Unconventional Approaches to Modern Chess: Volume 1

Alexander Ipatov

Volume 1: Rare Ideas for Black

Sample pages (pdf)

From the author:
Most of the material in this book is based on my own offbeat opening repertoire from Black's perspective.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I covers sidelines in the mainstream openings where I take a major opening and analyze one or several sidelines. This is the most theoretical part of the book, where I share a significant amount of original thoughts and analyses that constitute my opening repertoire.

Part II discusses the concept that I refer to as systems. It still involves theory, but less so in comparison to Part I. What I am trying to convey in this part is the "schematic thinking" - where you think in terms of plans and typical ideas.

Part III takes one step further in abstraction - it analyzes notable modern games where one player showed ambition early on in the game and it worked out well for him.

Part IV covers the so-called "early surprises" where early on in the game a player implemented a move that shocked his opponent. Perhaps the most recent example is my game against Sam Shankland where the audacious 1.d4 Na6 2.c4 e5!?N was seen.

Published 2019, softback, 359 pages.