Lectures from the All-Russian School of Grandmasters
Now, for the first time, Panchenko’s classic Mastering Chess Middlegames is available in translation, giving club-players around the world access to his unique training method. The book contains a collection of inspiring lessons on the most important middlegame topics. In each chapter, Panchenko clearly identifies the fundamentals, formulates easy-to-grasp rules, presents a large number (more than 250) of well-chosen examples and ends with more than 150 practical tests.
The brilliance of Alexander Panchenko’s didactic method shines through in this book. It is hard to give better advice to ambitious chess players than to follow this tried-and-tested and highly instructive road towards mastering the chess middlegame.
About the Author
Grandmaster Alexander Panchenko (1953-2009) was one of the most successful chess trainers in the Soviet Union, and later in Russia. His legendary chess school specialised in turning promising players into masters. The secrets of Panchenko’s success were his dedication and enthusiasm as a teacher combined with his outstanding training materials.
Reviews
GM Artyom Timofeev:
“The best theoretical work and practical advice on the subject of the middlegame.”
Chris Wainscott, ChessIQ: “Something about this book that I like more than pretty much any book I have read in the last several years is that while it of course comes with the de rigueur selection of positions to solve at the end of the chapters it also comes with something so much more valuable. After the positions to solve are given, a selection of positions to play out is given as well. This is something that Panchenko was renowned for: having students play out positions against one another during training sessions (..) I believe that this book should be a homerun for New in Chess. It’s certainly one of the best training manuals I have cracked open in quite some time. It’s designed to function as a developmental tool and I believe that it does just that. Not only should those seeking to improve their own game purchase this book, but coaches should as well.”
GM Daniel King, creator of the Power Play DVD Series: “I really enjoyed this book. It provides you with a very systematic way of looking at chess middlegames (..) Extremely instructive, with many fresh examples.”
Elburg Chess Reviews: “Wonderful (..) highly instructive.” B.H.Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad: “An instant classic.”
CHESS Magazine (UK): “Panchenko’s name is not as well known as that of Mark Dvoretsky, but that is more to do with his lack of published works in the west and his early death in 2009.”