Quality Chess Blog

We are continuing our free-fourth-book offer – if you buy three books or more and live in the normal European Union zone (as defined by UPS – for example, they exclude some islands and remote areas) we will send you an extra book free.

Please note that if you buy a Special Offer and are in the EU zone, we will add one free book. For example, if a European buys the Special Offer on our award-winning Grandmaster Preparation series, then we would send the 6 hardcovers, plus one free extra book.

The previous default option on the free book was CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3.
For May and June, we will switch the default option to GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL by Vassilios Kotronias. But if you already have that book(s), or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email to salesgroup@qualitychess.co.uk with your order number, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:

ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
SAN LUIS 2005
TACTIMANIA
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 1
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 2

Do you want to work with a small team in an independent chess-specialist publishing house 2 minutes’ walk from Glasgow Central train station?

The job requires you to have strong numerical skills and for it to be easy for you to work with software such as Excel, Xero and other specialised software. It does NOT require in-depth knowledge of any of these software packages, only a natural comfort and adaptability for working with numbers-based software.

The job requires you to be organised, consistent and reliable. But mostly it requires you to be responsible. We are a small team and every person has their own area of responsibility. You cannot be waiting to be told to do things, but have to proactively (in conversation with your supervisor) ensure that your areas of responsibility are under control and up to date.

The job does not require any specialised chess knowledge, although it will be seen as a plus, as we are a chess company.

The job requires good written English, in order to communicate with customers and other people outside the company, but does not require you to be a native speaker.

The job could be a good fit for someone wanting to slow down, but who still wants to work for a number of years. But age, gender or nationality are not criteria for the job, which has been held by both men and women in the past, as well as Brits and foreign nationals.

The job is part-time and will be a minimum of three hours per day, maximum six hours, starting at 9.30 am. It will not always be possible to predict when the workload is higher, but 80+ percent of the time it will be possible to estimate which days will require longer hours.

Often aspects of the job can be done on the following day, as long as orders are processed – which is almost always possible. Thus, planning your own work-week will be a normal thing to do.

The job is 15-25 hours per week. With the usual holiday provisions and public holidays. Generally with great flexibility.

The pay is £15 per hour, meeting all the legal requirements.

Anyone interested, please contact John Shaw at john@qualitychess.co.uk or call 0141 204 2073

Dear readers, you might be interested in this eloquent podcast. It is a detailed discussion about the Quality Chess book of the World Championship tournament in San Luis in 2005. The podcast is hosted by Ben Johnson, with his guest for this episode being Dr. Christopher Chabris. Their description is “A tournament book with sparkling games and annotations, a mini cheating scandal, at a crossroad moment in chess history.”

The podcast can be found here.

Further information about the book, including how to purchase it, is available here

On a separate note, you might also be interested in the regular chess tips being posted by Jacob Aagaard on Twitter. They can be found here.

In Street Smart Chess, model players teach how to play against opponents of different strengths. The chapters do inevitably clash against each other. If one of the players want to create a tactical game and the other a boring game, both can’t succeed. The question is who manages best. A few days ago, David Navara mentioned that he will play Baskaran Adhiban in Mr. Dodgy Invitational. It was a test for both of them, as Navara’s chapter in Street Smart was beating lower rated opponents, and Adhiban’s was beating higher rated opponents. This time both could succeed with their intentions: winning games. After eleven games, they had played only one draw, with Navara winning 6,5–4,5. But did they follow their own advice? Let’s examine one win each.

David Navara (2697) – Baskaran Adhiban (2660)

MrDodgy Invitational 2 (1.7), 12.05.2021

Axel Smith

1.c4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.d4 Nf6 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0–0 Nc6 7.Nc3 Bd7 8.b3 e5 9.d5 Nb8 10.e4 a5 11.Ne1 Na6 12.Nd3 b6 13.Bg5 h6 14.Be3?!

Inviting Black’s next move.

14…Ng4 15.Bd2 f5

Adhiban first step in the ideal attacking game is to “strive for a pawn structure where it’s possible to throw pawns at the opponent’s king at a later stage.” King’s Indian is a good choice doing that.

