{"title":"Alexey Kovalchuk","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"modernized-modern-benoni-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9789464201048","title":"The Modernized Modern Benoni","description":"The Modern Benoni is one of the most controversial but also dynamic answers to 1.d4. This opening remained the favorite of famous attacking players as Tal, Kasparov, Gashimov and Topalov. From the outset, Black creates a new pawn structure and deploying his active piece play against White’s central majority. In his book Alexey Kovalchuk focuses on a set of new ideas and deep analyses supported by his silicon friends. His book supplies all Black needs to know to fight for the initiative from move two!","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49513249734929,"sku":"CIN9464201045G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51066780778769,"sku":"NIN9789464201048","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52335169765649,"sku":"NLS9789464201048","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9464201045.jpg?v=1751254841"},{"product_id":"playing-the-grunfeld-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9781784830953","title":"Playing the Grunfeld","description":"The Grünfeld Defence is well known to be one of Black’s best and most challenging responses to 1.d4, and has long been a favourite choice of elite players including Kasparov, Svidler, Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave and many more. As with many chess openings, however, it can be difficult to navigate the ever-expanding jungle of games and theory. Playing the Grünfeld offers an ideal solution for practical chess players. Alexey Kovalchuk is a young Russian talent with expert knowledge of the Grünfeld, and in this book he shares his best ideas to form a complete, coherent and combative repertoire for Black. In addition to theoretical soundness, efforts have been made to avoid variations leading to early forced draws, as well as those in which Black allows his king to be attacked at an early stage.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50399745442065,"sku":"CIN178483095XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51502581580049,"sku":"GOR014305483","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/178483095X.jpg?v=1751184741"},{"product_id":"benko-revisited-volume-1-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9789464201468","title":"The Benko Revisited Volume 1","description":"Any and every opening book is out of date. Unfortunately this is true and there is no getting away from it. But why do I recommend my book to you, dear reader? First of all, the lines are all analyzed very deeply. You do not have to turn on the engine and wait for the computer to produce a ready-made solution. Believe me, in analyzing this book, I used the most modern equipment, and thus the reader saves a lot of time. In our information age, time is very precious, and by buying my book you will gain at least time. I have spent a huge amount of my own time analyzing the various lines, but also commenting on the options especially for you, my friends. In addition, in this book’s pages you will find tons of novelties not seen in practice, and in many of the lines I offer strong improvements. Many sources were reviewed, where the authors defended certain options from White’spoint of view, while I defended Black’s side. In addition, this book has absorbed my attitude and approach to various positions, and I have been analyzing the Benko Gambit for more than 10 years! I wanted to approach each position from the point of view of a human, as close as possible to a practical game. In addition, even if this book becomes outdated at some point, I am sure that it will always be possible to improve the variations – but the backbone of studying this opening can be taken from this book; this is normal work on chess IM Alexey Kovalchuk","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51067805335825,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51067806515473,"sku":"NIN9789464201468","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52335613149457,"sku":"NLS9789464201468","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52606857511185,"sku":"CIN9464201460G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9464201460.jpg?v=1751385513"},{"product_id":"practical-opening-repertoire-for-white-volume-1-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9789493435056","title":"A Practical Opening Repertoire for White - Volume 1","description":"For whom would I recommend playing the exchange variation of the French Defense? First of all, for those players who strive for a clear and understandable game with     good endgame technique. We would also like to surprise our opponent to some     extent, throw him off his preparation, and dull his vigilance.      With good knowledge, we can not only claim a theoretical advantage, but     also exert some psychological pressure, since the opponent will lose his chances of     winning. Perhaps they will become bored, and this will contribute to some kind of     aggressive action on the part of our rivals; perhaps this will only lead to a weakening,     which is what we are trying to provoke.             In the Caro-Kann Defense, I recommend playing 2.с4!?, the so-called English variation!  So-named because the English maestro Elijah Williams played 2.c4 for the first     time in 1845. The idea of exploring this option also came about by chance. I always     liked to study the opening and look for new, interesting and non-standard ideas. At     some point, the old ideas became boring to me, and I wanted to look for something     new. My gaze and attention was drawn to how Oleksandr Bortnyk plays against the     Caro-Kann defense.      