Book Review

The Saint Louis Chess Conference: Grandmaster Maurice Ashley

The Saint Louis Chess Conference will be October 24–26. If you are interested in presenting, the proposal submission deadline is April 5. Early bird pricing ends on April 30. Keynote speakers are Grandmasters Maurice Ashley and Judit Polgár and former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. More 🡢

Accusations by World Chess Champions Bobby Fischer and Vladimir Kramnik

Fischer was convinced that some chess players were prearranging games. For example, the ninth game of the 1984/1985 Karpov versus Kasparov World Chess Championship match included a knight retreat in a knight and six pawns versus bishop and six pawns endgame. More 🡢

Advanced Chess Instruction: Secrets of Queen Endgames

The focus of Secrets of Queen Endgames is just queens, kings, and pawns. Starting diagrams may also show rooks or minor pieces but those are traded off before analysis begins. More 🡢

David Smerdon: The Complete Chess Swindler

The Complete Chess Swindler: How to Save Points from Lost Positions won the 2020 English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award. The book is by Grandmaster David Smerdon, who later created a Chessable course based on the book. More 🡢

Jennifer Shahade: Play Like a Champion

Two-time U.S. Women’s Champion Jennifer Shahade’s latest chess book is Play Like a Champion: Chess Tactics from the Greats. Its 700 chess positions have answers that range from checkmate in one move to checkmate in 13 moves. More 🡢

Grind Like a Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen

The Champions Chess Tour Finals (CCT Finals) was the closing event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, run by Chess.com. Eight players met in Toronto from December 9 to December 16. They played for a $500,000 prize fund. The pre-tournament favorite was former World Chess Champion GM Magnus Carlsen. In the finals, Carlsen defeated GM Wesley So to win the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. More 🡢

Attacking in Chess: Rules of Thumb

Grandmaster Karsten Müller is the author of Attack: Rules of thumb for practice. His first rule of thumb is “All pieces should participate in the attack.” Bringing pieces to join in a chess attack can be creative and fun. More 🡢

The Human Factor in Chess – The Testbook (book review)

Do you prefer to calculate concrete lines, or do you make your decisions more intuitively? Do you have a good sense of harmony and coordination? The Human Factor in Chess – The Testbook helps you discover your Player Type through tasks and exercises. More 🡢