International Grandmaster József Pintér is now the leading theoretician in Hungary. He was Hungarian Champion in 1978 and 1979. He played three times in the Interzonal Final.

In a game of his against Kasparov, even the then active world champion had to struggle hard to achieve a draw. He is the captain of the Hungarian Olympic Chess Team. The leading teacher of the Maróczy Chess School, he has educated a large number of young talents.

In this book, he deals with one of the most popular openings of today, The Semi-Tarrasch Defence. Within the framework of 64 games (divided over two volumes), he surveys the whole opening, examining some deviations very profoundly, spicing them with not only variations but also with textual explanations.

He is dealing at great length with the subject of 'isolated pawn', which plays an important part in this opening, quoting Dr Siegbert Tarrasch words: "Whoever is afraid of playing with an isolated pawn should give up chess."

This is an essential handbook for all those who want to gain insight into the mysteries of this very interesting opening.

Save 15% on: The Semi-Tarrasch Defence Vol. 1 & 2 Combined.

Foreword:

This book attempts to give a survey of the Improved Tarrasch De­fence, not restricting the analysis to the initial stage of the game, but allowing insight into the mysteries of the middle and endgame, too.

The Improved Tarrasch Defence has been, and still is, one of my favourite openings. In the 70s, under the influence of Robert Fi­scher, we had closely studied the then very fashionable defence.

Our joint analyses with grandmasters Ivan Farago and Peter Lukacs hold good even nowadays, though some of them have become out­dated by now. In the book I used all literature I could find, as well as works published on the internet, naturally supplementing them with my own analyses.

Within the framework of 64 games I survey the whole opening, examining some deviations very profoundly, spicing them with not only variations but also with textual explanations.

As for the less important ones, I deal with them only briefly, with few annotations. I sketch out the middle and end games arising after the opening in full games.

With the subject of 'isolated pawn', which is one of the most dif­ficult problems of the strategy and tactics of chess, I am dealing at great length. (..)

Studying positions with isolated pawns intensively is not only great fun, but it also improves one's strategical understanding as well as one's ability to spot tactics. In short, it raises one's playing strength!

I examine the opening I'm dealing with from the point of view of both White and Black. This book therefore does not offer a pa­nacea, a wonder variation, it does not promise a forced getting from the opening move to checkmate; no, instead it wishes to illustrate subtly and in a complex manner the plans, efforts and typical motifs of both White and Black.

Examining the transitions is also important, since the Improved Tarrasch Defence can also arise by transpositions from many other openings, such as Caro-Kann Defence, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Queen's Gambit Accepted, English Opening, Sicilian Defence, and some deviations of the Queen's Indian Defence.

From this it follows that you can, at the same time, gain a better survey of various sys­tems.

József Pintér