We are delighted that IM Andrew Greet recently made his first GM norm after countless years of trying – two more norms are needed for the title. Andrew has worked for Quality Chess for a year, so we claim editing and reading our books is the key to success.
In the last few days we have sent two books to the printer. Grandmaster Repertoire 7 : The Caro-Kann by Lars Schandorff and Soviet Chess Strategy by Alexey Suetin. Continuing our recent experiment, we are printing some in hardcover – 200 Caro, 100 Soviet. They will be available from us, various chess shops in Europe, and Chess4Less in the US. Some people have requested a photo of our hardcover versions. I’m not sure you can feel the quality from a photo, but here is Jacob’s snap of a hardcover Cutting Edge:
The next two books in line are Grandmaster Repertoire 6: The Sicilian Defence by Lubomir Ftacnik and The Quality Chess Puzzle Book, allegedly by me.
Publication Schedule
Suetin
Soviet Chess Strategy
28 May 2010
Lars Schandorff
Grandmaster Repertoire 7 – The Caro-Kann
28 May 2010
Lubomir Ftacnik
Grandmaster Repertoire 6 – The Sicilian Defence
June
John Shaw
Quality Chess Puzzle Book
June
Christian Bauer
Play the Scandinavian
June
Artur Yusupov
Boost your Chess 2
June
Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 4 – The English Opening vol. 2
July
Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 5 – The English Opening vol. 3
July
Tibor Karolyi
Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 1 – 1961-1985
August
Tibor Karolyi
Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 2 – 1986 – 2009
August
John Shaw
The King’s Gambit
LATER
Boris Avrukh
GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence
LATER
Milos Pavlovic
The Cutting Edge 2 – The Najdorf Sicilian
LATER
Tiger Hillarp Persson
Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED
LATER
Mihail Marin
Common Grandmaster Mistakes – and how to avoid them
LATER
Artur Yusupov
Boost your Chess 3
LATER
Vassilios Kotronias
Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED
LATER
Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x1 – 1.e4 – Ruy Lopez
NEXT YEAR
Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x2 – 1.e4 – Sicilian
NEXT YEAR
Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x3 – 1.e4 – French/Caro-Kann
NEXT YEAR
Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x4 – 1.e4 other e5s
NEXT YEAR
Jacob Aagaard
Thinking Inside the Box
NEXT YEAR
Jacob Aagaard
Train your Chess Intuition
NEXT YEAR
Hi John / Jacob,
I just have some quick questions, is it possible for you guys to elaborate?
– Where do openings like the Pirc / Modern, the Scandinavian, Alekhine, and such fit into Aagaard’s 1. e4 books?
– Can you give us any insight into what Tiger’s and Kotronias’ books are on?
Thanks!
Hello John/Jacob,
I see you are printing 200 Hardbacks for GM Rep 7, and that they will be spread between 3 sites, one of them Chess4Less (which currently has only Volume 1, surprising they don’t have 2 and 3 in paperback, which have been out since the early spring and fall respectively). I looked at the Hardback section of the site, and see that GM Rep 3 is coming in hardback in Mid-May. Any word on Quantity or Locations? I live in the US. I can order from Europe, but if it’s also available in the US, all the better as shipping is cheaper.
Of course, if getting GM Rep 3 in hardback (and 4 and 5 when they come out) proves to be too much of a struggle, I’ll get them in paperback. It will be nice to see what Marin has to say rather than playing “Guess the Repertoire”, and having to struggle thru moves 22 to 30 below to figure out the tactics of how to survive (rather than letting Black dominate down the only open file with passive moves like 22.Bf3) and playing from a slightly worse position due to an apparent mistake between moves 7 and 21 (I’m guessing move 14) below from a game I played last night as White vs another low expert:
1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 Nc7 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.O-0 e5 8.d3 Be7 9.a3 Be6 10.Be3 f6 11.Na4 Nd4 12.Nd2 Qd7 13.Rc1 Na6 14.Bxd4 cxd4 15.Ne4 O-O 16.Nac5 Nxc5 17.Nxc5 Bxc5 18.Rxc5 Rac8 19.Qc2 b6 20.Rc6 Rxc6 21.Bxc6 Qd6 22.Bb7 Rb8 23.Qa4 b5 24.Qxa7 Qc7 25.Qa6 Bb3 26.Bf3 Qc2 27.Qd6 Rc8 28.Bd5+ Kh8 29.Bxb3 Qxb3 30.Qd7 Rg8 31.Rc1 Qxb2 32.Rc8 Qxa3 33.Rxg8+ Kxg8 34.Qe8+ Qf8 35.Qxb5 Qa8 36.f3 Kf8 37.Qd7 Qb8 38.Kf2 Qb4 39.Qd8+ Kf7 40.Qd5+ Kg6 1/2-1/2
Chess4Less has had both GM2 and GM3 for quite some time and they are both still in stock according to the website. I ordered each the day it showed up on their website. In fact, I’ve had GM3 since October and GM 2 since the beginning of March.
