Any impression on the hardcovers?
Here is a photo of the books – the main feature is of course that even a 480 page book lies open when in hardcover.
Having been beat into submission here on the site by a few very persistent people, we have now produced 5 of our books in hardcover. Grandmaster Repertoire 1, Grandmaster Repertoire 3 and the Cutting Edge 1 only in 32 copies each – a very limited edition only available on this website. We have printed Grandmaster Repertoire 7 and Soviet Chess Strategy in respectively 200 and 100 copies of hardcovers. Initial sales have been beyond our expectation, but more importantly, have the books lived up to your expectations? Please give us feedback. Is this worth the hassle and extra investment from us, as well as the extra cover price for you?
@Jacob Aagaard
Jacob,
I’d buy the hardcover Yusupov books, as well. All three sets seperately, or as a group purchase.
Carl Berg
well, i got my hardcover copy of the Caro Kann and… my god it’s a beautiful book!
I must say i’ve always played it with white, and just starting including it in my repertoire as black. the point is that in many cases analysis goes till the endgame and great Lars has found nearly 1 novelty in each page of the book. most of these novelties are astonishing! plans are explained clearly, the book is so well written that you will have many sleepless nights!
Only disappoint is that a chapter on typical endgames would have benefit. Anyway this is a must have in hardback, a book that will stay for many years to come!
Thanks to Lars and the editor for this work!
I too bought the Caro-Kann book in hardcover format. It would be nice to see other chess publishers follow this lead. Mine cost an extra £8 over the paperback prices. Although this is a reasonable amount in the publishing world, it did bring the price to almost £30, which does seem a hefty amount for a chess opening book (when you’re used to paying £15-20)
Still I think I would rather pay that than have a shelf full of dog-eared paperback books.
You should publish more of the hardbacks if there is demand; 32 copies doesn’t sound like very much, and customers who prefer hardbacks may be angry if they can’t get them. You should not be trying to create scarce items for collectors, if that is a motive for the limited production of ordinary hardbacks. (You could do that by offering signed books, or leather-covered books, or whatever, but plain hardbacks should be available more widely.)
@Jeffrey Tannenbaum
Jeffrey,
Trying to create rare items for collectors? No, that was not the plan. We started with low numbers because we did not know how many people would be interested in hardcovers. If people want to buy them, we will print them.
The hard cover books are very well done. They handle well, look very nice, and are worthy additions to anyone’s library. I recommend them highly. Hard cover editions from Quality Chess are in a high class of their own – well worth the added cost.