I began further study after the moves: 1.е4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.exd5 Nf6. I     was surprised by the move: 5. Qа4!? You could say that I immediately fell in love     with this move. Later, analyzing this option with engines a lot, I decided to create a     file on my computer. The analysis expanded, I found interesting and new ideas, and     then I started playing them in online games and the results surprised me.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51608972067089,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51608972165393,"sku":"NGR9789493435056","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52510935515409,"sku":"NIN9789493435056","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52539334787345,"sku":"NLS9789493435056","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9493435059.jpg?v=1761645617"},{"product_id":"benko-revisited-volume-2-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9789464201475","title":"The Benko Revisited - Volume 2","description":"You can play this opening against anyone. This opening is especially well suited for rapid and blitz games, since in the reduced time control in particular the role of the initiative increases. Generally speaking, not in every opening will you find such a thing as Black having the initiative from the very first moves (although this pleasure is paid for with a whole pawn!). I played this opening with a classical time control against the ex-champion of Russia, Grandmaster Igor Lysyj, and very comfortably equalized in the opening, although later the class difference showed and my eminent opponent beat me. Nevertheless, the opening had absolutely nothing to do with it. This opening worked great when I played it in Rostov-on-Don, when I beat many strong players and after that they preferred to play 1.c4, doing whatever they could to avoid the Benko Gambit. Of course, to my understanding this opening is especially good to play against amateurs, or weaker players than yourself, who do not know its intricacies – you can quickly get a promising position. This opening is suitable for active players striving for a lively, initiative-rich game, with a strong spirit. After all, you need to understand that if something goes wrong, you may face big problems, since you do not have a pawn, but as in any opening there are pluses and minuses, and in the Benko Gambit there are also disadvantages. First of all, in some places you need to play very accurately (this will be especially evident in the positions that we will consider in volume 2) and the cost of an error is quite high. But if the reader carefully studies the books, then I think that there should be no problems and the Benko Gambit will give you many of your most interesting fights!","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52342018081041,"sku":"NLS9789464201475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52763767800081,"sku":"NIN9789464201475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52812464783633,"sku":"CIN9464201479G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789464201475.jpg?v=1758172313"},{"product_id":"playing-the-grunfeld-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9781784830960","title":"Playing the Grunfeld","description":"The Grünfeld Defence is well known to be one of Black's best and most challenging responses to 1.d4, and has long been a favourite choice of elite players including Kasparov, Svidler, Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave and many more. As with many openings, however, it can be difficult to navigate the ever-expanding jungle of games and theory.   Playing the Grünfeld offers an ideal solution for practical players. Alexey Kovalchuk is a young Russian talent with expert knowledge of the Grünfeld, and in this book he shares his best ideas to form a complete, coherent and combative repertoire for Black. In addition to theoretical soundness, efforts have been made to avoid variations leading to early forced draws, as well as those in which Black allows his king to be attacked at an early stage.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53143837376785,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53143837507857,"sku":"NGR9781784830960","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781784830960.jpg?v=1772708830"},{"product_id":"modernized-janowski-variation-book-alexey-kovalchuk-9789493435193","title":"The Modernized Janowski Variation","description":"The Janowski Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 a6. Black plays …a6 to prepare the queenside expansion …b5, aiming to challenge White’s c4 pawn and gain space. The idea was introduced by the Polish-French grandmaster Dawid Janowski around the turn of the 20th century.    Compared with classical QGD lines, this variation is less theoretical and offers flexible development for Black. White usually responds by strengthening the center and preventing …b5, often with moves like a4, Nf3, or cxd5. The resulting positions typically feature a strategic battle between White’s central control and Black’s queenside expansion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53657450250513,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53657450512657,"sku":"NIN9789493435193","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789493435193.jpg?v=1781419471"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-alexey-kovalchuk.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}