Dear readers, you might be interested in this eloquent podcast. It is a detailed discussion about the Quality Chess book of the World Championship tournament in San Luis in 2005. The podcast is hosted by Ben Johnson, with his guest for this episode being Dr. Christopher Chabris. Their description is “A tournament book with sparkling games and annotations, a mini cheating scandal, at a crossroad moment in chess history.”
“Nine entertaining chapters cover various aspects of Larsen’s chess career… This may well have been a labour of love for the author, but hopefully, readers and players of the internet generation will be tempted to give this book a try. Open it up, select a page at random, take a look at the moves and I am sure you will agree: ‘That is really playing chess!’” Sean Marsh, CHESS
“This is an excellent book. For Korchnoi fans, it is an absolute must. For everyone else, the sheer amount of fighting chess on display should turn heads. Very impressive, Quality Chess!” Sean Marsh, CHESS
IM Koen Leenhouts from the Netherlands very kindly sent us the above photo with the caption: “Spent a couple of weeks with wonderful reading material🙂” And he added “The Anand Files however I found fascinating to read.”
Thanks for that. And we will forgive you for having two non-QC books out of the six.
The Anand Files features prominently in that photo, and is receiving fantastic reviews. For example: “The Anand Files is a triumph, beautifully written and accompanied by more than one hundred full-color photos. Abeln has done his subject justice and the only flaw in the work is that it ends.” John Hartmann, Chess Life
If you are watching TV in the USA this evening, there is a chance you may see a Quality Chess book lurking as a ‘background prop’. It is on a show called “The Blacklist”, 8:00–9:00 PM EST 13th December on NBC . Apparently there is also an NBC app.
It’s not certain The Thinkers will make the ‘final cut’. And even if it does, the book does not feature in the story; it’s just part of the background scenery. But I hope the point will be to show that one of the main characters has great taste in books.
If you do see David Llada’s book on NBC, then please let us know in the comments. As we Hollywood types say – that’s a wrap.
Today we release the English translation of Carsten Hensel’s book: Vladimir Kramnik: The Inside Story of a Chess Genius. This is really a remarkable book, which has already gained attention in German for its descriptions of the tumultuous years 2005-2006 in the Chess World. But of course it covers much more.
The book is not objective, it takes sides, but what else would you expect of Kramnik’s former manager?
Of other points, we should say that Kramnik contributed greatly to the book by talking about key games and about all the other World Champions in detail.
Although this is a translation, we approached the book like we would any other project and did a thorough fact check and assisted the author in bringing his vision to the readers in the strongest possible way.
Now it is the marketing stage of course, which includes sending out review copies and getting people to talk about the book. A part of this has been to organise an interview with Carsten by Ben Johnson of the Perpetual Chess Podcast. It is Podcast no. 100 no less! The Interview is available here.
The always excellent New in Chess magazine arrived in our office yesterday, with another batch of reviews by GM Matthew Sadler. Three of them were about Quality Chess books.
5/5 Stars “A beautifully produced hardback… Shankland wins me over by illustrating these guidelines beautifully… All in all, an excellent, original book.”
5/5 Stars “An incredibly creative book… Markos has a host of original ideas about all sorts of chess topics and a wonderfully witty and enthusiastic way of bringing them across… another fantastic book from Quality Chess!”
4/5 Stars “It’s probably pretty much the ideal repertoire for a player wanting to take up 1.e4 e5 without having to learn the whole world! … Ntirlis does his normal thorough, creative job.”
Those who have read Thinking Inside the Box may have noticed that there are a few pages in the end where I make the case for following a plant based diet. This is sometimes known as a vegan diet, but there is a substantial difference, as veganism is about ending animal cruelty, which I am all for, but which is not why I prefer a plant based diet.
I am convinced that following a plant based diet will improve your health and in turn your chess playing ability and make a brief case in the book. I am also convinced that working on your calculation is much more important. In 2012 we had a World Championship match between two slightly chubby men in their 40s. Athletic ability is not essential for playing good chess, even if extra energy will certainly be useful at times too. Read more…
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