Chess is developing faster now than ever before in history. The appearance of computers in the "chess gym" has not only affected opening theory, but has also changed the way players think. In the past many positions would have been rejected "on principle" as impossible to defend, and even the best players would shy away from capturing material if it meant that they would have to face a difficult defence.

This attitude has changed and today's top players are not afraid of walking a very fine line in defence. In this book Jacob Aagaard gives practical advice on various methods of defence, and offers the reader the chance to test and train his ability with 200 challenging examples.

While not for the faint-hearted, this book will help the reader greatly improve in this vital part of the game.

Jacob Aagaard is one of the most popular chess writers today, but is also a competitive player. His best results so far are scoring 3 GM norms in 2004.

Content:

004 List of Symbols

005 Foreword

006 Bibliography

007 Introduction

015 1 The Defensive Thinking Frame

041 2 Defensive Methods

069 Exercise Section

070 3 Warming Up!

079 4 Level 1

091 5 Level 2

111 6 Level 3

127 7 Solutions to Warming Up!

147 8 Solutions to Level 1

177 9 Solutions to Level 2

241 10 Solutions to Level 3

295 Index of illustrative examples

296 Index of Exercises