Change to the Grandmaster Repertoire Series – Grunfeld in two volumes

At times we have to admit to great limitations when it comes to planning. We believed that Grandmaster Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence was going to be 550 pages – but as we are getting closer to finishing the book, we have realised that 700 pages is more likely.

We cannot do this; it is too much.

We have thus decided to split the book into two volumes. We will have Grandmaster Repertoire 8: The Grunfeld Defence Volume 1 and Grandmaster Repertoire 9: The Grunfeld Defence Volume 2. We have lowered the price, but overall it will of course be more expensive. We are sorry about this, but nothing else makes sense.

Those who have already ordered the book on our website will of course receive both volumes at no additional charge, or they can contact us demanding a refund. However, we hope these customers will see this as a bonus – two books for the price of one.

One knock-on effect of this change is we have to renumber the book previously known as GM9. It is now Grandmaster Repertoire 10: The Tarrasch Defence.

40 thoughts on “Change to the Grandmaster Repertoire Series – Grunfeld in two volumes”

  1. Well, in that case you should cover earlier deviations and Anti Grunfeld sistems, considering you got more space now!

  2. Abramov Anjuhin

    Dear Jacob,

    I’m looking forward to GM Tarrasch, but I’d be more happier if the scarce date of publishing GM King’s Indian 1 & 2 would be known. Shall it be this year?

    And now a special proposal as an addendum to Jussupow’s training books!

    You or Mr. Jussupow could write an exercises book structured like this:

    1. Exercises book – Build up your chess
    2. Exercises book – Boost Your Chess
    3. Exercises book – Chess Evolution

    Each Exercises book would contain 72 chapters (chapters from level 1, 2 & 3) and 10-12 exercises, so about 720-864 exercises 🙂

    This would definitely be a best training compendium on the planet, for sure yeah 🙂

    If you find this idea not so groovy, just take a look at Jussupow’s “Schachunterricht” (http://www.jussupow.de/30185.html)

    So, what do you think about my stormy idea?

  3. Antonius :
    Well, in that case you should cover earlier deviations and Anti Grunfeld sistems, considering you got more space now!

    Antonius,

    Thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t think we will do that. We will now have two quite big books. We don’t want this, in Marin-style, turning into three volumes (for a start, our US distributor would be even more likely to have us killed). Early deviations are a topic for another day.

  4. John Shaw :

    Antonius,
    Thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t think we will do that. We will now have two quite big books. We don’t want this, in Marin-style, turning into three volumes (for a start, our US distributor would be even more likely to have us killed). Early deviations are a topic for another day.

    Interesting – I just ordered 3 books from a US Distributer, and I say this at the risk of being killed myself.

    The first 2, “Experts on the Anti-Sicilians” and “Cutting Edge 2”, didn’t even hit the US Distributer ChessCafe.com until after they came out, so I don’t think you’ll have a pre-order problem in the US except those US residents that ordered directly from your warehouse.

    The third book I ordered that I should be getting today happens to be what I am going to recommend to Antonius. It’s from this company that starts with an E that Jacob and John acknowledge have a few good books, but we all know deep down inside that they really truly do hate hearing that 8-letter E-word, but I’m going to say it. Everyman has a book for King’s Indian and Grunfeld Players on the Anti-King’s Indians that came out a couple of years ago, which was good timing as the 1996 Gallagher book really needed an update.

    I know that Quality Chess has been talking about a book for Black against white’s “System” openings with 1.d4, but until then, there’s your answer Antonius.

    It’s just like the King’s Indian books. I have Vigorito’s first book on the King’s Indian, and I will defeinitely get the 2nd as well. I may or may not get the 2 Grunfeld books. Still debating whether I want to rack my brain with tons of garbage, or two tons of garbage! 🙂

    Many players have 2 defenses to 1.e4 and 1.d4. Against 1.e4, I’ve got the Scheveningen and Taimanov, and trying to add the Najdorf once again. Against 1.d4, while I can play almost anything, the King’s Indian is the main opening I’m confortable with, but most people I know, when they say they have 2 defenses to 1.d4, they aren’t both as complicated as the King’s Indian and Grunfeld, so have to possibly reconsider in this case.

    This especially holds true after last weekend at the Philadelphia Open. I had Black rounds 2, 4, 6, and 8. I basically played a nobody round 2, and got shalacked rounds 4, 6, and 8. Probably should fix what’s broken first before adding more fuel to the fire, unlike White where I lost one game due to time trouble, but otherwise, had excellent results with White.

