Improve your Chess with a Free Chess Database program - Scid Vs Pc

Scid Vs. Pc is a Chess Database program. You can get it at http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net . In this video I give an overview of the program, show how to enter new games, annotate the move, and batch annotate the games with an engine (aka "annofritz").

Topalov Defeats Anand - Bishops of Opposite Color Endgame

This game in the video is taken from my E-book about endgames with bishops of opposite color.
http://www.amazon.com/Bishop-Endgames...
The book is formatted for electronic readers and can be read on devices of various sizes, from tablets to phones. The free sample includes 3 thoroughly annotated games and the full book comes with dozens of training positions to help develop a good sense for positions with bishops of opposite colour.

This bishop endgame is a good illustration of thinking in schemes. Black had to keep track of the functions of each of his pieces - in the final position the king had to block the pawn 'd', and the bishop - defend the 'h7' pawn. Because they reversed the roles after Anand's mistake, White had an option of breaking through to the 'd' pawn and winning a piece.

Chess Position Trainer - Study and Practice Chess Openings

 The video shows how to 
- review and import a repertoire in Chess Position Trainer 4.0
- train against an existing repertoire, from a specific position
- review statistics to see how well you know your repertoir
I use Slav exchange for Black to illustrate the tool's main capabilities.

From Blogging to Ebooks

You may have noticed a certain lack of updates on this blog in the past year or so. This has been mostly related to my attention being focused to writing chess Ebooks.

Today I would like to overview what I had published in the past year. While blogging is a simple way of sharing chess knowledge, it is less appropriate for explaining a topic in more details. This is where ebooks come in.  My books so far have been focused on three main themes - endgames, tactics and opening/middlegame. I plan to continue expanding on these themes further.

Tactics

It is essential for every chess player to be continuously working on their tactics, so I wrote a couple of books that allow readers to easily practice their skills on the Kindle, or on any IOS or Android Mobile device.

• Counterattack with Alexander Morozevich - tactics from the perspective of a single player playing with the Black pieces.
• Tactics from Chess World Cup - tactics from a single tournament where players of various strengths are participating, and are playing with different time controls

Openings

Every game has an opening stage, and it's important to be prepared for anything an opponent can surprise you with, and also to have a few ideas of your own.

• Spanish Opening - Strategy and Tactics - a major opening covered from White's perspective, with several key games showing the main ideas behind every variation that Black can choose.
• Exchange Slav - Strategy and Tactics  - a more detailed study of a single variation in an opening. The focus is on themes - pawn structures and plans.

Both opening books contain a large number of puzzles, to reinforce the ideas of each opening.

Endgames

In my opinion, it makes sense to cover endgames based on material, and from learning one material balance it is possible to understand endgames deeper in general.

•  Bishop Endgames - Bishops of Opposite Colour is the theme I chose.

The book also has a lot of endgame puzzles to solve.

I would be very glad to hear your feedback and suggestions for future books!

Classic Bishop Endgame by Botvinnik - video

This game is taken from my E-book about endgames with bishops of opposite color.
http://www.amazon.com/Bishop-Endgames...
The book is formatted for electronic readers and can be read on devices of various sizes, from tablets to phones. The free sample includes 3 thoroughly annotated games and the full book comes with dozens of training positions to help develop a good sense for positions with bishops of opposite colour.

In this game Botvinnik aimed for having 2 distant passed pawns that his opponent's bishop could not block from the same diagonal. At the same time he was not concerned about giving opponent passed pawns - as long as his own bishop could stay on the same diagonal while guarding them.
Modern computer engines have a hard time correctly understanding the position and finding Botvinnik's moves. A lot of his play is very conceptual and requires calculation deeper than 10 moves ahead, but can be described verbally by a human.

Tactics from Chess World Cup 2013 in Tromso - Ebook

As many chess fans, I followed this year's Chess World Cup, and it inspired me to create a collection of best combinations from that tournament.
Here is the video describing this book (http://www.amazon.com/Play-Like-Grandmaster-Practical-ebook/dp/B00F785SJS/)