Quality Chess Blog

Today, January 28th, is the day four new Quality Chess books are available on Forward Chess.

The new books are: Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide by Mauricio Flores Rios, Grandmaster Repertoire – 1.e4 vs The Sicilian I by Parimarjan Negi, and Kotronias on the King’s Indian Mar del Plata Volume I and Volume II.

The physical books have a publication date of a week from today – February 4th. This will probably be our standard schedule from now on – the ebooks arriving one week before the physical books. It makes sense to me, as you can zap an ebook around the world faster than a paper one. And ebooks don’t cause the sort of problems our distributor in Poland faced today when several very heavy pallets of books arrived on a truck, but with no hydraulic lift to unload them. They managed, somehow.

 
Recently we have been running a 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.

For the past few months, the default option on the free book has been Champions of the New Millennium but we will change that now to TACTIMANIA.

But if you already have TACTIMANIA, or would prefer a different freebie, then send us an email with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:

TRUE LIES IN CHESS
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
SAN LUIS 2005
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
GRANDMASTER VS AMATEUR
REGGIO EMILIA 2007

I added True Lies in Chess to that list. Please note this book is also available free on the Forward Chess app. The app is of course also free, so if you have not tried Forward Chess yet, then reading True Lies in Chess would be a great way to start. All you need is an Apple or Android device (not free).

Quality Chess, as you may know, is based in Glasgow, Scotland. So we like to keep an eye on the progress of Scottish chess players. In terms of players gaining higher titles, the last few years have seen slim pickings. But recently two Scots pushed their ratings over 2300, and so will become FIDE Masters. Congratulations to Clément Sreeves and Andy Burnett.

Andy’s elevation comes about a month after we sent some Quality Chess books his way, as a minor way of sponsoring his title-seeking efforts. Sadly we cannot claim any of the credit as Andy has barely had time to read any of the books. Andy’s blog is here but with all the events he has been playing, he has not had time to update it recently.

Clément and Andy join the ranks of Scottish FMs who have realistic chances of becoming IMs. In fact, FMs Graham Morrison and Alan Tate have all the IM norms required, and just need to boost their ratings to 2400 to collect their titles.

And our best candidate for next Scottish GM? IM Andrew Greet.

The following crushing win was played by Andy Burnett in the Czech Republic last year.

A. Burnett – F. Ludvigsen
Olomouc 2014

 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qf3

Intriguing, or maybe Andy really played 4.Qd3 and the game was input incorrectly in the database. Emanuel Berg did not cover 4.Qf3 in his French repertoire book, which is fine by me – you cannot cover every crazy move even in a ‘complete’ repertoire.

4…dxe4

Rather compliant, regardless of whether the queen is on d3 or f3. 4…Nc6!? looks logical – attack the thing that’s not defended. White may well still be equal.

5 Qxe4

We are now back in a known theory line, though of course the queen normally gets here via d3.

5…Nf6 6 Qh4 c5 7 dxc5 Bxc5

A little slow. Normal is 7…Bxc3+ 8 bxc3 Qa5.

8 Nf3 Nc6 9 Bb5 Bd7

9…0–0 was simpler.

10 Bg5 Be7 11 Rd1 Qa5?!

More solid was 11…Qc7!?.

12 0–0

Actually the same idea that Andy plays next move was already playable.

12…a6

12…Rd8 was safer.

Read more…

Over the past few weeks we have all been working hard to get four new books to the printer before we stop for the year. Well, today we killed the last of the stragglers. Considering the delay due to holidays and printing time, the books may not land in shops until the start of February.

So, for your holiday reading, excerpts are now available of the following books:

1.e4 vs The Sicilian I is the second volume of GM Negi’s 1.e4 repertoire. The excerpt is here. In the most recent New in Chess magazine, GM Matthew Sadler gave the first volume what just might be our best ever review.

