Sorry for not putting a publishing schedule up, I was busy editing Starting Out in Tic Tac Toe.
The next publication is 25 Feb. Besides the list here, I want you to know that the Yusupov Box Set is meant to be out in the summer – the first one – and Build up your Chess 1 and 3 will be ready in hardback before then. Already available in hardcover is Attacking Manual 1+2 and GM Repertoire 1, as of a week or two back.
| Artur Yusupov | Boost your Chess 3 | 25 February |
| Milos Pavlovic | Cutting Edge 2 – Najdorf 6.Be3 | 25 February |
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | March |
| GERMAN | GM 4 | March |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | March |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | March/April |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | March/April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | April |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Grandmaster versus Amateur | May |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | May |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – King’s Indian I | Later |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – The King’s Indian II | Later |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd ed. | Later |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | Later |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | Later |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | Later |
| David Vigorito | Play the Semi-Slav 2 | Later |
| Jacob Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 12 – 1.e4 volume one | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Boost your Chess 3 | 25 February |
| Milos Pavlovic | The Cutting Edge 2 – The Najdorf Sicilian without 6.Bg5 | 25 February |
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | March |
| GERMAN | GM 4 | March |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | March |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | March/April |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | March/April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | April |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Grandmaster versus Amateur | May |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | May |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – The King’s Indian Defence | Later |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – The King’s Indian Defence | Later |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd edition | Later |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | Later |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | Later |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | Later |
| David Vigorito | Play the Semi-Slav 2 | Later |
| Jacob Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 12 – 1.e4 volume one | Later |
I’m very happy to see Chess Evolution 1 (Fundamentals) coming relatively soon; I’m working my way through this outstanding series in order of difficulty, so it will be nice to be able to move on to the volume 2 (Beyond The Basics) books.
If you’re doing a second edition of the Weteschnik book, I have two main suggestions:
– Loosen up the typography a little. Some lines are crammed incredibly tightly with letters.
– Add an indication of whose move it is to the diagrams. I would like to try to find a move myself before seeing the correct one, but it’s not always clear which side is to move!
Good to see the update. Starting out Tic Tac Toe…..ROFL.
I can see you have your plate more than full. But I have one query. Without giving away too much can you say yet if the prospects are looking any better for a more positional Grandmaster Repertoire volume against 1.d4? Eg: QGD, Slav, Nimzo
Now Cutting Edge will have 3 volumes on Najdorf?? What happened to 6. Bg5 volume and the other volume that covers all the rest?
will the book about TicTacToe be available with hardback cover? then I would buy a copy 😀
I am delighted to see that GM8 is scheduled for March/April, which was early than I expected. Hopefully there will be .pdf extracts soon.
“Grandmaster Battle Manual” sounds very interesting… any more information you can give out about it?
I used to open with X in the middle, but nowadays there’s too much theory. So now I play the hypermodern “Bottom-Left Corner Attack” to throw my opponents on their own resources from the get go.
UCT 2nd ed. will be with a completely new layout and some extra chapters as well as a good deal of exercises, dated mainly from 2010 and 2011. Already the reprint of this book had indicators of which side to move.
I am hoping to publish this book together with a book called ADVANCED CHESS TACTICS by a GM author, but don’t want to promise anything too early.
GM8 was internally planned for February, but naturally was delayed. Boris is a thorough worker and needed more time – as expected.
Excerpts generally come around announcement. I am hoping to put CHESS LESSONS, BOOST YOUR CHESS 3 and CUTTING EDGE 2 excerpts on later today, or tomorrow. Failing that, they will be up next week.
Cutting Edge 2 does not look exactly as I had expected, but the book is still very interesting. I think the 6.Bg5 volume will be next year. We just cannot do everything at once.
A Nimzo-Indian Repertoire is planned and the author has done a bit of work. But he does not work that fast and plays many many tournaments; so when this book will actually exist, I do not know. The same goes for books on the Petroff, Ragozin and others. If they will actually exist, I do not know. We probably have 25 failed projects and 50 published ones – most infamously GN Rep on the French… Not to mention the King’s Gambit, which will eventually happen…
Btw, Katar you have a great blog!
Sorry if this has been asked before: Will Avrukh be covering Anti-Grunfeld tries in his book?
Not really, no. Move 3s but not move 2s.
I’d call the Tarrasch a positional defense to 1.d4. GM9, coming out in May.
My own personal experience with the Tarrasch, which granted is maybe 5 games or so with White and a handful (4 to 8) with Black.
Based on my recollection (don’t have access to all my games from where I’m at right now), I seem to recall winning a couple of times with White, possibly losing once with White (not sure on that, may be undefeated), and practically all the rest of my games, White or Black, have been draws! The majority of them were very positional in nature.
katar – I place an “O” in the center box. Your turn!
If all I care about is “not losing”, rule of thumb I have is, X goes center, O goes corner (any corner, I tend to use upper-right). If X doesn’t go center, O goes center.
If I really want to try to win with O, and X doesn’t use a corner or center square for move one (i.e Top-Center), then I try to be tricky by going the square opposite his (i.e. if you numbered them 1 to 9, 123 across the top, 456 across the middle, 789 across the bottom, 2 would be opposite 8, 4 would be opposite 6). It’s the move that gives X the most ways to actually lose! If you take X in 2, O in 8, since he can’t win down the middle, X goes upper left or upper right, and I block. Now 3 out of the remaining 5 squares lose for X (the 3 across the middle), the other 2 draw (bottom left or bottom right corner). If you went 1 on move 2 and I went 3 on move 2, then you have XXO / Blank Blank Blank / Blank O Blank, then going in 4 or 5 I block and have 2 ways out, if you go 6, then I go 7 and have 2 ways out. If you went 3 on move 2 and I block at one, flip it, 4 I go 9, 5 or 6 I block and have 2 ways out.
Tic Tac Toe Champion Patrick does it again!
Impressive , 10 must buy books till May, I will only skip the german editions, as I have them already in english.
especially curious on the tarasch book, it was the main defence of Kasparov during his candidate matches 82-84. I wish there is plenty of explanations how to play this defence and Ideas.
Great news !
Having looked a good deal at the Tarrasch again after a long period with positional defences, I have decided that it as a dynamic rather than strategic opening, where knowledge of exact variations is rather important. Some lines are very forcing and lead to a more or less forced draw in most cases – although I manage to win many internet blitz games in them…
I do think the Nimzo or the QGD are very different in nature. I would love to do books on these variations and we have taken steps to make it happen. If it will be successful the future will reveal.
Out of all the GM Repertoire books for Black coming out this year, I would like to see one of them deal with 2nd move deviations please.
We were thinking of a 2nd move deviations GM Repertoire, with 1.d4 d5 and 1…Nf6, but so far it is just an idea. I don’t think we will be able to accomodate your wish beyond this.
Jacob, in your earier book on the tarrasch there were also recomandations against 1.Nf3 and 1.c4, will you cover a tarrasch aproach against such moves as well ?
Hello, i have a question about the tarrasch book.
Approx. 300 pages seems a lot to me for not an opening which popularity has decreased more and more in the last years (even decades?).
So i am just wondering will this book “just” be an opening theory book? Or will you cover vital middle- and endgame aspects of IQP positions too?
For example:
– When changes the nature of the position, i.e. when lacks blacks position the dynamic play and the IQP gets a weakness
– Will you give advice of how to play endagmes with an IQP?
If i remember right in the analysis of some of Kasparovs games with the tarrasch defence, a solution to the “positional pain” was often to sacrifice the IQP, exchange many peices on d5 and then invade with the rook on c2 to get a very active rook and get counterplay in an rook endgame beeing a pawn down.
No, it is not the plan to start at move 1 this time. We will of course cover a few moveorder issues, but not a general repertoire as in the previous book. Anyway, the reply to 1.Nf3 and 2.g3 in that book still stands as far as I am concerned.
Also, the book will be mainly theoretical, although there will be some explanations. Kasparov’s games from the 1980’s has not much to do with this book though. We are interested in the modern approach.
Jacob, may I dare to disagree ? Probably I am wrong anyway, but Kasparovs games are of course not so much relevant for the theory but as instructional and inspirational material and for typical ideas as well positional as tactical I would suggest they are still not unimportant.
Maybe they could be interesting for the introduction?
We mortals like the Idea, that there is more then the pure technical and analytical coverage when presenting an opening, and want to rely on “typical” ideas.
Anyway, Iam shure the book will be great !
Jacob
I think doing a GM Repertoire on 2nd move deviations after 1 d4 d5/Nf6 is an excellent idea. It doesn’t make sense to me to include these 2nd move deviations in each GM Repertoire book since some of the material would probably just be repeated in multiple books. I think most of the people who buy your book have to deal with these lines quite a bit. Everyman did this with “Dealing with d4 Deviations” by Cox (but the book didn’t cover lines for Tarrasch players King’s Indian and Grunfeld Players but “Fighting the Anti-King’s Indians” covered these lines). Everyman was hesitant on publishing the book but Cox said it has sold better than any of his other books (this was before “The Berlin Wall” was out)and I think a GM repertoire on these lines would sell extremely well.
