«Opening encyclopaedia of flying draughts» is the title of a brand-new book, written by master of sports Vasily Naumik and candidate master Igor Parchuk, which will undoubtedly interest every connoisseur of Russian draughts.

For enquiries about buying the book «Opening encyclopaedia of flying draughts» in Russia please contact Vasily Khristich at wasily81@mail.ru or by telephone: +7 (916) 259-93-13. The encyclopaedia costs 650 roubles in Russia (excluding postage); posting a single copy from Moscow costs about 100 roubles (the exact price is calculated individually depending on the number of copies and the buyer’s address).

The book «Opening encyclopaedia of flying draughts» brings together into a system, and analyses thoroughly for the first time, all 245 positions of modern flying draughts from the FMJD table, strictly systematised into 12 classes of position types.

The analysed lines run on average from 10 to 20 moves.

It is important to note that the most frequently occurring standard positions in flying draughts, as in classic draughts, are marked with the abbreviation SP.

Also interesting is that the book shows where the positions of many flying-draughts openings coincide with one another with colours reversed, and marks the coincidences with classic openings as well.

The difficulty of each opening is also indicated, together with its evaluation.

In working on the book we used all the draughts literature collected in the Edeon superbase of 89 books and the Edeon program itself with all its databases.

In their work the authors of the opening encyclopaedia relied mainly on games from world championships and other significant tournaments played by the leading grandmasters and masters of today, such as: N. Struchkov, A. Valyuk, Y. Kondrachenko, G. Kolesov, S. Belosheev, Vl. Yegorov, Y. Korolev, international master I. Mikhalchenko and others.

Every analysis of flying draughts available to the authors at the present day was used.

The book is intended for qualified draughts players, who do not need the meaning of terms such as «gambit position», «tempo ratio», «centre», «flanks», «over-development», «strong points», «blockade of a flank» and so on explained to them.

The authors express the hope that the book will make its own contribution to popularising draughts — that beloved game of the people — and helping it flourish. To help us work out the print run, please send advance orders to vasily.naumik@gmail.com or by telephone: +375333110929, or directly through a comment on this page of the site.

An example from «Opening encyclopaedia of flying draughts»

Class 10 Black on a3
Subclass 5 House on the right

XI-2 A3-F4 D6-A3
(position 220 by Gambler’s numbering) White has 2 tempi in reserve

The white piece has flown one rank up and the black piece three ranks down, which is where White’s minus 2 tempi in reserve come from.
An interesting equal position. White has 2 plans: 1. cd4 and 1. gh4
Plan 1: 1. cd4 ba5 2. bc3 cd6 3. gh4

3… ab6 ( 3… fg5 is also played: 4. h:f6 e:g5 5. de5 dc7

6. fg3! ( 6. ab2 is weaker: ab6 7. fg3 gh4 8. cd4 h:f2 9. e:g3 fe7 10. gh4 ef6 11. bc3 dc5 12. hg3 ba7 13. gh2! cb4 14. ed6 c:e5 15. f:d6 fg5 16. h:f6 g:c7 17. gh4 hg7 18. hg5 h:f4 19. e:g5= ) gh4 7. gf2 ab6 8. ed4 dc5 9. fe3 h:f2 10. e:g3 cd6 11. e:c7 b:d8 12. d:b6 a:c7= ) 4. ab2 bc5 5. d:b6 a:c7 6. fg5 h:f4 7. e:g5 gh6 8. fg3 h:f4 9. g:g7 h:f6
An equal position. White has 2 tempi in reserve, so Black will not go in for gambit positions.

10. cd4 ! A timely move into the centre, otherwise the piece on b2 will stay imprisoned for ever.
10… de5 11. bc3 ef4 12. ef2 cb6 13. fe3 fg5 14. h:f6 e:g5 15. gf2 gh4 16. e:g5 h:f6 17. hg3 bc7 18. gh4 cd6 19. fg3 de7= V. Grebenkin – A. Getmansky, world championship, Aktobe (Kazakhstan), 2006

Plan 2: 1. gh4

1…fg5 ( 1… ba5 is often played: 2. fg5 h:f4 3. e:g5 White’s play has the initiative! gh6 Black is not afraid to exchange pieces on this flank, because White has a large accumulation of pieces on the left flank. ( 3… cd6 is often played: 4. gh6 fe5 5. fe3 gf6 6. hg3 bc7 7. gh2 cb6 8. gf4 e:g3 9. h:f2

A game of tempi is under way. White accumulates tempi and does not yet
play on the left flank. 9… hg7! ( 9… fe5? is weak: 10. ed4! ef6 11. fg3 bc5 12. d:b6 a:c7 13. de3 cb6 14. gh4 ba5 15. hg3 ab6 16. ef4 The black pieces come under a pin. ) 10. hg3 fe5 11. gh4 gf6 12. fg3+-

SP — standard position — a beacon that shines and gives you your bearings, and occurs often!
4. fe3 h:f4 5. e:g5 hg7 6. gh6 fe5 7. gf2 gf6 8. fe3 cd6

Positions roughly like this occur often, with a White piece on h6 and a Black one on a3. The difference is the piece on g1, which may stand on f2 or g3 or e3, and the side to move may change. There is one criterion here: the availability of spare moves in gambit positions. In this case White has 2 tempi in reserve.
9. ef4 ( 9. hg3 is played more often: bc7 10. gf4 e:g3 11. h:f2 with an interesting game. Black usually comes out to e5: de5 12. fg3 ed6 13. gh4 cb6

If the piece on d8 stood on e7 it would be a classic position.
14. ef4 e:g3 15. h:f2 An equal position, for example: de7 16. fg3 de5 17. de3 bc5 SP

18. cb4 a:c3 19. b:b6 a:c5 20. ab2 ed4 21. ef4= ) e:g3 10. h:f2 ab6 and White now has 4 spare tempi. )
2. h:f6 e:g5 ( The big exchange 2… g:g3 is weaker: 3. h:f4! hg7 ( On 3… ba5 4. cd4 hg7 5. bc3 gf6 6. fg3 cd6 7. gh2+- ) 4. fg3 gf6 5. gh4 fg5 6. h:f6 e:g5 7. cd4 cd6 8. bc3 ba5 9. de5! +- because Black cannot hold the e5 point ) 3. cd4 ba5 4. bc3 cd6 SP, which was examined earlier.

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