Yesterday we had a surprising 15 minutes for christmas shopping, when the fire-alarm went off. Apparently the cafeteria for the call-centre that occupies the bottom three floors of our building had decided to heat up a christmas pudding in the microwave!
We were not upset. It is all about perspective. The previous building we were in had a fire-alarm going off almost weekly at the time we left. One time, towards the end, when we were crossing the street for the standard drink in the pub during “the fire” I noticed that 2 of the firemen ran into the building and then ran straight into the chip-shop…
When I used to work at NASA, our building had fire alarms going off all of the time, and eventually people just decided to not leave, or at the very least drag their feet when the alarm went off.
One day, the entire basement of our building lit on fire when all of the researchers stored (and dried up) academic papers lit on fire! Hopefully the same doesn’t happen to your books!
Christmas shopping for me means buying chess books, for myself 😀
Shopping for good chess books and reading them when the snow will start to fall here is always enjoyable. Not much snow around here yet, but perhaps Glasgow has a bit more than Lancashire…
Any news on Victor Mikhalevski’s “Grandmaster Repertoire 13 – The Open Spanish”?
Lines, excerpts or contents? Thanks for reply! Nikos?
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
Yes, the printer says it will be finished the 18th of January, which means we should have it out by the end of the month!
@Jacob Aagaard
Awesome 🙂 🙂 🙂
Can hardly wait for my hardcover copy! If I ever won a lottery, I will donate you a 100.000,00 dollars for promoting top-notch chess books 🙂
By the way, do you have any thoughts about launching a second edition of Brunello’s “Attacking the Spanish”? Theory in Marshall evolves with greatest speed, but what I’m concerned in is Schliemann! A new hardcover edition in GM Guide style is welcomed 🙂
So long 🙂
So GM12 Open Spanish in January shall be another hardcover edition into my bookshelf 😀
How many pages?
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
Thanks. Maybe after the donation you will own Quality Chess and we will do exactly as you wish!
The Open Spanish is 384 pages long.
@Jacob Aagaard
Excellent, please put a purchase link for the book on the Coming Soon section, I am ready to pre-order 🙂
Is the Grandmaster Repertoire 1.e4 series still planned for the forseeable future?
I blame QC for forcing me to buy another bookshelf because of all your books. SHAME on you. 🙂
I don’t find the option: “John is analyzing with Elvis” in the poll 🙁
@Jacob Aagaard
I thought that it will have more pages since some lines are going far around 30 moves of theory. But I’m happy! Can you please upload new 2013 catalog? GM Open Spanish is in 4 weeks out, but we can’t see excerpt, not even announcement in coming soon section.
@tony
Yes, we just decided to finish the Grandmaster Preparation series first. Also, John’s 1.e4 books are creeping along slowly and should be out in the late spring. And the repertoires there are going to be serious stuff.
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
The only times I get a bit irritated here on the blog is when people come with sentences such as: Please upload the 2013 catalogue. It is a sentence of entitlement, which I do not find appropriate.
@Jacob Aagaard
Hey, don’t be angry 🙂 I’m not native speaker so if my words sound in “law style”, take no offense. I addressed you cause you’re the boss and we now it 🙂
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
First off, I am not the boss; John is. Secondly, please do not tell us what to do. This is my main point, not the wording.
@Jacob Aagaard
When you launched this blog you gave me the right to tell you what I want. If you don’t like it, close it, just like Everyman did after few remarks about their books.
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
You have an enormous sense of entitlement.
There is a huge difference from saying “I look forward to the 2013 catalogue” and to say “Please upload the 2013 catalogue.”
People make fun of John for not having finished the King’s Gambit, which is fair, but they do not express a sense of John is working for them, which is the problem here.
You continue to tell me what I should do here, rather than to understand that you are in my house when you are on our blog, and that you should be a bit more polite.
@Jacob Aagaard
I used word “please”, so where is a problem?
Verb 1. please – give pleasure to or be pleasing to; “These colors please the senses”; “a pleasing sensation”
delight
endear – make attractive or lovable; “This behavior endeared her to me”
please – give satisfaction; “The waiters around her aim to please”
gratify, satisfy – make happy or satisfied
enchant, enrapture, enthral, enthrall, ravish, transport, delight – hold spellbound
displease – give displeasure to
2. please – be the will of or have the will (to); “he could do many things if he pleased”
like, wish, care – prefer or wish to do something; “Do you care to try this dish?”; “Would you like to come along to the movies?”
3. please – give satisfaction; “The waiters around her aim to please”
delight, please – give pleasure to or be pleasing to; “These colors please the senses”; “a pleasing sensation”
gratify, satisfy – make happy or satisfied
Adv. 1. please – used in polite request; “please pay attention”
Really? You never objected about my suggestions, inter alia GM Preparation, Positional Manual and so forth.
Tempora mutantur et tu mutamur in gloria tua 🙁
Le Bruit has been very polite and enthusiastic in general in this blog but Jacob has his points and i am sure that he is not angry about anything. You only have to be once in the office to see how things are going there. Everyone is working really hard. You cannot have the “Quality” in the Chess product otherwise.
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
I am sure we agree that “please clean the toilets” still involves a certain amount of shit and is more of an order than a request. In the same way, my point is that you approach this all with a sense of entitlement. For example, if I say there are a few things I do not like on this blog, you say my only alternative is to close it down. Is this not for us to choose?