    I’m sure if you guys wanted to, you could probably find enough Grunfeld and King’s Indian theory to make each of them 5 to 10 volumes! 🙂

  5. Quote: The Grunfeld Defence was going to be 550 pages – but as we are getting closer to finishing the book, we have realised that 700 pages is more likely.

    Good ol’ Boris…

  6. OK, no problem. Just one more book that I will buy. Sign me up for pretty much every book on your forthcoming books list (except the tarrasch defense – which I don’t play).
    My list of Grunfeld books is getting ridiculously long and after picking up the new one from Chess Stars and the two volumes from Quality Chess – I will certainly be a laughing stock if I lose any (class section) games in the Grunfeld based on my opening play.

  7. I look forward to all of the extra Grunfeld coverage. Will the books be released at the same time? What are you doing for the second cover? Could you put Avrukh in the nerdiest pair of glasses you can possibly find and have him pose for the cover ala Chess Stars?

  8. Gilchrist is a Legend

    To complement the above question, will Volume 1 and Volume 2 be published simultaneously, or consecutively, like GM1 and GM2?

  9. Gilchrist is a Legend

    Will the covers of GM8 and GM9 look the same? Or will the covers have different designs?

  10. Lots of questions and comments. Thanks guys.

    We don’t want to do a super Yusupov exercise book, but I am hoping to construct a box-set with the three series, Fundamentals, Beyond the Basics and Mastery (think orange, blue and green). They are the super series already.

    Sorry about two volumes. Wanted one, but it became impossible. We could cut, but truly, only bone and meat – there is no fat.

    John says we do not want three volumes. It is sort of not true. The third volume will be dealing with 1.d4 without c2-c4, but will relate to all systems for Black.

    At this moment I would also not want to delay anything.

    We are progressing quickly in the work and the first volume will be sent to the printer next week. The second volume will follow about 2-3 weeks later. So, we will be delaying the publication of the first volume with 2-3 weeks. I am sure we will have both books out in June.

    The colours for volume 9 will probably be Blue instead of green. Ridiculously it makes it the Swedish flag, this time without relating to anything :-(. Basically our US distributor was printing their catalogue and needed a quick change and thus decided. I will go with these colours unless physically abused in the office. As Boris is coming on Wednesday this is a real chance!

  11. Thank you for your answers!
    Actually the d4 deviations book is not a bad idea at all… just, you know, I don’t like the waiting, that’s it!
    It has of course the plus valor of working for Grunfeld, King’s Indian, QGD and Slav players alike, so it’s a multi purpose book for any repertoire with black.

  12. I’m wondering, will these non-d4 but anti-grunfeld lines below be included in any book?

    1.c4 Af6 2.Ac3 d5
    1.Af3 Af6 2.c4 g6 3.Ac3 d5

    If these will be included in a book, which one is it? I think for a Grunfeld player, these are even more important than London, Colle etc because these are regularly played by strong players unlike the d4 deviations.

  13. Will there also be some Material for the Black Grunfeld-Player against 1.c4/1.Nf3 in any of these three books?

  14. Jacob Aagaard

    There would only be waiting if we added this to the Grunfeld books, as this material does not currently exist!

  15. In total it will be four books :-).

    1) Grunfeld without the open lines with cxd5
    2) Grunfeld with the open lines with cxd5
    3) Anti-Systems 1.d4 without c2-c4 (for all Black systems)
    4) Other Closed Systems from Black’s perspective. 1.c4, 1.g3, 1.f4 and so on.

    But here we are talking about 12-15 months of work, of course.

  16. I say don’t ever publish the 4th one. I’m doing quite well with White, answering 1.c4 Nf6 with 2.g3. Just publish the first 3 – keep my White results boosted by leaving others in the dark! 🙂

  17. Thanks for commenting that the pdf’s will be up soon.
    I was just wondering one thing. Much earlier on you said that the position after:
    1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 is the starting position for the book(s). Is 3.Nf3 covered? and is the answer 3…d5!? for example 4.cxd5 0-0 and etc. Obviously if 5.Nc3 then 5…Nxd5.
    My plan is to have an answer to 1.Nf3 with a Grunfeld/Reti by replying with 1…d5
    Then either 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 (Obviously 3.Nc3 and etc will transpose to a barry or whatever and thats fine) then 3…g6.
    Or 2.c4 d4 is no problem for me as the Reti is hardly critical.
    So in Summary if the position after 3.Nf3 d5 is covered then that is awesome!

