Jacob Aagaard – Forward Chess Author of the Month

November 21st, 2023 8 comments

Our friends at Forward Chess have a feature where they interview an author. The latest one is an interview with Jacob. So if you want to know more about Jacob, his books and the origins of Quality Chess, click that link.

The previous month featured an interview with Nikos Ntirlis. That interview also linked to a discussion about Nikos’s 1.c4 repertoire. The book is of course called Playing the English.

Free ‘Book of the Month’ – November and December

November 7th, 2023 3 comments

We are continuing our free-fourth-book offer – if you buy three books or more and live in the normal European Union zone (as defined by UPS – for example, they exclude some islands and remote areas) we will send you an extra book free.

Please note that if you buy a Special Offer and are in the EU zone, we will add one free book. For example, if a European buys the Special Offer on our award-winning Grandmaster Preparation series, then we would send the 6 hardcovers, plus one free extra book.

The previous default option on the free book was CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE.

For November and December, we will switch the default option to LUTHER’S CHESS REFORMATION. But if you already have that book, or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email to salesgroup@qualitychess.co.uk with your order number, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:

ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR (HARDCOVER)
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 1
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 2

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Playing the English – PDF Update

November 3rd, 2023 16 comments

Playing the English has received great reviews, but readers also pointed out some lines that should have been included in the book. So we asked author Nikos Ntirlis to produce an update and he delivered more excellent material. You can read the APPENDIX PDF at that link. The same material is also linked at the book’s webpages, so it should be easy to find for all readers. Hope you enjoy the update and that it helps 1.c4 players to even better results.

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New Website on the way – Old Website issue

October 11th, 2023 No comments


We are having a new Quality Chess website built. In fact, we have been for a long while. But maybe in the next month or so it will come alive.

Our old existing website is misbehaving in one annoying way – when a customer asks for a password to be re-set (let’s say the customer has forgotten their old password) then the website is not sending the re-set emails the way it should. If this happens to you then there are 2 ways to go:

1) Either open a new account with a new password.
2) Or email salesgroup@qualitychess.co.uk and we will find a way to take your order.

Sorry about the added nuisance, and be assured that a shiny new website is on the way.

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Two New Books – Excerpts

October 2nd, 2023 10 comments

On October 18th we will publish two superb new books: Theoretical Rook Endgames by GM Sam Shankland, and Conceptual Rook Endgames by GM Jacob Aagaard.

The excerpt of Theoretical Rook Endgames is here. And the excerpt of Conceptual Rook Endgames is here.

As ever, I am biased, but these books are brilliant. They are sister volumes, so they deserve to be published together. Rook endgames have always been my favourite part of chess, so it was always lucky for me that rook endgames are also the type of endgame that is most frequently reached.

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ENDGAME LABYRINTH – Jacob’s words…

September 8th, 2023 34 comments

I wrote the following for Twitter.

The process of writing a lot and being a publisher means that you can have times where you almost forget you have a book coming out. Today we will send CONCEPTUAL ROOK ENDGAMES to the printer finally. After John had to be a jury at a serious trial, both rook endgame books were pushed to October. But on the 27th September we will publish ENDGAME LABYRINTHS! @SteffenNielsen8 is my co-author and the current World Champion in study composition. What we have done is a slightly different thing from previous books on the topic. The idea from the book came from a solving group of four people I ran some years back. We were two guys and two girls, trying to solve studies from perhaps the most famous modern book on studies. I finally had it with these way too long solutions, when there was a 30+ move pawn ending. I know that top players find their most significant details on the first three moves in calculation in the middlegame (direction of travel, let’s call it). Sometimes we go deeper in the endgame, and of course we see further ahead. But 30 moves? Not me. I asked Steffen for studies and they were far more solvable, and I actually liked them better than these supposed “best studies of all time”. The idea of creating a book with this sort of material came quickly (of course). I had not imagined just how much work it would be. Although we are two authors of this 424 page book, it took me far more effort than the “less than 900” page A MATTER OF ENDGAME TECHNIQUE that I published in 2022. I think I spent 1000+ hours on this book. It does not try to be a “best studies of all times” book – rather it is a book for strong players wanting to improve their game through solving endgame studies. They are selected for solving. They are cut for solving. They have a point system, designed to keep you honest in your solving. The book will also be available on @ChessTempo and @ForwardChess from the 20th September. Both of these great companies helped us with the checking of the final manuscript and reduced the number of errors significantly. @QualityChess have yet to publish a book without mistakes. This is our best try. We hope you will like it.

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Endgame Labyrinths – Excerpt

September 6th, 2023 8 comments

Endgame Labyrinths by Steffen Nielsen & Jacob Aagaard will be published on September 27th. You can now read an excerpt. To paraphrase the cover text, this book contains 1002 challenging studies that were selected and truncated to be as useful as possible for the practical player. The excerpt gives even more of a flavour of the book.

The content inside the book is excellent, and I am also a fan of the cover, which is by the Canadian artist Jason Mathis. You might already be familiar with Jason’s work from Jacob’s Grandmaster Preparation series.

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Free ‘Book of the Month’ – September and October

September 5th, 2023 No comments

We are continuing our free-fourth-book offer – if you buy three books or more and live in the normal European Union zone (as defined by UPS – for example, they exclude some islands and remote areas) we will send you an extra book free.

Please note that if you buy a Special Offer and are in the EU zone, we will add one free book. For example, if a European buys the Special Offer on our award-winning Grandmaster Preparation series, then we would send the 6 hardcovers, plus one free extra book.

The previous default option on the free book was GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR (HARDCOVER).


For September and October, we will switch the default option to CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE. But if you already have that book, or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email to salesgroup@qualitychess.co.uk with your order number, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:

ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR (HARDCOVER)
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
TACTIMANIA
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 1
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 2

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