Happy 2017!

Happy New Year from Quality Chess! Today is our first day back in the office in 2017 so we are catching up on a few thousand things.

Before we let 2016 die, we sent The Nimzo-Indian Defence by Michael Roiz to the printer. It will be published on January 25th by us, and will be on Forward Chess a week earlier. An excerpt is here if you would like a preview.

A couple of holiday poll results. Firstly, ‘What did you think of 2016?’ The positive votes add up to a solid chunk, but the single biggest vote went to ‘A bad year’.

The second poll asked: Are you optimistic about 2017? The votes were spread widely, but by a narrow margin you reckon “It’s going to be a blast!”

If you need further optimism, the following link suggests the world is generally becoming a better place, despite occasional blips. It’s nothing to do with chess, but here’s a short conversation from Vox with Steven Pinker.

15 thoughts on “Happy 2017!”

  1. Thx for putting up the Nimzo excerpt. I have to say, there is not that much information to get from it – at least for me. The preface is very vague and contains no hints at chosen concepts or Black responses to main lines, motivations etc. and so is the table of contents. The only thing clear to me is that 4…c5 is recommended against 4.Nf3, but not against 4.Qc2. Others may draw further conclusions from the list of possible moves for White at move 5/6, but this is already tricky.

  2. @Reyk
    Fair question. Here’s a brief list of lines being advocated for Black:

    – 4.f3, 4.Bg5 and 4.Nf3 are all being met by 4…c5.
    – After 4.e3 we are going 4…0-0 5.Bd3 d5, intending 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 cxd4 8.exd4 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b6 (Karpov System, Chapters 15-16).
    – 4.Qc2 is being met by 4…d5, and now 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 0-0 (Chapters 18-20), or 5.cxd5 Qxd5 (Chapters 21-24).

    In terms of the overall character of the repertoire, the author has aimed for positions with active piece play and rapid development, while maintaining full theoretical soundness. I hope that helps.

  3. Dear QC-team,

    Any chance on a ‘Quality Chess Puzzle Book II’ ?
    The first one was fun and helped me improve a lot.

    And how about the new Axel Smith book you already hinted about ?

    Thanks and a happy 2017 !

  4. Reports Apple will increase price of purchases in App Store significantly in next few days for U.K. Buyers due to the FX move. If I understand changes correctly price of typical QC forward chess book will rise from £14.99 to £19.99 in the iOS App Store. Hoping the Roiz book appears tomorrow before these changes take effect……

  5. What books could Nimzo-Indian by Roiz complement for players that play 3.Sf3?

    Anything in the GM Repertoire series?

  6. I have not noticed a book on Bogoindian, QID, I don’t know what Tango is.
    I have not noticed a Grandmaster repertoire book about Queens Gambit, either, or most of those, except Ben Oni.
    Am I missing something?

  7. @ Subtle:

    Why do you need something from the GM Repertoire series? I.m.o. both Playing the Ragozin and Playing 1.d4 d4 are excellent complements to the Nimzo Indian book by Roiz. And if you don’t like the QGD, there’s also GM Repertoire on the Benoni, which is also excellent. The only thing that is missing is a book on the Queen’s Indian Defence, but I gathered QC are working on this.

  8. @Subtle
    Nikos’ book on the QGD is an excellent book and in addition to completely original analysis, Nikos makes an emphasis to teach you thematic ideas in the particular variations.

  9. We are indeed hoping to have a QID book early in 2018. But let us see how things go; author’s lives at times are messy :-).

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