Quality Chess Blog

Cathy and I went to Budapest in the weekend for her to play Judit Polgar. There are some photos as Judit’s Facebook site and a small video online.

Judit’s Facebook site

Finally I dare the return to the most dangerous and difficult activity in my life – the inaccurate and fraudulent prediction of when we might be able to put some Quality Chess books your way…

When I play with Cathy the games are often drawn; or she gets chances to win, which she increasingly tend to take. When she plays with my mother or with Anne, there is no mercy. She needs to have goals.

Anne is one of the smartest people I know. She was the first woman in Britain to get the Chief ticket as a marine engineer. Two got it the same day and the other always mentions that she was the first to use it… Anyway, just to say that although she is not interested in chess, she is a clever bunny.

And now to the pictures…

Desperately busy with a quick non-QC project. Excerpts up in a few days; new PS as well. For now, this:

Chapter List

Part 1 – 1.d4 d5 lines

Chapter 1 – Miscellaneous (2.a3, 2.e3)
Chapter 2 – Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
Chapter 3 – 2.Bg5
Chapter 4 – Veresov
Chapter 5 – London 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4
Chapter 6 – 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c3 (and rare moves)
Chapter 7 – 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5

Part 2 – 1.d4 Nf6

Chapter 8 – 2.g3 and others
Chapter 9 – Trompowsky – Intro and 3.h4
Chapter 10 – Trompowsky – 3.Bh4
Chapter 11 – Trompowsky – 3.Bf4

Part 3 – 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6

Chapter 12 – side lines 3.Nc3, 3.Nbd2
Chapter 13 – 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 b5
Chapter 14 – 3.Bg5 Torre Attack
Chapter 15 – London 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 d5
Chapter 16 – Colle
Chapter 17 – Colle-Zukertort (with c2-c4)
Chapter 18 – Colle-Zukertort (without c2-c4)

Part 4 – 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6

Chapter 19 – Other third moves
Chapter 20 – Barry 3.Nc3
Chapter 21 – 3.e3
Chapter 22 – London 3.Bf4
Chapter 23 – Torre 3.Bg5
Chapter 24 – 3.g3 (without c2-c4)

People love the McCutchian it seems. I better look up how it is spelled!

Over the next week we will be lucky enough to be visited online by a world class player. Judit Polgar will visit the blog occasionally to answer questions posed by readers in the comments to this post. This is your chance to pick the brain of a chess superstar.

Judit’s new book How I Beat Fischer’s Record  is published today.

Nikos and I have already discussed our lines after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 for Playing the French, but as he has analysed everything with usual tenacity, it was quite interesting for us to see what the public thought. Especially as 3…Be7 is the current trend in repertoire books (and Emanuel is working on 3…Nf6) and we were heading more for 3…c5 in general.

We are still analysing, so we take everything on board, although we have some ideas. I am uncertain about 3…Be7, especially as when we looked at the recommendation in THE MODERN FRENCH it was straight to +- for White when we compared our recommendation for John’s 1.e4 books (which are a team effort as always, when John’s name is on the cover – but remember that John is the brutal dictator of Quality Chess, who has chosen to do the King’s Gambit alone!). All you had to do was one logical move (top 3 in all 1.e4-players’ candidates for sure) and tap the spacebar every 30 seconds. TMF seems a bit shaky at places, but is still a very interesting book that deservedly has received rage review.