Quality Chess Blog

I am proud to have won the 2010 ECF Book of the Year award for Attacking Manual 1 – 2nd edition and Attacking Manual 2. The reason why I did not originally write this project for Everyman despite a very nice offer, but set up Quality Chess instead, was that I wanted it to be perfect – and that I wanted to win this prize. This is the biggest achievement of my career by far.

English Chess Federation

BOOK of the YEAR 2010

The judges this year were faced with a particularly difficult choice as all the four books listed had considerable, but differing merits. The choice finally fell on a two volume work which had taken the author no less than eight years to write.

The book is Attacking Chess Volumes 1 and 2 by Jacob Aagaard, published by Quality Chess at £23.99 each.  These constitute a substantial work totalling 720 pages in all, excellently laid out and printed. The volumes are written in a lively manner, which keeps the reader entertained as well as interested.

The genesis of the book is found in the introduction to volume 1. Aagaard felt that the role of intuition had been undervalued in chess writing. Good players not only calculate but also have a feeling for what might be possible in a given position, which can be described as intuition. Aagaard also felt that there was a shortage of good books on attacking play –by which he means attacking the King. There are many excellent titles on combinations, but Aagaard is looking for the conditions when an attack may be possible (King in the middle is an obvious example) and how that attack may be prepared and prosecuted. In other words Aagaard is trying to develop the reader’s attacking intuition.

Volume 2 is, in the words of the author “what to do when the attack is up and running”.

Whilst doing this, Aagaard introduces new concepts and ideas into the text. To help in this process he gives preview diagrams of the positions to be discussed, which the reader is invited to consider before reading on, a valuable learning tool.

The author has obtained the games and positions for both volumes from a wide range of contemporary sources, many of which were new to the judges. It is also clear that throughout Aagaard has provided fresh commentary and analysis. The reader can simply enjoy the many fascinating positions or study in depth, but either way there are many hours of pleasure to be found in these two books.

Aagaard has written a significant and original treatise on the fine art of attacking play and is a worthy winner of the Book of the Year 2010.

R B Edwards  J Farrand  D Friedgood 27th September 2010

Because GM5 is “only” 280 pages, I have decided to cut the price down to 24.99 for the softcover and 32.99 for hardback edition. Those that have pre-paid will receive a refund of the 3 euro difference somewhere in the next few weeks. The reason this does not happen immediately, is because I have to work out how to do it!

We have finally got a date confirmed from the printer. The Christmas catalogues are starting to get in and they need to be printed, but we managed to get slots for

• Play the Scandinavian (PDF excerpt)
• Grandmaster Repertoire 4 – The English volume 2 (PDF excerpt)
• Grandmaster Repertoire 5 – The English volume 3 (PDF excerpt)

Here is our general overview. As always I avoid being too specific, as I don’t want to disappoint anyone.

I am away from the office playing in the Politiken Cup (4/5 so far). But here is a current estimate of when the various books will be available, and the order I expect them to come out.

Today we are sending QUALITY CHESS PUZZLE BOOK to the printer. It will be 352 pages and we are very happy with it. We are also essentially done with BOOST YOUR CHESS 2 and we are also getting there with GM6 – THE SICILIAN DEFENCE (which will be a big book). Not long after comes PLAY THE SCANDINAVIAN and Marin’s final two books on the English.

Here is a photo of the books – the main feature is of course that even a 480 page book lies open when in hardcover.

Having been beat into submission here on the site by a few very persistent people, we have now produced 5 of our books in hardcover. Grandmaster Repertoire 1, Grandmaster Repertoire 3 and the Cutting Edge 1 only in 32 copies each – a very limited edition only available on this website. We have printed Grandmaster Repertoire 7 and Soviet Chess Strategy in respectively 200 and 100 copies of hardcovers. Initial sales have been beyond our expectation, but more importantly, have the books lived up to your expectations? Please give us feedback. Is this worth the hassle and extra investment from us, as well as the extra cover price for you?

On Monday, Grandmaster Repertoire 7 – The Caro-Kann by GM Lars Schandorff and Soviet Chess Strategy by the late GM Alexey Suetin will arrive in our office in Glasgow. We will send the books to all webshoppers then. The books will be sent from our warehouse on Friday to various stores all over Europe as well. Those wanting to buy the books on Amazon or other cheap websites will unfortunately have to wait a bit. For the Americans, the books have been sent to sea and will arrive in the shops in two months approximately. However, www.chess4less.com will have some copies sent with airfreight, to arrive late next week or early the week after. They also got a few hardcover editions, books that will not be available through Amazon or similar sites, but only through the chess retailers. And at this time only in very limited numbers. (We personally find the upgrade to hardcover easily worth the money, but will not pretend that the content is in any way different. It is a matter of taste at the end of the day).