  18. Will this offer still be valid if I made the order for Grunfeld book by Avrukh on March 9th off Amazon.com?

    I received an email from amazon.com today and it said that the estimated time of arrival for my order will be delayed until September 19th. It also said that I ordered GM Repertoire 8 without any specifications on whether I will be receiving GM Repertoire 9.

    So my question is, was I suppose to order off the Quality Chess website in order to receive both volumes of the Grunfeld repertoire? If so, then I will probably perchase

    Jacob Aagaard :
    In total it will be four books .
    1) Grunfeld without the open lines with cxd5
    2) Grunfeld with the open lines with cxd5
    3) Anti-Systems 1.d4 without c2-c4 (for all Black systems)
    4) Other Closed Systems from Black’s perspective. 1.c4, 1.g3, 1.f4 and so on.
    But here we are talking about 12-15 months of work, of course.

  19. Will this offer still be valid if I made the order for Grunfeld book by Avrukh on March 9th off Amazon.com?

    I received an email from amazon.com today and it said that the estimated time of arrival for my order will be delayed until September 19th. It also said that I ordered GM Repertoire 8 without any specifications on whether I will be receiving GM Repertoire 9.

    So my question is, was I suppose to order off the Quality Chess website in order to receive both volumes of the Grunfeld repertoire?

  20. Jacob Aagaard

    This offer is only available if you ordered with us. Obviously after we annonced that it is two books, it is no longer active.

    Grunfeld is viable after 1.Nf3, just see Kamsky’s games. We just cannot cover everything here.

  21. Icebreaker

    Typically, it will end up a Grunfeld, but move order is a little different.

    1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 is the “Grunfeld Proper”. However, other possibilities include:

    – 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Nc3 d5 with a direct transposition to the 4.Nf3 lines (i.e. Russian variation)

    – 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 where Black has the choice of a fienchetto Grunfeld or fienchetto King’s Indian

    – 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Other where White goes into some real offbeat stuff. For example, 4.Bf4 followed by e3 is similar to a London with c4 instead of c3 (which is played at times). 4.Nbd2 will likely lead to some weird Colle System with c4 (i.e. 5.e3, 6.Bd3). None of these prevent …d5.

    The point of the Grunfeld is not to just magically play …d5 on move 3. You play …d5 when and only when White is threatening to play e4, unlike say, the King’s Indian, where Black allows e4. 3.Nf3 does nothing to promote an e4 push, kinda like how 3.Nf3 doesn’t threaten e4 in the Nimzo-Indian, and hence why Black can play 3…b6 as he has time then for 4…Bb7, to control e4. Something he doesn’t have if White does 3.Nc3.

    So in reality, the Grunfeld is not defined as a “Magic third move” of 3…d5, but rather, it’s where you play …d5 to prevent e4, and the only way to get in e4 by White is very slow preparation, or else exchanging on d5, where Black can usually trade off a set of Knights to reduce the cramping effect he might get in a King’s Indian Defense.

    So yes, the Grunfeld is still viable after 3…Bg7 if White doesn’t currently threaten 4.e4. If the threat is 4.e4 (i.e. 3.Nc3), then 3…Bg7 takes you into King’s Indian Territory.

  22. Jacob Aagaard

    2…g6 and if 3.g3 then 3…c6 or 3.Nc3 d5!?. I know that Boris does not like this much for Black, but Kamsky and other top players are not afraid to play it.

    My point was that with about 700 pages on 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 we simply could not put more in there – even if it was two volumes…

  23. Fair enough, i suppose the Grunfeld is a rather big opening. Would this be covered in the fourth book you are planning to publish? Or not at all, since it depends on the approach your taking. Are you planning to fit them in with the Grunfeld repertoire!? or just be independent e.g. 1.c4 c5 for example. Oh thankyou for taking time to respond to our petty requests, I’m 100% you would have better things to do.

  24. Jacob Aagaard

    I would like it to be this way, but with a man who is used to rockets flying into his village, I doubt my threats will bring him any sleepless nights.

  25. Jacob Aagaard

    If you manage to memorise everything, you migth be the worlds leading expert on the opening for a little while :-).

    If you remember all the main line moves (bolded moves), you are prepared to about 2600 level.

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