New In Chess books

The Real Paul Morphy - ECF Book of the Year 2025

The Real Paul Morphy is ECF Book of the Year 2025

We are proud of all of our books, but the ones that win an award are always special! It is with great pleasure we can say that The Real Paul Morphy by Charles Hertan has been selected as Book of the Year 2025 by the English Chess Federation. There were four books on the 2025 shortlist, three of which are from the New In Chess group. The jury, consisting of Ray Edwards, Jovanka Houska, and Sean Marsh, described the book as 'A worthy tribute to a player often described as ‘The pride and sorrow of chess.' and mentioned, 'The book is beautifully produced, with many excellent photographs.' The jury report starts with: 'In today’s hectic chess world, it is easy to forget that the game we play now is built on foundations established many years ago. A biography of a player — perhaps the most talented who ever lived — who influenced chess enormously is this year’s Book of the Year.' 'Charles Hertan writes well and clearly. As a professional psychotherapist, he is well qualified to consider the175

GM Viktor Moskalenko

Viktor, Viktor and… Viktor!

One of our favourite authors, Viktor Moskalenko, was awarded a prestigious prize on 6 September this year… the Viktor prize! This prize, offered by the Emanuel Lasker Gesellschaft e.V., was not named after ‘Moska’ himself, but after his legendary namesake Viktor Korchnoi. It is presented to people who have made a special contribution to the promotion of chess as a sport. There is also a ‘female’ version of this prize, called Vera (after Vera Menchik). Last year, the ‘Viktor’ had gone to the long-standing editor of the German magazine Schach, Raj Tischbierek, while the ‘Vera’ had gone to Judit Polgar. Another prize, the ‘Lasker’, went to Magnus Carlsen in 2024. The prize ceremony was held during the General Assembly of the Chess History & Literature Society, which took place in Valencia on September 5 and 6. Lasker Association board member Rebekka Schuster, who called herself one of Moskalenko’s biggest fans, gave him the prize. In her speech, she said: ‘I have played chess on a moderate175

Ulf - the attacker! on Power Play Chess

Ulf - the Attacker! on PowerPlayChess

On his YouTube channel PowerPlayChess, Grandmaster Daniel King shares his expertise and passion for chess. He recently interviewed one of our authors - IM Thomas Engqvist from Sweden - and looked at a few games from his latest book, Ulf - the attacker! The complete interview, which is over an hour long, can be watched on Power Play Chess. In the shorter clip, Daniel and Thomas examine a specific game, which demonstrates that Ulf Andersson was more than a positional genius, possessing a crystal-clear style.

GM Matthew Sadler

A monstrous Keres project

Now past fifty, Matthew Sadler finds himself looking backward as much as forward – and correcting a few false assumptions. His most recent reappraisal was prompted by a 4,013-page project on Paul Keres. These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#4 As I head towards my fifty-second year on this earth, I have the strange sensation of looking backwards as much as forwards. Plans for the future are tinged with a hint of melancholy because I’ve become aware that my life path has made some dreams very unlikely to happen. It’s the chess player’s equivalent of staring forlornly at your black pieces at move 30 and thinking, ‘What possessed me to play the Czech Benoni?’I don’t have too many regrets about the mistakes I’ve made in life, because life is something you figure out as you go along and accidents are bound to happen. However, I have felt quite irritated about some of the mistakes I’ve made in chess – strangely enough, not so much about the blunders175

Simul by New In Chess author and editor for the 100-year Anniversary of Chess Club Wassenaar

Simul by New In Chess author and editor

As a company located in the Netherlands, we have the habit of sponsoring some local events with books and magazines. Frank Erwich is a FIDE Master and an experienced chess trainer from the Netherlands. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology. Frank is a book editor for New In Chess and has published the best-sellers: 1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players and 1001 Chess Exercises for Advanced Club Players. More recently, he published 100 Tactical Patterns You Must Know and an accompanying workbook. On July 5, Chess Club Wassenaar celebrated their 100-year jubilee. As this was Frank’s first club, he was asked to give a simultaneous display as part of the celebration. There was only room for 30 players, but players who finished early were replaced by people who were anxiously waiting to get a chance to participate. In the end, Frand played against 35 opponents, all of them getting a small prize sponsored by New In Chess. On the club’s website, you can find more photos and an extensive report175

Revealing mistakes by a strong grandmaster

Revealing mistakes by a strong grandmaster

I have often noticed that even very experienced (top) grandmasters sometimes lack the knowledge of theoretical endgames. A lifetime simply contains too little time to learn everything that might be needed to play an endgame perfectly. Funnily enough, even in positions with very little material on the board, problems sometimes crop up that you wouldn't expect. The margin between win and draw is sometimes so close that it pays to delve into seemingly simple positions. I found two interesting cases where the strongest player had a very difficult time against an opponent that was (much) weaker on paper. In the Cambridge Open 2025 (in England), top British player Michael Adams (2661 and former world number four) played in the second round against Dutch player Marcel Schroer (with a modest rating of 2085). The rating difference was hardly reflected during the game so the game slipped into the endgame, in which both players had only one rook and one pawn each as of move 59. In the process, the175

