The Art of Defence in Chess (English and Russian Edition)

I recommend this book very highly for its content. It is a well organised and comprehensive guide on all aspects of defence, including many useful excercises. This book is not too advanced and should not go over the head of anyone rated above 1500, and it is useful for anyone below 2300.Unfortunately, my copy of the book quickly fell apart. The binding is terrible. Therefore I only gave it 4 stars. If you don't mind loose pages and if you know that you lose games that you should have drawn, studying this book will give you 100 extra rating points easily.If you want to work even more on your defence, another excellent book is How to Be Lucky in Chess by LeMoir.

This is a great book. Polugayevsky and Damsky are an excellent team, as Damsky is good at writing for the club-level player, and Polu was a total genius, but one whose writing is sometimes over the head of the club player. This book contains hudreds of excellent examples, and there is much instructive commentary. There is an effort to show why certain defensive ideas work in certain positions. This book will improve your defensive skill, there is no question about that. It will also improve your confidence that far more positions are capable of being saved than you would think. The book also has an excellent human touch, such as a hilarious story about a Reshevsky-Geller game that the American should have won, bub did not. Highly recommended!