Quality Chess Blog

 
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).

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.

I am sorry that I do not have the time to write a proper blog post today. I have been working till 2am quite a number of nights in a row in order for our books to get sent to the printer before Christmas. Sadly this does not mean early January publication, as they are shut for a few weeks.

The following four books will most likely be released on the 4th of February:

Negi: 1.e4 vs. the Sicilian 1 (360 pages)

Flores Rios: Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide (464 pages)

Kotronias: Mar Del Plata 1 (320 pages)

Kotronias: Mar Del Plata 2 (300+ pages)

Furthermore we are preparing reprints of Playing the French, Grandmaster Preparation – Calculation (more about this next Monday) and of course the 10th anniversary hardback edition of Learn from the Legends.

Right now I am typesetting the first Kotronias book, which will be proof read from tomorrow morning. There is really some incredible chess in this book (which deals exclusively with the 9.Ne1 main line KID). One position I looked at a few moments ago was this one, arising after 25.Rxd7:

Here I will skip the details, but just give you the main line Vassilios has analysed:

25…Rg6!! 26.Bg1! Nxd7 27.Bb5 Rxa7 28.Qc2! Rb7 29.Bc6!? Rc7! 30.h3! Nxg2! 31.Qxg2 Qh6 32.Bb6 Nxb6 33.axb6 Rc8 34.b7 Rb8 35.Nd3 Rg5 36.Ra1 Rh5 37.Bd7! Rxb7 38.Be6† Kg7

Despite having played optimum moves in the last sequence, White is still struggling badly.

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.

Here’s a snippet from The Modern Tiger, which will be available soon. The position is taken from the new chapter covering the Pirc as a back-up weapon against the Austrian. The following position is reached in analysis. Can you find a strong continuation for Black?

Black to play

Read more…

In The Soviet Chess Primer, by Ilya Maizelis, to be published on 10 December, the chapter on Combination includes a selection of little-known examples from Alekhine. You can test yourself on the following – White to play and win:

Alekhine – Amateur, Groningen (simul) 1933

White to move

Read more…

We are coming close to finishing a lot of books at the same time currently, leading to a more optimistic and more precise than usual publishing schedule.

Obviously, with January publications, the general problem is that the printer is busy most of December with Christmas catalogues and other seasonal items that really cannot wait as much as a chess book can.

The Soviet Chess Primer and The Modern Tiger are both with the printers. Excerpts are available here: SCP and MT.

Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide will be typeset next week. When the printer will be able to print it, we will see. But hopefully before the New Year or at least as the first thing back from the Christmas Holidays.

We are far with the editing of the second volume of Negi’s series, which will be about 400 pages, I think and 1.e4 vs. The Sicilian Volume 1 will be by far the most complex book in the series. We are also more than half way in the editing of the two volumes from Vassilios Kotronias on the Mar del Plata variation of the King’s Indian.  These three books will be ready at the end of January or the start of February. It will be close.

The Hardback edition of Learn from the Legends will be done when someone needs a break or has finished something. It is a priority, but we gave up on the 10 years to the date idea some time ago. It just felt less important than bringing new books out. Some will disagree, others will be happy. But at least it is coming out and with a new chapter on Carlsen as well as some minor corrections all over the place.

The only thing that really has moved (as far as we are concerned) is the Gelfand book. Boris is playing the Mind Games event in China and it is just too tight with 2-3 days to get it done before then. Most of the book is written and edited and I am happy with the result. It has been very challenging to write this book (separate considerations revealed in a separate blog post in a few days’ time), but I am happy with how it is turning out.

The Semi-Slav is far advanced. A few things still need to be analysed deeply and finished. More on that in that piece as well.

All in all, we are working very hard, but the books coming out are better than we usually are able to make them. I am very happy with this list of coming books.

If there is a book you expected to see on this list that is not on it, it just means that it is outside the horizon. Writers unfortunately do not coordinate well and they have a tendency to finish the books at the same time at least as much as with a nice well-spaced interval between them. So, sometimes we have to run faster. This is one of those times.

The books exist. They will come. Don’t despair. We are doing all we can.

We have not worked out our automated system yet (and it will take a while). So, at the moment we will do it like this:

If you buy three books or more and live inside the European Union (defined by UPS and not by bureaucrats in Brussels!) we will send you a free book.

As a starting point this will be CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

But if you have it, or would prefer another freebie, please write an email to us with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of following five titles:

SAN LUIS 2005
TACTIMANIA
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
GRANDMASTER VS AMATEUR
REGGIO EMILIA 2007

We will probably run it like this for a while, changing the freebies around a bit.