In my younger chess years, in the early 8o's, I was lucky enough to have as my main coach the legendary Dr. Nikolay Minev. He had been an Athens resident for approximately two years before immigrating to the United States. He mainly worked with Greece's National Men's Team, but also with a group of promising youngsters, including myself.
Dr. Nikolay Minev was a prominent coach, quite educated both in life and chess and he acted as my second father helping me to develop into a Grandmaster. He was quite fond of the great Akiba Rubinstein and of rook endings. It is no coincidence that he wrote several hooks on those two subjects!
It was natural that I was inspired by his work and I also tended to fall in love with Akiba and rooks! In my chess career I have played many rook endings, quite brilliantly in most of them. I studied them with one of the best and I became quite proficient at them!
Having completed my playing career and become a top-level coach it is my turn to author a book on rook endings dedicated to my wonderful coach. I chose to write a book on advanced rook endings as I simply did not wish to write another book that would be like the many already available.
I have done my best to present analysis and articles I have written over the past 10-15 years. This work has been presented in my daily coaching sessions, seminars, workshops, etc. The material has helped a lot of trainees to develop into quite strong players gaining international titles and championships.
Now, it is your turn to taste and enjoy it!
Sharjah 2019
Efstratios Grivas
Excerpt
