Quality Chess Blog

Today we received 132 copies of GM2. Here at 12:50 Andrew and John have just taken off to the post office with the first 40 websales. They will soon be back for the next batch. The final result comes in at 1,025 grams (2.25 lbs) at our office scale (which was expensive) and looks damn good in our opinion. The photo is a bit clumsily doctored, but I did not want to struggle to pretend these guys could look good in a photo at the same time…

The first copies of GM2 have started to arrive various places. By luck, Niggemann seemed to get the books earlier than usual. People are telling us it is great – but we have not yet seen it!

We have moved a few things around in the publishing schedule, but with a new employee starting in two weeks, we hope that we will be able to keep those arbitrary deadlines now.

Friday night 1.15 am we uploaded GM Repertoire 2 – 1.d4 Volume Two to the printer in Estonia. Today they have started printing, using more than 6 ton of paper! We are very excited about this book. It is clearly our best book to date, I think, if you look at the chess content. The novelties probably amount to a 1000 and the impact on chess theory for this book is certain to equal if not dwarf that of GM1, which was reading material not just for chess fans hoping to improve, but also for players at the absolute top.

The book comes to 616 pages and will be available in a chess shop close to you at the end of February, if there are no more incidents with the Polish Border Patrols…

A small random excerpt of an idea I find quite amusing has been uploaded and can be found in the free e-book section. I will try to put it on the book as well, but I struggle to do so technically, so it might take a day or two…

On the 9th of December we will publish GENIUS IN THE BACKGROUND and REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008, if everything goes right. We are working away on the other books to the best of our ability. Andrew has edited AM2 and typeset 5 out of the six chapters. I am about to begin typesetting AM1 (2nd edition). Hopefully I can do it much better than the first time around.

GM Repertoire 2 is getting closer to existence. Boris says he needs two weeks to hand in the remaining chapters. A lot of the previous chapters have been seriously formatted and need a quick edit before typesetting.

Once this is done, John will focus on finishing the puzzle book. The material has been collected. We have 2000+ positions, gathered over the last five years, now we need to select.

Boost your Chess 1 is close to going to the printer.

The rest should be coming on well, as always, the question is how fast the three of us can get the work done.

There has been some recent chat about Avrukh’s line against the Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3) and whether 4…Bg4 is a complete solution.

Avrukh’s line continues 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Nh4!? when some have echoed Boris’s observation that this is tempo down on another Slav line (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qb6). This is not so significant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the other line is now not highly regarded for Black, so White being a tempo down on it still leaves plenty of scope for an edge. Secondly, and more importantly Read more…

New reviews are always interesting, but especially so when the reviewer is a major expert on the subject. So I am particularly happy that GM Tony Kosten, author of The Dynamic English, is a fan of Marin’s GM Repertoire 3: The English Opening Vol.1.

A few highlights:

“It is immediately evident that this book is written by a strong Grandmaster who plays the opening himself and who thoroughly understands all the strategic and tactical nuances.

For most of the last ten years people have been asking me when I was going to write The Dynamic English 2nd Edition, and finally I can say there is no need, I think that had I decided to write an updated version this is the book I would have liked to have produced!

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can offer is that this is the only book that I will now be taking with me to my tournaments and team matches!”

Read the full review at chesspublishing.com

Finally! Yesterday we got a copy of Marin’s new book, Grandmaster Repertoire 3 – The English Opening Volume One, here at the office. There was a general skirmish before John managed to take the copy aside as his own.

I am of course deeply biased, but I think Mihail has done it again and produced his best book. I actually think that every book he has written has been better than the one before, with there of course being a debate whether or not Learn from the Legends is better than Secrets of Attacking Chess, both of them personal favourites of mine.

The book includes many hundreds of novelties, lucid explanations, and a deep passion for the English. If I was not going to write the 1.e4 tomes myself in the coming year, I would be inspired to try out this fascinating repertoire, where pawn, piece and queen sacrifices are suggested as challenges to existing theory.

1.d4 d4 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Qb3

This is a line recommended by Boris Avrukh in Grandmaster Repertoire 1: 1.d4. The usual replies are 8…Qb6 and 8…Qc7. In January this year Sweden’s No.1, Tiger Hillarp Persson, introduced a stunning new idea: 8…b5!!?

Last month, in a training session in Edinburgh, Tiger explained how he came up with the idea. Most new ideas are prepared in advance at home and computer-checked: Tiger’s was an over-the board inspiration. He had intended to play 8…Qb6, then he suddenly thought, “Was 8…b7-b6 so bad?” and then 8…b7-b5 popped into his head. He quickly checked that 9.cxb5 c5 offered some play, and that he had some ideas against 9.c5, and then Tiger was ready. He used less than 10 minutes before playing 8…b5: a new move in a position that had been played over 400 times.

So if you follow Avrukh’s repertoire, how should you reply to Tiger’s gambit? Playing 9.c5 with the idea of a2-a4 to follow is interesting, but my suggestion is to try to refute the gambit by accepting it: 9.cxb5 c5 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.g3!? White’s king will often find a home on g2. For example if 11…Bd6 then 12.Kf2 (stopping …Bxg3) 12…Qc7 13.Kg2 (again stopping …Bxg3). The king looks safe and White is a pawn up.

So far 8…b5 has been played 4 times and no one has tried 9.cxb5. If you have the chance, give it a go.

John Shaw