With all 440 pages uploaded, we have managed to get a publication date from the printer confirmed, as well as to speculate about the upcoming publication dates. The following titles might not be all the titles we will publish in 2011, but we hope to publish them all in 2011. If that makes any sense.
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | 8 April |
| GERMAN EDITION | GM 4 | 8 April |
| Aagaard & Shaw | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | 8 April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | 6 May |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | 6 May |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | May/june |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | May/june |
| Glenn Flear | Tactimania | May/June |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June/July |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | June/July |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June/July |
| Aagaard & Shaw | Grandmaster versus Amateur | LATER |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd edition | LATER |
| Lev Psakhis | Advanced Chess Tactics | LATER |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | LATER |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | LATER |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | LATER |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | LATER |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | LATER |
| Vassilios Kotronias | GM 10 – The King’s Indian Defence | LATER |
| Vassilios Kotronias | GM 11 – The King’s Indian Defence | LATER |
| Jacob Aagaard | GM – French, Caro-Kann & Philidor | LATER |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | LATER |
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | 8 April |
| GERMAN EDITION | GM 4 | 8 April |
| Aagaard & Shaw | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | 8 April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | 6 May |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | 6 May |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | May/june |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | May/june |
| Glenn Flear | Tactimania | May/June |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June/July |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | June/July |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June/July |
| Aagaard & Shaw | Grandmaster versus Amateur | LATER |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd edition | LATER |
| Lev Psakhis | Advanced Chess Tactics | LATER |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | LATER |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | LATER |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | LATER |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | LATER |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | LATER |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – The King’s Indian Defence | LATER |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – The King’s Indian Defence | LATER |
| Jacob Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 1 – French, Caro-Kann & Philidor | LATER |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | LATER |
A date set on Karoyli’s “Karpov’s Strategic Wins” series! Awesome sauce!! This isn’t a practical joke, right? It is truly a set date then? Been wanting to have that pair of books for so long now. I’m hoping this is finally the games collection worthy of Karpov that most of us Karpov aficionados have been wanting for many, many years. So many works that came before on Karpov have been found wanting. My suspicion is this will finally deliver, based on the quality of analysis of Karoyli’s “Endgame Virtuoso: Anatoly Karpov”. Just please tell me this is not a tease; May 6th for sure? Your not kidding, are you? 🙂
@David Pangburn
David,
It’s all true; the Karpov books are alive and looking good (or so Andrew tells me). The only change may be that the second one is not 1986-2009 but instead 1986-2010 (more games added) but we won’t let that delay anything.
This is the system I use for announcing books: A date if I believe it is accurate or 90% accurate at least. A month if I am unsure, but very hopeful. And LATER because I don’t want to be caught with my pants down, promising what I cannot hold.
Worst case scenario with the Karpov books would be the 13th of May. Volume one has been printed and Volume two has been typeset and corrected till page 200 or so (1991). Tomorrow I will typeset 1992-1995, after which Karpov’s activity fell drastically.
Both books are up towards 500 pages. To think that Tibor originally wanted this to be a one volume book :-).
Can I just check that “GM – French, Caro-Kann & Philidor” means there will be grandmaster repertoires in these openings (will be looking greatly forward to French if so)? Also will there be major differences in Caro-Kahn & Philidor from Lars Shandorff’s GM7? I’m also going to buy chess lessons because I know of his students, and were impressed by their performances in the Gibraltar tourny earlier on this year.
With regards to Chess Evolution can you say what the actual content will be about? Will it be about how chess has evolved throughout the ages? Or something else? I’ll be buying it regardless as I already own all 6 of his training course books so far, but still I’d like to get an idea beforehand so I can dream about it (lol). Also Grandmaster vs Amateur I’m hoping will be good addition to my dated Euwe’s Chess Master vs Chess Amateur classic.
I hope in future you might also consider doing doing a GM rep book on the dragon because I haven’t been able to find a comprehensive repertoire on this and I think there is a big demand for one to be made.
