An experienced trainer and grandmaster explains key principles of chess strategy and thinking methods in chess. His 'recipes' include: tactical ideas in the middlegame; liquidation to the endgame; the technique of analysing variations; inverted thinking in chess. Readers are presented with new ways of looking at chessboard issues that will help them develop a deeper understanding of the game. Every chapter contains stunning examples of the themes, together with challenging exercises where you can put your new insights to the test.

Valeri Beim is a grandmaster who lives in Austria. He has won numerous tournaments and plays in the Austrian and German leagues. For many years he was the head trainer at the chess school in Odessa (Ukraine), and he was also the trainer of the Israeli olympiad team. This is his first chess book; see also Understanding the Leningrad Dutch, Lessons in Chess Strategy, How to Play Dynamic Chess, and How to Calculate Chess Tactics.

"...excels in presenting new ways of thinking in chess" - GM Lubosh Kavalek, WASHINGTON POST

"An original book... if I were still playing professionally I might use it as a kind of 'warm-up' book before a game - just to make sure I was thinking correctly and flexibly. Recommended!" - GM Matthew Sadler, NEW IN CHESS

"I found this book much more suitable for intermediate players than the Dvoretsky series of training manuals" - Paul Dunn, AUSTRALIAN CHESS FORUM

"Beim, an Austrian-based GM and trainer, offers some insights into the chess thinking process and some well-chosen examples and exercises." - Phil Adams

"Beim provides plenty of exercise material to test the reader's comprehension... a good read for the improving club/expert player" - BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE

"I always enjoy encountering fresh ideas from creative players, whose original concepts are the juicy rich fruit that comes from independent cogitation. So, I was delighted to find goodies galore in GM Valeri Beim's wonderful new 128-page Gambit book entitled Chess Recipes from the Grandmaster's Kitchen." The enthusiastic bubbly author pours out lots of his own personal methods regarding planning, analysis, calculation, and general problem-solving in chess. Therefore, the reader really gets treated to a terrific trip full of fascinating insights into the thought processes of a powerful mind." - GM Paul Motwani, THE SCOTSMAN

"Snippets of inspirational thinking...Beim's thesis on inverse thinking is especially intriguing. It involves conjuring up a desired position and then proceeding backwards to the actual board position. It's what many players do intuitively, but Beim gives a method for applying the technique" - Cecil Rosner, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Download a pdf file with a sample from the book.