Chess Structures by GM Mauricio Flores Rios shows how to build your chess understanding in a hurry. The excerpt will give a better idea of the book than my one-sentence attempt. I will be interested to hear what others think of this book, because I think it is hugely instructive.

And finally we have Mar del Plata I and Mar del Plata II – Volumes 2 and 3 in GM Kotronias’s King’s Indian series. It is a repertoire of course, and also full of spectacularly entertaining chess. Actually, that understates it – Kotronias is on a glorious quest to solve chess using the King’s Indian as a sword. I love reading these books, even though as a chessplayer I don’t speak King’s Indian. Excerpts are here and here.

The dream of getting a crushing position while still in one’s opening prep is an uncommon occurrence these days, at least at GM level. Most GMs are too well prepared to be caught so readily.

England’s Jonathan Hawkins will be awarded the GM title the next time FIDE does such things, and he is usually excellently prepared, but he had a rare opening accident recently against Hikaru Nakamura in the London Chess Classic Rapidplay.

H. Nakamura – J. Hawkins
London Chess Classic Rapidplay 06.12.2014

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 d5 4.e3 c5 5.Bd3

5…Qb6

5…Nf6 was Avrukh’s recommendation in Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – Beating 1.d4 Sidelines.

6.Bxe4 Qxb2?!

The dubious sign was Richard Pert’s verdict in Playing the Trompowsky.

7.Bxd5

This “gives White huge amounts of play for the exchange,” said Richard. This game certainly supports that view.

7…Qxa1 8.Nf3 e6 9.Bb3 Nd7

A novelty, I believe, but it changes little. The game Richard quoted was 9…cxd4 as in Stefanova – Grobelsek, Croatia 2003.

10.0–0

White is way ahead on development and the black queen is in trouble.

10…cxd4?!

A better try was 10…Be7 but Black is in trouble anyway.

11.exd4 Bb4 12.Qd3 Qb2 13.c3 Be7 14.Bc1 Qa1 15.Qc2
1–0

The website The Week in Chess is an invaluable resource for chess players looking for recent games and reviews. Mark Crowther (‘Sir Mark’ if the Queen does her duty) has spent over 20 years running TWIC.

Recently on TWIC, IM John Watson reviewed various ebook formats. Since Quality Chess books are on Forward Chess I was particularly interested in his view of FC. The verdict was highly favourable. Some of the highlights were:

“Several things distinguish this App and make it essential to know about. First, it has an imbedded analytical engine (Stockfish) which analyses the current position… More importantly, the Forward Chess App lets you make your own independent moves/analysis by tapping on squares of origin and destination, and then you can turn on the imbedded Stockfish engine to analyse those moves…

The other outstanding thing about ForwardChess is its selection of books. They put out ebook versions for a large number of chess publishers…

This is clearly an App that a chess book lover should download and browse through.”

The full review can be read here.

Today is the official publication day of The Modern Tiger and The Soviet Chess Primer. Some websale customers may already have their copies, so do tell us what you think.

For those unfamiliar with the new books, The Modern Tiger is by the same author as “Tiger’s Modern” and on the same topic, but ten years later and twice as big.

The Soviet Chess Primer is less obvious to explain. Yes, it starts with the very basics (so suitable for adult beginners) but then the level goes upwards quickly. So it’s a witty instructive read for everyone from beginners to grandmasters. A weird-sounding claim, but true.

Check out the excerpts for Tiger and Soviet if you haven’t already.

In addition we are making a new special offer on Judit Polgar’s superb trilogy. All three hardcover books are now priced at €24.99 which would normally make it €74.97 to buy all three. Except, as a special offer, we will only charge €59.99. And free delivery (to EU people). Plus, since it’s almost Christmas, we will add a free book of your choosing from the usual list.

The following position is from a game of mine at the 4ncl last Saturday.

J. Shaw – J. Pitcher, England 2014

I have played a few decent moves to reach this position. I sacrificed a pawn (possibly temporarily) to free my wonder bishops. But my queen is under attack. So what should I play?

Read more…