Read more…

Quality Chess Academy takes place in a holiday resort on Crete, a sunny Mediterranean island. For a week, you get the chance to train daily with some of the best chess trainers in the world and get inspired to continue your work at home. It can be combined with playing the Cretan Chess Tour tournaments, before and/or after the training camp.

In November 2018 GM Jacob Aagaard and GM Boris Gelfand were the trainers. An amazing experience and a boost in chess performance, resulting in a participant to cross 2700 and securing an IM title for another.

Inspired by the overwhelmingly positive feedback for the November 2018 camp we decided to organise a camp for 8-14 May 2019. GM RB Ramesh joined Jacob as a trainer for a very successful camp for players of all levels,

In the titled group (IMs and GMs), we got some very impressive results; a championship, many second places, a GM title, +50-60 points up in a few cases, +30 in some others, with the biggest ELO gain +86 points for that group. In the non-titled group, things improved a lot as well, with +65 ELO points the biggest gain and we hope to celebrate the IM title soon!

Encouraged by these results and by the fact that many participants want to come back, we decided that two camps are needed for 2020. One in June 2020, 8-14 and one in October 2020, 12-18.

Yes, we added an extra day and kept the same price for 2020. In June 2020 we are giving you the chance to train in person with GM Jacob Aagaard and GM Sabino Brunello. GM Sam Shankland will join us, budget allowing.

The concept remains the same; top Quality Chess training for every participant.

Join us in Crete, bring your friends and family, enjoy a chess holiday for yourself and let them enjoy the amazing resort themselves!

You can find more information on our website, qualitychessacademy.com, on our Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/qualitychessacademy or send an email to info@qualitychessacademy.com and if you register soon, you get a 20% discount for the service fee.

Yesterday I worked on the cover of Sam’s next book, Small Steps 2 Success. As someone who has been teaching Maths and Physics for years, I know how I am supposed to draw this. But what makes sense in my former world, doesn’t mean it’s the best-looking cover. So, I would like to hear your opinions on which cover you like most. I know, small changes, but that’s what makes a difference after all!?

Kallia

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About a year ago, I visited Jacob in lovely Glasgow and we made together a series of videos (5 of them) where he explained briefly his theory on the “Four Types of Decisions” we make in Chess. In this article, I’d like to talk about Type of Decision #1: Automatic Decisions and how I realized, one whole year later, why such a simple idea can have a huge effect on the level of the chess I (and I am sure also you) play. If you have no idea what are the “Four Types of Decisions”, you can check the introductory video of the series, where this legendary dialogue took place:

Jacob: “What is the one thing you should always do when you have an automatic decision?”

Nikos: “Maybe check if this is not the only move?”

Jacob: “He is not as stupid as he looks!”

If you want to expand on this topic, there are two books where this theory is explained in detail:

• Strategic Play (2013)

• Thinking Inside the Box (2017)

Also, you can check this video which is dedicated to this type of decision.

So, let me now share with you my recent experiences and why I think I (and you) should take seriously Jacob’s advice on that subject.

First of all, what is an automatic decision?

According to Jacob: “Moves we make almost without thinking”

Some players relate this thing to intuition, or to the first move that comes to mind or what I have heard many times as moves that we would have made in blitz.

Read more…

Blogpost by Kallia Kleisarchaki

 

During the Batumi Olympiad 2018, Sam Shankland met across the board Rauf Mamedov, Azerbaijani GM. Rauf didn’t buy Sam’s book and I know! How? Well, he did exactly the kind of mistake Sam warned about in his book, Small Steps to Giant Improvement, proving once again that every chess player, regardless titles, can make simple mistakes that cost dearly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Sam explains in page 232 of his book, “…Black has advanced a7-a5, so White will not be able to play b3-b4. As such, white is condemned to have a pair of doubled pawns where the further-advanced one cannot be protected from another pawn.”

 

What kind of simple mistakes have you made and you still remember them?