I also like the fact that Lars is warming to the idea of completing his 1 d4 repertoire. Do you know what lines he would recommend? His 1 d4 d5 repertoire was based around main lines that gain the most space but after 1 d4 Nf6, the main lines aren’t the ones that gain the most space. Also, is there any chance of Lars doing a 2nd edition of “Playing the Queen’s Gambit”? A lot of the theory changes quickly (especially the Botvinnik). I think publishing a 2nd edition of “Playing the Queen’s Gambit” at the same time with the other book to complete the 1 d4 repertoire would be a great idea and the books would sell extremely well.
Quality has produced some excellent books but I don’t like that you keep putting down the other chess book publishers like making fun of everyman’s Starting Out series with your comment about Starting Out in Tic Tac Toe. I know it was probably a joke but it wasn’t funny. Also, why have you used everyman’s “Play the …” as the title of several of your books? These are the titles for one of Everyman’s series of books. I don’t think you would want them to start calling some of their book GM Repertoire, for example.
I think you should also consider covering early deviations after 1…f5 if you do the GM Repertoire on 2nd move deviations after 1 d4 d5/Nf6 to complement “Stonewall II” and any other book you do on the Dutch.
Also, I think you should consider doing a GM Repertoire on how Black can meet 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 by trying to transpose to his d4 defense (only the d4 defenses where you can realistically try to transpose or reach similar types of positions. I also think the book should cover things like 1 Nf3 2 b3/g3 as well). Doing a GM Repertoire book on these lines would probably save some material being repeated if you included them in each GM repertoire book. Against 1 Nf3, Everyman’s “Beating Unusual Chess Openings” does this for Nimzo-Indian players but for all the other it only covered 2…d4 and only briefly mentioned that you can try to transpose to your d4 defense here and White’s main choices to avoid transposing.
I also think you should consider doing a GM Repertoire on how to meet all of White’s alternatives to 1 e4, 1 d4, 1 c4, and 1 Nf3. “Beating Unusual Chess Opening’s” does this and it also covered 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 as well with meeting 1 c4 with 1…c5 but I think it would be better to cover 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 in separate books.
I also think you should consider doing a repertoire book on meeting 1 c4 with 1…e5. I don’t think there has ever been a repertoire book devoted solely to meeting 1 c4 with 1…e5.
When I said it only covers 2…d4 for all other defenses I meant after 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4.
Also, I don’t think their has ever been a book that covers how Black can try and transpose to the Slav and Queen’s Gambit Accepted against 1 Nf3.
Also, Andrew said you don’t delay your book because it would piss to many people off but then why is the King’s Gambit book keep getting delayed? You say you guys get busy with other projects but I think you announced the King’s Gambit book before any of your other current forthcoming books you’ve announced so I think the King’s Gambit book should be the first priority.
Fine with disagreements. Two people in the room automatically creates them. When the book comes probably you will agree more with me than you do now.
I don’t think we want to do a whole sea of sideline or anti-sideline books. We are just chatting about doing one at some point at the moment. I am in no way committing to big projects or even small ones when mentioning. Partly because theory in these sub-variations don’t change that fast. So, no decisions at this point.
No attack on Everyman intended with the Starting Out joke. It was another guy that started the tic tac toe thing, the joke was in that direction. Just because you did not get it, does not mean that it is disrespectful. Only Colin does not come from Everyman originally, and no one in the office have a bad experience with working with Everyman. Actually, Andrew is still writing his (probably final) Everyman book.
But yes, Everyman are the competition.
If Everyman wants to call their books Grandmaster Repertoire I would check if we would have any traction in saying that this is a unique title. My guess is that it is. On the other hand, it is clear that Play the… is not a unique title, and have been used by many publishers over the years. I would argue that Starting Out, or Attacking Chess (as an opening book series name) are unique titles, that cannot be used.
About not delaying things. Andrew is right, we don’t wait 9-12 months before publishing a finished book, as other publishers do regularly. However, the King’s Gambit book is not finished or anywhere near it. If it was, it would be out on the street as quickly as humanly possible. We really want to have that book written, but the actual chess in that opening is very complex and it will take a long time for us to find enough good ideas for us to call it a book. WE have many, but want more.
Jacob
Some trainers stress the importance of “board visualitation” as a basis for (besides blindfold chess) tactical and calculation ability and recomend training methods to develop it, pointing out that ideally the student should know the board inside out and be able to see it clearly in his mind.
What do you think on this matter? Is this really an important/relevant subject? If so you could include a chapter about it on the UCT2 book aka “Chess Tactics from Scratch”
BTW – Do you already have a planned design for Teacher Yusupov’s Boxset?
Best Regards
Even if the Starting Out in tic Tac Toe wasn’t meant to be disrispectful, you had to have known that somebody might find it disrespectufl and therefor should not have written it.
Ever though “Play the …” isn’t a unique title, I still feel you sould have been more respectful and not used “Play the …” as titles of several of your books as Everyman wants to use that as the title of its book for that series.
Also, what are your thoughts about my “Playing the Queen’s Gambit” comments?
I see titles like “Play the Dragon”, “Play the Alekhine” and “Play the Najdorf” published also from Gambit. Are they disrispectful to Everyman too? Also the joke about Tic Tac Toe was started by another guy as Jacob said and i found it funny too. As always with jokes there are people who find them funny and other people that don’t.
@FM to be:
I know that Carlsen does a very hard work with blindfold solving and playing during his training sessions. Also i know that many old Soviet trainers always said what you said, that when you coach children you have to make them visualise the board in their heads. There are some old collections of simple studies that are designed to help young students train by trying to blindfold solve them. I guess that the same can be done with simple (at the start) and more complex (after that) exercises like those from Yusupov or those from the new QC book on tactics.
I think you should consider doing a GM Repertoire on how Black can meet 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 by playing an English Mainline.
@Jacob
In wat way is the experts book about the 6 Be3 variarion Najdorf other then you expected.
Dear friends and editors,
I think that we expect following books in GM Repertoire:
I. GM Repertoire for WHITE:
A) 1.e4: upcoming 4 books with cca 2000 pages, yes?
II. GM Repertoire for BLACK:
A) versus 1.e4:
– 1… e5: Ruy Lopez and co.
– 1… e5: Petroff
– 1… e6: French Defense
B) versus 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.g3 & co.:
– 1… d5: Queen’s Gambit Declined: The Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky System: 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 h6 7.Bh4 b6
– 1… d5: Queen’s Gambit Declined: The Lasker Defense: 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 h6 6.Bh4 Ne4
– 1… d5: Slav & Semi-slav
– 1… Nf6: Nimzo, Benoni & Queen’s Indian
…D) GM Repertoure for Black according to Avrukh 2 (everything but e4 and The Grunfeld Defence)
I am very interested in Avrukh’s suggestions in GM8 against his own work in GM2 (Fianchetto Variation). It seems the Fianchetto Grünfeld has become very popular from both sides. When could a Table of Contents be available?
Will Cutting Edge 2 cover 6.Be3 e6 or just 6…..e5 and 6…..Ng4?
I love the “Cutting Edge” concept and have used Volume 1 in Correspondence games.
Will there still be Semi Slav Cutting Edge or has this been replaced by ” Play the Semi Slav 2 ”
Many Thanks
I guess I’m the only one waiting anxiously for the two Karpov books 🙂 Nary a mention of them apart from the adjustments to the publishing schedule.
M.A.S.,
Do you ever bother to read something before making stupid, moronic comments about other people???? I should have known, that concept is too advanced for you.
It is obvious from the wording of your message that you never read the Tic Tac Toe message from another thread started up earlier this month. I was the one that posted it. A user made a comment about the slow rate of books being published. I didn’t use the exact title that Jacob put, Jacob paraphrased. I had sarcastically said that I could write a book on Tic Tac Toe and gave the various chapters as a table of contents, with the comment that I’m a grandmaster because I have literally never lost, only won and drew!
Your comment about how “You had to have known that somebody would find it disrespectful” is the dumbest thing I’ve heard yet in 2011. The dumbest thing I heard in 2010 was repetitive, harsh comments, multiple times (i.e. Spamming), about how bad a book was because it didn’t reference the right books in the bibliography. It was a book of Marin’s on the Open Games. An EXCELLENT book! And this person was just going on a constant rampage about it. The idiot probably only read about 20 pages of the book (if that many) and made a negative judgment about it.
Oh, say, that’s right, THAT WAS YOU!!!!
