"At first, you start wondering why Black weakens the d5-square (5…e5) and then step by step you realize the dynamic potential of Black’s opening strategy. The ensuing positions contain a lot of imbalances, which makes it a very attractive opening to play for a win at any level." ~ Robert Ris Teaser [PDF] - Robert Ris - The Modernized Sveshnikov
"The engine has become the “Holy Cow” to which all chess players now pray regardless of their religious convictions or rating. Far from being a foe or rival it has become an invaluable helper, consultant and the highest of authorities. Since the highest of all oracles is soulless and cynical it is ready to help anyone ignoring opinions and preferences."…
"This book is not a pure (auto)biography, rather a games collection. It consists mainly of interesting high-class games played by me, including many losses. Most of the games are preceded by accompanying texts, which vary from essays to tournament reports. The title of the book might seem presumptuous, but I wanted to show how I see or experience the competitions…
"To be able to raise your level of play you will need to work hard on your chess. This book will arm you with some important chess ideas and skills but, more importantly, you will get into the grandmaster’s mind. I don’t want you to play chess the following way: he attacked me -- I need to move away, I…
To win a game, it is enough to be just a little bit better than your opponent. To make this happen, especially when facing a strong player, you must force your opponent to solve practical problems. You must get them into a position where the cost of a potential mistake is much higher than usual. ~ GM Alexander Ipatov
"Many games have been played, and theory has evolved since the days of Karpov’s Caro-Kann. As you will see in this book, this opening offers Black many opportunities for dynamic play, despite its solid framework." ~ Francesco Rambaldi
"The endgame is the moment of truth. It is the phase of the game where we will try to reap the seeds of our effort regardless of whether that is the full point of victory or the half point of the draw. The significance of errors increases in the endgame as the opportunities for correcting them are few." ~ Efstratios…
"This book is definitely not a book full of theoretical lines. Of course, I will give some advice if possible and necessary. But the main purpose is to explain the structures that can result from double fianchettoed positions." ~ Daniel Hausrath
"This book is written for chess friends who are beginners or hobby players without much experience and who want to improve to lower club level. If you are already somewhat stronger you may not like the idea of learning from scratch. But sometimes going a step back in order to take two steps forwards is a good idea." ~ GM…
"One thing that (in my opinion) hadn't really been done before is a really thorough look at the Stonewall using modern computer engines (and over a thousand hours of analysis). While the opening is definitely all about understanding, wouldn't you prefer to benefit from some fresh ideas and knowledge of which the best move orders might be, as well as…
"Este libro trata sobre cómo surgen las ideas durante la preparación, sobre lo que sucede tras las cortinas. No tuve conciencia de sus planes hasta que Romain me contó que lo estaba escribiendo. Creo que los entusiastas del ajedrez apreciarán la honestidad de las historias pues nada se ocultó. Espero que lo disfruten." ~ Veselin Topalov
Im Verlauf des gesamten Buches, verweise ich auf strukturelle Parallelen aus bekannteren Eröffnungen, um zu zeigen, wie Ideen übertragen werden können und wurden. Somit kann der Leser seine Fähigkeit der strukturellen Wiedererkennung trainieren.
“Together With Mamedyarov” is not a collection of his selected games but it is primarily a study-book. It contains test positions taken from games of the famous Azeri grandmaster with detailed comments on the solutions to the tasks. In this book the solutions have been placed right after a diagram with a test except for the six positions given as a warm-up in the beginning…
"Most tactics and training books are good for boosting your calculation ability, but they do not teach you how to calculate. This is the difference I want to make with my own books, by arranging the exercises in different categories so that the thinking process more closely resembles the one we have during a game." ~ GM Romain Edouard Teaser…
