One of my favourite sites on the net is www.chesscafe.com, where you can get interesting articles and reviews of a high quality. About a year ago they changed their review system from five to four stars, without making it obvious for people like myself who suffer from mouse-clicking-too-fast syndrom. A number of 4/4 reviews were frustrating, not only because people believed it was 4/5, but also because there were books where the reviewer did not rate the books equally, but still they all got 4/4 (or quite close).
So I suggested Mark that they changed their rating system again to 6 stars and marked them as filled or not, so it was easy to understand and with some range. To be honest I stole the idea from the Danish newspapers, mainly Politiken. It has worked really well since, despite my 4/4 for my books were nicer than 5/6 I got since (what the fuck!).
At least we have a few other books that make the top mark from time to time. Both the Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 and Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 made it, recently Chess Tactics from Scratch and now Mayhem in the Morra!
I have to say that the pleasure of 6/6 beats 4/4 together with books you really do not respect quite a bit, even if there is a difference of taste and opinion you can use as a shield for your feelings. And when other companies get 6/6 for their books, I immediately get them from the London Chess Centre!
Marie and I did not play for Denmark yesterday due to human error. Her captain had forgotten to put in the changes in the team and they played one to four. My captain did not select me.
The signing was great; Avrukh signed 100s of books and over 10 authors showed up. The Turkish Federation were very happy. Here are a few photos.
The Danish team is really not performing well. We won the match today 2.5-1.5 against Algeria, but we were hoping for 4-0!
First Sune played an automatic move, not hesitating at all, to see that he had to prevent …b6-b5, even though he had prepared this! A quick draw was disappointing…
Then Lars blundered in a poor position, losing a pawn and just getting ground down by a 2200 guy.
Then Jakob blundered, but luckily the damage was sort of minor and he found practical ideas and was quickly better and won.
I won.
Nikos is attending a trainers’ seminar here, where he mentioned that he now works for us, which apparently impressed one of the lectures. We got this endorsement from him:
“I do not think that Quality Chess has published a bad book!” – GM Jayson Gonzales
Gonzales told us that he has all of the GM Repertoire books. He bought the first volume in 2008 a few hours before the final round game against Argentina in the Dresden Olympiad, where the Philippines were facing their worst placement ever, in the case of a defeat. The game, inspired by the book, made all the difference in their 2.5-1.5 victory; and in the end the Philippines came 46th and saved face.
Gonzales – Peralta
Dresden 25.11.2008
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Qb3 Qb6 6. Nc3 e6 7. Nh4 Nbd7 8. h3 Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. Nxg6 hxg6 11. Bg2 Qc7 12. Bd2 Nb6 13. cxd5 exd5 14. Rc1 Qd7 15. g5 Nh7 16. h4 Nc4 17. Bh3 Qc7 18. Qc2 Bd6 19. Kf1 Qe7 20. Re1 Nxd2+ 21.Qxd2 O-O 22. e4 dxe4 23. Nxe4 Bb4 24. Qe3 Rfe8 25. Re2 Qd8 26. h5 Nf8 27. hxg6 Nxg6 28. Bf5 Qd5 29. Qh3 Qxd4 30. Bxg6 fxg6 31. Qb3+ Qd5 32. Qxb4 Re5 33. Qb3 Rd8 34. Rd2 1-0
Had a few bears at the Bermuda party with John and Nikos (not drinking though). We were there first and actually I left at the time the rest of the Danish team went there.
Today I was winning after 13 moves; preparation I remembered from the early 1990s. I think it was a Shirov-Polgar game. I played a practical 21.Rf5!? eliminating counterplay, rather than relying on greed and calculation. The team won 4-0 after some shaky play on board 3.
Those loving bad knights, find Sabino Brunello’s game. That was just pure evil.
Meanwhile Judit is coming all the time asking if her book has arrived yet. We do not know what will happen with the Turkish customs, but hopefully the books will make it here for Tuesday, when lots of our authors are going to the chess shop to sign their books.
I finally played a decent game, where I found some good moves at a critical point. Generally happy with that, even if this draw should cost me another 1-2 rating points, making the loss of three games here erode all of my gains from Politiken Cup (where I won rating in all 10 games). Luckily I am retiring and with a rating over 2500…
The team played poorly as a whole and losing against Costa Rica was certainly not what we were looking for. We really have to turn things around in order not to be asked to stay here (and the place has not improved at all).
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