By the way, nice spamming job on here at well. FOUR consecutive posts!!! It’s bad nettiquette to post back-to-back on a board, let alone four!
If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it! If you can’t tell the difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism, don’t criticize, ESPECIALLY when you don’t even know the facts!
Originally the idea was to cover more than just 6.Be3 in the Cutting Edge book; it did not work out that way. Also, Milos did not analyse 6…Ng4 for the book. The book is fine though, but I had originally thought it would cover more ground.
Visualisation is important. We will consider including something in CTfS, but no guarantees.
The same with other suggestions above: We ALWAYS listen, even if we do not give feedback to each and every suggestion. We cannot do everything, but like to know what people think – a lot.
Contents generally up when a book goes to the printer – except I went away immediately after we finished the last ones, so they will not come up till Thursday. Sorry, did not prioritise it too highly, other things were sort of urgent.
Play the Semi-Slav will indeed replace the planned CE on that opening, but we still want to do something on the Slav at some point. But we cannot do everything at once, so some things will not happen in the very near future, even if we really wanted them to happen.
@MikdeD I’m waiting too on the Karpov books!
Do you think this latest date will be final for the Karpov volumes Jacob?
I think we are still 10 weeks away from publishing, sadly. They are just monstorous. After all, it is a very big span of years they have to cover!
M.A.S. I don’t care about your sensitivities, as I find you a deeply offensive person. I am not out to offend you or anyone else, but I am also not sitting around imagining how people might warp my words into being insensitive. Regarding your other questions: I am purposefully ignoring you, as you are not having a conversation, but are on some personal agenda. If you don’t like me or our books, just stay away and you won’t get insulted. I really feel sorry for you, but that is the only way you are getting to me these days…
About GM 1.e4. I think we had to bite the bullet and accept that it has to be five volumes.
We don’t have any plans for GM Repertoires for Black with the QGD or French, only ideas. For the Petroff and Ruy Lopez, we have ideas that seem a bit more realistic, but I am not sure they will actually happen.
With the Semi-Slav, this will be outside the GM Rep series, as Dave is an IM and some people would feel it was awkward. However, the quality would be very high none the less.
So I was right when I predicted 2000-2500 pages for GM Repertoire 1.e4 🙂
Khalifman wrote 13 books, and last 6 were dealing with Sicilian Defence. If we compare Khalifman’s work I can say that your work will be equal to his. Quality Chess has bigger format, so at the end of day the amount of “data” will be approximately equal.
Jacob, you’re getting stronger and bigger than ever 🙂 from 2 to 5 books in few months!
But be warned Jacob, to much steroids can blast your “muscles” 🙂
You forget one important thing! Khalifman has not yet completed the series….
I think our series will be competitive, because it will not deal to great extends with analysis of positions that are just better for White, but where almost any more is playable, but instead deal with the critical positions to a greater extend.
My trainer and I have made an analysis, and we think five volumes is reasonable to cover all the lines in the way we want. And I have to admit that we are aiming for 3-400 pages per book, rather than 5-600 as with the Avrukh books. I think it is a bit too much for many reasons. Between 300 and 400 is right for such a book, I think.
If you are open to suggestions, I just have 1 big suggestion, as there seems to be nothing else published other than repertoires for White, and one “Starting Out” book (which is what I’m currently reading for my Black game against 1.e4, but something more in-depth would be helpful after I get done with that book.
What about the Modern Scheveningen? In other words, if White goes Classical (6.Be2, 7.O-O, 8.Be3, 9.f4), Black doesn’t play the early 6…a6, but rather, 6…Be7, 7…O-O, 8…Nc6, and then Black has a choice on move 9, moves like 9…Bd7, 9…e5, 9…Nxd4, etc.
You would of course have then the English Attack, Keres Attack, and other minor lines for White.
Unlike other people that suggest books, I see no point in covering all the “Anti-Sicilians”. There’s a book coming out on that, and plenty of material exists. Unlike the Najdorf, the Scheveningen doesn’t require special treatment against the Closed Sicilian like the Najdorf does. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3, a Najdorf player may be in trouble, but a Scheveningen Player is not…he’s ready for 4.d4.
I would suggest the book start from the position after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6, with possibly a brief couple of paragraphs in the introduction as to the benefits and drawbacks of inverting moves 2 and 5, but otherwise, the book would begin with the various 6th moves for White.
If this were a GM Repertoire book, I would think it could be covered in 1 book as you really have “the big 3” (Main Line, English, Keres) and a few sidelines.
Hi Patrick. Did Steffen Pedersen cover this in his Gambit book on the Scheveningen. I am in Denmark and cannot easily check this, but think it was the case. Not much has happened there.
Obviously the threat is 6.g4, but you are also move ordered. 6.Be3 and now you have to play 6…a6 and then 7.Be2 leaves you in need of a traditional Scheveningen repertoire. The lines without …a6 in the English Attack have a bad reputation – as you can see in Cutting Edge 2 among others.
About 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 then 2…d6 is fine. Najdorf players do not suffer any inconveniences worth talking about. In very few lines is this move wasted, and this are in lines where you have the time to waste it.
But yes, we consider all ideas – but obviously cannot act on anything near all of them.
hmmm…That’s funny. Prichett actually doesn’t suggest 6…a6 against 6.Be3. He gives 6…Nc6 (or 6…Be7 with 7…O-O and 8…Nc6), where depending on what White does, your idea of 7.Be2 Be7 and now 8.O-O transposes to the Modern Scheveningen while 8.Qd2 (White commits the Queen before Black plays …a6, giving Black time to play that move without costing a tempo in the lines with Qe1 and Qg3, or at least that’s my understanding as to why it’s possible here) O-O 9.f4 a6 (Kasparov’s 9…e5 is also possible) 10.O-O-O, or if White doesn’t play Be2, then you have the early d5 push against 7.f3 Be7 8.Qd2 O-O 9.O-O-O d5.
So it’s not like I just avoid …a6 in all lines, but certain lines I view that move as a waste of time, and hence why I don’t play the Najdorf followed by 6…e6. Some lines it has to be played, but usually in those lines, White did something slow, like this past weekend, I lost a game against a 2420, but he did play a slow line, 6.g4 h6 7.Bg2 a6 8.h3.
Personally, out of all the “Starting Out” books, I think this is one of the better ones, but it’s still a little confusing about when to break in the center in some cases. In other words, some lines, he advocates an e5 push. A few others a d5 push. But doesn’t really mention when it’s ok and when it’s specifically not to build that nice little hole for White, especially after …e5, where White has that juicy d5 square for his Knight.
I actually have never known of the Gambit book. I’ll have to research that. I don’t seem to recall Pedersen writing a book on the Sicilian. I thought he wrote all the French books for Gambit (3.Nc3 in 2000, Tarrasch and Advance/other lines books mid-2000s) and a few QP openings (Benko, Bogo-Indian).
I think his book was around the year 2000. These days he is a computer programmer. We play in the same Danish team and have known each other for close to 25 years.
I think in the move order you mention that White can consider 10.e5 Nd7 11.f4. The bishop is a bit strange on e7 compared with the French. I am doing this blindfold, but I doubt it is that good for Black. But obviously, it is not a deeply informed guess.
I don’t deny that the lines are interesting, but I doubt their objective value a bit. But more importantly, we have a number of Sicilian books at the moment. Like at one time we were then 1.e4 e5 company! I think we want to spread out a bit more. For example: I would really like a book on the French!
No visualization chapter guaranteed for “Chess Tactics From Scratch”?
Ok Jacob but please do your best to make that happen, it would be A BIG cherry on the cake, I think those of us who look forward to that book would be willing to wait a couple more months to see that subject included in an already great book.
Best Regards
I agree with you Patrick,it is unbelievable how liitle has been covered on this opening over the last few yrs!
Not that I play it as Black anymore, it’s way too complex!!
Pedersen’s book was by Cadogan/Everyman and called Easy Guide to the Sicilian Scheveningen!
I got confused about the publisher regarding Steffen’s book – but want to point out that it was the gambit guys that produced the Easy guide series, and later called it the Gambit guide, when they stopped giving it to Everyman :-).
I shall consider the visualization carefully. Maybe I will ask Mark what he thinks about the issue; this is what I usually do when I got little idea about how to approach things…
I would love a book like this on the Modern Scheveningen myself.
