Positional masterpieces of 2012-2015

We are proud to present our last book in a series of 5 — “Positional masterpiecesof 2012–2015”.
It was very interesting work trying to select and analyse the 50 positional masterpieces from the past 4 years: the choice was so wide! We were aiming to fi nd the most exciting, spectacular and, of course, useful attacking ideas which might also occur in our own practical games.

The main idea behind this book stands out clearly: We try to reduce the importance of opening theory, and rather get inside the workings of the best chess-playing brains on the planet in an attempt to explain the most complex attacking ideas in a simple and understandable way to any chess lover.

Another very important point of the book which we are proud of is, we have not used much ’engine’ assistance during our commentary on the games. We try to see the game the way we would do in a practical game, which makes the commentaries very special — which in practice puts the reader fully in the shoes of the world-class players; this is exactly the best way to improve our own chess level.

Sadly, nowadays, we have more-and-more computer analyses and we can hear chess amateurs judging the play even of Carlsen. Yes, you can find tactical mistakes with an engine at home — but the question is, can you do the same during your practical game over the board ?! Chess is a game where everyone is making mistakes — and this is what it is all about in the current book!

We would advise all our readers to take out a real chessboard and enjoy these beautiful masterpieces. This is how we learned to play chess and this is why we still enjoy every wonderful game, even aft er almost 20 years of being professional chess players!

Yours,
Arkadij Naiditsch & Csaba Balogh

Useful information for our valued readers.

• The book contains the 50 positional masterpieces from 2012 to 2015.
• The games were selected and analyzed by the authors GM Arkadij Naiditsch and GM Csaba Balogh.
• Most of the games are taken from the highest-level tournaments, such as Wijk aan Zee, FIDE Grand Prix series, Olympiads etc.
• Most of the games are played by top Grandmasters: Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Caruana and many, many more of the world’s best chess-players.
• The games are sorted in chronological order, from 2012 through to 2015.