As if I had all the time in the world, I have now wasted some of it creating a Facebook account for the company. Among other things – this is because I want to seriously limit the amount of friends on my personal account. It is for a few friends and family – and family photos…
The Award Season is truly upon us. After the ECF, Guardian Book and ChessCafe of the Year awards, it is now time for the biggest one of them all, the ChessPublishing Opening Book of the Year.
Sorry for not putting a publishing schedule up, I was busy editing Starting Out in Tic Tac Toe.
The next publication is 25 Feb. Besides the list here, I want you to know that the Yusupov Box Set is meant to be out in the summer – the first one – and Build up your Chess 1 and 3 will be ready in hardback before then. Already available in hardcover is Attacking Manual 1+2 and GM Repertoire 1, as of a week or two back.
| Artur Yusupov | Boost your Chess 3 | 25 February |
| Milos Pavlovic | Cutting Edge 2 – Najdorf 6.Be3 | 25 February |
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | March |
| GERMAN | GM 4 | March |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | March |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | March/April |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | March/April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | April |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Grandmaster versus Amateur | May |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | May |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – King’s Indian I | Later |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – The King’s Indian II | Later |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd ed. | Later |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | Later |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | Later |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | Later |
| David Vigorito | Play the Semi-Slav 2 | Later |
| Jacob Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 12 – 1.e4 volume one | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Boost your Chess 3 | 25 February |
| Milos Pavlovic | The Cutting Edge 2 – The Najdorf Sicilian without 6.Bg5 | 25 February |
| Vladimir Popov | Chess Lessons | March |
| GERMAN | GM 4 | March |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Experts on the Anti-Sicilian | March |
| Vassilios Kotronias | The Grandmaster Battle Manual | March/April |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 8 – The Grunfeld Defence | March/April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 – 1961-1985 | April |
| Tibor Karolyi | Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2 – 1986 – 2009 | April |
| Aagaard, Shaw (editors) | Grandmaster versus Amateur | May |
| Nikos/Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 9 – The Tarrasch Defence | May |
| GERMAN | GM 5 | June |
| Suba | Positional Chess Sacrifices | Later |
| Artur Yusupov | Chess Evolution 1 | June |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – The King’s Indian Defence | Later |
| Vassilios Kotronias | Grandmaster Repertoire 11 – The King’s Indian Defence | Later |
| Martin Weteschnik | Chess Tactics from Scratch – UCT 2nd edition | Later |
| John Shaw | The King’s Gambit | Later |
| Boris Alterman | Alterman Gambit Guide – Black Gambits | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 1 | Later |
| GERMAN | Alterman 2 | Later |
| Romanovsky | Soviet Middlegame Technique | Later |
| David Vigorito | Play the Semi-Slav 2 | Later |
| Jacob Aagaard | Grandmaster Repertoire 12 – 1.e4 volume one | Later |
All four editors at Quality Chess were playing this weekend.
Andrew Greet scored 2/2 in the 4NCL and John Shaw likewise in the Danish League. Jacob scored 1.5/2 and Colin mumbled his result and did not answer when asked a second time.
The 4NCL can be found at www.4NCL and the Danish League at http://www.divisionsskak.dk/holdarkiv/div1011/vis_rakke_tabel.asp?find=LIGA
Jacob’s win over IM Karsten Rasmussen bears good news for followers of the Tarrasch Defence:
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 c5 3. c4 e6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. cxd5 exd5 7. Be2 Nc6 8. O-O
Bd6 9. dxc5 Bxc5 10. b3 O-O 11. Bb2 Re8 12. Rc1 Ba7 13. Qd3 Bg4 14. Rfd1 Qe7
15. Na4? Ne4
Also winning was: 15… Nb4 16. Qb1 Bxe3!
16. a3 Nxf2 17.Kxf2 Bxe3+ 18. Kf1 Bxf3 19. Bxf3 Qh4 20. Rc2 Qxh2 21. Ke2 Bd4+
0-1
The ChessCafe website has a very democratic approach to deciding its Book of the Year prize: readers e-mail their votes for their favourite book of 2010. Three Quality Chess books are on the list of nominees – The Attacking Manual 1 and The Attacking Manual 2 by Jacob Aagaard, and Boost Your Chess 1 by Artur Yusupov.
Anyone who wishes to vote for any of the nominated books (even, good grief, one not published by Quality Chess) should e-mail their vote to bookoftheyear@chesscafe.com by January 17. After that the three highest placed books face a second round of voting from January 19 to 31. The winner will be announced on February 2.