Ok, so I see now that they do. Therefore, what that means is their Website isn’t laid out very well. I looked under “Repertoire” (which is under “Books” –> “Openings”), and only the first one is there. I did a couple of searches too, and it wasn’t until I searched for “Grandmaster Repertoire” that either of them showed, and both were pages deep.
Most my chess book shopping has come from either In-person dealers at tournaments (most often Thad Rogers as the majority of tournaments I’ve attended have been in the South East part of the US), sigschess (when it existed), or Amazon. Therefore, other sites will depend on how simple they are to find products. QualityChess.co.uk is easier to navigate than Chess4Less, to say the least.
Sorry but writing 6 books in a year by your own, is impossible (and keeping the quality title). 1 book every 2 months…..!! 🙂
@TonyRo
Hi TonyRo,
I believe Jacob’s idea with his 1.e4 Repertoire is to have Volume 4 as covering “all the rest”. I know that above it says “1.e4 other e5s” but I think that will include the Petroff, as well as the Pirc/Modern, Alekhine, Scandi, etc.
Early days on the Tiger and Kotronias books, but the general trend may be Tiger writing about creativity and Kotronias focused more on the competitive side.
I believe Jacob’s idea with his 1.e4 Repertoire is:
Avrukh and Marin make my company famous, after them,I issue 6 books and capitalize this success
@Markus
You are so cynical for one so young. However many books Jacob has time to write, we will only publish them if and when they hit the high standard we demand.
I believe idea with his 1.e4:
Avrukh,Marin make my company famous,I issue 6 books and I will make money
@Markus
Yes, I heard you the first time. Or, as they in the British parliament, I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.
Will hardbacks be available at Niggemann Chess Store in Germany?
@John Shaw
Grandmaster Repertoire x2 – 1.e4–Sicilian=copy copy of Experts vs Sicilian?
so of course will be at a good level. But question is-Who is/will be the author?
@Markus
Markus, no, the 1.e4 GM Repertoire vs. the Sicilian will not be a copy of Experts vs. the Sicilian, but thanks for asking. One example of many: I would be very surprised to see Jacob recommend 6.Bg5 versus the Najdorf.
The Bg5 line seems to be one of the main challenges to the Najdorf, but evaluations swing so frequently in that line. I suppose Jacob will recommmend the more reliable and perenially stable English Attack..
If you doubt the quality of Aagaard’s works, just take a look to his attacking manual, which is of very high standard in my opinion, and a great and enjoyable read : let the works speak for their authors 🙂
Will his recommendations kill Schandorff’s Caro-Cann and Marin’s Spanish?
Possibly, and Avrukh’s GM Rep Grünfeld will possibly kill his own recommendations in his 1. d4 GM Repertoires.
“We are delighted that IM Andrew Greet recently made his first GM norm after countless years of trying” – he has got IM since 2005, so for 4 years. Not so bad, JAcob obtained his norms during 10 year period 😉
As we are talking about grandmasters Mr Shaw’s highest rating ever was 2506!.
Not to mention about those tournaments: some (elder) grandmasters(elder and below 2500 rating) and a bunch of 2200 players-destined to be killed.So Andrew is ambitious and definitely will not resort to such tricks!
You look like a delightful person, Markus.
