Since e3 Poison was published, I have incorporated some of Axel’s ideas into my repertoire from time to time. Yesterday was one such occasion; I thought it could make for a worthwhile blog post, as it is a good example of how a reasonable player (2100 strength) may quickly go wrong when confronted with an unfamiliar set-up.
Andrew Greet – Patrick Coffey
SNCL, 04.11.2018
1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 c5 3.e3
Pat Coffey has been known to play all kinds of weird openings. I had already suffered a bad defeat in the morning round against IM Bryson, so for this game I was happy to keep things solid.
3…Nf6 4.c4 d5 5.Nc3
One of my early games with the e3 Poison continued 5.a3 cxd4 6.exd4 Be7 7.Nc3 0–0 8.c5 Ne4 9.Bd3 Nxc3 10.bxc3 b6 11.h4!? and, though I got into some trouble in the early middlegame, I eventually won in Greet – Williams, Dundee 2017.
5…a6
An important alternative is 5…cxd4 6.exd4 when White will most likely have to play with an IQP.
6.cxd5 exd5 7.Be2 Nc6 8.0–0
It’s Greet – Williams in reverse, with an extra tempo for White. There is a lot to be said for playing IQP positions from both sides, as this is one of the most fundamental pawn structures which can arise from many different openings.
A new book we have on the way is Vladimir Kramnik – The Inside Story of a Chess Genius by Carsten Hensel. The title describes the content well, but to add a little, Carsten Hensel was Kramnik’s manager for many years, so this biography really is the inside story of Kramnik’s life and career. Since you are reading a chess blog, I am sure you know there have been plenty of dramatic matches in Kramnik’s career: Kasparov, Leko, Topalov and Anand. This book takes the reader behind the scenes with Team Kramnik.
The book was originally published in German, so ours is an English translation with, I would claim, many improvements and updates. We have created an excerpt. Please note the colour photos – 16 pages of them in total. This book will be published in hardcover on November 14th.
The second in our trio of new books currently printing is The Queen’s Indian Defence by GM Michael Roiz. This is the companion volume to The Nimzo-Indian Defence (note the clever way we varied the two books’ colour scheme). The new book covers the QID (obviously) but after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6, in addition to 3.Nf3 b6, it also covers 3.g3 (the Catalan) and weird 3rd moves by White. So together the two books create a complete Black repertoire after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6.
We will announce a publication date very soon, but for now there is an excerpt giving away a whole chapter of the Petrosian System.
I am pleased to report that Practical Chess Beauty by Yochanan Afek is at the printers. We will announce a publication date soon. And on the topic of announcements, I will have news about two other books early next week.
But to return to Afek, we have created an excerpt. It was a difficult decision what to include in the excerpt, as there is spectacular chess on every page of the book. But I did manage to include the solution to the position I shared in an earlier blog post.
We are continuing our special 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, the Grandmaster Preparation Special Offer is 6 hardbacks for the price of 5. So if a European buys that, we send Jacob’s 6 GM Preparation hardbacks, plus one free extra book.
The previous default option on the free book was Attacking the Spanish. For October and November we will switch the default option to CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE. But if you already have that book, or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email to salesgroup@qualitychess.co.uk with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR
POSITIONAL CHESS SACRIFICES
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – WHITE GAMBITS
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 1
THE ALTERMAN GAMBIT GUIDE – BLACK GAMBITS VOLUME 2
SAN LUIS 2005
TACTIMANIA
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
A quick note from Batumi, Georgia’s second biggest city, where the chess Olympiad is going on. I am here as captain for the Indian women’s team and Andrew is here as board one for Scotland. Colin and John opted not to play this time for various reasons.
With India we have won two matches 4-0 and will today play on board one. It would be strange not to stop for a moment and celebrate the occasion. Of course it has happened before and of course it is early in the event, but we are leading none the less!
I will give reports with ChessBase India most days. Yesterday Sagar had to leave, but we made this video in Round 1.
Round 2 saw some big upsets. Russia lost to Uzbekistan after a horrible blunder by Pogonina. And Ukraine were lucky things did not go bad. They were 1.5-0.5 up, but at some point lost on board 1 and 2! Especially board 2 was remarkable. Black missed an easy win in this position. Well, I call it easy now; I was lucking at the board during the game and I missed it too, even if it is rather simple:
On Monday 24th September we will release a Quality Chess book in what for us is a new format: Chessable. In case you are not familiar with Chessable, I offer a couple of extra links: the first about Chessable and the next about the science behind their methods.
My summary: Chessable offers chess courses that are accessible online, and uses a technique based on “spaced-repetition”.
When we decided to experiment by putting one Quality Chess book on Chessable, we needed to decide which book. So, learning and improving using repetition: does that suggest any recent Quality Chess book?
The Woodpecker Method will be available on Chessable from Monday 24th September. The normal Chessable price will be the same as our book, though I would suggest keeping an eye out for an introductory sale price, which is a Chessable tradition.
If this experiment is a success, then we may try other QC books in Chessable format.
I am happy to announce we have a new book on the way: Practical Chess Beauty by Yochanan Afek. To quote from the cover:
“Solving studies is well established as an effective method of chess improvement. In Practical Chess Beauty one of the world’s greatest study composers, Yochanan Afek, shares his finest creations.
Fire your imagination, gain a greater appreciation of chess geometry, and develop a finer feeling for the pieces’ potential by trying to find the ideas hidden in the hundreds of studies in this book. Or simply wonder at some of the most stunning chess moves ever conceived.”
Publishers claiming “our books are great” always look suspicious, given our obvious bias, but this book really is great. There have been so many times in editing when we have boggled at a move, and said: “That can’t possibly work!” But then it does.
The author has framed his book to be useful for the practical player seeking improvement, but it also works wonderfully as pure entertainment. It’s too early for an excerpt (maybe next week) and I will guess at a publication date in late October or the start of November.
I will give one example from the book. White to play and win (I will give the solution next week). The main line is only 5 moves long, but you will do well to spot the winners and the best defensive try. Stretch your brain – do not switch on that engine.
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