Elk and Ruby publishes The Art of Living: Memories of Two Chess Friends by Jan Timman and Hans Böhm ***Jan Timman’s parting gift to the chess world!*** Two friends look back in the autumn of their lives. Both began as promising chess players and went on to achieve success at home and abroad. As young men, they travelled the world together, sharing a host of adventures, some of them decidedly bizarre. Grandmaster Jan Timman made chess his life’s calling, rising in 1982 to number two in the world behind his great rival Anatoly Karpov. International Master Hans Böhm took a different path, using chess as a springboard for a successful career in the media. Timman’s achievements at the chessboard gained even greater prominence through the efforts of his friend, who brought them to a wider public on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines. Together they look back on the Flower Power era, the Cold War period with the World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, and the rise of the chess computer. Along the way, they revisit their own ambitions and adventures, their encounters with remarkable people, their many triumphs – and their occasional failures. Together, Timman and Böhm helped bring chess to a mass audience through playful public appearances, numerous books, television courses, and even an LP and chess songs. In these autobiographical recollections, they look back on lives that were turbulent, productive and, above all, adventurous. Ten of Timman’s memorable games and ten of his own studies complement their story, while ten people who played an important role at different stages of their lives contribute recollections of their own. At the same time, the reader is treated to a panorama of post-war Dutch chess history and the extraordinary efforts of the federation, sponsors and wider chess community to mount a credible challenge to Soviet and then Russian domination of the game, while building a grassroots movement that introduced chess to a new generation of youngsters – a bygone age that will never return. *** Grandmaster Jan Timman (1951–2026) devoted his life to chess. He was a frequent contender in world championship cycles, and for decades remained one of the leading figures in international chess. The author of more than thirty books, he won the 2017 ECF Book of the Year Award for Timman’s Titans, his celebrated portrait of ten World Champions. International Master Hans Böhm (b. 1950) is one of the Netherlands’ best-known chess personalities and promoters. His television programmes and radio appearances, books, lectures and other activities have helped popularise the game for generations. For many years he has been a chess columnist for De Telegraaf. This book is available in both black and white paperback and hardback editions and in full-colour hardback. The full-colour hardback edition can be ordered from the Elk and Ruby website or your favourite chess book shop, while the black and white paperback and hardback editions are available from the same sellers plus Amazon. The electronic versions of this book, on Kindle (already available) and Forward Chess (forthcoming), are also full-colour. Extract: dropbox.com/scl/fi/ap7bq7ssf… Buy now: elkandruby.com/books/the-art…

Elk and Ruby publishes Capablanca the Great Minimalist – Volume II: 1919-1928 by Cyrus Lakdawala José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942, World Champion 1921-1927) had a way of posting his pieces on exactly the perfect squares at the perfect time. For his opponents, it almost felt as if Capa’s pieces had a gift for condescension, since they had no need to look for opportunity. Opportunity instead came to them. The position’s optimal plan would magically and instantaneously arrange itself into coherent order within Capa’s chess mind. Capablanca raised the bar on strategic understanding by at least one full generation. Only a handful of players in chess history were a generation ahead in strategic understanding: Morphy, Steinitz, Capablanca, Fischer, Karpov and Carlsen. The subject of this book and series is the third player on the list. While Capablanca was a player of his time, so advanced were his strategic ideas that he was simultaneously a person of our time as well. There has never been a chess player who played blemish-free chess, yet some came close. At its best, Capa’s play appears free from obstacles of any kind. To players of that engine-free era, it sometimes felt as if Capablanca played perfect chess. The first time Emanuel Lasker met Capablanca and played blitz against him, he remarked that to his eyes, Capa never appeared to make a mistake. Beginners often believe that quiet positions and endings are dead, lifeless realms. Play through Capablanca’s games and we see that they teem with life and possibility, since Capa saw hidden meanings in positions where his rivals were blind. He was especially deadly in quiet positions, since he had the unique ability to kill without seeming to strike a blow. By the time his opponents realized the danger, it was often too late to save themselves. Few of us associate Capablanca with tactics, but maybe we should. He was one of the most tactically aware players of his era, rivaling both Lasker and Alekhine in this metric. Capa’s specialty was short-range combinations, which he almost never missed. The present volume, number II, contains 107 freshly annotated games and fragments incorporating 103 exercises. It covers Capablanca’s world championship matches against Emanuel Lasker and Alexander Alekhine, famous tournaments including Hastings 1919, London 1922, New York 1924, Moscow 1925, New York 1927, and Bad Kissingen, Budapest and Berlin 1928 among others, as well as a host of other high-quality games. Other great opponents included Euwe, Bogoljubov, Maroczy, Nimzowitsch, Spielmann, Tarrasch, Rubenstein, Reti, Marshall, Edward Lasker, Tartakower, Thomas and Yates. Buy here: elkandruby.com/books/capabla… Extract: dropbox.com/scl/fi/mmxz4ethf…

Still some copies left!

