Two pieces of news about How I Became a Chess Grandmaster by GM Vinay Bhat. Firstly, a hardcover version of this title will be published on August 30th – the same day as Playing the English will appear.
Secondly, the book won a prize from the Chess Journalists of America in the category Best Chess Book – Instruction. Congratulations to Vinay!
Today, the final day of November, is also the final day at work of our friend and colleague Colin McNab, who has decided to take early retirement to enjoy a well-deserved life of leisure. Colin has worked with us for 12 years and 1 day, mainly as an editor and proofreader. His contribution will be much missed at QC and we wish him well.
Colin is a FIDE Grandmaster, Scottish Champion on 5 occasions, 1992 Commonwealth Champion, and was part of the British team that won the World Championship of Problem Solving. These skills were not stretched on Colin’s very first day of proofreading files for QC, when he spotted an overlooked mate-in-one.
The photo above shows Colin receiving a small memento from QC. To save you zooming in, the plaque on the trophy says “Quality Chess – Employee of the Month – December 2022”.
For shops or customers, best not to email Colin in future.
Congratulations to Jan Markos and David Navara for winning the FIDE Award for the best book published in 2021! The Secret Ingredient impressed the jury of three respected Grandmasters: Antoaneta Stefanova, Thomas Luther, and Boris Gelfand. You can read the full announcement on the FIDE website here, along with details of the runners-up and other special mentions.
To briefly quote the judges “The search for ‘The Secret Ingredient’ to success, both in life and chess, is what this great book tries to answer. Following the advice given in this book will make each player stronger and each coach more focused on the tasks and challenges we face in life.”
We are proud that one of our favourite instructive books has also been voted as FIDE’s favourite book. Jan Markos of course has a winning history – his previous book Under the Surface was the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year. But enough of my boasting – for now.
Congratulations to Mickey Adams and Philip Hurtado, whose Think Like a Super-GM won top prize as the English Chess Federation’s 2022 Book of the Year. You can read the ECF judges’ full remarks at the previous link, but a few highlights are:
“The two authors, in conjunction with the publisher, have produced a book of great interest and originality… The production of the book is to a high standard, so the book is a pleasure to handle and read… A very worthy Book of the Year. The information required to think like a Super GM can be found in this book – all that remains is to become one!”
A brief mention also for Analyzing the Chess Mind by Boris Gulko and Joel Sneed, which won a place in the 4-book shortlist as a book that is “both instructive and very readable.” Two QC books in the final four was pleasing, especially as we are only allowed to nominate two books.
Quality Chess nominated three titles for the FIDE Book of the Year prize. And we are delighted that all three were selected for the shortlist – more than any other publisher. The FIDE announcement can be read here.
Best of luck to all our contenders!
The three titles we nominated are: Decision Making in Major Piece Endings by Boris Gelfand and Jacob Aagaard.
Think Like a Machine by Noam Manella and Zeev Zohar.
And the third nomination was an Italian Renaissance double-act: Move Orders, Tricks and Alternatives and The Main Lines by Martyn Kravtsiv.
Last year John was hoping that the Candidates tournament would go ahead without any disruptions from viruses or anything else. We all know how that worked out.
Here we are again, waiting for the second part to start in 10 days, so let’s have a second quiz, in addition to the one from last year; show your expertise or guess wildly, have a go, and tell your friends about it.
Winner gets 10 Quality Chess books of their choice on Forward Chess app and one-month free subscription of KillerChessTraining.com. Runner-up gets one-month free subscription of KillerChessTraining.com.
Please make sure to enter before the event kicks off – Round 1 is scheduled for April 19 and submissions will close before the first round starts. Enter by clicking on the following quiz link and selecting your answers. Only one entry per person, through their gmail account, to avoid spam.
Regarding Killer Chess Training
Last year, we mentioned 365 Chess Academy. This year finds us with a change in the name and improved services. Killer Chess Training is the place for you to train daily with GM Jacob Aagaard, GM Sam Shankland, GM Ivan Cheparinov, GM Alexander Motylev, GM Iván Salgado López, GM Julen Arizmendi, GM Sabino Brunello and IM Renier Castellanos.
You put in one hour of training every day for a year and we put in the fresh daily material, the best trainers, and the online community (which we are currently rebuilding). Even if you miss the live class (we do our best so that there are at least two live classes per week for each time zone), there is a recording available that gives you the advantage of pausing, putting the positions on the board, and think about them for as long as you need.
But even if you do not have an hour every day, but only have time for a bit of Homework on the weekends, submit in time and you will get personal feedback from GM Jacob Aagaard. Homework Club alone is worth the membership fee!
Training daily with some of the best trainers in the world, but at a price of less than €2/$2/£2/INR 170 per class, is an opportunity that you should not miss.
Get in touch via our Facebook page or send an email to KillerChessTraining (a) gmail.com to ask for anything you want to know, for example, installments options (yes, we do offer them), purchasing completed courses, or about the €19 trial membership that we made available again just now and will be up for a week.
Let’s hope the Candidates tournament goes ahead without any disruptions from viruses or anything else – let’s keep the drama on the chessboard. So we will continue our tradition of having a quiz before major events, so you can either show your expertise or guess wildly.
Winner gets 10 Quality Chess books (you choose 5 we choose 5) and one month free subscription of 365 Chess Academy. Runner-up gets one month free subscription of 365 Chess Academy.
Please make sure to enter before the event kicks off – Round 1 is scheduled for March 17, at 11.00 UTC. Enter by clicking on the following quiz link and selecting your answers. Only one entry per person, thanks.
We have been planning to announce the winner of our World Cup Quiz for a while now, but we wanted to announce all the winners at once. Yes, there was a tie for first when all the correct answers were known. Five winners, but only three have replied to our emails.
So congratulations to Vilka Sipila of Finland, Stefan Liepold of Germany, and Marija Martinović of Croatia. The latter, before her marriage, was named Marija Čačić, and was one of the winners of our 2015 World Cup quiz. So clearly a chess-quizzing star.
It is a five-way share of 20 books, so 4 books each, but we expanded that to 5 books each, just to be friendly. Books will be on the way to the winners.
As for the two missing winners, we have email addresses, which of course I will not publish here. But we are still seeking them. Based on email addresses, one missing winner seems to be Italian while the other is Croatian. So if you happen to be Italian or Croatian and entered our quiz, then please check your emails, or see if you scored 14/27 points – that was the winning total.
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