Quality Chess Blog

I am focusing on the match in Moscow and working on finishing additional books whenever I have a free moment. Being away from the family gives you this chance to work from 7am to 12pm that you just do not get at home! Meanwhile Colin is quite far in the editing of MAYHEM IN THE MORRA and we are also quite far with PLAYING 1.d4 VOLUME 1 and PLAYING 1.d4 VOLUME 2. We would have liked to have the 1.d4 books out in June, but it seems just a little bit tight. There were a few places where we wanted to analyse a bit deeper and also Lars wanted to check some things, so his updates came a bit slower than was expected. Maybe we will still make it, I will start typesetting some finished chapters tomorrow (free day here) and then we will take it from there. My guess is still the first two weeks of July.

As far as I can see, here at move 35 we are heading for a draw. Gelfand did not play the ending in the most dangerous way, but it was even a bit worse than that. At move 19 he decided to win the queen, when 19.Bg3 was immensely strong as far as I could see. After 19…Qb4 White has 20.Qb7! with strong pressure. For example 20…Qa5 21.Bd6 and as far as I could see, Black is just busted. Disappointing…

I am in Denmark playing a perpetual double round event (lost to a promising junior in round 4 after some escapes earlier and am on 2.5/4). Monday I am going to Moscow to follow the World Championship from game 9. Meanwhile Andrew, Colin and John work non-stop to finish books back in Glasgow.

People keep asking what level the Grandmaster Preparation series is going to be at, ignoring the hint given by the title! Also I get asked a lot if this series will work well as a sequence to the Yusupov series. The answer is YES, but they can also work in combination. Whatever inspires you will definitely work. All will become clear when I talk about the enjoyment circle in THINKING INSIDE THE BOX.

Will we be giving a 5 for the price of 4 offer on the site? Yes, we will. But only for shipments within the European Union and as it looks now only when we have published all the books. But if you want to get them as they come out (in hardcover) then make a deal with your local chess retailer. I have only asked one and they said they would definitely say yes if someone offered them €100+postage up front for the books. Who wouldn’t?

Let me tell you quickly about what will be in the books: First of all, they will mainly be workbooks. That’s right, plenty of exercises. You do the work while I sit on the beach drinking pina colada checking the royalties tick in on his 3g Ipad. But at the end of it you will be fit for fight and I will be fat and slightly crisp…

The theory behind the training will be presented shortly in an easy to understand way. This is meant to be simple and practical.

I will write introduction chapters to each set of exercises, with the only intention being to inspire and entertain. I find chess fun anyway!

The exercises will be difficult, but not impossible – unless labled as such! In the CALCULATION book we will have 75 positions in the “Difficult Positions” section. The remaining 375 will be “easier”. Not easy. Remember, this is a series of books that will prepare you for competing at Grandmaster level.

CALCULATION will not cover all minor parts of calculation theory (I did this in Excelling at Chess Calculation), but offer exercises in eight sections: Candidates, Combiantional Vision, Prophylaxis, Comparison, Elimination, Intermediate Moves, Imagination & Traps. Then there will be 10 tests of six positions each and then the already mentioned difficult positions.

POSITIONAL PLAY will be the easiest of the books. This is really an introduction to the strategy book. I would say that players under 2400 would gain a lot of benefit from this book, while 1 in 3 players between 2400 and 2600 might learn something new going through the planned 125 exercises. The book will be built on the three questions:1) where are the weaknesses, 2) what is my opponent’s idea & 3) which is the worst placed piece. Again simplicity is the goal. And yes, I have used these questions in teachning positional understading to players over 2600 and they do not find them “too” simple.

STRATEGIC PLAY is going to be quite difficult. Where positional exercises are based on positional improvement in the present, strategy is long term positional improvement. So, call it a blend of calculation and positional play if you like, but know that in strategy you can at times do poor seemingly positional decisions now to get a great positional advantage five moves down the line.

ENDGAME PLAY will to some extent be an expansion of the previous books. It will include a lot of “tactics in the endgame” exercises and a lot of “strategic play in the endgame” exercises.

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX will be a mixture of everything. Chess training. Chess psychology. Chess philosophy. Different approaches to the opening, middlegame and endgame. Analysing your own games. Other ways to improve your chess. And so on.