I will bring it up with the others. It does not seem to be the kind of book we do, and personally I am not inspired (which is almost an ultimatum for any projects we do – we reject commercially brilliant projects if we don’t like them – and feel good about it afterwards), but maybe another editor is. If so, we might find an author. But then again, we all want a book on the French and have no progress…
I want to see a 2nd edition of “Playing the Queen’s Gambit” not to update the Semi-Slav but because I don’t find Ragozin System that black can play with the move order 1.d4 d5; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 Nf6; 4cd5 ed5; 5.Bg5 Bb4..I thinh that Ragozin is the only variation in the repertoire that the book “ignore” so I hope Mr schandorff will make someting for us ..
nick, Michael
Looks like we need to go fetch another 97 Modern Scheveningen players (to put us at 100) and riot in protest! 🙂
Anyone other than John or Jacob:
Does anybody other than those selling the book (i.e. John or Jacob as I’m looking for an honest opinion, not a money-motivated marketing scheme) have any input about GM Rep 6 on the Sicilian Nadjorf?
I have tried to play the Najdorf at least 4 different times (and I mean 4 blocks of time, a few months each, over the past 10 years, not 4 games), and not once has it made any sense to me.
Resources I’ve used in the past are:
For Black: The 2-book series by John Nunn from the mid-to-late 90’s, Easy Guide to the Najdorf by Kosten, Play the Najdorf: Scheveningen Style by Emms, and Mastering the Najdorf by Arizmendi
For White (when I did play 1.e4): Beating the Sicilian 3 (Nunn), the 2 Nunn books mentioned above as they were objective, both White and Black, Essential Chess Sacrifices, and 7 Ways to Smash the Sicilian.
Of course, in both cases, I’ve gone thru databases, and seen many Najdorfs in bio books talking about life and games of a current or former GM.
And yet the Najdorf still makes no sense to me. Will Ftacnik’s book help in any way? Does he explain better like Marin does in his GM Rep books? Or would buying this and trying to take up the Najdorf as Black for the 5th time or so just add to my confusion, and I should crawl in my own little Modern Scheveningen hole where the opening actually makes sense to me, and the people I’m losing to with it are 2400 players rather than 1800 to 2000 players, as is the case with the Najdorf (or the Dragon for that matter, another I avoid)?
Not too many explanations in Ftacnik book. You should probably buy his chessbase DVD if you are looking for those or Palliser’s starting out book. But if you want to seriously work on the N then the GM book is the best choice.
If you don’t get the Najdorf after all the work you have done; I certainly would not want to recommend you to get GM6. Rather you should find ways to avoid the open Sicilian with White as well!
I know that I am financially implicated in how a book sells, but I will not say something I do not mean to achieve a sale or two. 10 euros for my honesty? A bit low I say :-).
Well then, I’m glad to hear that there’s at least somebody in the world that’s honest. The “majority” (i.e. NOT ALL! – before you other Americans complain) of Americans don’t give two hoots about service as long as they got their money. Very competitive society we have here, and with Barack Obama being broderline socialist (which I agree with, but many don’t), just about every Republican in this country is raising bloody hell, especially about his mandatory health care (also known as “Obamacare”).
I about laughed when I saw the “avoid the open Sicilian with White as well”. I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about that one. When I went thru my e4 stint, and realized I hated just about everything except maybe the Fantasy Variation of the Caro-Kann as White, I abandoned e4 except for one other time. When 7 Ways to Smash the Sicilian came out, I gave it another shot. After playing in the 2009 Philadelphia International and World Open (U2200 section), and playing 8 games as White, going winless with 6 losses and 2 draws (facing mostly Sicilians and Frenches, one instance of 1…e5), I threw 1.e4 right back out the window (especially after 1 game in a Najdorf, of all things, where I had a Q on b6, N on c6, B on c7, with the Black King on a8, a7 unprotected, and Black wins with a rook sacrifice on g2, this was round 6 of the World Open after going 3.5/5 via WDDDW with BWBWB – everything went downhill from there, and I finished with 4/9, drawing with Black in the final round). However, most the people I hang out with play e4, so you might get some sales thru them when you publish your e4 series! 🙂
I think I’ll stick with c4, where my results are significantly better than with e4. Most sales you’ll get from me at this point will be non-opening or openings for Black! Keep up the good work. Even though many of your books are on topics of little interest to me, from what I’ve seen of them, they are far better written than any book I’ve seen from other publishers! 🙂
About “GM for black:sidelines “. I think one the great things about GM I & II was (and is) that after working with them, you don’t have to care about things outside of the given repertoire. It is like Vlad Tkachiev said there is no need to work on or waste time with some dubios lines Black may serve you.
Jacob,
do you know what the estimated amount of pages is of GM repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence?
Some of your upcoming books may be of interest to me, but the descriptions are so vague, I am not sure if they are worth the price. There is no indication of the level of player these books are aimed at, club, tournament, advanced, etc. For example, the Popov book just says “…shares his secrets of chess improvement” and the Kotronias states he “…explains how to be a more competitive chess player.” I think if you want people to buy these books you should give us more explanation of what they are about and their level of difficulty. I enjoy Quality Chess books, but can’t buy everything.
I just don’t know at the moment. Avrukh says less than GM2, but this can mean anything. Start doing your weight lifting exercises, I fear :-).
@Jay Ryan
Jay,
I take your point that readers want better information, but sometimes, especially with wide-ranging titles like the ones you mention, it is hard to narrow down the level at which the books are aimed. Take the Popov book for example: it is not for absolute beginners, but beyond that I think most chess players would find it interesting. Club players will find plenty of useful advice and advanced players will have many challenging examples. Or, to give another example, the Yusupov books are aimed at club players to sub-IM level (a broad range already), but I believe various GMs have struggled with some of the exercises.
One way to get a better idea of a book is to have a look at the pdf excerpt we put up on the website when the book is ready. Usually this will give the Contents page and a sample chapter.
Floh,
The GM Repertoire books on defenses to d4 do not cover all openings White can play since they are leaving out 2nd move alternatives to 2 c4. A lot of these systems are tricky and would be hard to find the right moves over the board if you aren’t prepared for them, they aren’t very critical but are more so then the minor moves left out of GM I and II, and whole books have been written on most of these systems.
GM I and II covers basically all defenses black can play. There are some minor things the books don’t cover but you should be able to meet these over the board without any trouble, they aren’t critical at all, and there hasn’t been whole books written about them
I believe this is why there has been talk about doing a GM Repertoire on 2nd move alternatives to 2 c4 after 1 d4 d5/Nf6.
I think another reason why their has been talk about doing a GM Repertoire on alternatives to 2 c4 after 1 d4 d5/Nf6 is becuase many club players have struggled against these lines I think mainly because they don’t have a good repertoire against them and there hasn’t been books on how some 1 d4 d5, Nimzo/Queen’s Indian or Bogo Indian, and Benoni playes meet some of these lines for until recently.
Also, if you were to do a book on these lines, would you include alternatives to 4 d5 after 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 c5 like “dealing with d4 deviations” does?
Jacob: Would you know how much of GM8 Avrukh has already finished?
I am sorry the PDF’s have not been put on the website yet. It takes 5 minutes to prepare them – and maybe another 5 minutes to get back in the stride for what else I am working on. I have been a bit stressed and been pulled in my arms from all sides, so where no one is pulling got delayed. Sorry about this. I will get a lot of them up Monday.
Nikos and I decided to do more material for our book – our of stupidity probably. We will start at move one essentially. 1.Nf3, 1.g3, 1.c4 and 1.d4. Maybe even 1.b3 and 1.Nc3 as notes :-). We have a lot of draft material ready, but we are both very busy for another few days. Then we start the final approach.
Hi,
Jacob and John, maybe you don’t want to talk personal issues at this blog, but:
Do you as professionals want your children to become chess players? Do you try to initiate that (‘polgar-like’)? Or would you wait until your children show signs of interest?
Just curious…
Jacob, great news about you tarrasch book, fantastic to have additional recommandations against 1.c4 and 1.g3 !
Looking very much forward to anothe classic !
No, I definitely do not want to discuss my family on the blog!
Any particular time today you think we should look for the pdfs?
Thanks.
Jacob,
You mentioned earlier in the thread that the Modern Scheveningen is not the “Kind of book you do”.
What about the following possibilities, along with the much needed French, for 2012 or 2013?
1) Sicilian Taimanov – 2 decent books came out around 2006/2007, nothing since.
2) Modern Benoni – The starting out book came in 2004, then the Chess Explained book in 2007 got one of the worst reviews, along with Starting Out: The French, amongst all books not written by Eric Schiller in the last 15 years
Both could probably use an update
I don’t know about Taimanov. English Attack seems very strong against it and also some independept aproaches (except from transpositions to the Shevenigen) after classical Be2 lines have been proven better for White. Of course a good book that will show clear improvements over these theoritical problems of today is welcome.