Hey guys
Are you planning to make Yusupov´s 9 volume course in hardback aswell? After all they won the best instructional chess books medal 😉 I want to buy the whole course, but in hardback would be nicer.
Will GM7 orders be shipped on 28 May or will it be a few days after, like GM2?
Where did Alterman’s Gambit Guide, vol. 2, Black gambits, go?
I’d also like to know this. Ive just ordered GM7 in hardback – will this ship at the same time as the paperbacks? Thanks.
Markus – We all like a troll. Welcome.
Hardbacks: They are out the same time. With GM7 and Soviet Chess Strategy we have printed 200 and 100. Some shops will take some copies and we will see how it goes. Later books is likely to be printed in higher quanties. At the moment we are feeling our way. Maybe we will do more later, maybe we will only do limited edition copies on our website. With GM1 and GM3 – we have printed 28 copies. They will not be in the shops as hardbacks at this time.
Yusupov hardbacks. Maybe. No decision yet. Maybe at the end in a special edition for all 9 at once!?
GM-norms. John can fend for himself – my first norm was facing 7 GMs in a row, scoring +2 against them, having had chances for more. I made a silly one in Italy, but it was the fifth or sixth, but before I got the title. But yes, I got good later in life and was distracted by education.
Shipping. The 28th is the day we ship to the shops. It is a Friday. Maybe we get the books on the Monday ourselves.
6 books in a year = cashing in. Short answer – you are an idiot.
Long answer; I have been working on the positional chess books for years. Many people have already had a look at the content for the puzzle book, and many revisions have and will be made. One book will be my considerations about positional chess, and learning it, the other will be a workbook.
The 4 GM Repertoire books will not be written from Scratch, of course. I have for a long time played 1.e4 and have a lot of knowledge. I have been working on and off on my 1.e4 openings for a decade. But yes, it will be a big challenge, and maybe I will not manage to get everything out till 2012.
The Cashing in idea is very funny. I don’t know what else I can say, except, if you don’t want my books, don’t buy them. The same applies to everyone else. I am sure these books will be valued on their individual basis, and not on this series of GM Repertoire, which I by the way conceived anyway…
I am looking foreward to the books on positional chess (and the 1.e4 -Rep) ! I have recently bought nearly all of Jacobs middle-game-books (ATM, exclling -series, practical chess defence) and I find them very suitable for hard training for my playing strenght (around 2200 Fide).
Of course, it will be very difficult to reach a similiar quality with the forthcoming GM-Repertoirs, as the standard is very,very high….
I noticed the book by Suetin, and would suggest one more classi for translation.
A very strong GM (+2650) adviced me to look at the Games of Tigra Petrosjan in order to defend better. Fortunatly I unsertand russian enough for chess and played through “strategija nadezhnosti”, petrosjans game collection in russian. This is a fantastic book, full of great games by a player who is massivly underrated. Also the book is 3x times better than Keanes ( very old) book. So if you can get the rights ….
I agree that the books on Petrosian never fit the “Quality” category. Would also be interested in a good one.
If we are throwing out suggestions for game collections, I’ll cast my vote for a book on Bent Larsen!
@JB & Boki: I beg to differ: i have in my possesion two books on Petrosian: Shektmah: the games of Tigran Petrosian I and II, by Pergamon. Easy the “Quality category”.
Is that the blue and red hardback books? They were raelly good, but unfortunately went out of print.
I think I can write GM Repertoire books at the same level as Mihail and Boris. At least I want to be proven wrong on this assumption by trying to do it.
The structure I was thinking was that 1.e4 e5 should be two books, with 3.Bb5 – not 3…a6 being in the Petroff, Philidor and so on volume. Honestly, it will be very hard to map out before I am well into the process.
My idea is to work a lot on the non-critical lines first, to have the bulk of the books ready, and then revise this material when it is time to put the books together. The last thing I am going to work on will be the 8-10 critical openings. There my approach might be a bit different from Mihail and Boris. I have ideas, but I want to see how they work out in practice before I commit myself to anything.
I have a question regarding the quality of harbacks. If you open the book in the middle and place it on the table does it stay open or does it close?
