Dear Quality Chess Reader,
We have now published two new books. GM Repertoire 6: The Sicilian Defence by GM Lubomir Ftacnik and The Quality Chess Puzzle Book by GM John Shaw.
GM Repertoire 6: The Sicilian Defence provides a sharp, complete repertoire for Black after 1.e4 c5.
The Quality Chess Puzzle Book offers 735 challenging puzzles to entertain and instruct the reader.
An innovation for this newsletter is a link to a ChessBase file with 22 games annotated by the Quality Chess team. In this case mainly GM Jacob Aagaard with a couple of contributions by GM John Shaw.
Quality Chess proudly sponsors chess events from time to time. Previously we have sponsored a rapid event in Edinburgh, the 2009 Scottish Championship, an IM-tournament in Edinburgh 2009, as well as the best game prizes at the Politiken Cup in 2006, 2009 and the forthcoming 2010 edition. We also recently sponsored the best game prizes in the 2010 Danish and Swedish Championships. The first 9 games in the file are all winners of a daily best game prize from the Swedish event. We have inserted an automatic question here and there to test those who are interested. Please enable your “Training Function” in order to allow yourself to be tested. There is also a position from our recent title Soviet Chess Strategy that also has a very nice puzzle, and quite a hard one.
Naturally we take an interest in how the lines suggested in our books fare after publication. A few of the other games are relevant to our opening books. One high-level example was Leko – Le Quang Liem from the elite Dortmund tournament. Black won after following for 12 moves the line recommended by GM Lars Schandorff in GM Repertoire 7: The Caro-Kann
Regards, Chief Editor John Shaw
Congratulations on getting another two high-quality titles out the door! (My estimate of quality is based on your previous books — tip top!)
What are my options for getting Ftacnik’s GM Repertoire 6 in the US and how soon can I get my mitts on it? Purchasing directly and shipping from Europe is neither speedy nor economical, I’d guess.
PS: One very small suggestion re Schandorff’s wonderful GM 7 — add a note about move order in the Pseudo-Panov chapter. Twice in the last couple of months, I’ve had club opponents players ignore move order on move 3 (!):
1.e4 [One game came from 1.c4] c6 2.c4 d5 3. exc5?! Black has the option of offering a gambit that usually comes about from a Scandinavian with 2…Nf6 3.c4 c6. An evaluation of the pros & cons:
Pros:
* If Black plays 4.dxc6, there’s a good chance you get to go home early from the club! White may be able to survive and equalize, but as Black after 4…Nxc6 5. d3 e5, “La vita è bella!” (I’m borrowing from Mr. Ftacnik here.)
* Your opponent may spend the next 10 moves wondering why he or she didn’t know the right move order for a pet system against the Caro-Kann! (“The Land that Time Forgot”)
Cons:
* White can transpose into the Panov with 4.d4. I for one _want_ to play the 5…Nc6 line against someone who specializes in the Pseudo-Panov (and doesn’t play the simplest move order). “Lost in Translation”
@ twinplanets – the question of ‘what’s the fastest way to get the books in the US?’ comes up often on this blog.
Answer is that the fastest way to get the books IS to order directly from qualitychess.co.uk (i.e. from ‘Europe’) – people in California were getting their copies of GM 2 4-10 days after is was published; those in Europe were getting their copies after 2-10 days.
GM 2 was shipped on March 1st. People on this blog reported getting their copy of gm 2 as follows:
March 2nd – Nick (England)
March 4th – Ponting is a Legend (England)
March 5th MIchael Yip (Budapest)
March 6th Al (California):
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/?p=412&cpage=1#comment-5141
Others, ordering from Amazon, complained that it was ‘two months after the publishing date and [they] still didn’t have their copy.”
I order my books direct simply because I like knowing a grandmaster packaged, checked it was correct (probably double checked), and mailed it. I figure that if they’ve figured out how to make the best chess boooks, they must have also figured out an ingenious way of sending them!?
I have first hand experience as well here, since I’ve bought pretty much all the QC books directly from them, mostly on account of my impatience.