Keep up the great work Jacob & Co and I look forward to reading future updates and buying your excellent books!
Kind Regards,
James
Any rough rating estimation of the intended audience of Chess Lessons?
Difficult to say which book to NOT buy, propably all…
experts on the anti-sicilian looks fantastic from the content, also looking forward to psachis book on Advenced chess tactics, he is after all a former 2x (!) soviet champion and trainer of many GMs, -VERY intersting
One quick question, there was so far no information about Flear´s book, any hint what it is about (tactics?)
Hi Boki – what you write is that you will choose not to buy all our books – or in other words – you will buy none of them. Is this really true :-).
Hi James,
The Yusupov books are more of the same. It will take him 9 books to cover everything – and we have to call them something…
My GM Rep book will be the first of five 1.e4 books. It is seen from White’s perspective, there is the difference from Lars’ book. A big one I would say!
Chess Lessons is from 1500 to 2400. It is simply a great read, I really, really, like the book.
hi jacob!is the GM french,caro-kann,philidor a repertoire against black’s system?
Hello Fiery,
I can answer that one. That book is a repertoire for White against the named openings. All part of Jacob’s 1.e4 GM Repertoire.
Jacob, what will be your recommendation against the caro-kann, maybe the advanced variation? And when will you upload an excerpt on the grandmaster battle manual, as I am really looking forward to this book?
@Jacob
Got confused by the great quality 🙂 , I´ll buy all 🙂
The same stupid song sung again and again and again. When will people learn that this information is not disclosed until at least “near” the end of writing the book. Things can change over time.
Jacob might write the part on beating the French first and recommend the Exchange Variation for White. During the 9+ months that it takes Jacob to write the 400 pages of Exchange French theory, he may think he’s going to do 3.Nc3 today, the exchange 3 months from now, the advance 6 months from now, the fantasy 8 1/2 months from now, and by the end of that 9th month, decide to spend the next 9 months on the King’s Indian Attack against the Caro-Kann!
And before you ask, yes, the sarcasim is intentional – actually, even as one that doesn’t play 1.e4, I would find it an absolute disgrace if Aagaard decides recommend the Exchange Variation against the French Defense – it’s a draw offer at move 3, for all intents and purposes! 🙂
Aaaargh! Is it a draw? F. We better change our plans then!
Yeah, I don’t want to debate lines far in advance in general, but today I am left waiting on a train station with nothing better to do :-).
At the moment it is 3.Nc3 against the French and 3.e5 against the Caro-Kann. This is the natural choices. Against the Philidor we have options, but no definite plan.
I think we will have GM Battle Manual excerpts available in 1-2 weeks. John is hammering away at it. I will do my best to make it happen; but as you know, it is and cannot be, the first priority.
Not that I truly care a whole lot as I don’t play 1.e4, but I thought originally it was Ruy, Sicilian, French/Caro-Kann, Other 1…e5, and other defenses?
When did the Philidor hop in with the French and Caro-Kann. It almost seems out of place with the Philidor being a dark-square defense, and the French and Caro-Kann being Light-Square defenses. Actually, I would have thought the Scandinavian would have been put in this book instead if it was determined that one more minor defense needed to be added to this volume to balance out the page count across the 5 volumes, as it’s basically an accelerated Caro-Kann.
I do not think the Philidor is a minor opening. I see it as a major opening, now played by a lot of top Grandmasters. I don’t see the Scandinavian in the same light, although it is not so easy in practice, of course…
@John Shaw thanks
Dear Jacob,
Some time ago you promised me a book about strategic/positional play & exercises!
That would be something in style “Practical Chess Defence” or just like Jussupow’s format in his new training books.
Now I’m really disappointed a bit cause these books aren’t in future sight… 🙁
Two points (at least).
I did not promise a book to you, just said I was writing it. I still am. A book like this needs a lot of testing with students to work. Maybe 30-60 min put into each position. I want the exercise book to have 4-500 positions and I need to put similar time into the theory book.