I can only give promises up to 360 pages, where they do stay open. We will get the GM1+GM3 in 1-2 days, then I shall check what it does at 480 pages.
@ Jacob: Yes, they are the ones. You could say that the games in these books are in three categories: the ones that are without annotation, the light annotated games and the ones that are more thouroughly annotated (by Petrosian himself and others). What about a Quality book with the last category? Of course I don’t know who has the rights. But I do know that a lot of people would want to have the Shektman-books.
And now we are into this subject (grin): the book of Boleslavsky’s best games is superb. Fischer liked it very much.
Maybe sometime in the future. We are very busy with new books at the moment. I shall keep it in mind.
I have many “quality chess” books and as an amateur, I really appreciate all the work you are doing. Your approach with this blog is also original, accepting all imputs and also the rare troll with a positive attitude.
I have a remark : this week-end, I bought the Reggio tournament book. I like to analyze by myself, first without a computer and then look at the annotations. Im surprised that, in the first game Almasi-Harikrishna, there is no mention of 16…f:e4, followed by …B:h3. This sacrifice looks more interesting than 16…Bd7.
Whatever, once again, congratulations and keep up the good work.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the nice comments.
I am sure that if you analyse any of our books, you will find interesting ideas not discussed there. At the moment I am going through a Dvoretsky book and finding something important to add to every third position. I think it is unavoidable.
Your idea is of course a nice one. It leads to a draw force after 17.fxe4; so White needs to play 17.Rxe4, when after 17…Bxh3 18.b5! retains the edge for White, it seems.
Hi guys! I plan to buy Avrukh’s hardbacks on 1d4 repertoire, altough I’m playing 1e4 for 10 years!
What do you think about playing 1e4 and form time to time the proposed 1d4 repertoire? Jacob?
I’d like also to suggest following reissues under Quality Chess flag, and other books:
1) Bronstein: Zurich 1953
2) Averbakh: 5 tomes on endings
3) Smyslov: Rook endings
4) Geller best games
5) QGD Tarrasch
6) QGD Laker
7) QGD Tartakower Makagonow Bondarenko
8) Ruy Lopez Open variation
9) King’s Indian defence: history, ideas, strategy, endgames, tactics, best followers
We have at times approached some of these classics, with the idea to do something, but with too many obstacles. Gellers games are available from Everman Chess, I think, and surely Nunn’s endings will replace Averbakh’s when published?! The opening books might happen, might not.
Playing both 1.e4 and 1.d4. Sure, if you feel comfortable doing it, why not?
THERE IS A GOSSIP GOING AROUND…KRASENKOV IS WORKING ON KINGS INDIAN
Hi Jacob/John
I was just wondering what sort of length the GM 6 Sicilian Defence will be, I must be honest I thought GM 7 would be bigger, but as they say its quality not quantity!! Keep up the great work 🙂
Hi Nick,
GM6 is massive. GM7 is a normal size book at 240 pages, but the Sicilian is going to be a lot more. Andrew is working away and we have about 10,000 rating points checking various positions, to make sure it becomes really good. It is scheduled to be in the next batch of books, together with Quality Chess Puzzle book, which is coming out really well as well.
Okay I will order it then 🙂
So… is GM3 hardcover done? When is it going to be shipped?
We don’t have any dealings with Krasenkow, even though we would be happy to work with him. We have another author working on a 2 volume KID project, projected out in 2011.
How massive is GM6? I remember Jacob you said how the huge 600+ page GM2 would not be repeated with size, so I assume GM6 will be around 400-500 pages?
We get GM3 hardcover today.
Andrew guesses it is about 400 pages. He is a bit worn and cannot be forced to actually look at the page count :-). But once we typeset, this always shifts somewhat anyway, so this guess is probably as good as any.
GREET stated on one forum regarding GM REP – NAJDORF:
“A quick update: I am in the process of editing this book myself. There are a few chapters remaining, and I am hopeful that we are still on course for publication towards the end of June. Regarding repertoire choices, in certain critical variations Ftacnik has provided coverage of two different systems for Black. For instance, after 6.Be3 there are chapters on both 6…e6 and 6…e5. In other cases, for instance the 6.Bc4 line, he has covered one system (6…e6 7.Bb3 b5) but provided more than one option in the sharpest lines so the reader can choose the one he prefers.”
