The Dvoretsky Books
Mark Dvoretsky is an International Master and is famous as being the teacher of many high-profile Russian chess players, most notably Artur Yusupov. He also worked or trained non-Soviet players, notably Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand. Dvoretsky’s most important contributions to chess literature are “Dvoretsky’s Analyical Manual” and “Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual”, these contain training problems he has accumulated and refined through his long career training candidate grandmasters. These books however are aimed at masters, to whom these books are essential reading.
Dvoretsky was a coach in Botvinnik’s chess school, which included tutoring a teenage Kasparov the intricacies of complex endings. He later left the Botvinnik school of chess with his two top students Yusupov and Dolamatov, and after briefly setting up a competing chess school, Dvoretsky instead became a private coach.
Dvoretsky is known for having an index-card system of endgame positions based on different themes (manoeuvring, prophylaxis, exploiting an advantage, training of intuition, gaining counter chances, imagination, comparisons, etc.). The index cover theoretical positions which players must know, and endgame practice where the player has to resolve to one or more of these key theoretical positions.
These index cards of endgame positions became “Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual”, with the 200 or so theoretical positions becoming the “blue positions” that players should master.
- Published by Batsford
- Secrets of Chess Training
- Secrets of Chess Tactics
- Training for the Tournament Player
- Opening Preparation
- Technique for the Tournament Player
- Positional Play
- Attack and Defence
- School of Chess Excellence
- Endgame Analysis (new version of Secrets of Chess Training)
- Tactical Play (new version of Secrets of Chess Tactics)
- Strategic Play
- Opening Developments
- School of Future Champions (with Artur Yusupov)
- Secrets of Chess Training (new edition of Training for the Tournament Player)
- Secrets of Opening Preparation (new edition of Opening Preparation)
- Secrets of Endgame Technique (new edition of Technique for the Tournament Player)
- Secrets of Positional Play (reworking of Positional Play, plus extra material)
- Secrets of Creative Thinking (new edition of Attack and Defence)
- Published by Russell Enterprises
- Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual
- Dvoretsky’s Analytical Manual
- Studies for Practical Players
- Tragicomedy in the Endgame
- For Friends and Colleagues 1: Profession: Chess Coach
- For Friends and Colleagues 2: Reflections on my Profession
- Recognizing your Opponent’s Resources
- Maneuvring: The Art of Piece Play
- Chess Lessons: Solving Problems & Avoiding Mistakes
- Chess Tests