As the finishing line of Playing 1.e4 – Caro-Kann, 1…e5 and Minor Lines is in sight, a poll question came to mind: What is your usual defence against 1.e4?
If you happen to be a World Championship Candidate, then I guess your usual choice is the Sicilian or 1…e5, with some Caros and the occasional French thrown in, but I expect there will be a range. So what’s your line? Is it Sicilian, 1…e5, French, Caro-Kann, 1…d6, 1…g6, 1…d5, 1…Nf6 or Other?
I know this will only tell us your first move, not your favourite line. A Najdorf fanatic is a different animal from a believer in the Pin variation, and allsorts play 1…d6. But, like your first move, it’s a start.
Last week’s poll gave a wide spread of answers, with several posters for the lower brackets lamenting that they couldn’t play as much as they would like.
We are continuing our special offer – if you buy three books or more and live inside the European Union (as defined by UPS) we will send you an extra book free. Recently the default option on the free book has been Grandmaster Battle Manual but we will change that now to POSITIONAL CHESS SACRIFICES by GM Mihai Suba.
But if you already have Positional Chess Sacrifices or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
TACTIMANIA
TRUE LIES IN CHESS
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
SAN LUIS 2005
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
A few weeks ago Tobias told us in a blog comment that the Forward Chess version of Grandmaster Repertoire 17 – The Classical Slav did not work correctly. The navigation did not guide the reader through the book as it should. We checked and Tobias was absolutely right. The best fix was to start from scratch and convert the book into Forward Chess format again. And that is what was done. Of course doing the work again costs money, but we need our books to work as planned.
So if you have bought the Forward Chess version of The Classical Slav then I suggest deleting the old version and downloading the new version, which works beautifully. Naturally you will not be charged anything for downloading the book again. If you have not bought the book yet, then now is a good time to remedy your oversight.
We try to get everything right the first time, but when we hear something is wrong, we try to fix it. The error in this case was made by us, not Forward Chess. One of our QC people did the original ebook conversion, but it turns out he was not suited for the task (luckily he has great skills in other areas). The new version was converted by an FC expert, who has also converted our recent books, and will be doing our books in future, so the problem will not happen again.
We mentioned a few weeks ago that two Quality Chess books reached the shortlist of four for the ECF Book of the Year prize. Mauricio Flores Rios made the shortlist alongside Garry Kasparov and Joel Benjamin, but it was Boris Gelfand’s Positional Decision Making in Chess which won the prize. So congratulations to Boris and Jacob, commiserations to Mauricio.
The judges’ full comments can be read here but a few highlights were:
“A fascinating insight into how the chess mind of a great player works… Gelfand comes over as modest but confident in his abilities, with tremendous ability, experience and knowledge. But despite all this, even he sometimes finds chess a difficult game, which gives comfort to us all.”
This is the fourth Quality Chess winner of the ECF prize:
2007: San Luis 2005 – Gershon & Nor
2010: Attacking Manual 1&2 – Jacob Aagaard
2013: How I Beat Fischer’s Record – Judit Polgar
2015: Positional Decision Making in Chess – Boris Gelfand
Asking who you want to win the World Cup is too easy (Svidler, right?) so instead:
In 2016 there will be 8 Candidates to challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen. By reaching the final of the World Cup, Svidler and Karjakin have now qualified, making 7 places fairly secure: Anand, Caruana, Karjakin, Nakamura, Svidler, Topalov and Giri (the latter two probably qualifying on rating). That leaves one place for a wildcard. Who do you want to be the wildcard?
Adams, Aronian, Gelfand, Grischuk, Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, So, or someone else?
***
In last week’s poll, a large majority did not want arbiters interfering too much:
Our World Cup Quiz (previous instalments here and here) attracted almost 200 entrants, but you may recall there were three qualifying questions to narrow the field:
A: What will the most common opening move be in round 1: 1.e4 or 1.d4 or neither?
B: Which of these home players will go further: Mamedov or Safarli?
C: Which opening will be more common in round 3: Najdorf or Catalan?
In the previous instalment we knew two of the correct answers. Now we know all three: 1.e4, Mamedov and Najdorf.
21 contestants survived the cull. I won’t name names, but in chess terms they range from unrated to mid-2400s. Which of them will be our champion? Too early to say.
There were several GM entrants, but they all fell, usually due to their faith in 1.d4.
A hypothetical question: Should World Cup competitors be allowed to enter our World Cup Quiz? I would say “Yes”, but since they both crashed out of our quiz in the qualifying round, we’ll say it’s hypothetical.
Rising Chinese star (and future World Champion?) Wei Yi is now in the last 8 of the World Cup after beating his compatriot Ding Liren.
In the last 32, Wei Yi had faced Alexander Areshchenko. The Ukrainian GM has a fixed repertoire: Grünfeld against 1.d4 and Najdorf against 1.e4. So where would the 2734-rated youngster seek his chances with White? Answer: By following a Negi suggestion against the Najdorf from his GM Repertoire 1.e4 vs. The Sicilian
Wei Yi (2734) – Alexander Areshchenko (2661)
FIDE World Cup 18.09.2015
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2
The Poisoned Pawn is Areshchenko’s usual choice.
9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 h6 11.Bh4 dxe5 12.fxe5 g5 13.exf6 gxh4 14.Be2 Qa5 15.0–0 Nd7 16.Rbd1
“Rare but potent” was Negi’s description. Later adding: “I find it staggering that this move has only been played in four games.”
Negi also covered the usual 16.Kh1.
Read more…
Dear Quality Chess Reader,
It has been a while since our previous newsletter – we have been busy producing new books. The following list of books shows what we have we been up to recently.
Last month we published two new books.
In The Semi-Slav GM Lars Schandorff offers a sharp and entertaining Black repertoire using the Semi-Slav Defence. A pdf excerpt is here.
Schandorff’s previous books on Playing 1.d4 and the Caro-Kann have received rave reviews.
In Mikhail Tal’s Best Games 2 – The World Champion IM Tibor Karolyi continues his trilogy about the life and games of one of the most popular World Champions. A pdf excerpt is here.
GM Lubomir Kavalek on Volume 1: “(Karolyi) also sought input from Tal’s opponents, friends and coaches, creating a vivid picture of Tal as a person. Among many books written about Tal, Karolyi’s work stands out.”
The chess files (in pgn and pdf) include various games and snippets we hope will be of interest.
Regards,
John Shaw
Chief Editor
Quality Chess
Recent Comments