The Modernized Dutch Defense leads to unbalanced structures and dynamic play. White must be well prepared to understand this most aggressive defense which we might even call an 'attack'. Adrien Demuth delivered a fighting repertoire for Black starting from move one!

In his seventh book for Thinkers Publishing, Milos Pavlovic examines the Stonewall set-up in detail. Drawing upon his years of playing experiences and opening study, Milos highlights the key aspects and covers the most recent developments in this most solid line of the Dutch Defense. This book will provide you a great new arsenal of weapons when playing with the black pieces.

The Leningrad System of the Dutch Defence is an interesting hybrid of the Dutch and the King's Indian. For many years, it was viewed with some suspicion in view of the slight positional weaknesses created in Black's position. However, in the 1980s dynamic new approaches were introduced by such players as Sergei Dolmatov, Evgeny Bareev, Mikhail Gurevich and especially Vladimir Malaniuk. These players showed how an active approach could compensate for these defects, and offer Black excellent winning chances. Since then, the Leningrad has been a popular and effective opening choice for players of all levels.

The Modernized Grünfeld Defense will be extremely helpful for any chess player looking for a reliable lifetime repertoire against White's 1.d4. It will benefit current Grünfeld players as Yaro unveils his analysis and numerous novelties waiting to be played over the board.

When you are building your repertoire you have many choices available against 1.e4. Everyone knows the Sicilian is the most dangerous reply but there are so many choices! Most of them are highly theoretical such as the Najdorf or the Dragon. Some are very difficult to understand from a positional and dynamical point of view. The Kalashnikov and the Sveshnikov are two good examples, without even mentioning the amount of theory. I have always been interested by less theoretical Sicilians. I have been playing the Classical Sicilian for a long time and right before the covid period, I decided to find a new one. The Sicilian Kan came to me as a very serious option, and I decided to work on it. In the meantime, my friend and editor Daniël Vanheirzeele offered me the chance to author a book about it. This came to me as a complete surprise, as I had no experience with it. In comparison with my work on the Reti and the Dutch (my two previous books), I am a newbie on the subject. But I decided to accept the challenge. I found it extremely interesting, as this gave me a fresh look at the positions. I think I managed to ask myself the questions everyone would have asked. I also work as a second for others and am accustomed to working on openings I do not necessarily play as well as finding the key ideas very quickly. So, after a deep initial work to understand the variations, I was ready to start writing8 In opposition to my prior efforts, I decided to start with the mainlines. I did it both during my work and then in the structure of the book. It seemed better to address the most difficult lines first to prove that Black gets playable positions, and then take care of the less challenging lines. This approach allows you to have an idea of the typical positions and then compare it with the less usual lines so you may understand why the sidelines are not as good. I take this as an opportunity to share my knowledge of openings and how I analyze them. I started this book with the idea that I wanted it to be useful for all levels of playing strength, from amateurs to even top grandmasters. I really consider the best books to be those where everyone can understand the basics of the variations while also being of use to anyone that aims at going deeper into the theory. I based many of the lines and conclusions in this book not only on computer evaluation, but also from a practical point of view. While I did a deep dive using strong engines when analyzing the lines I cannot say that they are perfect. The most important thing is that all of the evaluations are based upon my own understanding and knowledge of chess. Adrien Demuth November 2021

>Building on his ever creative ideas, Christian Bauer found a way to take a fresh look at the current status of the Alekhine Defense. It's clear that Christian has a definite weak spot for Knights. Surely you will appreciate his best efforts to bamboozle your opponents into self-destruction by using the Alekhine.