The first book to focus on United States Chess Champion Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura's fascinating journey to the top of world chess is documented in this look at his life and career. Hikaru was not a typical child prodigy, and at his first Junior World championships didn’t even make it onto the winners' podium. He won a World Cup medal at the age of 13 and at the age of 24, he is still surprising the chess world. He is considered by many to be the greatest American chess player since the legendary Bobby Fischer, and this book features a prologue penned by Lubosh Kavalek, Bobby's insider and supporter at the match of the century against Boris Spasski in 1972.

Chess in the Fast Lane! Can anyone play a decent game of chess in one minute? Surprisingly, the answer is "Yes" as this unique book reveals. "Bullet” chess, where each player has one minute for the entire game, has attracted thousands of followers since it was popularized on the internet a decade ago. In this book the authors discuss the relationship between the position on the board and time on the clock, the techniques and dangers of "pre-moving,” bullet openings, the importance of the initiative and consistent strategy, and how endings are different in bullet chess. The authors also explore the psychology of bullet chess and the most common causes of tactical oversights and blunders. The many examples illustrate the principles of bullet chess and how they may even apply to blitz chess and time scrambles in standard chess. Most of all, bullet chess is shown to be entertaining and addictive, and not at all as random as it first appears.

This book contains 100 mate in two chess puzzles and their solutions, all of which are taken from GM Hikaru Nakamura games. Most of the games are blitz and bullet games played on chess.com. The puzzles are intended for players of intermediate skill levels.

The popularity of the Nimzo-Larsen Attack is largely based on its surprise value, but in fact 1.b3 is one of White's more logical first moves, since by immediately developing his queen's bishop, White aims at undermining the black centre. Odessky, an International Master from Russia, a well-known chess coach and an outstanding chess writer, will amuse and surprise you, but also teach you all the ins and outs of this offbeat system, which has been used by top players like Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen. A good choice for players who want to avoid the many theoretical landmines of mainline openings and prefer to steer towards an open battle, right from the start.

'Chess Grandmaster Anish Giri sketches his rise to the chess elite and presents 20 fondly remembered games in his trademark style: instructive, witty and delightfully unimpressed by reputations. Included is his win against Magnus Carlsen in Wijk aan Zee, the 'Wimbledon' of Chess, in 2011. The Dutch grandmaster is not only an exceptional player, but also a talented writer with a profound knowledge of the game, a great sense of humour and contagious enthusiasm. Giri was born to a Russian mother and a Nepalese father and has lived in Russia, Japan and the Netherlands. He is Contributing Editor to New In Chess magazine.

Have you always wanted to play chess like American #1 chess player? This tactics training book gives you the opportunity to make the same wonderful moves as Nakamura did in his games. One hundred puzzles are offered in which the bullet-expert turned the game in his favour. The puzzles start at a moderate level then get steadily more difficult. Can you match the performances of Nakamura?

The chess playing mind does not work like a machine. Selecting a move results from rather chaotic thought processes and is not the logical outcome of applying a rational method. The only problem with that, says International Master Willy Hendriks, is that most books and courses on improving at chess claim exactly the opposite. The dogma of the chess instruction establishment is that if you only take a good look at certain ‘characteristics’ of a position, then good moves will follow more or less automatically. But this is not how it happens. Chess players, weak and strong, don’t first judge the position, then formulate a plan and afterwards look at moves. It all happens at the same time, and pretending that it is otherwise is counterproductive. There is no use in forcing your students to mentally jump through theoretical hoops, according to experienced chess coach Hendriks. This work shows a healthy distrust of accepted methods to get better at chess. It teaches that winning games does not depend on ticking off a to-do list when looking at a position on the board. It presents club and internet chess players with loads of much-needed no-nonsense training material. In this provocative, entertaining and highly instructive book, Hendriks shows how you can travel light on the road to chess improvement!