1001 Deadly Chess Puzzles

Children's Books

Rizzitano, James

Activities, Crafts & Games

Gambit Publications

James Rizzitano, an experienced international master, has reassessed games from the whole of his career, and in this book presents the lessons from them that will be most relevant to club and tournament players. 
A common problem for the typical weekend competitor or club player is that his time available for studying chess is very limited. What should he study? Grandmasters from Botvinnik to Yermolinsky have stressed the importance of reviewing and annotating your own games. Rizzitano shows how by doing that you can gain a greater understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, and drawing upon his own experiences, explains how to shape your approach to chess to make the most of your own abilities. 
Major topics include: --Developing a reliable and coherent opening repertoire --The importance of understanding opening theory rather than simply memorizing it --Theoretical novelties: finding your own and facing the opponent's --Opening selection depending upon the nature of the game and event --Risk management and "playing for a win" --Competing successfully against higher-rated opposition --Accumulating small advantages: a safe method when the opponent plays for a draw --The power of the initiative: lighting a fire and keeping it burning 
The book contains more than 60 deeply annotated games.

Understanding Your Chess

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

Rizzitano, author of Understanding Your Chess, presents a full repertoire for Black against 1 d4, based on the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA). The QGA is an extremely popular opening amongst players of all levels, as it gives Black free development and counterpunching potential, especially if White takes up the challenge and tries to set up a broad pawn centre. The QGA's soundness is shown by the number of top-class grandmasters who have used it in critical games - it was a key factor in Short's victory over Karpov, and has even been used by Garry Kasparov at world-championship level. Rizzitano has chosen to recommend dependable main lines of the QGA, and throughout emphasizes how Black can create winning chances and White's typical ways to go wrong. The repertoire is completed by a set of weapons against White's alternatives to offering the Queen's Gambit, ranging from the stolid Colle to the weird Hodgson Attack and the reckless Blackmar-Diemer.

How to Beat 1 d4

Chess Explained is a new series of books about chess openings. They are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have. The Taimanov Sicilian is one of the most flexible options for Black in the Open Sicilian. Black avoids committing himself to a rigid set-up, and tailors his response once White has shown his hand. This can lead to a great variety of central structures, and the player with the better understanding of typical Sicilian themes will often emerge victorious - Taimanov positions need to be understood well in order to be played well. Many of the post-war World Champions have used the Taimanov, and amongst the current world elite, Anand has played it most frequently. This book covers the Paulsen set-up with ...Qc7 in addition to the 'pure' Taimanov with ...Nge7.

Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian

Chess Explained books are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have. The Queen's Gambit Declined is one of the most important and popular of chess openings. While an immensely solid and classical choice for Black, it has remained highly topical for more than a century. Both sides have ways to create imbalance and test their opponent's skills and knowledge in a full-blooded struggle. Most of the World Champions have taken both sides of the QGD, with Spassky and Karpov especially notable defenders of Black's cause. In addition to the traditional main lines with Bg5, White has at his disposal the Exchange Variation, and the Bf4 system, both of which can be handled in highly aggressive style if he wishes. Rizzitano covers all these lines and a plethora of other important lines, focusing on the fundamental ideas on which they are based.

Chess Explained: The Queen's Gambit Declined

The Najdorf Sicilian has a unique place amongst chess openings: for several decades it has been regarded by the top grandmasters as the best way for Black to play soundly for a win against 1 e4. It was a particular favourite of World Champions Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov, and plays a vital role in the repertoires of current top players such as Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov. Black's stance is totally uncompromising. He accepts no organic weaknesses and stays flexible, ready to counterpunch in any part of the board. White has no safe or easy option. On the other hand, he does have a vast array of extremely dangerous attacking options, such as the old 6 Bg5 main line, which can lead to the Poisoned Pawn, a variation that has undergone much development in the 21st century. The current main line is 6 Be3, intending the English Attack. But given the Najdorf's importance, White has tried almost everything imaginable in the search for an advantage, with considerable bodies of theory evolving for lines that contain merely a drop of poison. In the ever-changing Najdorf landscape, it is easy to lose sight of the strategic backbone that underpins the Najdorf. In this book, James Rizzitano, a battle-hardened Sicilian warrior, distils the most important ideas and themes from current practice to provide an ideal guide for those looking to succeed as White or Black in the Najdorf in the modern scientific era.

Play the Najdorf Sicilian

<div>James Rizzitano's goal in this book is to provide you with a one-volume, theoretically sound, dynamic opening repertoire beginning with 1 e4. Studying the choices of the current top players, he identifies these secrets of their success: <ul> <li>Play openings where you have a relatively safe king.</li> <li>Take the bishop-pair in a semi-open position if it is offered to you.</li> <li>Avoid creating unnecessary weaknesses in your own position.</li> <li>Accept questionable gambits and material sacrifices.</li> <li>Absorb any space advantage conceded by the opponent.</li> </ul> His choice of lines to recommend is based on these principles, and supported by detailed work with the current top computer engines. While serious work on chess openings confirms the basic truth that White can't simply force a large advantage from the start position, we can greatly narrow Black's path to safety, and tilt the practical struggle in our favour. To have a chance of half a point, our opponents will need to solve difficult tactical and strategic problems deep into the middlegame. The main lines recommended are: <ul> <li>Giuoco Piano (via Bishop's Opening move-order)</li> <li>Modern Advance Caro-Kann</li> <li>Tarrasch French</li> <li>Rossolimo and Moscow Sicilians, and 2...e6 3 c3</li> <li>Traditional main lines vs Scandinavian and Alekhine</li> <li>Tricky piece-play options against the Pirc and Modern</li> </ul> </div>