Good news for me – I like to meet English Attack and other stuff with …e5!
Question for author of coming KING’S GAMBIT:
Why are you delaying this book for more than a 1 year? I hope that the quality and layout will surpass Thomas Johansson’s “The Fascinating King’s Gambit” which is till now the best treatment of Bishop’s Fischer’s Gambit with 3Bc4, and not 3Nf3. But Johansson made a messy jungle of variations where I can not find clear path. So I hope that your book will be a King’s Gambit bible and the best ever written one.
Do not disappoint us and do not make this books for novices (intermediate) players. We expect it to be written for experts, like us (2100 Elo ++++) 🙂
What forum is Andrew writing on?
I hope this does not mean ten 1000 ELO rated players. 🙁
@Abramov Anjuhin
The King’s Gambit book has been repeatedly delayed because I have been working on many other books instead. It would be unfair to delay other author’s books, whereas I can wait.
The layout will be a jungle-free thing of beauty and the analysis at the highest level I can manage. I already have a lot of analysis and ideas plus various suggestions from friends and colleagues – I know a fair number of titled players so exploiting their brains seems a good idea.
@ Ponting is a Legend
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1237629684/15
Just wondering if GMR 2 will be available through Amazon USA anytime soon? I see that GMR 7 is in the queue on Amazon USA.
What about the “Black Gambit Guide”??
We simply don’t have a date yet – but it will come.
Andrew says on ChessPub GM6 should be available at end of June, any further update on this?
I saw your post Jacob on ChessPub re: GM7. Is it going to be shipped on 1 June, the Monday after QC receive GM7? I’m moving address around beginning of June and need to know if I should expect it around 1 or 2 June or so–thanks in advance.
Soviet Chess Strategy will be out same time as GM7, meaning next week.
We are quite far with QUALITY CHESS PUZZLE BOOK and Andrew is on the final lap of editing GM6. I have received some chapters to typeset. We have checked a lot of things and found further improvements on top of Lubomir’s improvements. Still, I am never sure we are able to satisfy the fans demands on us.
Just want to say that GM2 is a very impressive book – how you did this for the price you sold it at is amazing.
I wonder if there any plans for a Petroff book as Gelfand and Kramnik seem to have persuaded world champions that 1d4 is the only move !
No plans for a Petroff book – only dreams…
How about trying to get Schandorff to do a volume 2 to his Queens Gambit – with aggressive options against non d5 lines.
Trust us – we have done a lot of sweet talking to make it happen. So far he is undecided.
That book has been my dream since his Queen’s Gambit book came out!
Also, any news about the Marin timeline? What do you think about the books so far? Up to the standard of number 1?
The books look great. I am personally more interested in the second volume than the two others, as I find it the most original – but basically they are all great.
Lubomir Ftacnik
Grandmaster Repertoire 6 – The Sicilian Defence
JUNE?
Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 4 – The English Opening vol. 2
Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 5 – The English Opening vol. 3
JULY?
SURE??
BENEDETTO
Regarding Schandorff writing a Volume 2 with 1.d4 2.c4 non 1…d5 lines, I would have said quality chess have covered a lot already with Challenging the Grunfeld by Dearing, Challenging the NID by Vigorito, and Beat the KID by Markos. If he were to do aggresive lines against non 1.d4 I would think they should be different to the lines reconmmended in the titles above?
Any thoughts?
You can add me to the list that would love Schandorff to do a second volume on 1 d4 covering non 1…d5 lines.
I also have dreams of a two volume Grandmaster Repertoire on the French (prehaps by Watson?). One covering more aggressive lines (possibly Winawer against 3 Nc3, 5…Qb6 versus advance, etc.) and one covering more solid lines (possibly Classical versus 3 Nc3,5…Bd7 versus advance, etc.)
I would like a GM Repertoire on the French as well. I don’t think Watson would want to do a book with us, he is firmly committed to Gambit, I think. Also, it would not be a GM Repertoire book, as he is not a grandmaster. Maybe he will do a volume 4 of his French book for Everyman at some point!?