This was the result of the poll:
Do you believe John Shaw will ever finish THE KING’S GAMBIT?
Total votes: 79
Yes, of course, John has my full confidence (25 votes, 31%)
You gotta be joking (47 votes, 59%)
I already own it, buy it off me for $ 1,000 on amazon (7 votes, 8%)
Shame on you! 420 pages already exists, typeset and everything. Of course the final book will exist! And this autumn. Actually John will not be allowed to do anything else till it does!
`Actually John will not be allowed to do anything else till it does!`- oh no!!!!! He should really work very hard on the `Playing 1.e4` – books….or should I say harder? Anyway: It seems to be very tough for John these days….
wolfsblut
negative King’s Gambit first many of us have been waiting patiently (ahem). You can wait on the e4 book a bit. We have waited longer on the King’s Gambit.
@wolfsblut
The Playing 1.e4 books are all done by the team and are progressing well. John is swearing in the corner, which suggest he is doing KG work…
@John Johnson
KG out first no doubt about it.
I agree with both comments! I have had a tough workload and this will continue, but the King’s Gambit has waited long enough. As of today, the KG is the only book I am actively working on. On the downside, there is the usual business stuff to handle and I will go to the Olympiad (as will Jacob and Colin) in two weeks.
Writing a book on an opening that almost loses by force is no easy task, I surmise.
With regards to the Olympiad, was it the intention that the Polgar book should be published during the event?
@Paul
The book will be released during the Olympiad; if you are there. It will be an early release. General release will be the 21st of September.
@S_Lock
Not lost, nor worse. But best after 1.e4 e5, probably not…
ERRATA: Playing 1.d4 – The Queen’s Gambit by Lars Schandorff
#1: chapter 4 – The Semi-Slav, game 38: Cheparinov-Pavasovic, page 154, after move 26…. Ba5:
Schandorff writes: “… Then SARGISSIAN switches to other flank.” NO – it’s Cheparinov π
#2: chapter 6 – The Tarrasch, game 63: Yusupow-Spragett, page 255:
weird font: 3.Nc3 – letter “c”;
weird font: 5.Nf3 – letter “f”.
Well I’m entitled to claim my “discount” in sum of 1,5 Euros (= found 3 mistakes so far) for Playing 1.d4 – The Indian Defences by Lars Schandorff π
EXPLAIN π
Grandmaster guide series should be more user friendly regarding amount of theory and forcing lines in comparison with Grandmaster Repertoire. But I think it’s the opposite. Schandorff uses cutting edge opening repertoire with heavy use of computer analysis which is not prone to our memory lapses.
How come this is the case? Could someone explain that. Thanks π
@Daniel Rodhstein
Mistakes happen. We are far ahead of the competition, but far from flawless…
Although most lines are easy enough to understand and remember, some lines need analysis. This is a “fault” with chess and not the book. Play 1.g3 if you want to try to avoid opening theory; although you will fail there as well I fear. What else can I say :-).
@Daniel Rodhstein
Daniel,
Well spotted. Three errors, though all rather small. Funnily enough, all three errors existed in the old first edition and survived into the second. The proofreaders will be punished.
Ok, finish the book and then play the king’s gambit against me π
Hey now, watch your mouth Jacob! π
I had an excellent game with White maintaining complete domination of the only open file and complete paralysis of the Black pieces playing 1.g3 a few weeks ago! π
1.g3 is a great opening move, should become a GM Repertoire, and I say give the Canadian, Duncan Suttles a call. He played it the whole second half of his career after playing mostly 1.e4 the first half.
Here we go, I just found the game:
W: Patrick McCartney (2051)
B: Tianqi Wang (2105)
1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.h4 h6 6.e4 dxe4 7.dxe4 Qxd1+ 8.Kxd1 Bg6 9.f3 Nbd7 10.Be3 e6 11.Nge2 a5 12.Ke1 a4 13.Kf2 e5 14.Nc1 Ke7 16.Nd3 Bd6 17.Bh3 b5 18.a3 Rhb8 19.g4 Nb6 20.g5 hxg5 21.Bxg5 Kf8 22.Bxf6 gxf6 23.Bg4 Nc4 24.h5 Bh7 25.Na2 Bc7 26.Nab4 Bb6+ 27.Kg3 Na5 28.Bd7 c5 29.Nd5 c4 30.Nxb6 Rxb6 31.Nb4 Rab8 32.c3 Nb3 35.Rd5 Na5 34.Rhd1 Ke7 35.Bg4 Nb7 36.Rd7+ Kf8 37.Nd5 Rc6 38.Nb4 Rb6 39.Rc7 Kg7 40.h6+ Kg8 41.Rdd7 Nd8 42.Bh5 f5 43.Re7 Kf8 44.Bxf7 Nc6 45.Nxc6 Rxc6 46.Be6 f4+ 47.Kg4 Rxc7 48.Rxc7 Rc6 49.Rxh7 Rxe6 50.Kg5 Kg8 51.Rb7 1-0
And a correction to a slight error. What is labeled as move 14 is actually move 15. Move 14 by each player is 14.Rad1 Bc5, then 15.Nc1 Ke7, and then 16 onward as displayed.
@garryk
Played it a few times in 2010. +3 =1 -0 π
No rush. Take your time. In fact, it would help me catch up if you guys would slow down a bit. I’m still working my way through last year’s books. And you’ve just made it worse. I bought the Morra book figuring I would just check my usual line, see that everything was still OK, and throw it on the shelf. But now it turns out that I have work to do, and in a line I thought I didn’t need to worry about. Same for Schandorff. Thought I’d just see what he added to the first edition, update one or two things, and be done with that. But there’s work to do there too. Last thing I need now is a huge book on the Kings Gambit. Kick back, have a drink, there’s still a chance to get in a nice long summer vacation. π