Ukrainian war hero Dr. Dmitro Serbin died in a combat mission in 2022 while defending his country's independence. The Kyiv city administration now proposes naming a street after him. Dmitro was the step-son of Elk and Ruby author Grandmaster Zigurds Lanka. Eternal memory!

Happy 13th birthday to Grandmaster sensation Faustino Oro! 🥳🎂⚽️♟️♟️♟️ elkandruby.com/books/fausti-…

Elk and Ruby publica 101 Crímenes y Castigos en los Finales por Alexander Galkin Este libro sobre la táctica en los finales, obra del Gran Maestro Alexander Galkin, nombrado Entrenador Infantil del Año por la Federación Rusa de Ajedrez en 2016, reúne una gran cantidad de conocimientos prácticos. La gran mayoría de manuales sobre combinaciones tácticas contienen una selección de posiciones y ejercicios en los que se pide al alumno que encuentre un golpe táctico o que lleve a cabo un ataque contra el rey enemigo. De ese modo, aprenden a desarrollar la visión combinatoria y la capacidad de ataque. Sin embargo, no se presta mucha atención al error cometido por uno de los jugadores que permitió alcanzar la posición crítica a partir de la cual fue posible la combinación o el ataque decisivo. En este libro, dirigido a jugadores con un nivel ajedrecístico de cierto nivel y experiencia competitiva (1900–2300 o jóvenes en rápida progresión), propongo un enfoque más amplio para desarrollar las habilidades tácticas en los finales que necesita un jugador de ajedrez fuerte. En concreto, presento 101 posiciones extraídas de partidas de grandes maestros disputadas en 2019, entre los que se incluyen jugadores de la élite mundial como Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Wang Hao, Alexei Shirov, Samuel Shankland, Kirill Alekseenko, y Levon Aronian, en ellos, primero se explica el error cometido por uno de los jugadores al subestimar el contrajuego de su rival y, a continuación, se analiza cómo se desarrolló la partida hasta que se aplicó el castigo por ese error. Entonces, se regresa a la posición inicial para mostrar la continuación correcta o la más prometedora. Por lo tanto, el texto está estructurado de tal manera que cada reto contiene el diagrama inicial dos veces – antes de las jugadas de la partida real y, a continuación, en la página siguiente, antes de la solución. El estudio de estos fragmentos claves de partidas de grandes maestros ayudará al jugador a desarrollar su enfoque del final. En primer lugar, el alumno analiza por qué una jugada o una serie de jugadas de uno de los jugadores fue errónea. ¿Qué contrajuego del rival subestimó el jugador que cometió el error? En segundo lugar, con esta respuesta presente, el alumno puede revisar la posición para intentar averiguar cuál es la mejor jugada. Si el alumno trabaja con un entrenador, este debería, en primer lugar, preparar la posición en el tablero, mostrar la jugada errónea que se realizó y pedir al alumno que encuentre la refutación a esa mala jugada. Una vez que el alumno haya encontrado la refutación, el entrenador deberá volver a colocar la posición crítica y pedirle que encuentre la continuación más fuerte para el jugador que cometió el error inicial. Esto puede suponer una o más jugadas, dependiendo de la posición. Naturalmente, en el caso del autoaprendizaje, el alumno puede cambiar su enfoque, ya sea intentando descubrir la refutación al error, tapando el texto posterior, o simplemente estudiando las jugadas de la partida antes de intentar encontrar la mejor continuación, que se detalla en la página siguiente junto con el diagrama inicial. Extracto: dropbox.com/scl/fi/xh0wma74b… Comprar: amazon.es/dp/1918791074

We will be publishing this fascinating book, probably in 2027

Happy birthday to Elk and Ruby author Cyrus Lakdawala! 🎂🍾📚

Elk and Ruby publishes Two Rooks Save the Day: A World Champion’s Favorite Studies by Sergei Tkachenko Sergei Tkachenko, a member of the Ukrainian team that won the 5th World Chess Composition Tournament in 1997 and which came second in 2000, 2004, 2013, and 2017, has collected 100 studies whose common theme is that white ends up with just two rooks in the finale, yet manages to win or draw. There are no more than six moves in almost all solutions, so experienced chess players can analyze the positions directly from the diagrams. Newbies to chess problems will also find analyzing these studies useful. The diverse set of tactical ideas involving two rooks in the finale will enable them to gain a deeper understanding of how the rook pair combines. Some of these studies are classics from bygone ages. Others were originally published in the Soviet Union or ex-Soviet countries. This is the tenth book in the World Champion’s Favorite Studies series by Sergei Tkachenko to be published by Elk and Ruby Publishing House. Buy here: amazon.com/dp/1918791392 Sample: dropbox.com/scl/fi/l3t67toi9…

Three years ago all leading chess book publishers clubbed together to boycott the FIDE Book of the Year Competition. So successful were we that FIDE were forced to abolish it. It's a shame that some other people continue to celebrate these profoundly fake awards.