Ametanoitos,
When you talk the English Attack except transpositions to the Scheveningen, are you talking ones like the Queen Sac line where Black gets 3 pieces for the Queen? (i.e. 5…Qc7 6.Ndb5 Qb8 7.Be3 a6 8.Bb6 ab5 9.Nb5 Bb4 10.c3 Ba5 11.Nc7 Qc7 etc.) Or are you talking the lines with Be3, Qd2, O-O-O, and f3? The Queen Sac line is the only one I’m familiar with where the only other real option is the transpose to the Scheveningen (which I also play, by the way…I pretty much play any 2…e6 Sicilian except the Four Knights or Pin variations). With the Queen sac line, the real debate is whether 13…g6 is best (with a recommended improvement shortly after in game 9 of the “Chess Explained” book on the Taimanov), or if 13…Be5 is best, especially after the 18.Bd3 idea instead of 18.Bb3 given by Delchev/Semkov, or whether the Scheveningen is Black’s only real choice in that particular line.
In the classical lines with Be2, are you talking specifically without Be3, or the main lines with 8…Bb4 9.Na4, and against all of Black’s options, you feel White’s advantage is any more than the slim advantage you get for going first? (i.e. 9…Be7 [Main response], 9…Bd6, 9…O-O, and 9…Others).
Then, of course, there’s the “pure Taimanov”, which is 5…a6 intending …Nge7, but I think the exchange line, 6.Nxc6, is annoying. Not necessarily better for White, just flat out annoying.
Hello guys!
About Taimanov, I would like a GM book on the Kan rather…
P.S.= The Ametanoitos’ two lines are not really problematic for Black…
In the pure Taimanov the line that it is given in “Experts Vs the Sicilian” (the Nb3 line avoiding the exchange of the knights) is crushing for White.
In the Be2 Taimanov the line with 8…Bb4 9.Na4 is a bit better for White. Not much in theory but in practice i found Black’s position very dangerous.
In the English Attack i meant the lines with Be3-Qd2-f3 and not this 5…Qc7 6.Ndb5 line which i don’t know very deep. Two recent books (De la Villa and Yakovich) deal with this line for White’s side and both offer convincing analysis. I am sure that the 1.e4 rep books will probably investigate this aproach against the Taimanov and offer even more convincing analysis! 🙂
We might do a Modern Benoni at one point, but have no plans at the moment.
By the way, a little known fact is that I wrote 80% of the Starting Out book. Back in 2003 I produced (as helper or author) about 35% of Everyman’s catalogue… Endre did some initial work, but then had problems completing it for private reasons, where I then stepped in. I was always helping, but did more than originally planned.
Slightly off topic question here. The book “Chess Lessons” by Yusupov published by Chessgate in 2004 contains 10 lectures such as ‘Zugzwang’, ‘Candidate Moves’, ‘Passed Pawns in the Middlegame’ and ‘Back-Rank and 30-36 exercises at the end of each chapter.
Is this the same material that Yusupov used for his Tigersprung or in English Boost/Build/Evolution Series?
Interesting. Never would have guessed that. Unlike the Chess Explained book, I think the Starting Out book was pretty well written, with really only one spot of conflicting analysis. Of course, the Starting Out books will get you to a certain point, but will only get you so far. So “hopefully” that “might” will become a “will” in the coming years.
That one area of conflicting analysis is in Game 31, saying that 9.Nf3 in the Flick Knife attack is what will cause Black all these problems down the road because of 12.a3 instead of 12.Kh1 (9.Nf3 and 12.a3 each getting an !). However, 12…Nf6 is assessed as “probably not too bad for Black” and 12…Nb6 13.f5 gxf5 says “looks good for Black.”
So it makes you wonder. 9.Nf3 and 12.a3 a problem for Black, or 12…Nb6 and 13…gxf5 a problem for White?
Otherwise, I haven’t really seen any analytical flaws (There may have been a grammar flaw or 2, but unless it’s glaring throughout the book, like if you read the introduction to the first edition of Standard Chess Openings by Schiller, I don’t even figure it into my review). Granted, I haven’t read 100% of the book yet, more like 40% (mostly critical stuff, like Flick Knife and Classical), but if I had to review it right now on Amazon, I’d give it 5 stars.
I am sure there are far more mistakes in the Benoni book. I wrote it in 5-6 days to be honest. I simply ended up with someone elses job and was busy putting real time into Excelling at Technical Chess and Excelling at Chess Calculation at that time.
The Chess Lessons book by Yusupov contains 10 lectures he was giving at that time. I attended some of them. The new series contains 9 x 24 lectures. Do I believe that these 10 lessons are to be found scattered around these 9 books? Yes, and probably without many changes. I have attended him giving some lectures from the new books as well, and find them excellent.
Will the pdf extracts for the forthcoming books be uploaded sometime soon?
Various problems this week. Will make it a priority tomorrow…
Please give me a book on the Benoni, Sunday is my birthday. Thanks!
PDF excerpts
Boost Your Chess 3
Chess Lessons
Cutting Edge 2
Karpov’s Strategic Wins
Chess Lessons seems to be an excellent read judging from the excerpt.
It is really a nice book. We are very happy to have gotten our hands on it.
I’m looking forward to the QGD GM Rep book. I think that I’m right when I’m tailoring my opening repertoire according to Quality Chess Opening Books.
Please comment on my Black & White repertoire 🙂
WHITE: 1.d4: GM Repertoire vol 1&2 by Avrukh
BLACK: vs 1.e4:
a) 1… c5: GM Repertoire Najdorf Sicilian by Ftacnik;
b) 1… e5:
– Beating the Open Games & A Spanish Repertoire for Black by Marin;
– The Berlin Wall by John Cox;
– The Ruy Lopez: A Guide for Black by Sverre Johnsen & Leif Johannessen, Gambit.
BLACK: vs 1.d4 etc:
a) 1… d5:
– GM Repertoire The Tarrasch Defence by Nikolaos Ntirlis & Jacob Aagaard;
– Play the Semi-Slav by David Vigorito.
b) 1… Nf6:
– GM Repertoire The Grunfeld Defence by Boris Avrukh;
– GM Repertoire The King’s Indian I&II by Vassilios Kotronias.
c) 1… f5: Leningrad System by Stefan Kindermann.
Well friends, what do you think about my repertoire? Recently I switched from 1.e4 to 1.d4 as White, and therefore I have created more room for Black repertoire.
What do you think about having 2 defenses as Black against 1.e4 and 1.e4. In given case one defense is symmetrical and one is asymmetrical! Botvinnik used to say that every master should have 2 systems against any White line 🙂
The excerpt of chess lessons is really superb, looks like a fantastic work, looking forward to this book.
A lttle strange that 6…Ng4 is not covered in the cutting edge book, bit this one I have already pre-ordered.
I am still curious about the karpov book, the excerpt is not too helpful, better would have been some later year
In Cutting Edge 2 what is the “Vallejo Pons variation?”.
The Vallejo Pons variation is an 6…e5 variation, with opposite castling, and 12.g5 b4. It was top fashion a few years ago and is still played all the time by Van Wely as black.
I will change the Karpov excerpt. Thanks for the tip.
I try to have two openings with black, but honestly, laziness means that I am bad at preparing and more duck and dive than anything. It is not that I have not seen lots of chess theory, but that I cannot remember what to do against really dangerous lines, because I have not taken the time to memorize it :-(.
But I do recommend having more than one opening, as long as you learn them well.
Is the 6…Ng4 line not covered in the “main line” sections of Cutting Edge 2? Guess I need to buy the book as I’m not sure what the “main line” is in the Be3 Najdorf these days!
Then we should both do our homework 🙂
Jacob, regarding Grandmaster Repertoire 6 – The Sicilian Defence by Lubomir Ftacnik, I think that you should upload a PGN UPDATE just like you did for both Avrukh’s GM Rep 1d4 vol 1&2.
So we can have on one place all relevant omissions in the book, and I hope that you have rembered or read about them here on this blog or on chesspub.com.
That would be really nice, and par to Avrukh. Last but not the least it would be fair to the readers.
One of the things I want to do (everything is in a long list of things that needs to be done) is to have ONE file with updates for all the books. Very easy to update for us, and very easy to navitage for the users. But I will have to spend some time setting it up…
First, a question: I see over at chesspub.com that you guys are recommending 9…c4 in the Tarrasch book in the mainline. As I am interested mostly in the cxd4 lines, do you (Jacob) think your work with Lund in the Meeting 1.d4 book holds up fairly well?
Second, as I am the first comment on your company Facebook page, I would like a prize. 🙂
I don’t think 9…cxd4 has much of a reputation anymore, unfortuntately…
Abramov,
I have the opposite problem. Pretty much if it isn’t the Benko Gambit, Alekhine’s Defense, the Sicilian with 2…d6, the Sicilian with 2…Nc6, or off the wall garbage, I’ve probably played it within the last 3 years as Black. White hasn’t been much better until April 2010.
To answer your question, should you have a multiple opening repertoire? My answer is “sort of”. I think you should have one primary opening for White, and 1 primary defense for Black against d4 and against e4. Then, have a back-up for each, which you use NO WHERE NEAR as often as your primary. The following are the only reasons I see for using them:
1) You are playing a rated game at your club against someone that’s played you over 20 times, and you need a surprise weapon for him.