Stylistically these books will be closer to the Attacking Manuals than anything else. The style with limited variations, lots of words, but based on a lot of (deleted) analysis. There will be more variations in the exercise book, because the proof of the pudding is, as known, in the eating.
I believe these books will be ready early 2012. The books on the schedule are all hoped to be out in 2011.
I understand that the Romanovsky book is a project for the future. But, are you able to say if it will have material that wasn’t in the books Chess Middle Planning and Chess Middlegame Combinations that were published by ACP in 1990 and 1991? Thanks.
It combines two Romanovsky books. Being at home, I cannot check, but it could very well be those two books. I do know that at least one of them have been published before in English, but it is not widely available, and thus fits well into our series. These new books are edited by Max Notkin.
Thank you. I don’t believe those books had very wide distribution. ACP also published Kotov’s games collection Grandmaster at Work and not too many people seem to have heard of that either.
You’d definitely be doing a service to redo the 2 Romanovsky books.
Uhm, Abramov, is Jacob your slave?
Is your real name Annie Wilkes? Did you find Jacob at the bottom of a cliff that he drove off of in a Snowstorm (hence the shoulder injury), take him to your house, saw that he was writing a book that disturbed you, and now you are doing things like burning Jacob’s pages on a barbecue for the book he was wrting, and forcing him to write a book to your liking, and threatening to saw his foot off, and many other morbid threats?
(Based on the Plot of Stephen King’s “Misery”)
Mr Aagard, I would like to read your GM Repertoire series, because I want to improve my knowledge of the opening. I could be classified as a club player, though one who is among the players who has absolutely the most basic idea on how to open the Chess game. I would like to keep the books for a future date, because I have yet to read Mr Seirawan’s book ‘Winning Chess Openings’. Who would you recommend your GM Repertoire series books to? I can avail opening training on Fritz 11, but would like to understand the theory behind the particular openings. Please answer my query. With Warm Regards.
Mr Aagard, is not the Philidor opening a concept which came before the Grunfield defence? Why release the GM Repertoire book on the Philidor, after the Grunfield defence book, in the same series?
If you want to understand opening and early middlegame play better, I think the Marin books are really the GM Repertoire books to read. He explains everything very well, unlike Avrukh, who analyses concretely, but on a World Class level. Everyone has their strengths.
We publish the books in the order we find it interesting and our authors find it interesting. We do try to provide a service, and after two books for Black against 1.e4, we need some against 1.d4.
There are 4 A’s in Aagaard. Hard to believe, but true…
I can definitely back up Jacob on this one. I do own the d4-books as well, but only really use the 2nd one for the King’s Indian, Modern Benoni, and Reluctant Benoni for when Black plays 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 O-O 5.d4.
Marin’s 3 books on the English are PHENOMENAL! He recommends you read his 3 books in order, and so it will take a while (I’m currently 131 pages into the first of the 3 volumes). I have had to “glance” at other issues for my correspondence games (though I’ll read these sections in full when I get to them), and have played the English before. Even those that haven’t, if they are willing to put in the work, take some tough losses early on, and play the opening regularly, they will see drastic improvements in results.
The other thing it will do is save you from the hassle of always being in time trouble. When I face the Karpov or Reverse Rossolimo variations, the 2 variations I’ve completed and almost completed, respectively, I often see myself with a significant time advantage and a slightly better position. The other lines, those I haven’t fully gotten to yet, cause me to have to think longer, and time trouble can often be an issue.
