Rock Solid Chess - Volume 3

Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov once remained unbeaten in a streak of 110 consecutive professional chess games. Who could be a better guide to help you find the right move in any chess position than Tiviakov? His style was polished in the famous Russian chess school and hardened by his vast experience in hundreds of strong tournaments.

The first volume of this highly acclaimed series on chess strategy dealt with pawn structures. In the second volume, Sergei discussed various types of piece play, relating it to specific situations on the chessboard. In this third volume, he focusses on the basis: the individual move in a game.

Choosing a move is an eternal dilemma for a chess player. How can we recognize the right solution in any position? How can we gain confidence in our decisions? Where do we direct our pieces and pawns?

In ten chapters, Tiviakov explains in his own clear and unique way how a single move can strengthen your position, weaken your opponent’s position, or simply avoid trouble. Chapters are also devoted to finding the right move by intuition or by weighing up candidate moves, and to more practical advice such as how much time you should spend on one move.

Classic games, as well as many samples from Tiviakov’s own rich practice, are used to illustrate the arguments made. Instructive exercises have been added to help the reader test his newly acquired knowledge. Like the other volumes of Rock Solid Chess, this book will teach you much more than traditional chess manuals do and will help you to greatly improve your decision-making in chess.

Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov is an Olympic gold medallist, a three-time Dutch Champion and a former European Champion. In 2024, at 51, he still became vice-champion of the Netherlands.
Yulia Gökbulut is a Women’s FIDE Master, chess author and sports writer from Turkey.