2) Someone just absolutely mauled your King’s Indian in Round 3 of the World Open, and you just can’t play it again psychologically at that tournament.
3) You catch yourself getting to the point where you are making moves out of habit instead of out of thought. This is more of an issue with openings where you make the same moves all the time, no matter what your opponent does, like if you play the London System or King’s Indian Attack as White.
John,
I’m with you. I probably won’t get GM Rep 9 (May get 10 and 11 though). Every time I played the Tarrasch as Black vs 9.Bg5, I played 9…cxd4, mainly because of a game I played against a 2300 player back when I was 1682 (1998), and mauled him in 23 moves. It was somewhere around move 20 or 21, his choice was give up the Queen for a minor piece, or get mated! He played 9…c4. I’m very well aware 1 game does not validate or invalidate a line, but psychologically, it can cause a player to think differently than what is ultimately the truth.
What about the newsletter with the (unfortunately still) missing lines in GM6?
I know, I know. What can I say? I am going for surgery on Tuesday and don’t know when I will be back. I have to focus on other things :-(.
Surgery ? What happened ?
I thought you maybe forgot about the missing lines, and was just checking if you still remembered.:D
Wish you the best with the surgery!
It seems that there is going to be a different book series also called Chess Evolution: http://www.chess-evolution.com/
Shoulder injury. Nothing serious, but long term diminishing in ability, I fear.
Maybe it will be a positive surprise. 🙂
Anyone who’s read or has Marin’s English Rep. know what to do versus 1. c4 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 b6?? The closest thing I can find is the chapter on the Inferior Queen’s Indian, 1.c4 c5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. Nf3 b6 and he suggests 5. d4 with the idea of …5. Bb7 d5, but how is this possible with Nc6? Any ideas? Rybka book gives 4. b3 after the above line.
I can’t find a line or subline where Marin explains this move order. Thanks!
@Jacob – Good luck with your surgery . I think the black colour on Gm-9’s cover is .. somewhat odd no ?
The colour represents the German flag. Tarrasch was German, so that’s why those colours. Why do you think that it is odd?
Actually in the first draft of that cover, the designed mixed the colours around a bit to make them more according to some theory. The result was: the Belgish flag! I thought about keeping it, but thought the joke would be lost on most people…
Jeremy,
I own all 3 books, but don’t have them on me where I am right now. Common sense to me would say 4.Bxc6! You may try to argue that the light squares are weak, but I have also played the English Defense before, and after 1.c4 b6 2.Nc3 Bb7 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3, Black does best to play 4…Bxf3!. The Knight then goes to c6, and the Rook runs no real risk on the long diagonal, and can easily be moved at just about any time.
I would be inclined to do something similar here. One big difference is it’s going to be even harder to open the long diagonal. In the English Defense, all white has to do is play f4 to open up the Bishop. Here, Black will either have to develop the bishop classically, or else move the c5 pawn to c4 (safely) and then move the c6 pawn, just to open up the diagonal.
The difference on move 4 is that White has played 4.Nf3, and so 4…b6 doesn’t lead to the train wreck in Black’s pawns.
There are other lines that Marin gives where White gives up the Light Squared Bishop, like the line 1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.Na3 b5? 6.Nxb5 cxb5 7.Ng1 where White wins the Rook, but then has to trade the Bishop for Black’s Knight, and has the weak light squares. Look at this line to get some idea how to handle White’s position withou the LSB.
Unless someone can counter, I’d say that 1.c4 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 b6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 is better for White.
ok Patrick,
I’m going to try that and if I lose, I’m blaming you.
LOL! Yeah right!!!! I don’t claim responsibility for one’s ineptitude after the 4th move! Therefore, when you make your blunder on move 5 … (LOL)
Actually, I’m surprised every chess book (Quality, Everyman, Chess Stars, doesn’t matter) isn’t written with a disclaimer on it about not guaranteeing success by all readers. Anybody with basic reading and motor skills can flip thru the pages of a book, and push wood on the board. Whether or not the reader goes about doing any further analysis is up to the reader.
Of course, if Jeremy thinks I know everything, maybe Jacob will hire me to write books. FIDE 2100, Grandmaster, what’s the difference? Nothing Really! 🙂
I’ll send Jacob the manuscipts now! Maybe I’ll start off with my own line that I claim to have invented in 1999, as I have never seen a book 1999 or older even mention this for Black, and I have yet to lose with it (not that I’ve faced it all that often, and don’t play the French any more in serious competition)
It’s in a gambit line of the French Closed Tarrasch:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 Qb6 8.Nf3 cxd4 9.cxd4 f6 and now after White’s slightly offbeat 10.Nc3, every book I saw only gave 10…fxe5 11.dxe5 Ndxe5 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Qh5+ Nf7 14.Bb5+, and White appears to have all the fun.
Well, I came up in 1999 with 10…a6, claiming that the extra move for White doesn’t do him any good, and after say, 11.O-O (a “common sense” type of move), that Black can then take the pawn with 11…fxe5 12.dxe5 Ndxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Qh4+ Nf7 as White no longer has the b5-square available, and the only move that seems like White would have that he wouldn’t have in the other line (i.e. if he really wants to make Black pay for his delayed action) would be 15.Re1, to which Black would respond 15…Be7. I was about 1900 then. Therefore, there’s probably flaws to this analysis, but if this line still holds up today (couldn’t tell you as I haven’t actually looked at this in years), maybe I SHOULD be writing for Quality Chess! LOL!
Flags on books great ! didnt think soo logically i apologize
Patrick,
I know you don’t claim responsibility for my ineptitude, but I’m giving it to you anyway. :p
Are we still on for the first Quality Chess books of 2011 to be published this week?
We had a verbal discussion about this …c5, ….Nc6 and …b6 set-up in the office. No database, so please don’t take it too seriously. Our thinking was that e3+d4 looked natural. White should be a bit better.
And yes, on Friday we will send Boost your Chess 3 and Cutting Edge 2 to all shops in Europe and a few chess specialists in the US. If they order them, of course! We should be posting the books from Scotland on Monday next week to those who have pre-ordered on our website.
Hi Jacob, just a quick question on the Tarrasch book if I may?
I was just wondering how much coverage you are planing to do on lines where White doesn’t take on d5 at once.
I ask because in my experience, when I play the Tarrasch I seem to get 4.e3 and 4.Nf3 a lot of the time. (i.e people wimp out of my preparation).
I your book Meeting 1.d4 you mention these lines only very briefly on p130, I was wondering and hoping whether the covergae of these lines in the upcoming Tarrasch book will be a bitmore comprehensive?
Also another quick question, do you plan to mention anything on the von Hennig-Schara gambit. If not do think this will be covered in Alterman’s Black Gambit guide?
Thanks in advance
Nick
And yes, on Friday we will send Boost your Chess 3 and Cutting Edge 2 to all shops in Europe and a few chess specialists in the US. If they order them, of course! We should be posting the books from Scotland on Monday next week to those who have pre-ordered on our website.
Just FYI, tried to order Cutting Edge 2 today, and the Bar with price and “Add to Basket” button is missing.
As Jacob cannot answer at the moment (because he cannot write!) and i am the co-author of the book i can answer your questions.
First of all we don’t have plans of covering the HS-Gambit. I remember reading not so long ago some convincing analysis at the Kaissiber magazine where they concluded that White is better. Of course this is not news and i don’t think that we should waste space and energy of covering this line, especialy when we don’t believe in it!
If you ask Jacob he will tell you that in his last two games with the Tarrash he also faced the e3+Nf3 line and he won both times quite easily i’d say (against IMs). I also faced this line recently in a team event and i was better but drew at the end after missing a promising line in severe time pressure. It seems that the players with White believe that this line is a safe “way-out” when in fact they risk becomning worse in those typical IQP positions.
You can be sure that this is going to be well covered in the book even if we didn’t have practical experience with it. There are also lots of lines where White doesn’t exchange on d5 in English/Reti that will also be covered! As will be the lines where White doesn’t play 2.c4 (London, Colle, Torre etc…)
> “You can be sure that this is going to be well covered in the book even if we didn’t have practical experience with it. There are also lots of lines where White doesn’t exchange on d5 in English/Reti that will also be covered! As will be the lines where White doesn’t play 2.c4 (London, Colle, Torre etc…)”
Great! At last a GM repertoire against the “anti-d5” White choices! I am very impatient… 😀
There seems to be an issue on the hardcover page. Thanks for pointing it out; our expert tech staff is sorting it out.
I am back out of the hospital. My shoulder hurts quite a lot, but overall this was a great success. I hope to have full movement for the first time in years within weeks.