The difference between theory and practice

The difference between theory and practice

The difference between endgame theory and practice can sometimes prove to be very difficult. Even the greatest players in the world in several cases go wrong in making decisions that are sometimes taken for granted by the outside world. For example, I think most strong chess players in rook endgames are familiar with the principle of the “shoulder budge” which played a significant role in the famous example Alekhine – Bogoljubow (1929) in which the black player made a historic blunder by taking the wrong “turn” with his king causing him to miserably lose the remaining endgame of rook against pawn. In my book, I refer to this concept in the section on the endgame of “rook against pawn” (p. 94). Afterward, on p. 251, I draw attention to the aforementioned example from the 1929 World Cup game. How great then is my surprise when I see how the very respectable Croatian grandmaster Ivan Saric (didn't he once beat Magnus Carlsen beautifully in the 2014 Olympiad?) appears to have momentarily forgotten175

GM Matthew Sadler

Seekers of the ultimate truth

These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#3 To players of my generation, the clash between Nimzowitsch and Tarrasch is still a burning issue! You truly feel some personal connection because you read Nimzowitsch’s My System as an impressionable teenager. Willy Hendriks chronicles the clash in his new book, full of humour and larger-than-life characters. At such times, a certain gloom (British understatement) about the life that awaits us is unavoidable, but chess books remain a ray of joy. In particular, I’ve loved the attention that authors of the past years have shown to the many facets of chess history. The publishing house Elk and Ruby has brought the grimly fascinating Soviet era of chess to life, highlighting the lives and games of many forgotten figures of that period, while, thanks to books about FIDE President Folke Rogard and Gideon Stahlberg, I seem to have spent many days reading about the Swedish175

All rooks ending are drawn, or…??

All rooks ending are drawn, or…??

People sometimes say that all rook endgames are drawn. But is that really the case? Why is this statement so often made? The reason seems clear: some endgames, even with two extra pawns, may appear won but still end in a draw. That makes evaluating of such positions especially tricky. And sometimes a rook endgame with an equal number of pawns is simply lost because one player’s pieces are much more active than the opponent’s. Proper evaluation of such positions requires specific knowledge. Hence the tongue-in-cheek phrase in the title of this article. In my book Chess Endgames for Club Players, I’ve devoted relatively much attention to rook endgames. There are two main reasons for this: Statistically speaking, this type of endgame occurs most frequently. This can be explained by the fact that rooks typically enter the game quite late, making it logical that other pieces are exchanged earlier. Rook endgames contain so many hidden tactical ideas and beautiful techniques that it’s very worthwhile175

Converting to a pawn endgame

Converting to a pawn endgame

In the previous installment of this (short) series on endgames, we talked about pawn endgames. Every chess player knows the dilemma that arises at some point: can he simplify the position by converting to a pawn endgame? Of course, the word “simplify” must be qualified. Because pawn endgames are often far from simple. It depends mainly on two aspects: How much knowledge a player has of pawn endgames How good are the player's calculation skills?   If both conditions are met, it becomes much simpler, and a player can confidently go for the pawn endgame, in which he is sure to win! The Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman once wrote that it is not a matter of finding the most optimal way to win but of accurately calculating the variation to the win and getting it right, after which you can play it confidently. In the examples below, the players with the advantage decide to convert their positions to a pawn endgame that still requires the necessary technique and calculations to force a win. But175

Treacherous pawn endgames by Herman Grooten

Treacherous pawn endgames

In modern times, many games end up in phases in which there is little time on the clock to make quick decisions. Not infrequently, these are endgames in which a winning position must be converted into a win, or a bad/lost position can sometimes still be kept as a draw. For many tournament foxes, the study of endgames is not high on their wish list, but in doing so, they regularly do themselves wrong. It is sometimes said that pawn endgames are the basis of every other endgame. Because almost always the opportunity arises to convert one endgame into another, and of course that can end up in a pawn endgame. Then you have to assess the evaluation of that remaining endgame. In addition to the necessary basic knowledge, a certain insight is needed to evaluate a pawn endgame properly. And if a player is in a winning position, he also needs to find during the game sometimes the only line (occasionally even the only move!) that will give him victory in which every choice listens very closely. It175

GM Matthew Sadler

Timeless anecdotes

These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#1 In one of those chess books without chess in it, Peter Doggers manages to serve the contingent of new chess fans who started as Netflix watchers or YouTube subscribers. It is a worthy introduction to chess and the world behind it. My youngest nephew received a SIM card for his phone for Christmas which has led to some late-night calls from him (don’t tell his parents) excitedly explaining the ins and outs of an esports game called Rocket League. It involves flying cars playing football, it’s played professionally, and the best player in the world is a Frenchman called Zen. My nephew hasn’t shown much interest in chess so far but after the chess.com announcement that chess would be included in the inaugural 2025 Olympic Esports Games (next to games like Rocket League), maybe I’ll jump in his esteem!Announcements like this do make me feel my age. As a chess player175