I am feeling a bit guilty that I have been poor at updating the publishing schedule – and that the last one did not have any dates on it. At this point it looks like Kotronias on the King’s Indian 4 – Classical Systems will be out on the 13th of April. Things can always go wrong with the printing process of course, but let’s presume they don’t. So less than a month away. An excerpt is now available.
But what I really wanted to talk about is this beauty:
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Last week’s poll question led to a clear answer: the Candidates events are generally more exciting than World Championship matches.
So it’s good news that the 2016 Candidates starts in Moscow on Friday. Last year we had a quiz about the World Cup. It seemed like fun, so we will have another go for the Candidates.
Same prize as last time: Quality Chess will send a box of 20 books to your home, wherever in the world that may be. 10 of them chosen by you, 10 of them chosen by us. All you have to do is answer the following questions:
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We are continuing our special offer – if you buy three books or more and live in the normal European Union zone (as defined by UPS – for example, they exclude some islands and remote areas) we will send you an extra book free. Recently the default option on the free book has been Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne but we will change that now to CHESS LESSONS by Vladimir Popov.
But if you already have Chess Lessons, or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:
CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE
POSITIONAL CHESS SACRIFICES
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
TACTIMANIA
SAN LUIS 2005
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
We had a great response to our request for help in naming Thomas Luther’s new book in English. There were the serious suggestions that may be worth using another day: Climbing the Chess Ladder (Matt Fletcher), From Pawn to Chess King (Jacob), The Grandmaster Code (Quine Duhem) and many more.
Then the jokers were on form: Thomas the Rank Engine (Tommy Barrett), Waste your Life Achieving a Devalued Title (I hope Depressed Cynic was joking), and one of my personal favourites How Thomaster Chess (Schtroumfechecs).
Others made links between our author Thomas Luther and Martin Luther, one of the major figures in the Protestant Reformation. As I understand it, Thomas is a descendant of Martin, so this makes sense. At first I just took the Martin Luther links as part of the joke category. But one title kept growing on us – Luther’s Chess Reformation. Even ignoring the historical connection, we like it. It’s unusual and it fits the book’s content. So our winner is… Bill. Congratulations Bill and thanks for your help.
I have been working on the 2016 leaflet today. We had a few things we needed to sort out before I was able to make a first draft. The final draft will come when we have the final covers (at least most of them) ready to attach. It will go to the printer together with a few books being finished at the moment.
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Last week’s poll question was: What is your favourite phase of a chess game? Of The Big Three the narrow winner was ‘middlegame’, ahead of my favourite ‘endgame’, with ‘opening’ well beaten. Not so surprising. I suspect the time spent studying each phase would get a very different answer, but I will save that question for another day.
Our thoughts now are on the Candidates tournament which starts in Moscow on March 10th. We did a quiz for last year’s World Cup, and we plan something similar for the Candidates. But for now I will just ask: Which event do you generally find more exciting: Candidates tournaments or World Championship matches? Of course the match is when the big prize is decided, but on Magnus Carlsen’s rise to the title, the Candidates in London was surely the most dramatic moment.
Just a brief word of apology to those who have purchased books from Friday afternoon onwards (26th). Claire is back from three week’s holiday in Australia today. The last thing she said before walking out the door two minutes ago was: “****, I forgot to do the websales.”
We usually try to get the ordered books out within 24 hours of receiving the order (Monday-Friday, we don’t have to work weekends, so we don’t), but in this case we simply have to rely on your patience. The websales will be the number one priority in the morning.
Dear Quality Chess Reader,
3rd February was the official publication date of Playing 1.e4 e5 – A Classical Repertoire by Nikolaos Ntirlis. This book offers a complete repertoire for Black against 1.e4 based on 1…e5, with the Breyer Variation against the Spanish the backbone of the repertoire. Ntirlis’s previous books have been well received, and we think this is his best work yet. An excerpt can be read here.
Since my last newsletter, we have also published Grandmaster Repertoire – 1.e4 vs The Sicilian II by GM Parimarjan Negi and Grandmaster Repertoire 6A – Beating the Anti-Sicilians by GM Vassilios Kotronias.
Those of you who enjoyed Ntirlis’s earlier work Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – The Tarrasch Defence (co-written with GM Jacob Aagaard in 2011) will be particularly interested in the chess files below. In the pdf Ntirlis updates The Tarrasch Defence to show how the repertoire has stood the test of time. The pgn file gives the games referred to in the pdf.
Regards,
John Shaw
Chief Editor
Quality Chess
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