Boost Your Chess 2

The fifth volume in Artur Yusupov’s series to help amateur players increase their mastery of the game is now out. BOOST YOUR CHESS 2 BEYOND THE BASICS continues in the steps of its predecessors with quality material presented in systematic fashion. The subject matter covered in this volume is as follows:

1 Attacking the king 8
2 The open file 18
3 Minor tactics 32
4 Opening repertoire for White the French Defense 42
5 Simple rook endings 54
6 Fighting against the pawn centre 64
7 Trapping pieces 74
8 Calculating short variations 82
9 Weak points 92
10 Line blocking 102
11 Opening repertoire for Black against 1.d4 110
12 Simple rook endings 2 122
13 Blocking combinations 134
14 The bishop pair 142
15 Typical mistakes in calculating variations 156
16 Removing the defense 166
17 Good and bad bishops 176
18 Closed openings 190
19 Line clearing 202
20 Endgame technique 212
21 Blockade 224
22 Dragging the king out 236
23 Reti/English Opening 246
24 Typical mistakes in the endgame 258
Final test 268

As mentioned in previous reviews in this series, these books have three principle audiences. They will be useful for players wishing to increase their strength to improve their rating, for coaches looking for a structured curriculum and/or useful training material and for those who wish to increase their understanding of the game that, because of various circumstances, may no longer be able to play regularly. While Yusupov modestly cautions in his introduction that this series is not a substitute for a trainer, there can be no question that the motivated student working alone can glean much knowledge.

This series is aimed at players below 2100 but there will undoubtedly much that is new or previously poorly understood in these volumes by many players even in the 2200-2400 range.