Big publication date – 15 July

Hi guys, I wanted to give two solid dates for you and one shaky. Anyway, just an update on various things.

But first off, if you are a member of The Chess Book Collectors group on Facebook, please vote on your favourite chess cover of 2019. It is a little thing to do to recognise the people who put in a lot of time trying to please your aesthetic sensibilities. We do not care if you vote for one of our books or a book from another publisher. But we do ask you to vote.

On the 15th July we will have multiple publications. First of all, we will have four books released in paperback, The Anand Files, Soviet Outcast, Small Steps 2 Success and The Nemesis.

Secondly, we have three new books coming: Playing the Stonewall Dutch, Playing the Petroff and Think Like a Machine.

As usual, we will be publishing the opening books in both paperback and hardcover, while the middlegame book will be published in hardcover and in paperback in half a year or more. This system is part of keeping your local chess specialist in business. The books do eventually become available on Amazon, we need those sales too stay in business, but remember that without the 50-100 chess specialists, the whole business of chess literature would seize to exist.

Further down the line, we have two volumes of The Italian Renaissance coming on August 12th, written by the strong Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv.

On the 16th September, we will release volume 3 and 4 in the Boris Gelfand Decision Making series. These will be the announced Technical Decision Making in Chess and a companion volume called Decision Making in Heavy Piece Endings, which will focus on positions with rooks and queens only.

We are also working on other books, such as the two Dutch Leningrad books by Marin, volume 5 of the Negi-series on 1.e4, the From Scratch series and of course my bloated project, A Matter of Technique, which is not an endgame book…

28 thoughts on “Big publication date – 15 July”

  1. That’s a very pleasant surprise – two volumes of the Gelfand series in one go! Very much looking forward to this. The first two volumes were just marvelous. Great that you’re concerned about the chess specialists by the way. I try to stay away from Amazon like Covid-19 🙂 .

  2. Hi Jacob,

    Closer to the time will there be someone in the QC office that I can contact to see whether it is even possible to send a book by post to New Zealand…..our borders are totally locked down and overseas mail is just not getting in….there are no scheduled airline operations in or out and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon…
    Thanks

  3. Jacob Aagaard

    @Michael
    Kallia (at) qualitychess.co.uk will be back from furlough in two weeks. Before then she can forward any inquiries to others who can deal with them too.

    To smuggle the books in, you can always pretend they are intended for the Avatar set?

  4. Jacob Aagaard

    @Grobiwan
    The editors works on one book at a time. E-Gambit is the next in line after Negi 5 for Andrew. I know he has already looked at it quite a bit and has also played it in some league games with good results.

  5. Benjamin Fitch

    I’m looking forward to seeing the intersection between the Negi book and the Elephant book (that is, if the Negi book covers 1.e4 e5 minor lines).

  6. I own, but have not read yet, Play Unconventional Chess and Win. Is “Think Like a Machine” a sequel to that? Or are the two books unrelated? In other words, should the book by “that other publisher” be read first before this one? Or does it not matter?

  7. Think like a machine . What is it about ? computer chess is by now a different game than human chess.

    do we need to read ” run like a cheetah” to run faster ?

    please explain .

  8. Patrick – it’s no problem to read our book as a standalone volume, but if you already own the book you mentioned it would seem most logical to read that first.

    RYV – There’s a link in the original post with a description.

    Jose – We have no such plan at present.

  9. In their first book, there was a theme based on various alcohols that lead to various levels of impairment, using beer, wine, and vodka as their theme. Will they be using an impairment theme again in Think Like a Machine, like maybe pot, cocaine, and meth this time? I mean, the theme somewhat goes hand-in-hand with what your mental state would have to be to find the right moves! LOL!

    Maybe my view will be different when I’ve seen all 137 examples instead of just the first one between Anand and Adams. The game may have “inspired” 16.Ba3, but I still think I’d need to be “drunk” to find that move at least at this moment!

  10. A Super Talent

    This is Great news! Am really looking forward to the differences between Sedlak’s Stonewall Book and Pavlovic’s recent publication. Any excerpts out yet?

  11. Jacob Aagaard

    I am hoping that Smirin’s Sicilian Warfare book can make the September publication, but it may be tight. Negi will deal with 1.e4 e5 in the sixth volume. Other books are coming too.

  12. Starbreeze – Yes, there is a chapter covering 1…f5 against those two moves – not in exhaustive detail, but focusing on the essential and critical lines.

    Super Talent – I believe the plan is still to recommend the Ruy Lopez, but this will be confirmed later. The first challenge will be to avoid losing by force to the mighty Elephant Gambit.

  13. @Thomas
    My compliments on an excellent defensive try!
    2…f5 could be a promising reversed KG though. 2…Qg5!? might be fun as well.
    So maybe 2.Nc3 is White’s best hope for equality?

  14. @Thomas

    2.Bb5 is the Portuguese Opening. I played it briefly as White back around 2002/2003. I literally never lost with it, but only 2 wins, and 5 draws. Too small a sample size to draw a conclusion.

    That said, Black is best off not playing 2…Nc6, but rather, 2…c6!, and after 3.Ba4, he should not play an immediate 3…d5?! as White can take and force Black to recapture with the Queen (the whole point behind the Portuguese.

  15. Playing the Petroff book seems to be missing the Ursov Gambit. There is no 2.d4 exd4 3.Bc4 variation in Chapter 13, or 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 (exd4 4.Nf3) in Chapter 16. Maybe this is just me looking at the abridged variation index, but I wanted you guys to know this before the publication date.

  16. Nice idea, although of course 2…Nf6 is a clear blunder – otherwise this would be our GM Repertoire for White against 1.e4 e5.

  17. Hello there,
    I am a medical doctor starting a randomised controlled trial for chess improvement. I had initially been only planning on amateurs but I would like to discuss with Jacob if he would be interested in collaborating on this. Even if I just pick your brain for 5-10mins would be great. I’d be able to say that I spoke with you on the design of the study and you would be able to be involved and named in the study on publication as one of the only empirical studies ever conducted in chess improvement.

    Let me know what you think. I am doing this for the love of science, the fact it will be easy to do and that i will get to dip my feet in the waters of the academic world. I have no financial conflicts of interests.

    Kind regards,
    Dr Mathew Hobbs
    Rolleston Medical Centre,
    Senior clinical lecturer University of Otago,
    MBChB, FRNZCGP, BSc (Neuroscience)

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