We have been so busy working away that it has taken us until the 7th of January to wish our readers a Happy New Year.
We recently announced two new books:
Experts on the anti-Sicilian will be edited by Jacob and me, and we will also a write a few chapters. Many other authors are also sharing their Sicilian wisdom including GMs Peter Heine Nielsen, Boris Avrukh, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Milos Pavlovic, Christian Bauer and Matthieu Cornette. Only one IM is involved in this project – Andrew Greet, who was allowed in as Scottish Champion. The topic, of course, is Sicilian lines except the Open variations. Please note, this is not a repertoire book, but it will offer many new ideas for both sides.
In The Grandmaster Battle Manual Greek GM Vassilios Kotronias shares the lessons he has learned as a highly competitive 2600+ player. We are delighted Vassilios has started writing for Quality Chess as we admire his previous books and know him to be a tremendous analyst.
On the website you can also download our brand new 2011 catalogue which, among other things, gives a complete list of our titles.
I am at times asked how reliable our books are, and at what level they can be used. I have to bite my tongue, because what I really wanted to say in such a situation is that player X, rated 2700+ has just bought the books on our website – and most likely not to put under the Christmas three. Peter Heine Nielsen said about some of our books that they were “of use even at the highest level.” He is the chief second of the World Champion, so it is easy to read things into such a statement. One player you could easily suspect of having read our books is English Grandmaster Luke McShane. In this game he follows the recommendation of GM Mihail Marin in Grandmaster Repertoire 5 as a stepping stone to beat the World number one. Whatever I say hereafter, I feel I can say it with full confidence…
Luke McShane – Magnus Carlsen [A37]
London Chess Classic, 1st Round, 08.12.2010
1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.0–0 Nh6
A sideline, but still a serious Read more…
Dear Quality Chess Reader,
If you live near London you will soon have the chance to attend lectures by two of our authors. Grandmasters Jacob Aagaard and Boris Avrukh will be giving talks at the London Chess Classic. Jacob’s will be on December 14; Boris’s date has yet to be confirmed. On the same day as his lecture, Jacob will be awarded the ECF Book of the Year Prize for Attacking Manuals 1 and 2.
We at Quality Chess are currently working mainly on four books: Boost Your Chess 3 by Artur Yusupov, Chess Lessons by Vladimir Popov, The Cutting Edge 2: The Sicilian Najdorf 1 by Milos Pavlovic and Experts on the anti-Sicilians edited by Jacob Aagaard and John Shaw.
Boost Your Chess 3 is the latest volume in GM Yusupov’s award-winning instructional series. The “3” in the title tells the reader this is at the Mastery level. Yusupov’s series increases in difficulty from The Fundamentals (1) to Beyond the Basics (2) and then finally Mastery.
In Chess Lessons, Vladimir Popov shares the chess wisdom he accumulated while coaching many promising juniors. In particular the book offers many lessons from the games of Popov’s two most celebrated pupils, the Kosintseva sisters. Tania and Nadia Kosintseva were recently in action as the top two seeds at the Russian Women’s Championship. At the following link you can read a sample chapter.
In The Cutting Edge 2: The Sicilian Najdorf 1 GM Milos Pavlovic analyses various state-of-the-art lines in the Sicilian Najdorf (with the exception 6.Bg5 which will be covered in the next Cutting Edge book).
Experts on the anti-Sicilian is written by a host of grandmasters (including Peter Heine Nielsen, Boris Avrukh, Christian Bauer, Matthieu Cornette, John Shaw, Jacob Aagaard, Milos Pavlovic and Tiger Hillarp Persson). The book covers various lines of the Sicilian where White avoids playing the Open Variation (2.Nf3 and 3.d4).
The chess file links below have various interesting pieces of analysis including GM Mihail Marin’s response to some questions about Grandmaster Repertoire 4 and Grandmaster Repertoire 5: the books which completed his 1.c4 repertoire. There is also plenty of original analysis by GM Jacob Aagaard that is relevant to several of our books. The chess files are available in pdf or ChessBase format.
Two of the books we published in the early years of Quality Chess were Tiger’s Modern by Tiger Hillarp Persson and The Benko Gambit by Jan Pinski. We ran out of copies of these two books so we are currently reprinting them. They will be available next week.
Regards,
John Shaw
Chief Editor
Quality Chess
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