My main point was that some guys in here like to take offence on our behalf at times when we are not offended and that this does not make sense. So, when there is something that really annoys us, we will say. And telling us what to do is really the main thing that bugs me.
Think of it like this: there are three worlds, mine, yours and Gods. Please stay in yours and talk about what you want and would like to do and so on. Please do not go in and interfere with my position. If you say, I look forward to the 2013 catalogue or ask “is the 2013 catalogue finished”, you are in your position. If you tell me what to do, you enter my place, trying to influence what I should be doing. This is not constructive and never will. It is enough that my wife and children invade this space all the time, I cannot have people on the Internet do this without being told not to do so.
@Jacob Aagaard
🙂 I think you are right, and like to add that you don’t ‘owe’ us anything. I’m glad you and your colleagues take the time to interact with your customers through this blog! From what I’m reading here, most of your readers (including myself :-)) own more Quality Chess Books than they can every possibly hope to read anyway. That being said, I’m looking forward to another wonderful year with your books, and in the meantime I’m having a great time studying Avrukh’s latest! It even makes facing the London seem like fun :-).
Cheers, and have a great Christmass + New Year’s eve! (including John, I guess he can use some spare time :-).
@Jacob Aagaard
Bye the way, I’m not so sure there is a Gods world, but that’s another story :-).
I see on my calendar 18 January is a Friday, so if GM12 is published then, I calculate as usual it will be the shipping to the shops on the same day, then QC receive the shipments of GM12 on 21 January Monday to ship websales. Then hopefully customers in the UK receive them next day, Tuesday, 22 January, before 17h00. Or at least hopefully northern England at least 😉
@Ray
In Byron Katie’s definition, this is simply things that are outside our control. You could call it government’s world as well.
I am generally very happy with LE BRUIT QUI COURT on this blog and I hope he does not take personal insult. I simply stated my case for things that we do not like on the blog. Disagreement is certainly welcome and I am happy he wanted to debate the case, as I think it became clearer.
We are now ready for the next issue, which is that I have just finished the proofreading of The Open Spanish and Chess Evolution 3. Both will be uploaded tomorrow (I know, it is sad) and be published at the end of January.
Whats is the plan with Yusupov’s Boxset? I mean, what is the aproximate release date and features?
@Jacob Aagaard
First of all marry Christmas to everyone 🙂
I’m pondering what to play, besides GM Rep Tarrasch and Kindermann’s Leningrad Dutch, against 1.d4. Should I play King’s Indian or Grunfeld.
Who can help me with some good practical advice? I think that then Avrukh’s books could be very handy…
PS Read what Short thinks about Kasparov’s choice 🙂
“After losing a few games to Kramnik in 1990’s, Kasparov more or less abandoned his beloved King’s Indian with which he had enjoyed tremendeous success over the years. The opening had been by no means refuted and it certainly suited his attacking style, but the tension on which he had thrived in his youth had suddenly become unbearable. It was as if he no longer trusted himself to respond appropriately in the razor-sharp middlegames, where fantasy and courage were required in equal measure. Instead Garry drifted towards the Grünfeld, which depends heavily on preparation, memory and precise, mathematical calculation. To this particular afficiando, it was an esthetic disappointment, but beauty, as we know, is often sacrificed on the altar of professionalism.”
Nigel Short, New in Chess Magazine, 1/2012, page 65.
and yes, what went wrong with GM Rep King’s Indian in 2 vol’s? It was supposed to be written by Kotronias in 2011!
@FM To Be
We have been quite desperate to finish the books we had for Christmas. To be honest, two of them will get a further look today, before being uploaded.
Thus the lack of expedience. We will launch a new part of our site towards the end of January, where there will be different offers available. One of them will be all of Yusupov’s books. To put an actual box around them, will take about 3-4 weeks extra, I think, unless John decides this is not what we should do after all.
Sorry for the opaque answer, but it is as honest as I can get about it.
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
We expect to have one volume of KID from Kotronias out in the late spring. He has changed his mind on structure and so on a few times, which is of course natural in a creative process. But clearly we spoke about the project too soon.
@LE BRUIT QUI COURT
Nigel put it well, I think. The Grunfeld has become very popular the last few years and did well in the recent World Championship match. To me it has really always been a question whether you fell happiest in open or closed positions. I gave up the KID because I did not fare well in that sort of closed positions.
Dear Jacob
What it Takes to Become a Grandmaster by Vijay Raghavan
Grandmaster Preparation: Positional Play, by Jacob Aagaard
http://www.chesscafe.com/Reviews/review869.htm
This book has given 4 out of 6 stars. Just one of the last sentences:
“All in all, GMP2 has an excellent compilation of practical positional exercises. Whether Aagaard’s three-question method is useful is a different matter.”
I hope others might be able to give their assessment and review and we will compare them.
Which new book will be coupled in the release with GM Repertoire Open Spanish this January?
@Gilchrist is a Legend
Chess Evolution 3
@Tomasz Chessthinker
I will write a brief blog post about this review. Mainly to make sure that people read and follow the book as I meant it, and not in the way this reviewer chose to do. I honestly do not care about the evalutation; I don’t see a need for some guy to like my book, just because he writes about it. This might sound a bit negative, but really I think the reviewer did his job excellently and I fear his misreadings are because of my writing shortcomings.