve Black's problem of developing the Queen's Bishop after blocking it in by 2..e6(1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6). But there is another school that thinks Black should solve the Bishop problem first, with 2..Bf5. A number of them from the Baltic nations were GM Mikenas and GM Keres. The modern generation is lead by GM's Bagirov, Shirov, and Rausis. We believe books have overlooked 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Bf5 or 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 or 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5.