I have a few days “off” (but not really) until I start work again Friday. Nikos and I have found some great things on the Tarrasch, and we will press on with this in the next few weeks, all whilst I am working on administration and finishing other projects.
There is hope that Experts on the Anti-Sicilian can be sent off to the printer at the end of next week. It will be very close anyway…
@ Jim Antoline
Cutting Edge 2 hardcover can now be purchased:
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/12/117/the_cutting_edge_2__sicilian_najdorf_6be3_by_milos_pavlovic_hardcover/
My apologies if this is already known, but I came across this link to recommended chess books in English from the FIDE Trainers Commission. The first item on the list is the 5 volumes of “Excelling at” by Jacob Aagaard. There appear to be 11 entries from Quality Chess; one of them being the 3 volumes of “Build Up Your Chess”.
http://trainers.fide.com/recommended-books.html
@Neil Sullivan
Thanks for letting us know; I don’t recall seeing this before. An interesting list of books: I would have to look more closely to be sure if it was selected by IM Jeroen Bosch or if it was a committee decision and he is announcing it.
The link also leads to similar lists of books in German, Russian and Spanish.
On the English list, the first 100 items are for trainees, i.e. students. The final 20 are for trainers. It’s hard to disagree with most choices and any such list is going to provoke debate. Nevertheless, I was disappointed that Jonathan Tisdall’s excellent “Improve Your Chess Now” didn’t make the cut.
Regarding the Tarrasch book and the non 12.c4 lines I do hope that in the London System you will cover 2.Bf4 as well as 2.Nf3 3.Bf4?
Yes we will.
Was Cutting Edge 2 despatched to chess stores on Fri? Hence I should be able to buy it Mon at chess shop in Baker St in London?
and from chessdirect.co.uk?
I’m still curious about the content of upcoming “Experts on the Anti-Sicilian” book. Shall this be:
a) an repertoire for White, Black or neutral
b) missing line from Ftacnik’s book 2.f4 will be covered
c) missing line from Ftacnik’s book 2.a3 will be covered
Please can you give us a table of content?
It takes close to a week for the books to make it across the continent. The English shops should have the book towards the end of this week. It is always random which of them that gets the books first.
a) Neutral, in the sense that there are ideas for both sides. The articles are not necessarily neutral.
b) Yes, briefly.
c) Yes, briefly.
d) Not yet.
I like the table of contents of the Be3 book on the najdorf- seems very topical !
How far away are we on the Bg5 book
We are very far away on the Bg5 book. Into 2012 for sure. Sorry. We just received the new books in the office. They look great. Unfortunately one box got hammered and 10 hardcover CHESS LESSONS (for release next month, but already printed) have bent corners :-(.
Are you guys at Quality Chess planning to release your books as cbv (pgn) versions like Everyman did? I found them much easier to study.
I just started to go through excellent Jacob´s Excelling Series. I own both versions (paper and chessbase) and I went through the first book just in two days – reading the paper version and scrolling through the moves.
Offer them as a free upgrade to the softcover preorders, in chronological order.
Or sell them with a substancial discount if they’re more damaged than I assume – and use the opportunity to drum up some marketing around it.
They are still better than the softcovers. I think some will go out as review copies and some as websales (replacing softcovers without asking – I am that confident).
We don’t sell with a discount. The great value of our product is (or so I believe) the content. So, if a book is damaged and does not substantiate fully price, we send it to the paper mill. We ask shops that report damaged books to do the same.
FAQ says:
Q: Will your books be available as pgn or ChessBase e-books?
As long as it is easy to copy these forms of readers, it makes absolutely no sense. Why other companies choose to do this is a mystery.
In fact the majority of copies I saw until today, were from books on paper and with the use of scanner and not original pdf books. I could not understand for example why New in Chess magazine becames a big format in XXI century when the times are for not using paper and we see more and more tablets like iPad and Kindle. Why not books for Kindle system? It is not easy to do copies because it is in Kindle pdf format wich is diferent from the usual pdf and any user cannot transfer books to another one.
Now a question about QC books: QC will release a book on the Tarrash. The idea to do a book on the Tartakower or any other QGD defence like Cambridge Springs is still in your mind Jacob? Thanks.
Well I should read FAQ´s more often 🙂
I must admit I understand your policy, despite is bad news for us. Anyhow even a book its easy to copy once its scanned.
At least a pgn file without annotations would be helpfull. Those opening books are huge – i just cannot think of playing all those moves over the board and at the same time memorizing them. And Im not a GM playing them on my head.
Maybe you should consider to generate the sample chapters (or parts of them) in CB format too. The samples are something you *want* to see in circulation. 😉 (Of course this would create the additional problem of how to communicate that the book is delivered in hardware, not software. )
Selling on Kindle might be more interesting than it seems at first glance. A 70% royalty rate (on the sales price) in the US (other countries: 35% on the list price) and the possibility to disallow the file transfer to the customers’s PC (Kindle-PC is optional) could make this interesting for slow moving back katalog titles. 70% of $9.99 is still a lot.
I think the piracy risk is too high for new titles though.
To believe that we would get 70% of a $ 9.99 price is naive. We would get 33% and Amazon would basically set the price as they want, which means it would be $ 5.99 for a $ 9.99 list price.
Remember the US list prices are lower than the European ones. We don’t want to put an additional discount on our product sold in the worst possible way (for us) at the lowest possible price.
Regarding electronic files in general. There is NO evidence that this will benefit the publisher or author in any way. Also, what cannot be cracked today, will be available everywhere in a year. We don’t have those kind of thriller titles that nobody would read a year from now.
We have PDF’s of our books. It attracts people that like books. Cbv or other digital files, would attract the wrong audience and let them down.
The 70% are not “naive”, it’s what Amazon says they pay for sales in the US. Of course it’s correct that they set the price as they see fit, which is a huge disadvantage.
Jacob,
I agree with you about the whole e-book thing. They aren’t the next best thing to sliced bread anyway. The Hardcovers here are, as you can lay them flat without having to hold the book open, even on page 10 or 470 of a 480 page book. Some of the smaller books (300 pages or less, like the Scandinavian book or GM Rep 5 – Symmertrical English) do require opening them in the middle, and then flipping backwards or forwards, but they then do stay open.
As for e-books, I use them occasionally, but most e-books I buy I end up buying the paperback as well. Yes, you can play over a game on a computer, but there are multiple factors here:
1) You play on an electronic board. 3-D is hard to see, what’s easy to see in 2-D may not be easy over the board. When you study over the board, you are studying with the same type of environment as you are when playing in a tournament that’s not correspondence.
2) The e-books may be printable, so you can take it with you to the club to go over games on a 3-D board, but then it’s a clumped 2-column printout with the main moves bolded, and the side lines all jumbled together. If you have sidelines like line e2a41 and e2a42 and e2a43, then it can be really hard to follow. In paperbacks or hardbacks, these usually are on a new line. It make take up all of pages 67 and 68, but I personally find it easier to follow. In addition, there are no diagrams in a printout.
3) While an e-book you can see the position after any move with a single click, it’s not all that easy to identify the critical points of the game sometimes. Usually, with “most” printed books, you see a diagram, it’s because it’s a critical juncture in the game. They don’t just put a diagram for the reader’s convenience of resetting up the position after a sideline. You’d have a book that’s 800 pages long, 500 pages worth of it nothing but diagrams. An important move, or a turning point in the game, is where you’ll see diagrams in a printed book. You don’t get that with e-books.
Tim,
Actually, I can imagine going thru the 1150 pages (give or take when you omit the copyright pages or index pages, which you’ll use for reference or finding something, but I doubt many read the index like they do the meat of the book) on the GM Rep English books (GM Rep 3 thru 5). It’s about a 3-year project for me, as I also work, am raising a daughter, and have other items I’m currently studying as well (Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian, The Sicilian Kan by Emms and the newer book Play the Sicilian Kan, and Attacking Chess: The King’s Indian, Volume 1 for Black, along with Forcing Chess Moves, which I’m about 80% through).
Oh, and just a word to Quality Chess, and I’m not embarassed to mention books by other publishers. I mention Quality books on the Everyman site as well, and anybody that needs material on the English as White, I recommend your trio of books to each of them as the books by Everyman on the English are mediocre at best (and that’s giving them more credit than they deserve). I get what’s available for my repertoire, not the other way around, basing my repertoire on what is available by a certain publisher! In a previous blog, myself, and a few others, pushed for 2…e6 Sicilian lines (Taimanov and Kan being the 2 mentioned – Four Knights and Pin variations aren’t very good for Black). We got the thumbs down response. Well, Everyman is there to save me!
