In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime.

Teaches amateur chess players how to improve their chess skills so they can become better players.

The KGB Plays Chess is a unique book. For the first time it opens to us some of the most secret pages of the history of chess. The battles about which you will read in this book are not between chess masters sitting at the chess board, but between the powerful Soviet secret police, known as the KGB, on the one hand, and several brave individuals, on the other. Their names are famous in the chess world: Viktor Kortschnoi, Boris Spasski, Boris Gulko and Garry Kasparov became subjects of constant pressure, blackmail and persecution in the USSR. Their victories at the chess board were achieved despite this victimization. Unlike in other books, this story has two perspectives. The victim and the persecutor, the hunted and the hunter, all describe in their own words the very same events. One side is represented by the famous Russian chess players Viktor Kortschnoi and Boris Gulko. For many years they fought against a powerful system, and at the end they were triumphant. The Soviet Union collapsed and they got what they were fighting for: their freedom. Former KGB Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Popov, who left Russia in 1996 and now lives in Canada, was one of those who had worked all his life for the KGB and was responsible for the sport sector of the USSR. It is only now for the first time that he has decided to tell the reader his story of the KGB�s involvement in Soviet Sports. This is his first book, and it is not only full of sensations, but it also dares to name names of secret KGB agents previously known only as famous chess masters, sportsmen or sport officials. Just a few short years ago a book like this would have been unimaginable. Read this book. It is not only about chess. It is about glorious victory of the great chess masters over the forces of darkness.

Chess, the ancient strategy game, meets the latest, cutting-edge philosophy in this unique book. When 12 philosophers weigh in on one of the world's oldest and most beloved pastimes, the results are often surprising. Philosophical concepts as varied as phenomenology and determinism share the page with a treatise on hip-hop chess tactics and the question of whether Garry Kasparov is, in fact, a cyborg. Putting forth a remarkable array of different views on chess from philosophers with varied chess-proficiency, Philosophy Looks at Chess is an engaging read for chess adherents and the philosophically inclined alike.

The back catalogue of New In Chess magazine is a fabulous source of chess instruction. For more than three decades every issue has been full of detailed and highly enlightening annotations by the world’s best players of their own best games. Acclaimed chess author Steve Giddins is firmly convinced that for the average player, the study of well-annotated master games is the best way to learn the skills that really matter. Therefore he has revisited the New In Chess vault and assembled the clearest and most didactic examples. 'The New in Chess Book of Improvement' is a treasure trove of study material and has chapters on attack and defense, sacrifices, material imbalances, pawn structures, endgames and various positional themes. Giddins’ selection includes masterclasses by no fewer than eight World Champions: Tal, Smyslov, Karpov, Kramnik, Anand, Topalov Carlsen and Kasparov. But also chess legends such as Larsen, Kortchnoi, Timman, Ivanchuk, Short, Aronian and Shirov. Together they represent an exciting picture of modern top level chess. They also provide the high standard of instructional material that today’s club player, much stronger than his equivalent 25 or more years ago, needs.