In our ambition to be on the ball, if not all the time then as often as possible, we purchase most of the opening books that come out; ignoring only those that look superficial even from a distance. A recent purchase was THE FRENCH DEFENCE by Nikita Vitiugov, the highest rated chess author of an opening book for a long time (omitting Karpov and other authors who have more than a fair share of help with their work). The book does have some interesting ideas and it is interesting to see what strong players think. One example is a line that recently has been quite popular: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Qb6 8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 cxd4 10.b4 Nxb4 11.cxb4 Bxb4+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Nxd2 0–0 14.Bd3 b5 15.Nb2 Nb6 16.0–0 Nc4

Here White has to sacrifice the bishop on h7 in some way or form.

17. Bxh7+ Kxh7 18. Qh5+ Kg8 19. Nf3 g6 20. Qh6 Qc7

Vitiugov gives the following game as the main line:

21.Nh4 f6 22.Nxg6 Qg7 23.Qh5 Rf7 24.Nxc4 dxc4 25.Rf3 Qh7 26.Qg4 Rg7 27.Rg3 Rb8 28.h4 f5 29.Qg5 Rxg6 30.Qd8+ Kg7 31.Qf6+ Kh6 32.Rxg6+ Qxg6 33.Qh8+ Qh7 ½–½ Quesada Perez – Cordova, Havana 2009.

Although this was played in a game, they are not the best moves. Vitiugov does say about the position after 20…Qc7 that “Black’s position is so dubious that I am not sure that he can hold it, so it cannot be recommended.” These are wise words from a young but still experienced grandmaster with sound judgment. It is also a cop-out for not doing any analysis.

Before I give my improvement I want to explain why I am commenting on another company’s book, something I generally do not do, as we don’t want people to get the wrong impression. We have great respect for some of our competitors, Chess Stars included, but see it as their responsibility to promote their own product.

Getting to the point; when analysing such complex lines, it is important to combine good hardware with experience and analytical skills. We can say, hopefully without being too self-regarding, that we have the experience and analytical skills. But do we have sufficiently good hardware/software? Before the match in Sofia Topalov used a 112-core computer, if I understood it correctly. We have Quad-core machines with some MB RAM. At current we are using Fritz12, Firebird, Rybka and a few other engines to come up with ideas.

What do people think we should have/ be doing?

In Vitiugov’s example 21.Nh4 is interesting, but not convincing. 21.Nd3 leads directly to a better ending with simple play. But with the help of a strong engine, patience and analytical skills, I think I can offer better than this.

Here is my analysis of this line for the GM Repertoire 1.e4 book. The rest I will keep for later. My analysis is based on a brilliant Internet game.

Flyingfatman – New Man

PAL/CSS Freestyle final 2007

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Qb6 8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 cxd4 10.b4 Nxb4 11.cxb4 Bxb4+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Nxd2 0–0 14.Bd3 b5 15.Nb2 Nb6 16.0–0 Nc4 17.Nbxc4 bxc4 18.Bxh7+ Kxh7 19.Qh5+ Kg8 20.Nf3 f6!

[20…g6 21.Qh6 Qc7 This position is a draw according to the engines, but human intervention will reveal otherwise: 22.f5! f6 (22…exf5 23.Rae1 Bb7 {23…f6 24.exf6 Qh7 25.Qf4 Qf7 26.Re7 Qxf6 27.Rfe1+-} 24.e6 Rae8 25.Ng5 fxe6 26.Rxe6 Rxe6 27.Nxe6+-) 23.fxg6 Qg7 24.Qh4 f5 25.Nxd4 Bd7 26.Rf3 Rfb8 27.Rh3 Rb2 (27…Rb6 28.Ne2+-) 28.Qg3 Be8 29.Nxe6 Qxg6 30.Nc7+-]

21.exf6 Rxf6

[21…Qc7 22.fxg7 Qxg7 23.Ne5 Rf5 24.Qh4 Qf6 25.Qh3 (25.Qg3+ Qg7 26.Qa3) 25…d3 (25…Qh8 26.Qa3 Rb8 27.Rf3+-) 26.Rf3 Kf8 27.Raf1 d2 28.R3f2 (28.g4 Qg7 29.R3f2 (29.Qg2 c3 30.Rxc3 Ba6 31.Qxd2 Bxf1 32.Kxf1 Rf6 33.Kg2 unclear) 29…Kg8 30.Rxd2²) 28…Rb8 29.Rxd2 some edge.]

