Stefansson relies on Marin’s Beating the Open Games

At times I am asked if strong GMs ever read books. The case with some of them is no. One GM I talked to this about a few years back said that he had not opened a chess book for 10 years and that they were all junk. I gave him Marin’s two books on 1.e4 e5, Beating the Open Games and A Spanish Repertoire for Black to see if he would change his mind. He did, and is now a regular customer, especially for Marin books…

It seems we have another fan. Hannes Stefansson apparently gave an interview (in Icelandic), explaining how he used his newly acquired copy of Beating the Open Games to beat French GM Nataf. I have annotated the game and stuck it in a pgn-file.

20 thoughts on “Stefansson relies on Marin’s Beating the Open Games”

  1. After his win against Smeets, Kramnik mentioned that he “picked up a book on the Pirc”. Based on the variation played, it looks suspiciously like he had “picked up” Tiger’s Modern.

  2. Oh I see, I stand corrected. It’s really cool to note how a player of his caliber, former World Champ no less, still reads chess books aimed at the amateur though, hehe.

  3. The first book about gambit by a strong player (B.Alterman) is coming soon. Any chance to have more informations ? Extracts, author opinion about it, publishing date OK (end march 2010) ? etc … Thanks for all fans of gambit play.

  4. The Alterman book is not a high level book, but a club players book, teaching the initiative, basic tactis and so on, with a number of gambits. An extract will be available in 1-2 weeks.

  5. Jacob Aagaard :The Alterman book is not a high level book, but a club players book, teaching the initiative, basic tactis and so on, with a number of gambits. An extract will be available in 1-2 weeks.

    Is this just going to be a rehash of his ICC lectures, or will we also see fuller coverage of the critical responses?

  6. Jacob Aagaard

    The ideas are expanded and reworked quite considerably, both by the author and by the editors. But yes, the books are based on the lectures to some degree.

  7. Good, the idea of his lectures are good, but the analysis is inevitably a bit skimpy given the format and the level its pitched at. So long as the coverage isn’t one sided (which I’m sure it won’t) it will be on the shopping list.

  8. The level is still not pitched high, it is an introduction sort of book, but we have tightened up a lot on structure and details. Wait for the excerpt.

  9. @Jacob Aagaard
    OK, but why not a more high level book on gambits ? It seems that no one takes the challenge ! Gambiteer I & II are unsound (at least according to me). In our modern area , such a book (on gambits) should be (and will be) very very welcome. But
    I agree that Alterman’s books should be a good introduction (and a little more I hope). So amaze us ! Please.

  10. We are working on the King’s Gambit book and will come with a second edition of the Benko Gambit. I think we are not dismissive of gambits – it is just not this project. We are after all victims to what the authors suggest most of the time.

  11. Any news on Grandmaster Repertoire Caro-Kann beeing at print? How many pages? Very nice cover, I hope to read the excerpt soon. πŸ™‚

  12. @Zagreb 1959

    A few weeks to go on the Caro-Kann. I am guessing somewhere in 250-300 pages. I’m glad you like the cover – there should be a special prize if you can guess why the colours yellow and black were chosen.

  13. Thanks for the information. Very interesting and dificult to guess. I saw that one of the English books of Marin have the colors of his country Romenia, but Lars Schandorff is from Denmark! My first guess is the colors of the Germany flag because of the inventors of the opening Mr. Caro and Mr. Kann but I donΒ΄t see the red color. Is the red color on the back cover? If yes, I want my prize! πŸ™‚

  14. Ponting is a Legend

    I’m not sure about that…GM2 cover is a backwards flag of France, and Avrukh has nothing to do with France as far as I know πŸ™‚

  15. GM2 is the Dutch flag, as it includes the Dutch – the first was of course the Israeli flag, for Boris. Marin has the English flag, the Romanian flag and a purple because we ran out of flags. Ftacnik is the Sicilian flag, and Caro-Kann is some sort of Austrian regional flag, I think, because of Mr. Kann. We are trying to do flags for the covers in this series, but with Marin we have already compromised…

  16. My initial tought was that it must have a logic behind it and this was a great idea. My only doubt was that sometimes several sources called Mr. Caro and Mr. Kann two germans or a german and an Austrian or Hungarian and black and yellow are not part of these flags. Very interesting way of choosing the color of books.
    Good luck for your Danish championship Jacob and all the best for this great project.

  17. I didn’t know where to post this, hope this is a good place. Avrukh received kudos from Malcolm Pein today at the ChessBase site: “For the latest theory it is best to consult the brilliant book by Boris Avrukh – see a sample PDF here. I refer to it all the time.”
    http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6290
    I concur. It’s such a good book.

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