It is definitely fastest to get it from QC directly. If you preorder, they’ll ship your book as soon as they get it, probably in some kind of a fair order. Chess4Less is probably the second fastest. In my experience, C4L, get’s their books about a week or so after the book comes out, maybe a bit more or less depending on special circumstances. You can then order it from them, and get your book in 3-5 business days. Not bad at all, a little less than 2 weeks after the book came out in Europe, but again, not as fast as ordering from Quality Chess themselves.
I’ve got it down pat!
I think it is marginally faster to order from us. Maybe up to a week as indicated by TonyRo; but of course, with the ash cloud in May all these predictions were wildly off the mark.
Chess4Less, USCF and ChessCafe all attempt to get our books close to publication time in the US, so if you want to “buy american”, these dealers will beat Amazon and others by months…
Gentlemen, if I place an order TODAY thru this site for the hardcover version of Ftacnik’s GM6, will it ship in the coming days or is there some delay like a week or two?
Thank you, Jesse, TonyRo, and Jacob, for the comprehensive answers to an annoyingly-common question 🙂 Hardcover GM 6 ordered through QC.
What is the fastest (and economical) way to get Gm rep 6 . I live in srilanka .
I think we, London Chess Centre and many other European shops would send a parcel to Sri Lanka in much the same way – by standard post.
We hope to ship the hardcovers from Friday, otherwise definitely Monday next week.
I signed up for the newsletter yesterday I think. Is there a way to access this one or even older ones?
The fastest way to get the hardcovers in the US is from Chess4less or directly from you guys?
@Jesse: Actually I live in Newcastle, right at the top of England, not Scotland. I received my copy of GM2 on 4th March because my order was accidentally forgotten to be shipped. QC are fast since they use first class post, and I would have received it on 2nd March if it were not for the mistake. I imagine if you live in Scotland it might be even faster (although if you live in Glasgow I presume that you could go to QC’s office and receive your copy in person) 🙂
Jacob, when will Niggemann have Ftacnik book in hardcover?
I preordered this book in April!
My next question is for us, KING’S INDIAN players. Can you give us more information regarding author, format, date of publishing and other dara because I smelled a weird silence, just like in case of Shaw’s “KIng’s Gambit”. Spies are everywhere, form USA Till RF 🙂
Not sure i C4L or we are faster with hardbacks in general. I think this time they are, maybe usually we are 1-2 days faster. I would buy where it is more convenient for you. Of course, they have to choose to buy the books, while we always have them guaranteed.
Niggemann should get the hardcovers today.
No news is good news.
P.S. I live in Huddersfield (West yorkshire)
Then we, London Chess Centre and Chess Direct should be equally fast.
Chess4Less will only be fast in the US, of course…
finaly GM6 appeared at Niggemann and I ordered it (together with the puzzle book). I am pretty shure I will not play the Najdorf in the near future but the quality of the previous books was so high that I could not resist…
I also liked very much the newsletter with commented games and updates on previous variations ! quality chess seems to improve even more, although it already seems difficult to become better.
Great Work!
I ordered GM 6 from Chess Direct yesterday snd has already shipped should get it on Friday hopefully!
Let me know what you think. We are always interested in feedback.
read somewhere the hardbacks GM6 ordered on the site itself still need to be sent? can’t seem to find where jacob posted that. Can you confirm?
We will get them tomorrow or more likely Monday. There was a problem with a machine in Estonia, so the books were delayed just over a week; but they are on their way.
I received GM 6 today after ordering it Tuesday from Chess Direct, initial thoughts are that it loks very nice indeed.
Like the paper feels better more glossy somehow.
Regarding the content
I think Ftacnik has made some good original suggestions, rather than the recomending similar stuff from Sharpest Sicilian, Mastering the Najdorf and Play the Najdorf.
I was a bit disappointed in that in the Be2 chapter, commenting that lots of moves had been tried on move 7 and was not going to talk about them but I feel a glance would have been nice particularly the lines where White plays Be2, Be3 and 0-0-0.
Liked his 9.Qf3 Qb6 lines in the Bc4 lines-different and not in other books.
Liked his 8.f3 h5!? idea in the 6.Be3 e5 English Attack again not seen in other books.
I know his lines against 6.Bg5 got some stick on Chess Pub about not been Main Lines but at a glance I quite like the 6…e6 7.f4 h6!? with play possibly transposing to the Browne System I believe after 11.Bd3 g5!
Ftacnik likes to treat most of the Anti-Sicilian lines with a K_side fianchetto even against the c3 Sicilian after 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 g6, Main line Closed Sicilian.
Well worth the cash & another great book. You guys should be proud of yourselves WAY ahead of your competition!!
Further to my comment above about the 6.Be2 e6 chapter
Having spent a long time checking the book today and there seems to be a lot of material missing from this chapter. Stuff covered in Chapter 5 of Emms “Play the Najdorf Scheveningen style”.
Especially lines where White plays Qe1 without a4 or Kh1 and lines where White plays 10.g4! after 9.Be3 Qc7.
These are just a couple of lots of ommissions I feel could/should have been included.
Still a good buy just some constructive critisism. Maybe a PDF update at a later time would be nice. If Emms can do it why can’t Ftacnik! 🙂
Personally I like GM6’s paper better, because the consistency is more solid and seems more sturdy. The new paper is more difficult to rip, so it is good when you have to carry the book around in a bag or so.
Thanks for feedback. Sorry to hear that there might be an omission – I will deal with this in the August newsletter if I get the time. We are very busy and all of us are playing 1-2 tournaments this autumn. Andrew is at 2/4 at the British and I will play in Politiken starting tomorrow.
Is the Bauer book on schedule for an august release?
Maybe some of us could help with proof-reading in order to avoid omissions? Or you could include the variation index in the pdf-excerpt and see if someone comes up with a variation not covered but deserving to be covered.
We are trying in general to check if lines are missed; I don’t know why this happened. There are drawbacks to both your suggestions.
The Bauer book was on the August schedule, but the delay of GM6 is maybe pushing it into early September. We are on the ball – the same goes for the Marin books.
A little suggestion if you decide to fix the missed lines in a pdf – if there are any:
Call it a “bonus chapter”, not an update. 😉
Since the book is so expensive (totally worth it when it is done right) I emailed you requesting to delay or cancel my order of GM6. Thanks.
I cannot imagine anything extensive is missing. I want to point out that I have never seen a chess book that did not miss something someone thought was important; including our own.
The book is completely worth € 35.99 in hardcover as it is. If you want to pay € 19.99 for a book with half the pages, printed on the cheapest paper in the world, written by a 2350 IM and printed after little more than a language check – you all know where to go…
One of the points of doing a newsletter (signup here) with a CBV file is that we have a way to send stuff to people about these books that they might find interesting; as for example with the comments on Khalifman’s book (which turned out not to be a problem). I will give any comments there.
One of the problems with refunds is that it is technically tricky, and I only have to do it 1-2 times a year; so the password gets locked out every time for not having been used. But obviously we are ok to give refunds, it just takes time to get around to doing it.
The book you are criticizing is actually not bad at all. Of course it can’t measure up to Ftacnik’s work but it covers …e5 systems in the Najdorf and is well worth purchasing as a supplement to Ftacnik if you prefer those lines to Ftacnik’s favorite Scheveningen.
Yes, but above-mentioned criticised book is not very detailed. It only has nine pages on 6. Be2 whilst Ftacnik’s book has 44 pages on 6. Be2.
@Jacob Aagaard
I think the customers are the best judge as to what their money is worth. For example for me in Canada the difference isn’t 16.00 Euros. For your book I have to pay 5.00 Euros of shipping as well so it ends up being more than 55 CAD at the end. For that money I can get 3 to 4 books of the type you mention from Amazon.
Is there a chance that missing lines will be published as a .pdf file and distributed online?
That seems to be only the fault of the currency conversions. It has always been known that anything from Europe is very expensive for Canadians, Americans, and Australians 🙂
Imagine if you lived in Zimbabwe last year. You would have to pay over ZIM$1 quadrillion dollars for GM6. Look on the bright side…
To cancel a book because it doesn’t show all possible lines
is silly – anyway you can’t learn them all, except you’re a millionaire
with unlimited time. But whats more important, learning an opening is not
memorizing every line.
@Jacob
I think it’s kind of a bad style to praise your own books by devaluing other books.
If it is good, it can stand for itself, so why always compare it to other books? And it sounds a little arrogant to criticize the author because he is a IM. What about your books, when you were a IM?
It is true that if you buy on discount websites you might find some of those other books at a further discounted rate. I am talking about the list price.
I was not criticising any book in general. I was merily hinting at a publisher. I have elsewhere had good things to say about the competing Najdorf books.
Yes, there will be an update; but in cbv and pgn formats. Already we updated something in our newsletter (see the blog) because of the Khalifman book’s appearance.
can i find this book in poland ? any retailers there ??
will grandmaster rep6 be available in shops there ?
Jacob said there would be a .pdf file fixing any possible missing lines in Ftacnik’s book so I decided to get the book! The decision also had to do with the fact that I got Cutting Edge 1 and I was very happy with it. Looking forward to Ftacnik’s book.
Also the last publishing schedule was posted on June 25th since you have published two books and some 5 weeks have passed I think a new schedule is in order.
I will put up a new schedule once we are all back in the office. I am at 2/2 now.
…and playing the Najdorf a la Ftacnik and 1.c4 a la Marin 🙂
Got GM6 (and the puzzle book) yesterday and (as usual btw) it is an ecxellent book. The paper is fine, I like it even better. Very interesting suggestions against the english attack , 6…Nbd7 against the Bg5 -line is very refreshing.
“missing” lines for the pdf – update: 2.f4 (nobody plays this nowedays because of 2…d5 so more copy paste), 5.f3 (also very minor line) and the already mentioned lines in the 6.Be2 variation.
Great book
Question for the upcoming GM4, GM5, Scandinavian books, and all future opening books from QC: Will QC be using the new paper that was used in GM6? Many people on this blog and I all like the new paper very much.
We will consider the paper carefully.
Yes, we will do an online update as well.
According to my credit card statement Ftacnik’s book cost me 56.62 CAD in the end. But on the other hand it is hardcover, high quality paper and finally I can stop playing the French!
Will the online update (I am assuming it is the promised .pdf) also talk about Khalifman’s choices beside the missing 6. Be2 e6 lines?
We will put the last newsletter in a PDF as well. They are in there.
Just received my hardback copy. I really like the paper. My only complaints with the book are the missing 6. Be2 9… Qc7 10. g4! line and the fact that on my copy the cover is not centered. I am not sure if all of the books are like this or if I just got a misprint. 9.5/10 which will soon be 10/10 when the missing lines are covered. If it is a misprint, then my bibliophile self is even happier.
Honestly, I have not yet seen the hardback version. I am playing in Denmark (3.5/4). If you e-mail me a photo of the cover I can compare it to the one I get on Wednesday.
The book:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs283.snc4/40507_10150223748690232_635900231_14172324_484943_n.jpg
Comparison with my other Quality Chess hardback which isn’t exactly centered but is good enough to not be noticeable:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs142.ash2/40439_10150223748760232_635900231_14172327_6445101_n.jpg
Are the planned and future GM Repertoires against 1. d4 going to offer complete solutions against 1. d4 or will coverage start only after 2. c4?
Thought the hardbacks for GM6 hadn’t been sent out yet? My order status is still “not shipped”. Patience is a difficult thing……
What a game yesterday! Jacob, you play with unpublished secret notes…Nice excerpt for GM 5
Because there was a technical problem at the printing factory, the hardbacks were delayed by a week. This meant that, unlike usual, the two shops which get our books directly from the factory received them at the same time as our warehouse, which then forward the books to us. In this way, they beat us by 2-3 days. We sent out the hardback copies from Glasgow yesterday – while these other shops sent them out Thursday or so – and locals will of course get it the next day.
This is not how things will be in the future, but how they are now.
I should say that ChessCafe and Chess4Less have both ordered our books for the US, but not the USCF.
Does GM6 complement or supersede Ftacnik’s Chessbase DVD on the same opening?
His DVD was on the Schevenninger, this is on the Najdorf. A DVD is usually 20-40 pages if written on paper – the book is 432 pages.
Here’s the “excerpt” of GM5 Victor was talking about.
[Event “Politiken Cup 2010”]
[Site “Copenhagen”]
[Date “2010.08.02”]
[Round “4.16”]
[White “Aagaard, Jacob”]
[Black “Stojanovski, Sandi”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2542”]
[BlackElo “2208”]
[PlyCount “47”]
[EventDate “2010.??.??”]
[WhiteTeam “Sydřstfyn”]
[BlackTeam “K41”]
1. c4 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. Nf3 e5 6. a3 a5 7. d4 Nxd4 8. Nxd4
cxd4 9. Nb5 d5 10. c5 Bf8 11. Bxd5 Bxc5 12. Qb3 Qe7 13. Bg5 f6 14. Bd2 Kf8 15.
O-O Kg7 16. Rac1 Bh3 17. Rxc5 Qxc5 18. Rc1 Qf8 19. Rc7+ Ne7 20. Be6 Bf5 21.
Bxf5 gxf5 22. Qe6 Re8 23. Nd6 Kg6 24. Rxe7 1-0
7. d4 is pretty stunning. Black has stonewalled the d4 square and white pushes anyway!
I had no opening knowledge at all in this game. I just played 1.c4 because of some jokes with friends here. In general I am not well prepared. I have analysed a lot of positions, but do not have a coherent repertoire at the moment.
Jacob, thanks for the response. My question was more driven by what Ftacnik writes in the introduction to the book about how it draws a lot on Scheveningen themes:
“Although the official subject of this book is the Najdorf variation, the two
systems share many common themes and can often transpose to one another. In certain places, such as Chapters 12 and 13….. the decision to recommend the response 6…e6, instead of equally valid alternatives such as 6…e5,
was influenced by my fondness for the Scheveningen set-up. I make no apologies for this, as I believe that an author can make the most useful contribution when writing about his own areas of expertise.”
I guess my question is really, WHEN I buy the book, do you think getting the DVD as well will increase my understanding of the opening, and be a good investment, or be a complete waste of time and cash?
I really do not have enough knowledge to say. It probably cannot hurt, but can it confuse – it is really an individual evaluation I dont want to pretend to be qualified to make.
Hello there
What happened with “The Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits”?
Do you think these gambits are good enough for tournament play? Up to what level / range?
Thanks 🙂
I would think up to 2400 for the more suspecious ones, like the one against the French. But if the opponent is prepared, I would not play it. Otherwise I would take the chance against any non-IM/GM without being too worried.
Boris is writing the second book as we speak. I hope it will be out very early next year. We are keeping the educational line of them, teaching about the initiative, while making it more of a reliable repertoire.
@Paul
Paul, you were asking about the Ftacnik DVD compared to his book. I also haven’t seen the DVD, but I asked Lubo about it a while ago just to make sure our book would be original material. The DVD has next to no overlap with the book. Also, the DVD is intended as more of an introduction than a work of deep theory. Those are close to exact quotes from Lubo. I don’t know if that helps you decide whether you also want the DVD…
The DVD is very instructive. Worth purchasing if you are new to the Scheveningen.
Yesterday I received my hardback copy of GM6 which I ordered from this site. Packaging was good. The book was wrapped in bubble-plastic and put into a solid envelope. The hardcover itself is very good. Exactly what I want and for me totally worth the (extra) price. The paper looks and feels somewhat “glossy” and it feels quite different than other chess books I own but certainly not bad. About the contents of the book, Some minor lines are missing (1 e4 c5 2 f4 for instance, and the Be2 g4 line) but everything I expected is in the book.
I’m a happy customer and can’t wait for some of the books QC listed as “coming soon”
I remembered I’ve read that in GM6 Ftanik propose (sometimes) two variations such as vs the Smith-Morra Gambit. Do you think it’s posiible to see them in a forthcoming newsletter ? So, in this way, we may have more food for thoughts ! And, at least, if the lines given in his book do not suit us we can always change. Thanks
Not beyond what is in the newsletter already and the PDF excerpt. I think there is only one line against the Morra though…
Congratulations to Jacob for the awarded books!
First I was in doubt whether something really new
could be written about attacking, but now I will buy the
books and make my own judgment.
Two questions:
A question regarding gambits in tournament play:
Up to 2400 they are playable, Jacob said…How about
the King’s Gambit?
And: There a few repertoire books on e4e5 – because
it’s such a big piece of cake I suppose…Are there QC
projects about it?
I played the King’s Gambit twice this year, one win, one draw. It seems playable, but probably not for more than equality with accurate play. However, we are not giving all our ideas away yet.
We have some black 1.e4 e5 repertoire books. And in the GM series there will come a complete 1.e4 series in 2012.