To illustrate what may happen in your case, just in the past month, everybody seems to want to play the Slav lines or the QGD lines, both of which lead to a Reti rather than an English. I lost a good 4 or 5 in a row, but won the last 2, the latter one being last night, featuring an excellent sacrifice that Rybka says is sound:
I had White here against an 1800 player (Rd 1 – I’m about 2030): 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 e6 3.Bg2 d5 4.Nf3 c6 5.b3 Be7 6.Bb2 O-O 7.O-O Nbd7 8.d3 Re8 9.Nbd2 Ng4 10.h3 Bf6 11.d4 Nh6 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Be7 14.Qc2 c5 15.Rad1 cxd4 16.Bxd4 Nf5 17.Ba1 Qb6 18.g4 Nh4 19.Qc3 Nxf3+ 20.Bxf3 f6 21.g5 e5 22.gxf6 gxf6 23.Qc1 Bf8 24.c5 Nxc5 25.Rd6 Bxd6 26.Nxf6+ Kh8 27.Qh6 Bf5 28.Nxe8 Rxe8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.Bd5+ Be6 (Allows forced mate in 5 – Black here allows it in 3) 31.Kh2 e4+ 32.Kh1 Bg3 33.Qg7#
You read the Grandmaster Repertoire books, and you’ll have games like this as well. It’s what makes you want to continue playing the game! And those that think they have to play 1.e4 to get a sacrificial attack as White, think again! (See above!)
For the anti-sicilian book, is 8th April the date you expect to ship, or the date you would expect it to be for sale in the London Chess Centre?
Thanks
This is the shipping date.
A question concerning the Tarrasch GM Repertoire: Will there be verbal explanations, for example of typical motifs, such as isolani play, like in Marins books? Or will it be more in Avrukh style? Since it will be Aagaards style, I’m in good hope for words and variations…
I’m sure that Jacob will do his best!
I have my own style. And as Nikos is saying, I will do my best. I don’t like endless variations – I go for what is important to remember or understand, not the answer to random moves.
I remember the specific day of: 4th March 2010, when I received Avrukh’s GM2 in the post, right after it had been published. The book felt more valuable than any birthday presents I had received in the entire decade. I am sure that receiving GM8 will be the same. I am sure that Grünfeld players will have the entire summer to enjoy this work (all 560 or so pages, was it?). That is almost as big as GM2–I am guessing GM8 will also be using the new paper?
We will print all future books on G-print paper, yes. The same as GM6. The only exceptions are the two Karpov books, Tactimania (colour illustrations) and Chess Lessons.
The page count is a bit random. It could be more, it could be less. This is my guess.
It is really nice that Karolyi´s books have a date set. For me Karpov is the most talented player ever and the second best ever ( 1st Kasparov), but books about him or written by him, are not very good, with the exeption of Karolyi´s ( !!!) “endgame virtuoso”. I admit that I was very disappointed, because both “strategic wins” were scheduled for september of 2010. I hope now that the books are really exciting.
Hi Evandro.
We are quite happy with the way these books are turning out. Tibor had told us there were 600 pages and wanted to publish it in one volume. But actually, we will have a combined 1000 pages over the two volumes. We could easily have made it three, I think, but this way the reader gets good value for money.
Another thing putting these books a bit down the line is opening books coming in. We don’t want to sit on them, and thus had to delay the Karpov books a bit.
Selection of Observations/Comments
-Looking forward to the new Karpov books:)
-Yusupov series
It is very confusing to try and figure out which book(s) correspond to which ELO level even with the additional info provided. You may want to add more info that is easy to find
-Top Chess publishers
1.Quality Chess
2.New in Chess
My reason is the quality of the books AND the customer service as I have had some deliery problems which were dealt with very nicely. Thanks.
-Chess opening books
Best format is used by (a)Moskalenko(complete games, pictures of players and some history)(b) Sveshnikov has Quizes and a strategy section in c3 Sicilian.
Don’t get me wrong I like the GM series(and the Bauer-Scandinavian) but honestly they are boring to read and sit on my shelves as reference books(and I have all 7). The Schandorff Carok-Kann/Queen’s Gambit I read completely as there were many games and he writes fabulously well. I am hoping the complete game format will be the universal format of your books. My friends come over to my place and have the same conclusion/opinion. Perhaps you can consider amending the general format of future openning books.