22.Ng5 Qd8 23.Qh7+ Kf8 24.Qh8+ Ke7 25.Qxg7+ Kd6 26.Nh7! Rf5 27.g4 Qd7 28.Qh6

[28.Qxd7+!? Bxd7 29.gxf5 exf5 clear edge 30.Ng5 d3 31.Rac1 Ba4 32.Nf3 Kc5 33.h4 Re8 34.h5 Rh8 35.Kf2 Rxh5 36.Rh1 Rxh1 37.Rxh1 d4 38.Rh5 Kb4 39.Rxf5 c3 40.Ke1 d2+ 41.Nxd2 c2 42.Nb3 Bxb3 43.Kd2 Bxa2 44.Kxc2 clear edge]

28…Rf7

[28…Bb7 29.Ng5! Rf7 (29…Rxg5 30.fxg5 Rg8 31.Rf8 Rxf8 32.Qxf8+ Qe7 33.Qxe7+ Kxe7 34.Rf1+-; 29…Rff8 30.Rae1 Rae8 31.f5 Rh8 32.Qf6 Kc7 33.Rxe6 clear edge) 30.Nxf7+ Qxf7 31.f5 Rg8 32.h3 clear edge]

29.Ng5 Kc7?!

[29…Kc5! 30.Rae1 Qe7 31.Nxf7 Qxf7 This might be the critical position. I probably will put more time into this position at some point, but at the moment I am happy to see that White is at least a bit better.]

30.f5 exf5 31.Nxf7 Qxf7 32.Qf4+ Kc6 33.Qxd4 Qg6

[33…Qe7 34.Rad1 Qc5 35.g5 clear edge]

34.Rf4 Qd6 35.Raf1 Qc5 36.gxf5 Qxd4+ 37.Rxd4 Kc5 38.Rg4 Bd7 39.Rg7 Kd6 40.Rg6+ Ke5 41.f6 Rf8 42.Rg5+ Kd6 43.Rf3 Be6 44.Kf2 Bf7 45.Ke3 Re8+ 46.Kd2 Rb8 47.Rg7 Ke6 48.Kc3 Rh8 49.h3 a5 50.Kd4 Rh6 51.Rgg3 Rh4+ 52.Kc5 Rh8 53.Rg5 a4 54.Rg1 Rc8+ 55.Kd4 Kd6 56.Rg7 Ke6 57.Rh7 Rf8 58.Rf2 c3 59.Kxc3 Rc8+ 60.Kb4 Rf8 61.h4 a3 62.h5 d4 63.Kc4 Ke5+ 64.Kd3 Kd6 65.Kxd4 Ke6 66.Kc3 Rc8+ 67.Kb4 Rf8 68.h6 Kd6 69.Rxf7 Rxf7 70.h7 Rf8 71.f7 Ke7 72.Re2+ Kd6 73.Re8 Rxf7

1–0

We are delighted that IM Andrew Greet recently made his first GM norm after countless years of trying – two more norms are needed for the title. Andrew has worked for Quality Chess for a year, so we claim editing and reading our books is the key to success.

In the last few days we have sent two books to the printer. Grandmaster Repertoire 7 : The Caro-Kann by Lars Schandorff and Soviet Chess Strategy by Alexey Suetin. Continuing our recent experiment,  we are printing some in hardcover – 200 Caro, 100 Soviet. They will be available from us, various chess shops in Europe, and Chess4Less in the US. Some people have requested a photo of our hardcover versions. I’m not sure you can feel the quality from a photo, but here is Jacob’s snap of a hardcover Cutting Edge:

The next two books in line are Grandmaster Repertoire 6: The Sicilian Defence by Lubomir Ftacnik and The Quality Chess Puzzle Book, allegedly by me.

Publication Schedule

Suetin
Soviet Chess Strategy
28 May 2010

Lars Schandorff
Grandmaster Repertoire 7 – The Caro-Kann
28 May 2010

Lubomir Ftacnik
Grandmaster Repertoire 6 – The Sicilian Defence
June

John Shaw
Quality Chess Puzzle Book
June

Christian Bauer
Play the Scandinavian
June

Artur Yusupov
Boost your Chess 2
June

Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 4 – The English Opening vol. 2
July

Mihail Marin
Grandmaster Repertoire 5 – The English Opening vol. 3
July

Tibor Karolyi
Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 1 – 1961-1985
August

Tibor Karolyi
Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 2 – 1986 – 2009
August

John Shaw
The King’s Gambit
LATER

Boris Avrukh
GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence
LATER

Milos Pavlovic
The Cutting Edge 2 – The Najdorf Sicilian
LATER

Tiger Hillarp Persson
Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED
LATER

Mihail Marin
Common Grandmaster Mistakes – and how to avoid them
LATER

Artur Yusupov
Boost your Chess 3
LATER

Vassilios Kotronias
Middlegame book – TITLE NOT CONFIRMED
LATER

Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x1 – 1.e4 – Ruy Lopez
NEXT YEAR

Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x2 – 1.e4 – Sicilian
NEXT YEAR

Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x3 – 1.e4 – French/Caro-Kann
NEXT YEAR

Jacob Aagaard
Grandmaster Repertoire x4 – 1.e4 other e5s
NEXT YEAR

Jacob Aagaard
Thinking Inside the Box
NEXT YEAR

Jacob Aagaard
Train your Chess Intuition
NEXT YEAR