Modern Chess Opening Repertoire for White

A Gambit Classic Reissue: A new approach to understanding the chess openings\nChess Explained books are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.\nThe Queen's Gambit Declined is one of the most important and popular of chess openings. While an immensely solid and classical choice for Black, it has remained highly topical for more than a century. Both sides have ways to create imbalance and test their opponent's skills and knowledge in a full-blooded struggle. Most of the World Champions have taken both sides of the QGD, with Spassky and Karpov especially notable defenders of Black's cause. In addition to the traditional main lines with Bg5, White has at his disposal the Exchange Variation and the Bf4 system, both of which can be handled in highly aggressive style if he wishes. Rizzitano covers all these lines and a plethora of other important lines, focusing on the fundamental ideas on which they are based.\nJames Rizzitano is a strong international master who dominated chess in the New England region during a 14-year period from 1976 to 1989 - he won 157 out of 336 events in which he competed. His career highlights include victories over Alburt, Benjamin, Benko, Christiansen, Dlugy, I.Gurevich and Wolff. Rizzitano has recently made a return to competitive chess, and has already written three successful books for Gambit.\n"the fourth book by New England IM James Rizzitano for Gambit and once again he has a winner. ... in the midst of ably explaining the basics Rizzitano offers some tasty nuggets." - IM John Donaldson, USA Team Captain\n"I should also loudly call attention to Rizzitano's new, well-written, and amazingly well-researched Chess Explained: The Queen's Gambit Declined ... he doggedly investigates even the latest correspondence games to construct a partial repertoire that is immediately playable, and to keep up with where the current arguments are." - IM John Watson, The Week In Chess\n"The look of the chosen games and the layout of their performance is another Rizzitano masterwork. Jim is playing chess again. Everything he writes, to me, is worthwhile. If you've wanted to begin learning something about the playability of the QG and how it would work for you, I can think of no better book." - Bob Long, chessco\n"What I like about Gambit's 'Chess Explained' series, is that (to coin a phrase) it does exactly what it says on the tin. ... my experience is that each offering comes down to the purpose of attempting to enlighten the reader, and broaden his or her understanding of chess as a whole and not merely the topic in question. ... Simply put I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this book. I found it to be very well researched, nicely set out, and a very competent guide to beginning with this opening. If you are considering adopting the Queen's Gambit Declined as part of your repertoire you can do no better than to start here, and if you are looking for a main weapon against the Queen's Gambit, all the better! As a Meran player for the best part of 15 years, thanks to James I might just give the QGD a whirl myself! Chess Gateway Rating: Queen - snap it up fast!" - John Lee Shaw, chessgateway

A Gambit Classic Reissue: A new approach to understanding the chess openings\nThe Taimanov Sicilian is one of the most flexible options for Black in the Open Sicilian. Black avoids committing himself to a rigid set-up, and tailors his response once White has shown his hand. This can lead to a great variety of central structures, and the player with the better understanding of typical Sicilian themes will often emerge victorious - Taimanov positions need to be understood well in order to be played well. Many of the post-war World Champions have used the Taimanov, and amongst the current world elite, Anand has played it most frequently. This book covers the Paulsen set-up with ...Qc7 in addition to the 'pure' Taimanov with ...Nge7.\nChess Explained is a new series of books about chess openings. They are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.\nJames Rizzitano is a strong international master who dominated chess in the New England region during a 14-year period from 1976 to 1989 - he won 157 out of 336 events in which he competed. His career highlights include victories over Alburt, Benjamin, Benko, Christiansen, Dlugy, I.Gurevich, and Wolff, and exciting draws with de Firmian, Larsen, Speelman, and the legendary former world champion Tal. Rizzitano has recently made a return to competitive chess.\n"I'm really impressed with how thorough and helpful the explanations are. I'm quite sure that anyone interesting in taking up the Taimanov would learn a lot from this book" - S Evan Kreider, ChessVille\n"I give high marks for the selected games and the quality of the annotations from start to finish. ... These are games played by top grandmasters Anand, Timman, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, and Beliavsky to name a few. Even veteran grandmaster Mark Taimanov makes his way into the book in game five with a fine win over Igor Nataf at Cannes 1998. This game is historically important in that it is the only full game presented that was played before the 21st century! In this sense, the book really strives to stay on top of current developments in the Taimanov, while also staying consistent with the theme of finding top level examples in the Explained series. … The book will provide a key benchmark for future works on the opening." - Lou Mercuri, Chess Horizons\n"I think Rizzitano was a good choice for this particular book not only because he played the system again upon his return to chess, but because he is a lucid writer who can say the right things and you don't feel choked with information that, at this stage, isn't all that useful." - Bob Long, ChessCo\n"Rizzitano's goal, as in the other 'Chess Explained' books is: 'to enable the club and tournament player to handle both the White and Black sides of the Taimanov Sicilian with confidence. The emphasis in this volume is on describing the typical plans and strategies for each side within the context of 25 high-level annotated games - there is less focus on detailed sub-variations. The games have been selected to illustrate distinctive Taimanov Sicilian middlegame and endgame themes across a wide variety of lines.' He succeeds in this and also manages to find the space to verbally describe strategies throughout the book, while even tossing in some chess philosophy. Unlike most authors, Rizzitano indeed pays some attention to the endgame, presenting instructive and thematic examples." - IM John Watson, The Week In Chess

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rizzitano, James. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rizzitano, James

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rizzitano, James. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

1001 Deadly Chess Puzzles

Understanding Your Chess

How to Beat 1 d4

Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian

Chess Explained: The Queen's Gambit Declined

Play the Najdorf Sicilian

Modern Chess Opening Repertoire for White

Chess Explained: The Queen's Gambit Declined

Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian