Politiken Cup

I am away from the office playing in the Politiken Cup (4/5 so far). But here is a current estimate of when the various books will be available, and the order I expect them to come out.

Christian Bauer Play the Scandinavian September
Mihail Marin Grandmaster Repertoire 4 – The English Opening vol. 2 September
Mihail Marin Grandmaster Repertoire 5 – The English Opening vol. 3 September
Tibor Karolyi Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 1 – 1961-1985 September/October
Tibor Karolyi Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 2 – 1986 – 2009 September/October
John Shaw The King’s Gambit September/October
Boris Avrukh GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence LATER
Milos Pavlovic The Cutting Edge 2 – The Najdorf Sicilian without 6.Bg5 LATER
Mihail Marin Common Grandmaster Mistakes – and how to avoid them LATER
Artur Yusupov Boost your Chess 3 LATER
Bauer, Aagaard (editors) Experts on the Anti-Sicilian Jan-11
Boris Alterman Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits NEXT YEAR
Vassilios Kotronias Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED LATER
Various Grandmaster versus Amateur NEXT YEAR
Milos Pavlovic The Cutting Edge 3 – The Najdorf Sicilian with 6.Bg5 LATER
Various Grandmaster versus Amateur NEXT YEAR
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
Tiger Hillarp Persson Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED NEXT YEAR

153 thoughts on “Politiken Cup”

  1. Abramov Anjuhin

    And where is Grandmaster Repertoire: KING’S INDIAN DEFENSE?

    I would like to propose some projects like:

    a) POSITIONAL chess handbook
    – comparison: Dvoretsky’s Analytical Manual & Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual

    b) POSITIONAL chess excercises
    – comparison: Jussupow’s Schachunterricht

    c) BIOGRAPHY with annotated games: Efim GELLER, Tigran PETROSIAN, Efim GUFELD, Paul KERES, Mikhail CHIGORIN, Boris SPASSKY, Mark TAIMANOV

    d) ENDGAME chess excercises
    – comparison: Konikowski “Testbuch der …”

    e) COMPENDIUM of strategy/positional chess
    – comparison: Marin “Learn from the Legends”

    Thanks and please guys do comment on this, everybody! πŸ™‚

  2. The only project I’d like to propose, which I’ve gotten a “There is something in the works, but email is not the place to announce” (paraphrased) response to, but have seen no announcement for, is something for Black against 1.d4 that is more positional in nature.

    Everything ever printed or planned to be printed for Black by Quality Chess against 1.d4 are all defenses that involve burning your bridges. These include the Benko (published), Semi-Slav (published), Grunfeld (planned) and King’s Indian (“Quazi-planned” – announced one day, not another). Some people would rather play something safer, like many of the light-square defenses, such as the QGD-Orthodox, Nimzo-Indian/Queen’s Indian, Slav with 4…dxc4, etc.

    I have seen a post before questioning whether books published for Black against 1.d4 would be complete, or based on 2.c4. There are 2 excellent books out. Fighing the Anti-King’s Indians (and an older one by Gallagher), and “Dealing with d4-deviations”. There is no need for coverage on the Colle. The Colle won’t change.

    We need a GM Repertoire or a “Play the” book on the QGD, Nimzo-/Queen’s Indian, or Main Line Slav (4…dxc4).

  3. Yay! It seems I am going to have GM repertoire Gruenfeld by Christmas! In 2011 I can unleash my new repertoire as Black!

    Poor man’s complaint: was it really necessary to publish the Najdorf cutting edge in 2 volumes? I mean how many pages will each of them be after all? And if 6. Bg5 is getting its own volume what will we see? Will there be a complete coverage of poison pawn?

  4. Very impressive line-up…if you poached Kasparov from Everyman and Nunn from Gambit, you would be (almost) publishing the only chess books worth buying. I had stopped playing competitively until recently (for a couple of years) due to career, other interests etc- the exceptionally high quality of the books you have been putting out is- I think- one of the reasons I have reignited my interest in the game. Only complaints are finding the time to read all your excellent books! Your involvement in this forum-bringing you closer to your readership- is another heavy plus you guys have vs Everyman/Gambit etc. When Nunn et al set up Gambit I thought they took chess publishing to another level…but you guys are taking it much, much higher. I’m almost wondering if you are putting Gambit out of business…their forthcoming section is 0 after the 2 books they currently have at the printers.

  5. I would also like to suggest a repertoire book based on the black side of the QGD (including an approach versus the Catalan). The QGD is not a “sexy opening” but it is involves rich positional play in a sound and solid opening. As a chess player, now well into my 50’s, I am starting to play the French and Caro Kann against e4 (thank you Mr. Schandorff) and the QGD vs d4. While there are many fine books written on the French and Caro in the last decade from the black and white persepctive, I have found nothing written on the QGD from the black perspective in at least 15 years.

    Your books are excellent, produced with great passion and a high level of professionalism. I will be glad to wait a while for something for the QGD.

  6. Ponting is a Legend

    I do not think that the GrΓΌnfeld is a “burn all your bridges opening”. It is similar to the King’s Indian Defence but much more solid and reliable. It must be the most popular defence amongst grandmasters against 1. d4 currently since it is much sounder than the KID.

  7. I strongly second the QGD idea. You go through the 1927 Alekhine – Capablanca match it is all QGD, you go through the 1985 Karpov – Kasparov match it is all QGD and finally you go to Anand – Topalov 2010 and the deciding game is QGD. Definitely worth a try. In a similar vain you could do a cutting edge volume for Vienna/Ragozin variations of QGD since there has been a great deal of high level games in that variation.

  8. I really want a QGD book myself. Passionately. I have had some discussions with a potential author, but we are far from making a deal.

    I think the Semi-Slav is the most popular opening at the moment? I would think the Grunfeld is unfashionable – but obviously it is a good opening.

    We are trying to improve what we do constantly. But all the time we fall short of what we are trying to do, I feel; although we are definitely getting closer to the desired goal.

    I am hoping to be able to include two Nimzo-Indian books in the publishing schedule in a month or so. I want to see some more progress from the authors before I make promises. I trust both guys inherently, but I also don’t want to pressure them unduly by slotting them in.

    The same is the case with the KID books. The author is busy with other things at the moment, so I have not put them on the list. But I am still a big believer that they will happen. The reason I put my own (six) books on the list is that I want to believe that I can do it, and thus not have reservations.

    I used to be a big fan of what Gambit was doing and I still think they have some good authors. Lars Bo Hansen has done some great things. GM Sune Berg Hansen named his books as the number one source of his recent improvement. Chess Stars publish a number of good books. I liked the recent ones from Vitiugov and especially Dreev a lot. I think Khalifman’s recent book was a bit of a miss, but in general this series is doing well too.

    New in Chess do some nice things too, which is probably the reason they pick up all those awards. They do aim at the wider spectrum of the market, where we probably hit at a level above the judges. For instance, in 2006 we nominated THE SVESHNIKOV RELOADED and PRACTICAL CHESS DEFENCE, but none of them made it through to the shortlisting. Rogozenko’s book was probably the best opening book ever at the time of release, but somewhat technical. PCD has many fans – Gelfand, Marin, Luther, Nielsen, Anand and this week I found out, Eljanov. Instead of these three good books and the somewhat dubious book on Curacao 1962 was nominated. Who should win is always debatable, but apparently the nominations are a bit random as well :-).

    Anyway, rambling. I am just so happy with the nice atmosphere here, rather than being accused on being disingenious with our choices, as happened on Chess Publishing (where I kind of lost it).

  9. Jacob Aagaard :
    I really want a QGD book myself. Passionately. I have had some discussions with a potential author, but we are far from making a deal.

    All I can say is that this is very exciting! My only QGD book is by Marovic published in 1991. There has been a book by Gambit and Kasparov’s DVDs since (Kasparov vs Karpov: 1975 – 1985 has a great deal of material on QGD as well. For example 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cd5 ed5 5.Bf4 appeared in 3 consecutive games in a critical phase of the 1985 match [games 20, 21 and 22] and Kasparov comments on the opening pretty extensively). The Quality Chess books are expensive for me but I will fast and save money in order to buy the hardcover QGD GM repertoire if it comes out.

    Jacob! Get these books published, I promise you, there are many chess fans who are just sick of the junk fast food that is in the chess book market and would gladly pay extra to feast on your gourmet dishes.

  10. I was going to cite the success of offering hardcovers as a sign that there are people who recognize and value quality but then I thought I should ask how is the program doing (I was one of the people who pushed for it hard here in the comment section of this blog and I was very happy to see it happen) and whether you guys will continue offering the hardcover option for all your future books.

  11. I just looked at Gambit’s book on QGD. IM Rizzitano is the author, it is only 128 pages long, it is a softcover and the list price is 17.55€. Quality Chess QGD GM repertoire would be written by a GM, quite possibly it would be 400 pages long and the hardcover would cost 35.99€ at most.

    If Quality Chess publishes the first in an opening lacking books then no one can compete. The only disadvantage of Quality Chess is price and when there are no books people will buy the book out of necessity. And once you had a juicy New York steak for dinner you are not going to long for the junk fast food.

  12. I hope Marin is almost there, because we’ve waited a long time to complete our English repertoire! (I’m pretty sure it’s well worth the waiting nonetheless).
    I would like too a GM rep against 1.d4 like QGD or Nimzo, something more positional.

  13. Abramov Anjuhin

    Jacob,

    Playing on playchess.de I chatted with GM Gallagher, author of the best book on the KID named “Play the King’s Indian”, and I suggested him that he makes a second edition of his book. He responded that perhaps he can do this is the future.

    So I thought that you might contact him that he writes the book on KID under your publishing house. And I bet that with synergistic work this would be the best ever written book on KID. Why not contact him…

    By the way Jacob, what do you think about my proposed projects?

  14. I’m glad to see the update of possibly the 2-book Nimzo series, and all the interest in the QGD. Should increase the odds of seeing one of these in the next 2 years or so.

    Also saw all the comments about the quality of the books published here. I definitely have to agree, and I have the first on the 3-book English series (with the other 2 to come when published). The game below, played Tuesday night (Game/90) is a prime example of what will happen if you read Marin’s books:

    English – Line from Chapter 30 by transposition after 8 moves each
    W: Myself B: JP Flynn

    1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 d6 4.Nc3 g6 5.e4 Bg7 6.Nge2 O-O 7.O-O Nbd7 8.d3 e5 9.Kh1 (ok, so I didn’t end up playing the recommended 9.h3) Rb8 10.a4 Nc5 11.b4 Na6 12.b5 Nc5 13.Be3 Nfd7 14.d4 exd4 15.Bxd4 Bxd4 16.Nxd4 Ne5 17.Rb1 Bd7 18.f4 Nxc4 (I think Black had to play 18…Bg4) 19.Qe2 Nb6 20.f5 Qc7 21.Qe3 f6 22.fxg6 hxg6 23.Qh6 Be8 24.a5 Nc4 25.bxc6 Nxa5 26.e5 bxc6 27.Rxb8 Qxb8 28.Nxc6 Bxc6 29.Qxg6+ Kh8 30.Rf4 Bxg2+ 31.Kg1!! fxe5 32.Rh4#

  15. The problem is that theory does not change much in the Queen’s Gambit Declined. You can still get by with the decade old books by Sadler and Janjgava (spelling) and maybe adding a few new moves from Short’s games and Sokolov’s solution to Onischuk’s 14. Ne5.

  16. I think there has been some relevant changes in the QGD. The Bf4 line remains popular and continues to evolve. The Lasker is seeing a bit of a revival as a result of Anand’s victory. The QGD may not need updates as frequently as the Semi Slav (I consider the Slav/Semi Slav now as separate openings) but Jangiva’s book was published in English ten years ago. I think it is a couple of years older than that because there are no game citations after 1997 that I could find.

    A book published in the late 1990’s obviously does not have the benefit of the monster programs available today. I admit to an emotional attachment to the QGD in the sense that its ideas and approached have been developed continually for more that a century, with the world’s greatest players adding so much to it in every generation.

    I am glad that Quality Chess has such interest in developing a work on the QGD.

  17. I’m on board with that! As a player who prefers more positional chess, I’d be all in favor of books re: the Slav, QGD, and also the French Defense. The English 1 by GM Marin is a superb work, just utterly outstanding, so I’m in line for more books!

  18. @Hesam
    Hello Hesam!
    Take a look at the book “Queen’s Gambit Declined” published by Everyman Chess, authored by Matthew Sadler in 2000. Sadler is quite the chess writer, in my opinion.
    Carl

  19. Everyman Chess has actually announced a repertoire book for Black on the Queen’s Gambit for Jan to be written by John Cox.

  20. Ponting is a Legend

    Without a doubt QC would do well on more repertoire books on 1. d4 for Black’s point of view. If you look at ChessDirect or London Chess Centre’s top seller list, almost constantly the #1 on the list is a QC publication!

  21. Gallagher should update the book for the publisher he wrote it for. With all respect for Joe – and I have a lot of it – I prefer the author we have working on the KID. However, it is too early to announce. The same with the Nimzo-Indian projects we have.

    We have asked some people about French Defence, QGD and so on. Maybe one day someone will say yes. Short term I am sure Cox will do an excellent job on the QGD.

    We are trying to cover everything, but the projects are happening in the order they make sense – meaning when the right authors show up.

  22. The King’s Gambit Book is announced now…
    Have you found interesting new ideas, maybe even
    to make it playable on higher levels?

  23. @Carl Berg Thank you! I will look into Sadler’s book.

    @Jacob Aagaard Someone should run bookie where people bet on who the authors of GM repertoire will be. From what you have said it seems that for KID Bologan and Gallagher are out since they have already written KID books with other publishers. About the QGD I have no clue as to who has turned you down (don’t you guys pay more than your competition to your writers?), but I am sure anyone who ends up writing the book will be properly vetted.

    Is the Nimzo-Indian project in the Cutting Edge series or in the GM repertoire series?

    Can you say anything about the size of Cutting Edge 2 & 3? Earlier I asked if it was really necessary to split the Najdorf into 2 volumes.

    And finally has the hardcover experiment been a success? Will you guys keep doing it? I am very happy with the cover of Cutting Edge 1 and if it is still offered I will keep buying the hardcover edition.

  24. Played the King’s Gambit today. Exciting game, even if I was in a bit of a bother.

    Hesam – I don’t really want to discuss our business too closely on the blog, but yes, it was necessary to split those books. Also, we will continue to do some hardcovers for the moment.

  25. I am hopeful regarding the Cox book as well. His previous works have been pretty good. Glad to get the courteous and constructive feedback regarding the QGD. I have in my 37 plus years playing tournament chess seen different openings fall in and out of fashion several times. A can remember when the Gruenfeld was considered not quite sound, and now … In 1975 or 1980 if you had said the Philidor Defense will be back in a big way, the comments would have drowned out by the laughter. I predict that the QGD will have its day in the sun again (and probably again after that).

  26. Jacob Aagaard :
    Hesam – I don’t really want to discuss our business too closely on the blog, but yes, it was necessary to split those books. Also, we will continue to do some hardcovers for the moment.

    I understand and thanks for doing the hardcovers!

  27. @Carl Berg

    I looked at Sadler’s book a bit in Amazon and I liked it. Specially since he talked about transpositions at the beginning of the book. But I would not play 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 under any circumstances, it is never fun.

    But still you can see a definite lack of books on QGD. Just compare it with French for example. If you are looking for a book on French you have quite a number of books to choose from: Watson, Moskalenko, Eingorn and Vitiugov are the ones that come to my mind. Also there is Kindermann-Dirr for Winawer’s modern line (7.Qg4 O-O). You don’t have anything similar for QGD. I wanted to study Vienna and I just could not find a decent book for it.

  28. With the Vitiugov book just out, I am more keen on the QGD than the French too. Although it was messy in places, it was a great publication.

  29. @Hesam
    Hello Hesam!
    Thanks for the list! I have Watson’s work…pretty good. I’ll check the rest out.
    I think it is also worth noting that QC has a very good book re the QG by GM Schandorf (whose Caro-Kann book I own is a joy to read!) so perhaps that is a choice for you. My brother has the QG book and says it is good. He’s a better player than am I.
    I agree with your tastes re: the exchanging lines in the QG. Black has good defenses to it, but the game becomes very slow.
    What I found so good about Sadler’s work were his explanations. I am a teacher so I appreciate the ability to teach (as in Jacob’s attacking manuals, for example)and that while there are many geniuses out there in the chess world, sometimes this lesser mortal requires understanding versus data dumps. NO disrespect is intended with this comment to any chess author. But if endless lines, variations, and sub-variations were all that was required, we should all buy ECO’s. Yikes!! NO way!
    Positive Case in point: GM Mihail Marin’s books are utterly phenomonal. Explanations via lucid prose, redundancy of ideas in critical positions, his personally tested lines, plenty of diagrams, and honest evaluations.
    GM Schandorff’s book (Caro-Kann) is likewise tested by the author’s experiences. Honest writing and with a sense of humor to boot!
    Quality Chess books have inspired me to get back into the game…job workload be damned!!

  30. Any chance you could get Ivanchuk to (co)author a games collection/biography? He has the best set of games to choose from among all active players — possibly behind only Kasparov and Tal among ALL players — but NO games collection.

    I have no idea whether the publishers who brought out collections by Bologan, Dreev, Khalifman, Leko, Kosteniuk, and Yermolinsky(?) made any money on them, but I don’t believe I would be the only player to buy an Ivanchuk collection sight unseen.

    PS If you do, please don’t restrict it to just the games he won.

  31. Hi QC team,
    I’ve just received “The Alterman Gambit Guide – White Gambits- ” for my birthday, and I’m very happy since I was afraid that there was only explanations and very little theory but there are both !! So this book is great !! I prefer the paper quality of “Beating the open games” and earlier books, but it’s not very important.

    Just would like to know :

    1)Why you don’t put the diagram from black perspective when doing a book for black ? because it’s always from white.

    2)After the “Black Gambit” tome, I would like to know too, if you a plan to do a sort of “Practical play of White/Black gambits” and why not by readers games choosing by Boris who could continue his nices pedagogicals explanations ?

    Quality chess does a very good job for chess, let’s chessplayers do, at least a little, the same for you !
    Long life to QC !

  32. Hi Michel,

    I am glad you like the book. The paper is generally thought to be better by professionals, but when I was an “amateur” on these issues, I also had a tendency to think shinier was better, so I follow your thinking.

    1) Many people find it unnatural – I am one of them. It is simply not the tradition. It is of course not better, nor worse, it is just what a majority of people are used to seeing.

    2) We will see what we will do later. I am not sure this is exactly what we are looking for in a project. First I just want the second book to be even better than the first.

  33. I hope Bauer’s book will be up-to-date. I exchanged a few words with Bauer back in february, and he said he had practically finished work on the book. That was 6 months ago. I’m counting on QC to make this THE book on the Qa5 Scandi.

  34. Finally I received my hard cover copy of GM 6 on Saturday.
    My first impressions are as follows:
    1) Packaging – great innovation from QC. The book was put in some additional stuff which saved the corners and the book body. I got the book in a perfect condition.
    2) Paper – I quite like this new paper, especially for hard cover books. I am not sure how it will fit in soft covers, but for hard covers it is simply great.
    3) Content – I did not have time to go deeper inside the analysis and lines but at first sight it looks very good for me. There are some omissions from proof reading point of view – if you look at the Table of Contents it says 6.Bg5 lines are covered in chapters 21 and 22. The same is also in the published PDF, but in fact these are chapters 18 and 19. There are some typos here and there inside the chapters which I checked, but there is no perfect book. Better to have such errors instead of big analytical holes πŸ˜‰
    I will take a deeper look at the chapters which are of my interest in the next few days and then I hope I would be able to share my opinion.
    Overall: Great work form QC team. Let us hope that the other books from the series will be done in the same way.

  35. I also got the GM 6. I would like to say that I really like it and in no way regret buying it! Now and then I come across a mistake, but its rather rarely and in not important lines so far, which of course is unavoidable in such huge works. However, I am having a hard (long) time going through all the lines, which actually made me write this comment (thank goodness the book stays open even though its a softcover, would hate to spend additional energy to keep it open).
    I would like to say that in my opinion it would be just so much easier, if chess books were available in cbv, pgn or whatever database format online for download, I really dont need any physical book, I fancy one day I could just pay for the book (full price, doesnt matter) and get it immediately via website download in a database format. It would be amazing! Seems like a bargain to me – you dont have to print the book for me and I spare a lot of time just by “pressing the arrow” to get all the information + no need to wait till the book arrives, no shipping costs… After all, its all about the information inside πŸ™‚
    Anyway, thats just my future dream πŸ™‚

    Keep up the great work guys, love your books!!!

    Best Wishes, L.

  36. It’s a bargain if you expect the same number of sales. Unfortunately, one person will be honest enough to buy it, then nice enough to pass it on to their friends, which just cost you 200% of what you just made if they both would have bought the book themselves.

  37. Yes, in an honest world…

    I recently saw that an e-bay seller was selling 600 PDF’s of chess books, including 12 or so of mine from Everyman. The guy did not have a single QC book. We take digital security quite seriously…

  38. Hi,

    I didn’t find a schedule for Marin’s books on the English opening in german (vol 2+). When will it get published?

    Will there also a hardcover edition of Avrukh’s 1.d4 vol 2 (GM2)?

    Best regards,
    Ulrich Dirr

  39. Yes, the schedule does not include the German editions at the moment – I will get them incorporated.

    Yes, there will be a hardcover GM2 in about 4 weeks. We are finishing the proofs today.

  40. Jacob Aagaard :
    Yes, the schedule does not include the German editions at the moment – I will get them incorporated.
    Yes, there will be a hardcover GM2 in about 4 weeks. We are finishing the proofs today.

    I am confused, I thought you guys did not do second editions.

  41. Hi Jacob,

    I was wondering if you could give us a little view of GM rep 4 or/and GM rep 5?
    Maybe a table of contents or something like that?

    Kind regards,

    Jasper

  42. When I have something, I will. Right now it would be work that would only be used for this blog, which I won’t do on this.

  43. Abramov Anjuhin

    Jacob Aagaard :
    Yes, there will be a hardcover GM2 in about 4 weeks. We are finishing the proofs today.

    Jacob, why did I then buy Avrukh’s GM Rep 1&2 in softcover? I couldn’t buy hardcover of GM Rep 1 for some, to me, unknown reason, and I even didn’t know that the hardcover of Avrukh’s GM Rep 2 comes so soon πŸ™

    I will donate my 2 softcovers to someone if I only could by both hardcovers of Avrukh’s GM Rep 1&2?

    Did you consider to offer “normal” hardcovers of Avrukh’s GM Rep 1, cause I can’t order it from your site, and secondly you updated this book in some chapter.

    Please reply.

  44. I did not know that we would have a hardcover GM2 this soon either. But I always said we would print one when we did a reprint. And the fact that you cannot buy it off our site still baffles me, but so be it.

  45. Abramov Anjuhin

    Jacob Aagaard :
    I did not know that we would have a hardcover GM2 this soon either. But I always said we would print one when we did a reprint. And the fact that you cannot buy it off our site still baffles me, but so be it.

    I’d be very happy if you can send both hardcovers of Avrukh’s books to the Niggemann store. What will happen when you sell the last 13 copies of GM 1 (hardcover)? New edition? The present hardcover of GM 1 doesn’t includes update just like in my softcover edition, 2010?

  46. Abramov Anjuhin

    Since the GM Rep 1 is one of the best selling books, why you can’t make more hardbacks, especially now when you’re working on hardback of GM Rep 2!

    I just can’t believe it πŸ™‚

  47. Because we are not printing GM1 at the moment – but GM2. If we print only 200 copies of a book, we have to charge 150 euro per copy.

  48. @TF

    Hi TF,

    “Experts on the anti-Sicilians” will not just be from Black’s point of view. It is not a repertoire book. It will perhaps be similar in format to The Cutting Edge books, but it would not fit in that series because anti-Sicilians are rarely on the cutting edge.

  49. Abramov Anjuhin

    Thanks Jacob for the answer.

    John, will “King’s Gambit” also be in hardback format? Is it repertoire book for White, and did you implement Bishop Gambit also?

    I see a raw nerve on chesspub cause people just can’t wait to see your book in their hands, my also πŸ™‚ When will be out…

  50. Abramov Anjuhin

    A commnet from chesspub regarding “King’s Gambit”:

    “Shaw tries to avoid complications in all his games with white or black like the plague all his chess playing life, preferring quiet system openings like exchange ruy and an assortment of anti sicilians, quiet lines of the slav for black etc etc. Hardly the thrill seeker he seems a strange choice for a book on the Kings Gambit.Incidentally, wasn’t that Quality Chess Kings Gambit book slated to come out for ages now, and continually pushed back. Actually I thought the project was put on hold until new potential authors could be found.”

  51. “John Shaw” is both a person and a summary for simply meaning Quality Chess. He is the chief editor, so when we have a team effort, we call it “John Shaw”. This does not mean that John has not done a lot of work on this project – it just means that we had to put it back somewhat to finish a few other books. It iwll happen this autumn.

  52. I just came here to post that on Friday I got my hardcover copy of Ftacnik’s GM6. And although I paid 56.62 I am very happy with the product I have received, now really looking forward to Avrukh’s GM8 and the QGD GM repertoire that is supposedly in the works. Next time however I won’t hesitate nor would any missed lines here and there bother me. Great work by Ftacnik, great work by QC.

  53. One more thing the stamp on my package indicates you guys paid 11.50 Pounds for shipping. Since you are charging 5.00 Euros for shipping you are taking a big hit in that department if it is indeed 11.50 Pounds.

  54. Yes, the postage costs far excede what we charge. It is a question of balance as far as I am concerned. Although the website is a source of reveneu, it is not an important source and most people still buy the books at their local shops, which we encourage. The websales are meant to reach those with no local shops and serve the few that want the books 3 days earlier than else. It is ok, but not an important part of our business. Gambit stopped their webshop years ago…

    QGD is a vision more than in the works. We have 40 books planned at the moment; we are not rushing to increase the workload.

  55. Ponting is a Legend

    I see that September is the release of GM4 and GM5 and Play the Scandinavian. How much of these books are done? Do they seem to be on schedule?

  56. Regarding Karolyi’s books on Karpov: Will the annotations be heavy on variations or will there be an emphasis on explanatory prose? Or perhaps a nice even mixture?

  57. John is 2/3 done with the language check of GM4 – Andrew is 3/4 through the Scandivanian (which is a somewhat smaller book).

    The Scandinavian could be at the printer next week, meaning we could have it in about 4 weeks. The two English books are probably aiming 2-3 weeks further into the future, but of course things can still change a bit.

    The Karpov books have a decent mix. I think they read well.

  58. Jacob don’t be shy, the two books by Karolyi are going to become classics for years to come. He always put great effort in his works. I already look forward to the right beer to choose to accompany first reading of my hardbook copies.
    You guys are doing a great job, if I may underline an improvement I would say something on te endgame is needed, after that milestone by Marin…

  59. thank you. Of course I hope you will be right :-).

    We had one endgame project that collapsed when the author defrauded us. I have been collecting material for some time, but nothing has come of it. If we do something it should be adding to the culture.

  60. Jacob, A little while ago I posted that I thought a 2nd edition of “Play the Semi-Slav would be a good idea and you agreed. On the chesspub. forum, David Vigorito was asked if he would be willing to do a 2nd edition and he said “anything is possible”. I was wondering if there have been any developments in regards to a possible 2nd edition of “Play the Semi-Slav”.

  61. That’s not a development! I already knew Dave is busy writing a 2 volume “Attacking Chess: the King’s Indian” for Everymanchess.

  62. Abramov Anjuhin

    A suggestion for CHESS CLASSICS EDITION:

    ***YURI AVERBAKH: Comprehensive chess endings – a series of a 5 books.***

    Why is everybody in chess publishing business so stubborn and doesn’t want to republish this godly masterpieces.

  63. Dear Mr. Jacob.
    I’m writing to you from Brazil. Firstly, congratulations for the great job.
    I would like to suggest a tittle for “Chess Classic edition” – “Alexander Kotov – Alekhine’s chess heritage”.
    I don’t know an english edition of this great book. It contain valuables advices and lessons in opening, middlegame and final.
    Best wishes

  64. Regarding the second edition of PTSS, I’d welcome it. I fell victim to a nice novelty in the Botvinnik variation, discovered by a player on the Austrian Nation team:

    [Event “WS/O/288”]
    [Site “ICCF”]
    [Date “2009.5.24”]
    [Round “-“]
    [White “Rotella, Anthony”]
    [Black “Schachinger, Mario”]
    [Result “1/2-1/2”]

    1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4
    6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7
    11.g3 Bb7 12.Bg2 Qb6 13.exf6 O-O-O 14.O-O c5 15.d5 b4
    16.Na4 Qa6 17.a3 Bxd5 18.Bxd5 Ne5 19.Qe2 Rxd5 20.axb4 cxb4
    21.Nc3 Qd6!N 22.Rxa7 bxc3 23.Ra8+ Kb7 24.Rfa1 Qb4 25.R1a7+ Kc6
    26.Rc8+ Kd6 27.Rd8+ Kc6 28.Rc8+ 1/2-1/2

    This also debunks the coverage of Schandorff, although I think he gave another option earlier. Whether it’s good enough for anything is up for debate. I remember analyzing this line for a couple of weeks trying to find a good 22nd move for White, but couldn’t. This move was then repeated in Sharavdorj – Robson, World Open 2009 and Black held the draw again. Just some food for thought here.

  65. Abramov Anjuhin

    Jacob Aagaard :
    Already answered many times.

    Really? Give me just one good reason why are Lipnitsky and Suetin the “Classics”? Averbakh is above all!!! …. and you wanted Kovacevic to write endgame books for you…??????

  66. @Abramov Anjuhin:

    You can find Jacob’s answer regarding Averbakh with Google’s help. It will tell you that the name “Averbakh” was used 8 times on this site and that you personally asked about his books at least 2 times before.

  67. Averbakh’s books have been converted to electronic form on the Comprehensive Chess Endings CD by Convekta. If you still need a book, click print.

  68. Ponting is a Legend

    Hi Jacob–You said that John is 3/4 done finalising GM4 with language issues, but how about GM5? Is GM5 being done right now too? (since they are going to be released simultaneously)

  69. I’ve got a suggestion for the GM Repertoire books: At the end of each chapter, or at the end of the book, the author would list the games that he thinks best illustrate the strategies talked about earlier in the chapter/book. Then if the reader wants to better understand a variation he can look up the model game on his database and study it.

    Interesting idea?

  70. Seth. I understand where you are coming from, but I think we have enough stuff in these book already, without thinking up new ways to expand them and the work for the authors.

    Will check the Botvinnik.

    GM5 is not as big as GM4, so it will not take long to finish.

  71. Hi Jacob
    I just got my Caro-Kann book…(great work thx)If you need more book ideas-I am sure you don’t- but
    (1)Something for black Nimzo Indian/Queen’s Indian/Bogo-Indian in the GM series would greatly appreciated.
    (2)A more general book on the Reti. Dare I suggest ‘Play the Reti’ at your usual high level

    Keep up the good work

    Michael Yip

  72. 1) Something is coming, even if not announced.

    2) GM Repertoire 4 – The English Volume 2 is to a great extend a reti-repertoire as well.

  73. Hi ,Got your book GM Rep-6 today and had an overview of it checked a few lines and then had a look at the bibliography and found “Dangerous Weapons – The Sicilian” in it .As i already read the dangerous weapons book i was eager to see what your book recommend against the line 1.e4-c5 2.Nf3-d6 3.d4-cd4 4.Nd4-Nf6 5.f3!? but was unable to find this line in your book ?? I hope it will be covered in the newsletter. But anyways i extremely liked ur book .The recommendedlines,Paper quality everthing .

  74. Hi Ray. Thank you for the warning. I will indeed include this in the next newsletter, which I hope to have ready on Monday or Tuesday – or in other words – end of August :-).

  75. Jacob, if you are going to take a look at the Botvinnik, how about also taking a look at the Moscow and the line 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c6 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bh4 dxc4 7 e4 g5 8 Bg3 b5 9 Be2 Bb7 10 h4 g4 11 Ne5 h5 12 0-0 Nbd7 13 Qc2 and now 13…Be7 which is recommended by Larry Kaufman in his book “The Chess Advantage in Black and White” and is not mentioned by Lars Schandorff in “Playing the Queen’s Gambit”.

  76. Thank you. We are very busy editing, so I am not sure these 1.d4 lines will make the August newsletter. I have been having a look at things missed out on in the Sicilian book.

    I see it as maybe the author’s main task to guide the reader through the various lines and provide new ideas. Lars is an excellent guide and has reduced the number of options to the essential in his books, as a choice. Compared to Avrukh, a normal person can remember this stuff. In this lies the strength of the book. We cannot refer to all sources, and the Kaufman book is already old news; but I would have liked the line in the book all the same!

  77. As you mentioned about the things missed in the sicilian book WE would be delighted if you decide to cover the latest developments in the line 1.e4-c5 2.Nf3-d6 3.d4-cd4 4.Nd4-Nf6 5.Nc3-Nf6 6.Bc4-Qb6 8. Bb3-e6 9.Bxf6 as played in Giri-Gelfand in a recent tournament.This goes unmentioned on page no:407 in sicilian book.If you decide to have a look at this line too this would be a treat to the fans of Gm-rep 6 fans (like me).Thanks

  78. I agree with ray that line A from chapter 19 needs some expansion. Since ray got the moves wrong let me just repeat the line: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd4 4.Nd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qb6!? 8.Bb3 e6. The position here is analyzed for about 1.5 pages and the focus is on 9.Qd2 with a slight mention of 9.O-O. The options that are not covered are: 9.Bf6 Nf6 10.f4; 9.f4 Be7 10.f5 and finally 9.O-O Be7 10.Kh1 (I took this from chesspub).

  79. Jacob, I disagree that Kaufman’s book is already old news. A lot of lines in Kaufman’s book have stood the test of time and are still relevant today. Lars has books in his bibliography that are older than Kaufman’s book.

  80. One more line in the sicilian book which went uncovered.(well i know covering everthing is not possible not practical too but..)
    1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. g3 Nc6 4. Bg2 g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. Nh3!? a move played by many strong players like Short,closed sicilian “guru” Spassky etc
    May be this line too could be covered in the newsletter
    Thanks !

  81. Hello Jacob,
    I have a couple of questions about this schedule:
    1) What is the meaning of ‘LATER’. Does it mean later this year, or… If not this or next year then why not simply something like PLANNED or IN WRITING…
    2) I checked the titles of you planned GM Rep X serie books about 1.e4 and looks it is not full or the names provided are not full. From these I can not see in which volume for example Scandinav, Alekhine and Pirc would be covered.

  82. Milen,

    It was mentioned in a previous thread that the 1…e5 others wasn’t just 1…e5 (like Beating the Open Games by Marin), but rather, in effect, everything else that is not Ruy, Sicilian, French, or Caro-Kann.

    Of course, this is probably only 90% accurate as I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to the updates on that 4-book series as it doesn’t really apply to me. I’m not an e4 player.

  83. Dragadorf play your opening name.I know that Anand used it but you can’t expect to have very success with the scandinavian.

  84. Haha. Scandinavian going to the printer Friday. Hopefully this means we have it in just over four weeks. The two Marin books will not be far behind. Then comes the Olympiad and everything goes to shit…

  85. No. Time trouble. I will probably do two of them. One tomorrow and one next week. The German version on GM2 has just gone to the printer. 648 pages :-(.

  86. Do you plan to publish endgame books in the future- they are a conspicuous absence from the above list. You (Jacob) mentioned John Nunn’s 2 recent books as hard to compete with, but to me at least they are a little bit of a letdown. No real themes throughout- apart from Nunn updating a diaspora of previous publications. To me the best endgame book ever written was Shereshevsky’s Endgame Strategy- a modern version of that (similar themes, but different author and more modern games would be wonderful)

  87. Ponting is a Legend

    By the way, does Stonewall II have an English version? I am interested in that book, but my German is limited and terrible.

  88. Everyman declined my offer to publish Stonewall II in English. They wanted to get rid of their original stock first.

    I have not studied the three Nunn Endgame books closely yet, maybe they are not as good as I believed at first. I really cannot comment.

    The question if we want to do something on the Endgame? In theory yes, but the thing is that a lot of really good books already exist. You mention the Shereshevsky book. I personally believe that my own Excelling at Technical Chess is better, but this is of course because I am building on Mark Dvoretsky’s work excessively in the book; incidently, just as Shereshevsky did.

    When the right project comes along, we will publish it. We had a big project lined up, but the author sabotaged it, by accepting the advance and then publishing snippets from all five books in a book given away at a European Junior event. Needless to say, we cancelled our participation in the project…

  89. Hi Jacob,
    Can you tell us more about the Scandinavian book yet? Like which variations does Bauer choose against the most critical lines? Or when will a PDF-excerpt be available?
    Thanks.

  90. I’m a little curious myself, but more curious about Marin’s choice against the King’s Indian Defense. From the message on here in January, he seems to like the main line against the Symmetrical (i.e. 7.d4 and 10.Qd3) and the gambit line against 5…e6 (6.d4), and against 1…e5 with the fienchetto, the Botvinnik, but how he manages his move order against the KID is interesting. After 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7, you have 4.Nc3 d6 and now 5.Nf3 e5 and the N is misplaced for a Botvinnik or 5.e4 c5 and you have a Botvinnik vs the Symmetrical instead of the main line. Kinda curious how he handles it.

  91. There really is no rest for the weary is there?

    Regarding the Marin vs. KID topic, didn’t he write an article for Yearbooks recently on the sophisticated waiting move of Gurevich’s, 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 d6 5. d3 0-0 6. Bg5!?

  92. Jacob Aagaard :
    Haha. Scandinavian going to the printer Friday. Hopefully this means we have it in just over four weeks. The two Marin books will not be far behind. Then comes the Olympiad and everything goes to shit…

    Hello,

    Niggemann changed the release day for Marins new books (GM4+5) to the 15th of September a few weeks ago. If I understand you right, release date will be definitely later? Maybe even in October?

    Greetings
    Waldorf

  93. Ponting is a Legend

    If Play the Scandinavian went to the printer on Friday, 3 September, then it should be released approximately Monday, 27 September, yes? And judging with a similar estimate, GM4/GM5 should be released somewhere in mid-October?

  94. This post is 32 days old and has 135 (including this one!) comments. I think its time for a new publishing schedule! It would be nice if we had more concrete dates for the books that will come out later this year (like GM8 and Cutting Edge 2 & 3).

  95. I will look into it tomorrow.

    I would like it to be the 27th September, but I fear that it will be a week later for Play the Scandinavian, and a week later again for the English books. I only give them dates now, when confirmed by the printer.

  96. Ponting is a Legend

    Then I suppose since my birthday is in late October, GM4/GM5 will be a great birthday present…

    Are GM4 and GM5 going to be released simultaneously, viz. if I pre-order both GM4 and GM5 will they both be shipped to my address in one parcel when they are published?

    Also, is Play the Scandinavian going to be published in conjunction with another book, since the printer usually publishes new books in pairs?

  97. Ponting is a Legend

    One more question πŸ™‚ Will the hardcovers of GM4 and GM5 be released at the same time as the softcover GM4/GM5? How about Play the Scandinavian hardcover?

    Sorry for so many questions. But I will buy all of those books. Thanks in advance for answering.

  98. The printer does not publish books, they print them. But of course we cannot publish till they are printed :-). We also don’t tend to sit on them…

    GM4 and GM5 will be out together if everything goes well.

    All hardcovers will be out at the same time.

    We should have an agreement in place for a GM Repertoire for the Nimzo-Indian. It is likely to be followed up by an answer to 3.Nf3 and 3.g3. But there is no ink on the contract, in part because we have had our standard contract looked over by some lawyers and this has taken some time.

  99. Jacob Aagaard :
    We should have an agreement in place for a GM Repertoire for the Nimzo-Indian. It is likely to be followed up by an answer to 3.Nf3 and 3.g3. But there is no ink on the contract, in part because we have had our standard contract looked over by some lawyers and this has taken some time.

    So that would way into future (second half of 2011 I guess) so I will just hope that GM8 comes out by the end of the year!

  100. I think GM8 will be out in February, after talking to Boris the other day. But, things have a tendency to slide with him, if he finds analytical problems.

    I have no idea how quickly the author can finish the Nimzo-Indian book.

  101. Jacob Aagaard :
    I think GM8 will be out in February, after talking to Boris the other day. But, things have a tendency to slide with him, if he finds analytical problems.
    I have no idea how quickly the author can finish the Nimzo-Indian book.

    πŸ™ I remember GM8 was scheduled in the fall first. So there is a possibility that the Nimzo-Indian book will come out before GM8. I always liked playing the Nimzo-Indian but I was put off by the fact that I had to play QID as well (actually most of the time) so I am wondering if it is possible to play exciting QID from Black’s side.

    Anyway looking forward to the new publishing schedule.

  102. Hallo Mr. Aagaard,

    I received the GM6 quite some time ago (as I had pre-ordered it, it reached me very fast). It was wrapped fairly well, however the first pages weren’t glued properly and slightly loose, unlike the last pages. Such a problem I’ve also encountered with GM1 and Playing the Queen’s Gambit (with the last pages being loose, not the first pages like with the other two books). All other books from Quality Chess (and I have quite a few – only in softcover though) showed no such problem. It’s not a big deal, still I’d like to know what’s up with that.
    The new paper you started using for GM6 is very appealing and so far the best you’ve used. At first I was startled at how thin the book was, but I hope you’ll continue using that same kind of paper from now on.

    Now a few thoughts regarding the content.
    Many criticized Ftacnik choices, however overall I’m quite satisfied with the book, since he often gave the reader a choice.
    As Ftacnik already gave a choice against 6.Be3 (6…e6/e5) it might have been very interesting to also see the same choice against 6.Be2. I doubt it would have taken up that much space.
    But it’s fine with me, coz until now I’ve usually been playing the Kan/Taimanov, often ending up in a Sheveningen-like position.
    One repertoire I didn’t understand was in chapter 4, variation A)3.Nge2.
    Why did he recommend 3…e5!? when he could have gone with the natural Closed Sicilian/Dragon-like 4…g6 that would have lead to a “rather innocuous variation of the Dragon”.
    Ftacnik goes on to say that this “would be the most suitable line to recommend, as it limits White’s options and thus reduces of variations we need to learn”.
    Now I might have agreed, if I hadn’t seen in chapter 9 that he recommends Dragon-setups against the lines B)6.Qf3!? and D)6.Bd3, saying “several other moves are possible” or “just about any sensible move is playable”.
    I find it quite confusing not to recommend a similar setup against these rather rare lines since they’re all not very threatening to Black, nor do they require that much preparation.
    Another surprising choice, at least at first glance, was against 6.g3, however I welcome his choice, as he comments on the 6…e6 line saying “playing for win has proven a bit of a challenge”.
    Other interesting choices include 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 h5!?, 6.Be3 e6 7.g4 e5 8.Nf5 h5!?, 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 h6!? and 6.Bg5 Nbd7.
    Expecting other lines, I was a little surprised at first, but now I believe they’re all quite interesting to play, except for A)3.Nge2 e5!?
    I saw that a second newsletter with updates and missing lines is going to be out soon. Hopefully you’ll also be including this missing ones :
    2.a3, 2.f4, 5.f3, the two missing lines in Chapter 13 (6.Be2) mentioned on ChessPub forum and as has already been pointed out by “Papageno” (also on the ChessPub forum) in Chapter 19 line A)7.Bc4 there were several other plans that Ftacnik didn’t cover, despite being mentioned in CBM 135 by Kuzmin (which by the way I believe came out before GM6 was published).
    I hope you’ll consider these new ideas for White and add them to the next newsletter.
    One thing that confused me about the last newsletter was the fact that it only dealt with Khalifmans improvements on line B231)10…Nbd7.
    I’m much rather inclined to start playing B232)10…e5. I don’t have Khalifmans book but he probably does have a small improvement over GM6. Hopefully you’ll find something against that as well.

    Summing it up, GM6 is a nearly perfect book, except for some missing lines.
    Thumbs up for the whole QualityChess team.
    Aagaard, don’t let yourself be bothered by professional bashers like F22, there are still some people left on the ChessPub forum who contribute to better books with constructive criticism.

  103. I just realized how long I’ve made my post. Hopefully my “few thoughts” weren’t one too many for you πŸ˜‰

  104. Jacob Aagaard :
    The printer does not publish books, they print them. But of course we cannot publish till they are printed . We also don’t tend to sit on them…
    GM4 and GM5 will be out together if everything goes well.
    All hardcovers will be out at the same time.

    I don’t like the sound of that. :(!
    We should have an agreement in place for a GM Repertoire for the Nimzo-Indian. It is likely to be followed up by an answer to 3.Nf3 and 3.g3. But there is no ink on the contract, in part because we have had our standard contract looked over by some lawyers and this has taken some time.

  105. Ponting is a Legend

    Wait–was the newsletter sent? I did not receive it…at least yet. Is the analysis in free e-book section?

  106. Hello,

    I received the newsletter and I wanted to download the Chessbase file. The first thing struck me, there was no attachment for the file, but a link. When I went to the link I got only &/)(&)& and so on. The mail itself and the linked PDF-File are no problem to read only the file supposed to be a Chessfile. Am I the only one with these problems?

  107. Splinter22pr: I don’t agree with your dislike of 3…e5. But ok, taste varies. As the position also did.
    Yes, we missed some DVD’s – we simply don’t have time to check everything, and with the Kuzmin stuff, there was a glicth. It has been looked at in the newsletter.
    There was a comment to the 10…e5 Khalifman lines in the first newsletter file as well.

  108. Pingback: Repertoirebuch zu 1.e4

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