Gambits, where one side sacrifices material for an advance in development, are the most exciting and popular openings in chess! This book contains every important gambit opening and variation ever played - more than two thousand opening strategies in all! Each gambit is covered in detail with a diagram showing the standard position representative of the gambit, the move orders taken to get there, and an explanation in plain language of the thinking behind the moves. More than one hundred games show you how the ideas behind the gambit influence the development of the game. 784 pages

As a young man, Paul Hoffman was a brilliant chess player . . . until the pressures of competition drove him to the brink of madness. In King's Gambit, he interweaves a gripping overview of the history of the game and an in-depth look at the state of modern chess into the story of his own attempt to get his game back up to master level -- without losing his mind. It's also a father and son story, as Hoffman grapples with the bizarre legacy of his own dad, who haunts Hoffman's game and life.

White Goes for the Jugular The Danish Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3, is one of the most aggressive chess openings ever devised. Dynamite was invented by a Swede, Alfred Nobel. The book you are reading now, however, was not written by Nordic players. Instead, Grandmaster Karsten Müller and FIDE Master Martin Voigt bring a touch of German method to the analysis of the explosive group of classical open games where White goes for out- and-out attack based on an early e4, d4 and Bc4, often with c2-c3 to follow. Müller and Voigt do not confine themselves to the Danish Gambit alone but they examine a whole family of related opening variations that share some common characteristics. Most importantly, White is ready to offer some material (a pawn or two, sometimes a piece or more). White goes for the jugular and if Black is not careful he will not even reach the middle game, let alone an endgame...A guiding principle for the authors of this book is that White will play attacking chess, fighting for the initiative at every move. If Black does not meet the challenge in an equally determined way, he will surely lose. This is the epub edition of the popular book published in 2003.

'This romantic opening is a real rarity at top-level chess. Probably the greatest expert on this line right now is England's Grandmaster Joe Gallagher.' - Nigel Short in The Daily Telegraph The King's Gambit has always been a great favourite of tactical players. However, since its heyday in the nineteenth century, it appeared only sporadically in Grandmaster chess. Recently, this has begun to change, and the King's Gambit has once again become a force to be reckoned with. A whole host of new ideas have appeared, many of them introduced into international competition by the author himself and explained in this book.

Designed for the typical amateur player who wants to improve his or her chess skills, this clear, straightforward guide provides the extra knowledge and technique that turns a losing player into a winner. 384 diagrams.

Netflix’s most watched limited series to date! The thrilling novel of one young woman’s journey through the worlds of chess and drug addiction.​ When eight-year-old Beth Harmon’s parents are killed in an automobile accident, she’s placed in an orphanage in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Plain and shy, Beth learns to play chess from the janitor in the basement and discovers she is a prodigy. Though penniless, she is desperate to learn more—and steals a chess magazine and enough money to enter a tournament. Beth also steals some of her foster mother’s tranquilizers to which she is becoming addicted. At thirteen, Beth wins the chess tournament. By the age of sixteen she is competing in the US Open Championship and, like Fast Eddie in The Hustler, she hates to lose. By eighteen she is the US champion—and Russia awaits . . . Fast-paced and elegantly written, The Queen’s Gambit is a thriller masquerading as a chess novel—one that’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. “The Queen’s Gambit is sheer entertainment. It is a book I reread every few years—for the pure pleasure and skill of it.” —Michael Ondaatje, Man Booker Prize–winning author of The English Patient