I am looking forward, however, to the 2 book GM Repertoire on the King’s Indian Defense, and the Anti-Sicilians book. I see that ChessCafe has been carrying the hardcover books, so I’ll probably look there before ordering straight from the manufacturer this time, especially with the stupid postal system now between Europe and the United States, all thanks to some thug terrorist back on October 30th of last year. Be interesting to see how they compare with the 2 book Attacking Chess series. I’ll probably end up taking a few lines from each. I do definitely like the Panno against the Saemisch, and am glad that Vigorito didn’t go with the pawn sac line.
Jacob, I hope you’ll be fine very soon.
Also, I hope you can publish a new newsletter soon. I think that everyone will be agree that it’s one of the best things that exists in the web…
I have no problem with people mentioning books by other publishers on this blog. I do this as well from time to time. If someone else did something good, why not mention it? Of the books you mention, I would point to Forcing Chess Moves as – don’t believe his theories too much, there is a good deal of nonsense in there; but work with the positions, it is a decent collection.
About buying our books in the US. I can’t be arsed to check the FAQ, but we sort of recommend to buy them from the main chess outlets in the US. By bad luck they get them a week later this time around, otherwise it is usually 1-3 days later than the European shops. They offer better service, so please get the books there. We will live without the extra 2 euros quite well.
Amazon demands that the sale goes through a distributor. Also they demand a lower price. Trust me, we have looked into this. What might happen is that books that would otherwise go out of print will be available on kindle, if we can do it in an inexpensive way.
I really don’t want to have the books available for $12 on kindle and costing € 23.99 in Europe. We can live with some discrepency, but if the chess dealers disappear, so will our entire trade. We have to do what we can to protect them. I am actually unhappy that Everyman does nothing to protect them. It is very short sighted.
I just got the Be3 Najdorf book from the London Chess Centre. Looks good!! They also had the Yusupov book in stock…
“We can live with some discrepency, but if the chess dealers disappear, so will our entire trade. We have to do what we can to protect them. I am actually unhappy that Everyman does nothing to protect them. It is very short sighted.”
Absolutely true. If the specialized dealers disappear (or out-list them) Everyman will be at Amazon’s mercy.
Here are links to the current Kindle Direct Publishing pages:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
Mmh, did the blog eat my comment from 30 minutes ago or do posts with links need manual approval?
@Andre
yes, the blog software has been acting up causing some posts to require manual approval.
GM Aagaard,
I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to an update of Understanding Chess Tactics: I learned a *ton* from the first edition.
Also looking forward to the eventual “advanced chess tactics” book that you mentioned.
Regards
notyetagm
The core part of the book will be what is already published. We have talked about adding something about calculation and a lot of exercises. A big part of the work is a general facelift – meaning an improvement of the layout.
Advanced Chess Tactics and Chess Tactics from Scratch will be published at the same time.
GM Aagaard,
Do you think that you’ll publish a new newsletter soon?
Re: Understanding Chess Tactics – make sure that you mark which side is to move in each diagram! I think that was missing in the first edition.
But it was there in the second and third prints 😉
Yes, I want to do a newsletter here in March. Being operated and struggling to get books done, it had to wait.
Jacob, please upload pdf and cbh update for GM Najdorf.
Avrukh was very diligent regarding his updates for GM 1&2 🙂
Boris published a new Catalan update in the German mag Schach a few weeks ago.
Great news. Looking forward to both books.
Any update on the time frame? “LATER” could be July, December, 2012, etc. 🙂
Thanks
Later indeed means that I will not commit to anything.
I will fix the whole update thing later on. We will not have PDF updates in the future.
In some ways, Jeffrey is right. The “LATER” is a bit confusing. If “LATER” means any time in the future, but the book will occur, then one would think that “The Cutting Edge” Sicilian Najdorf” would be listed with a “LATER” by it.
If you look at the ad for The Cutting Edge book on the Najdorf with Be3, it states the following:
“The Najdorf with 6.Bg5 will be covered at a later stage in The Cutting Edge: Sicilian Najdorf 6.Bg5.”
From previous posts, it appeared as though this was a known fact well before January 26th (the time of the post).
Not arguing that it needs to be posted. Just mentioning as a way of showing how it can be a little confusing, implying that “LATER” would normally mean within a certain amount of time (i.e. 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc.) but no idea when, whether that be July, November, May 2012, etc. and that those not listed would be beyond that time period.
Do you know which exact issue of the year 2011?In the contents of the nr. 3/2011 it’s not listed.
I understand the way people would like to know more accurately when the books will come out, but really, I am giving the information I can give. The books we feel confident about, we give a month, like April/May. When we have a fixed date, we put it in. Obviously there are times when we are a bit late with the updating of the publishing schedule. Obviously the website is not always perfect. But I try as much as I can.
With the regards to LATER. This is obviously a cop-out, as everyone has deduced already. It is not meant to mean in 2013. It is meant to mean that we are working on this book, or the author is working seriously on this book. This does not necessarily mean that the book will be ready on time, or that are in full control. Often it means that we are not! It also does not mean that all books are on the list. For example: ADVANCED CHESS TACTICS by Lev Psakhis is rather progressed, but will only be released later this year, together with CHESS TACTICS FROM SCRATCH – the 2nd edition of UNDERSTANDING CHESS TACTICS. These books are on my private list, but too far into the future to be on the public list. Things have a tendency to change, as years of predicting a book on the King’s Gambit will tell you.
Regarding Cutting Edge 3. I have no idea when we will do 6.Bg5 or who the author will be. Pavlovic recently said that he did not want to do it, for whatever reason. I think it is quite interesting to get another author’s perspective on this anyway, so probably this is not a catastrophe. Personally I feel like writing this book, but I guess I am too busy with the 1.e4 books, once the Tarrasch book is done.
Actually, if you are looking to write Cutting Edge 3, in some ways, you actually could do it if you decide to make 6.Bg5 your main recommendation against the Najdorf. I seem to recall the Sicilian being the 2nd book on your list, so would probably be a late 2012 publishing would be my guess.
Since playing 6.Bg5 as White would require you to know virtually all the lines, when you do the most important ones, could also write the other book almost in tandum. I’d imagine these critical ones would probably be the Poisoned Pawn, 7…Qc7, and the old main lines.
Just a thought.
163 comments! Hopefully you guys could update the publishing schedule and we can start posting in a brand new thread!
I don’t think it’s appropriate to try to base needs for a schedule update on number of comments in a thread. Some threads just get a lot of posts very quickly.
These guys are obviously very busy, based on what’s been posted in the past year. They’ve got a lot of bumps in the road that they are obviously trying to iron out:
– Finding time for Shaw to be able to do the King’s Gambit book that people have asked about for well over a year now
– Finding an author for the French – This has been talked about for a while, and more than once
– Finding an author for the 6.Bg5 Najdorf – This has apparently been recent.
– Finding an author for other talked about openings that they said they had a desire to get out, but haven’t found an author for, like QGD as Black, Nimzo-Indian, etc.
– Editing books in progress before they hit the printers, like Chess Tactics from Scratch, the Karpov books, etc.
– Tending to Jacob’s shoulder
Suggesting ideas that might get some of the load off their plate is probably far more appropriate than asking for a schedule update just based on comment count. Once a quarter is more than frequent enough, which would be end of April, another month-and-a-half away. Even once every 4 months (3 times a year). To try to do an update every month and a half is just going to be close to a carbon copy. The first couple are published. There might be a delay on a book or two, and maybe 1 or 2 of the “Laters” would actually have a date, but that’s about it.
It was issue 2/11. See homepage -> archive.
Long article, 8 pages or so.
Thanks for the clarification, Jesse. 🙂
@splinter22pr:
My other post is stuck in moderation. (Feel free to delete it, Jacob. It’s obsolete now. 😉 )
Avrukh’s article is in issue #2/2011. Pretty long, ca. 8 pages. You can see the content of that issue on the mag’s homepage in the archive.
I don’t mind getting hassled a bit. This is one of the ways I get around to doing what I need to do.
We might have an author for both the Nimzo and QGD. No promises, but trying.
It is certainly not a group effort in the office to tend to my shoulder. The thought is horrifying!
Things always change a bit and I do want to put up a new schedule soon.
@Andre: Thanks! I will definitely buy it.
Hi i was wondering if you could put pdf samples of the forthcoming books up online? (specifically the anti-sicilians one, kotronias’ book and Avrukh’s new grunfeld book).
Since it says they are going to be released in march, thats very soon!
Perhaps this has already been asked, since it might be more of a publishing schedule question but yea i am just really eager to see what these books cover.
We will put something out when we are ready.
Hi,
do you intend to translate the Marin/English Openening Vol. 2 & 3 into German (Vol. 1 is a wonderful book) ?
Hey, when you get finished with that King’s Gambit book, you should get started on the Dragon. 🙂
We shall consider it!
That would be fantastic! Although I fear for your lives. . .
I have a possible author lined up, just need to convince him that he can do it!