Chess Secrets: Giants of Innovation

Fra forordet

This book celebrates the play of five undoubted giants of chess innovation. It aims to show how these players developed some of their most innovative ideas and how we might all learn from them. They all worked hard. Their many innovations have had enviably high success rates. Each of these players has unquestionably grasped and applied what was best in present and immediately past methods of play and moved chess on.

“Innovation” in chess has perhaps most commonly been associated with the discovery of new moves in the opening. Indeed, the common term “opening novelty” has a long history going well back at least to the 19th century. Properly considered, however, innovation is about much more than just coming up with new opening moves. It certainly includes the discovery of new stratagems and tactical motifs as well as the development of whole new game plans.

In this much fuller sense, innovation, in its many guises, is at the very heart of success in chess. This book seeks to put a spotlight not just on some great new opening moves, but also on more generally innovative methods of play that unite opening ideas with ways to play the middlegame (and even many endgames). If we can all learn to innovate like this, perhaps we too might have it within ourselves to become world-beaters – like each of my own five giants of innovation.