French Defence Advance Vol.1: Advance Variation Volume 1 (French Defence Advance Series)

The well-known grandmaster and theoretician Evgeny Sveshnikov has used the Closed Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5) more than 150 times in tournament play, with a score of more than 70 percent. Many theoretically important games have been excluded by the author from official chess databases, and here they are exclusively published for the first time. Volume 1 of this two volume set includes an historical overview of the Closed Variation; plans for White and Black on the basis of thoroughly annotated games, a lesson on the blockade, and 70 test positions.

Sveshnikov took part in his first USSR Chess Championship at the age of 17. FIDE awarded him the title of International Master in 1975 and Grandmaster in 1977.
In his first international competitions he was joint winner in Decin 1974, shared first place (with Lev Polugaevsky) in Sochi 1976 and won category 8 tournaments in Le Havre 1977 and Cienfuegos 1979. In Novi Sad 1979 he shared second prize with Efim Geller behind Florin Gheorghiu. In Wijk aan Zee 1981 he shared 3rd place, and in 1983 he was joint champion of Moscow. Sveshnikov won the Latvian Chess Championship in 2003 and 2010. In 2017, Sveshnikov won the 65+ section of the World Senior Chess Championship.