-GM series could be the start of a whole new series…Starting Out with the Avrukh(for example) Rperetoire….etc. Doesn’t have be written by Avurkh even
Web sales
I’m a bit surprised that when I buy some thing only there basic no customer survey questions(like ELO, how you heard of the book etc) to help your marketing/business development efforts. Just a small idea for you.
-IM Greet
I don’t care what rating or title he has, I look forward to his books. Perhaps you can give him more to do:) I am using his Starting Out with the Accelerated Dragon book alot and am extremely happy. However, Everyman seems to have poor quality control as not all their books are the same level.
-Overall
I love your books and hope you take my ideas/comments in the spirit they are intended.
Michael Yip
Budapest
Thanks Michael. My problem with the Moskalenko and Sveshnikov books are that they are chaotic. For this type of book, I prefer Schandorff’s. Basically we want to make different styles of books with different audiences in mind. I am happy you find our service effective and pleasant. Andrew do not want more to do, but is almost finished with an Everyman book he signed for 3 years ago :-). Subscribe to CHESS, he writes there quite a bit.
For Sveshnikov/Moskalenko strengths I liked
-Pictures/short player blurbs
-Quiz/training problems
-Complete games
Agreed their material is all over but perhaps you can take the best of what they have to offer in terms of format/content(bios/pics/training problems) and merge it with your books’ strengths(Schandorff style game analysis).
Thanks for listening anyhow
Michael Yip
For Sveshnikov/Moskalenko strengths I liked
-Pictures/short player blurbs
-Quiz/training problems
-Complete games
Agreed their material is all over but perhaps you can take the best of what they have to offer in terms of format/content(bios/pics/training problems) and merge it with your books’ strengths(Schandorff style game analysis).
Thanks for listening anyhow
Michael Yip
“My problem with the Moskalenko and Sveshnikov books are that they are chaotic.”
Chaotic is exactly the correct word. 😉
I find their writings interesting, but the structure of their material often seems to have been determined by a randomizer.
TBH, I prefer a more boring structure. 😉
Not only is Sveshnikov’s writing chaotic, it is also completely misleading. He would evaluate positions as ‘better for White’ when the complete opposite is true. I could understand the lack of bibliography in Sveshnikov’s books because apparently he is such a big ‘expert’, but if he had bothered to even glance at another author’s opinion, or turn on Chessbase and press alt+f2, he would realize the ridiculous amount of analytical errors he is making. Sure, you can’t expect an opening book to be absolutely perfect (and I don’t), but this is pushing it.
Look up Sveshnikov – Aagaard, Dresden 2008. Even though I knew nothing and did not take the pawn, I got a better position than you would get in the “2010” book… The guy was quite pleasant and I wish him well, but since I was not the first to find this way of playing against this line – against him – you do wonder why this is not in the book :-).
Picked up the anti-sicilian book yesterday from the chess shop on Baker St in London. My first impression is VERY positive- I love Tiger’s chapters on the Bb5 line, Jacob’s on the c3, and also Pavlovic’s on the closed sicilian (very useful for devotee’s of Marin’s books on the English). Some of the lines leave you a little vulnerable if you are a 2….d6 Sicilian player (eg Avrukh’s on the Grand Prix and Bauer’s vs the KIA), but I bought it to complement Ftacnik’s work, so I wasn’t bothered. All in all, another excellent work……and first impressions are the binding is not going to have the shedding pages problem v2 of Marin’s English series gave me.
Unfortunately there are a few wrong diagrams in the book. The fault is mine and I would like to apologise for this. I think five or six. Most people will have to search to find them.
You are absolutely right on the 2…d6 issue. But the book is not a complete repertoire for Black, nor was it meant to be. There is nothing on the Morra either. But these are the only things not covered, I think. The idea was to look at lines where things have changed in general, and to get people to write about things they felt were interesting. It is a bit more of a Cutting Edge book than a GM Repertoire; although a grandmaster could build a repertoire on the lines in the book :-).
pdf excerpt of Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 is now online:
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/KarpovsStrategicWins2-excerpt.pdf