Gyula Breyer

Gyula Breyer (1893-1921) was a highly successful and imaginative chess player. He won the championship of his native country Hungary as a teenager and achieved remarkable results against the leading players of his day. But first and foremost, Breyer was a revolutionary in his chess thinking. He promoted the idea of dynamic chess and formulated many of the Hypermodern concepts, long before others started their investigations. Yet, after his death, he was omitted from most of the chess history books and today is only known for the Breyer variation, an ever popular defence against the Ruy Lopez. However, Jimmy Adams has now unlocked Breyer’s legacy from the archives and made it accessible to the chess world at large. This monumental book presents 240 of his games, annotated by Breyer himself and many others. It also features a large number of articles, columns and fragments from newspapers, magazines and books, sparkling with chess and literary wit. The majority appear in English for the first time – and indeed in any language other than Hungarian. By piecing together this material in chronological order, Jimmy Adams has constructed a mesmerizing biography covering Gyula Breyer’s intense, unconventional and ultimately tragic life. Included as well is a collection of his chess problems, some of which are truly amazing.

"[It's] enough to drive experienced chess players to insanity, but they will enjoy the ride....The author warns the reader from the start anything goes....Buy this book...and have fun!"--Games It's outrageous and amazing and irresistible: these brainbusting chess problems are the devilish inventions of the world's greatest puzzle creators. Chess mavens won't believe what they'll find, because in these games, the usual rules just don't apply. For example, there's Billiards Chess, where pieces can carom off the board at a right angle and return. In Checkless Chess, check is an illegal move...unless it's checkmate. Refusal Chess allows a player to refuse an opponent's move and demand an alternative. There's even a variation called Collaboration, in which both sides must cooperate to achieve checkmate. And, the coup de grace: the world's hardest chess problem ever posed.

For centuries, blindfold chess--the art of playing without sight of the board or pieces--has produced some of the greatest feats of human memory, progressing to the extent that the world record in 2009 was 45 [and is now 46] simultaneous blindfold games. This work describes the personalities and achievements of some of blindfold chess's greatest players--including Philidor, Morphy, Blackburne, Zukertort, Pillsbury, Reti, Alekhine, Koltanowski, Najdorf and Fine, as well as present-day grandmasters such as Anand and Kramnik. Including some never before published, 444 games scores are presented, peppered with diagrams and annotations. Hints for playing blindfold, and its practical value, are also included.

Tartakower’s Legendary Magnum Opus The decade after the First World War was one of exciting change for the royal game. A new wave of dynamic chess was taking shape, led by the young lions Alekhine, Réti, Nimzowitsch, Breyer, Euwe, Tartakower and others. They were successfully asserting their new ideas against the Old Guard. It was in this period that Savielly Tartakower’s magnificent work Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie was first released. A massive tome of over 500 densely packed pages, the first edition was published in German in 1924. It was an instant best-seller and a second edition soon followed with corrections and additional material. At first glance, it appears to be an opening manual with incredibly comprehensive notes. But in fact it is much more. There are essays on strategy, tactics, endings, history and other chess-related topics, all presented in Tartakower’s wonderful writing style. However, don’t be fooled by the witty aphorisms and humor. The scope and depth of Tartakower’s annotations would be unmatched until Chess Informant came along in the 1960s. And the rise of the silicon monsters notwithstanding, there is much fertile opening theory to be found and explored. The Hypermodern Game of Chess is the first English-language work of the second edition. Several hundred diagrams have been added and some reformatting of the text has been done to meet the expectations of 21st century readers. In every other respect, it preserves all the comprehensive content. The Hypermodern Game of Chess is now available in English. See why it has inspired generations of chessplayers. And see why Tartakower’s magnum opus is, as they say, the stuff of legend...

The Patriarch of Hungarian Chess Ask any chessplayer today if they recognize the name “Maróczy” and you will probably get a reply that it describes a pawn configuration designed to limit black pawn levers. While technically correct, such a reply would overlook the life and legacy of one of the great grandmasters, organizers, and arbiters in chess history. Géza Maróczy was the first Hungarian world-class grandmaster. In the most comprehensive biography of him ever written, Hungarian chess historian László Jakobetz traces Maróczy’s life from the earliest years, his maturing to an elite player and his significant contributions to the royal game. This remarkable book has over 180 annotated games, supplemented by hundreds of rare archival photographs. Also included are Maróczy’s complete tournament and match records, along with crosstables, from Budapest 1892 to his final tournament in the Netherlands in 1947. Until now, very few books worthy of Géza Maróczy’s influence and chess legacy have been published worldwide. Therefore, I am delighted that this comprehensive biography presents to chess-loving readers the exceptional personalities and chess events of past eras, along with many interesting lessons and insights for the present generation. – from the foreword by Lajos Portisch Most players are familiar with modern Hungarian grandmasters such as Judit Polgár and Péter Lékó, but it was the great patriarch of Hungarian chess Géza Maróczy who paved the way for them.

Seven years after his acclaimed and bestselling The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White, Grandmaster Larry Kaufman is back with his new repertoire book, covering the entire scope of chess openings for both White and Black, in one volume. Two important developments made this new book necessary. Larry Kaufman, who himself routinely plays the lines he advocates to others, discovered that after 1.d4 (the recommendation in his previous book) it became nearly impossible to show a consistent advantage for White, especially against the Grünfeld and Nimzo/Ragozin defenses. The other factor was that chess engines have become so much stronger. Larry Kaufman presents a completely new White repertoire with 1.e4 aiming for an objective advantage in the simplest practical manner. You are presented with two options, while you don’t have to play the sharpest lines. The Black repertoire has been thoroughly revised and updated, and three new chapters have been added. Kaufman’s New Repertoire for Black and White is the first opening book that is primarily based on Monte Carlo search. The highly original analysis has resulted in loads of improvements on existing theory. This is a lucidly explained, ready-to-go and easy-to-digest repertoire with sound, practical lines that do not outdate rapidly and are suitable for masters while perfectly accessible for amateurs.

Alexey Bezgodov provides a complete chess opening repertoire for Black against 1.d4. After replying with 1…d5, the former Russian Chess Champion advises you to take up the Double Queen’s Gambit and play 2…c5! against both 2. c4 and 2. Nf3. In The Double Queen’s Gambit Black’s attitude is as active and ambitious as that of White in the Queen’s Gambit. This ambition may seem premature at first sight, but many strong grandmasters have already successfully played this system. After thoroughly investigating and analysing this opening, Bezgodov has gained a lot of experience in practical grandmaster play. The system not only turned out to be playable but also brought him success, and not just because of its surprise value. Bezgodov’s conclusion is that there is no clear and compelling way for White to reach an advantage. The fresh ideas and the clear explanations in The Double Queen’s Gambit may change your view on modern chess opening theory. Bezgodov provides dozens of exercises to test your understanding of his system.