"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…
Veel clubschakers studeren graag op openingen. Dat is logisch omdat er veel materiaal over te vinden is. Toch blijkt het rendement van de noeste arbeid vaak vrij laag. In de praktijk komt men erachter dat het niet eenvoudig is om de juiste wegen te bewandelen als de tegenstander van de theorie afwijkt. Dat is de belangrijkste reden dat Grooten het…
"But I am writing for an audience that, by and large, is not interested in chess as a memory contest. So I’m not going to offer you lots of novelties and dense variation trees. On the contrary. The approach is to take the reader into the seemingly impenetrable labyrinth of variations without flinching, but then to base my comments on…
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
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.