The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits
This is no ordinary opening book. This practical guide describes only such openings in which White or Black sacrifices material at an early stage of the game. They are called gambits (in Old Italian, gambetto means tripping). The justification for such sacrifices can differ quite a lot. In most cases, the side that sacrifices material tends to get ahead of the opponent in development and/or opens lines to attack the enemy king. However, there are also gambits aimed at the occupation of the center (Blumenfeld Gambit), depriving the opponent of castling (Cochrane Gambit or Traxler Variation), weakening the opponent’s pawn structure (Anti-Moscow Variation), luring an opponent’s piece to an unfavorable position (sacrificing the b2-pawn), obtaining a certain positional compensation (Volga Gambit), etc. Gambits are often associated with the romantic chess of the 19th century. Indeed, that was the heyday of such sharp openings as the King’s Gambit or Evans Gambit, but even nowadays, many games begin with one of the well-known or even innovative gambits. This should come as no surprise: gambits help to reveal the true essence of chess, “the triumph of spirit over matter.” The concept of this book is to examine practical games and give theoretical insights in the notes rather than in stand-alone articles. Practice has shown this to be the most effective way of mastering new material. More often than not, recent games by the world’s top players have been chosen as an illustration, played in the last few years in particular. However, the most important classic games are mentioned as well. The present book analyzes almost 50 of the major gambit lines and systems. Almost 140 games are given in full, with many game fragments selected to illustrate the important deviations. And there is a special section about types of sacrificial themes, such as sacrificing the b2-pawn, sacrificing on f7, etc. Readers who may wish to employ one of the examined gambit variations on a regular basis should, no doubt, study the specific books on that very opening, although in most cases the lines and ideas given are sufficient for a beginner or club player to include the system in his or her opening repertoire and give it a try.
1131603411
The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits
This is no ordinary opening book. This practical guide describes only such openings in which White or Black sacrifices material at an early stage of the game. They are called gambits (in Old Italian, gambetto means tripping). The justification for such sacrifices can differ quite a lot. In most cases, the side that sacrifices material tends to get ahead of the opponent in development and/or opens lines to attack the enemy king. However, there are also gambits aimed at the occupation of the center (Blumenfeld Gambit), depriving the opponent of castling (Cochrane Gambit or Traxler Variation), weakening the opponent’s pawn structure (Anti-Moscow Variation), luring an opponent’s piece to an unfavorable position (sacrificing the b2-pawn), obtaining a certain positional compensation (Volga Gambit), etc. Gambits are often associated with the romantic chess of the 19th century. Indeed, that was the heyday of such sharp openings as the King’s Gambit or Evans Gambit, but even nowadays, many games begin with one of the well-known or even innovative gambits. This should come as no surprise: gambits help to reveal the true essence of chess, “the triumph of spirit over matter.” The concept of this book is to examine practical games and give theoretical insights in the notes rather than in stand-alone articles. Practice has shown this to be the most effective way of mastering new material. More often than not, recent games by the world’s top players have been chosen as an illustration, played in the last few years in particular. However, the most important classic games are mentioned as well. The present book analyzes almost 50 of the major gambit lines and systems. Almost 140 games are given in full, with many game fragments selected to illustrate the important deviations. And there is a special section about types of sacrificial themes, such as sacrificing the b2-pawn, sacrificing on f7, etc. Readers who may wish to employ one of the examined gambit variations on a regular basis should, no doubt, study the specific books on that very opening, although in most cases the lines and ideas given are sufficient for a beginner or club player to include the system in his or her opening repertoire and give it a try.
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The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits

The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits

by Nikolai Kalinichenko
The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits

The Club Player's Modern Guide to Gambits

by Nikolai Kalinichenko

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Overview

This is no ordinary opening book. This practical guide describes only such openings in which White or Black sacrifices material at an early stage of the game. They are called gambits (in Old Italian, gambetto means tripping). The justification for such sacrifices can differ quite a lot. In most cases, the side that sacrifices material tends to get ahead of the opponent in development and/or opens lines to attack the enemy king. However, there are also gambits aimed at the occupation of the center (Blumenfeld Gambit), depriving the opponent of castling (Cochrane Gambit or Traxler Variation), weakening the opponent’s pawn structure (Anti-Moscow Variation), luring an opponent’s piece to an unfavorable position (sacrificing the b2-pawn), obtaining a certain positional compensation (Volga Gambit), etc. Gambits are often associated with the romantic chess of the 19th century. Indeed, that was the heyday of such sharp openings as the King’s Gambit or Evans Gambit, but even nowadays, many games begin with one of the well-known or even innovative gambits. This should come as no surprise: gambits help to reveal the true essence of chess, “the triumph of spirit over matter.” The concept of this book is to examine practical games and give theoretical insights in the notes rather than in stand-alone articles. Practice has shown this to be the most effective way of mastering new material. More often than not, recent games by the world’s top players have been chosen as an illustration, played in the last few years in particular. However, the most important classic games are mentioned as well. The present book analyzes almost 50 of the major gambit lines and systems. Almost 140 games are given in full, with many game fragments selected to illustrate the important deviations. And there is a special section about types of sacrificial themes, such as sacrificing the b2-pawn, sacrificing on f7, etc. Readers who may wish to employ one of the examined gambit variations on a regular basis should, no doubt, study the specific books on that very opening, although in most cases the lines and ideas given are sufficient for a beginner or club player to include the system in his or her opening repertoire and give it a try.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781941270776
Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/04/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 19 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Nikolai Kalinichenko is an ICCF (correspondence) grandmaster and renowned theoretician.He has published no less than 50 books on various chess aspects in Russia, Germany, France, Spain, the U.K., USA, China and other countries.
His most acclaimed English-language titles include “Vassily Ivanchuk: 100 Selected Games”; “A Positional Opening Repertoire for the Club Player”; “An Aggressive Opening Repertoire for the Club Player”, ; and “King's Gambit”

Read an Excerpt

The Cochrane Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7
[Diagram]
The knight sacrifice for two pawns plus the attack was suggested as a sharp way to meet the Petrov by the nineteenth-century Scottish chess master John Cochrane. The gambit is deemed to be more or less sound, and it can be seen occasionally played even by top grandmasters.

(24) Sulskis – M.Rytshagov
Tallinn 2004
Petrov Defense C42
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4
After 5.Bc4+?!, Black can achieve a good game with 5...Be6 or 5...d5! 6.exd5 Bd6.
5...c5
The main line. Black tries to undermine White's powerful pawn center. Other continuations include 5...Be7 (see Nalbandian-Perl, game 25) and 5...g6 (see Gelashvili-Bernadsky, game 26), while the greedy 5...Nxe4? runs into 6.Qh5+ g6 (or 6...Ke7 7.Qe2 d5?? 8.Bg5+) 7.Qd5+ Kg7 8.Qxe4.
6.Bc4+
After 6.dxc5?! Nc6! 7.Bc4+ Be6 8.Bxe6+ Kxe6 9.0-0 Kf7 (Short-Shirov, Dubai 2002), Black's extra piece is worth more than White's three pawns, e.g., 10.f4?! d5! 11.e5 Bxc5+ 12.Kh1 Ne4.
6...Be6
Another possibility is 6...d5 7.exd5 Bd6 8.0-0 Re8 9.Nc3 Bg4 (or 9...cxd4 10.Qxd4 with complicated play) 10.f3 Bf5.
[Diagram]
11.dxc5! (quite instructively, White takes on c5 only after the f3-pawn has taken the entry squares of Black's knight under control) 11...Bxc5+ 12.Kh1 Bd6 13.Nb5 Kg8 14.Bg5 a6 15.Nd4! Bd7 16.Ne6 Bxe6 17.dxe6 and White has a promising position (Stellwagen-I.Smirnov, Heraklio 2002).
7.Bxe6+ Kxe6 8.Nc3
[Diagram]
8...cxd4
It is also possible to retreat with the king at once: 8...Kf7 9.dxc5 Nc6 10.Qe2!? Qd7 (Topalov-Kramnik, Linares 1999) and now White could have obtained a good game with 11.0-0 Re8 12.cxd6 Bxd6 13.f4.
9.Qxd4 Nc6
On 9...Kf7 as in Sulskis-Erenburg, Port Erin 2005, 10.Qc4+ turns out to be even stronger, e.g., 10...Ke8 11.Bf4 Nc6 12.0-0-0 with a considerable advantage to White.
10.Qc4+ Kd7 11.Bf4 Qa5 12.0-0-0
Also good is 12.Qf7+ Be7 13.0-0-0.
12...Re8 13.Kb1
The more active 13.Nb5 deserved attention.
13...Kc8
[Diagram]
14.Bxd6!?
White could have stabilized the position with 14.f3 before going on with the attack. It might be followed by 14...Qc5! 15.Qa4 Kb8 (or 15...Qa5?! 16.Qxa5 Nxa5 17.Nb5 and White gets a third pawn for the piece while having a promising position) 16.Rd2 (16.Qb5!?) 16...a6 17.Rhd1 Ne5 18.Nd5 with a sharp game.
14...Bxd6 15.Rxd6 Qe5 16.Rhd1 Nxe4
Black agrees to a perpetual. He could have opted for 16...Kb8 instead, after which it would have been anyone's game.
17.Rxc6+ bxc6 18.Qxc6+

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