Grandmaster Repertoire 3 – The English Opening Volume One is available

Finally! Yesterday we got a copy of Marin’s new book, Grandmaster Repertoire 3 – The English Opening Volume One, here at the office. There was a general skirmish before John managed to take the copy aside as his own.

I am of course deeply biased, but I think Mihail has done it again and produced his best book. I actually think that every book he has written has been better than the one before, with there of course being a debate whether or not Learn from the Legends is better than Secrets of Attacking Chess, both of them personal favourites of mine.

The book includes many hundreds of novelties, lucid explanations, and a deep passion for the English. If I was not going to write the 1.e4 tomes myself in the coming year, I would be inspired to try out this fascinating repertoire, where pawn, piece and queen sacrifices are suggested as challenges to existing theory.

28 thoughts on “Grandmaster Repertoire 3 – The English Opening Volume One is available”

  1. “If I was not going to write the 1.e4 tomes myself in the coming year, I would be inspired to try out this fascinating repertoire, where pawn, piece and queen sacrifices are suggested as challenges to existing theory.”

    Well Jacob start with GM Repertoire 1e4 right now!!!

    Since you have not satisfied my deadlines, since 2011 is far away, I must seriously consider to buy KHALIFMAN’S books OPENING FOR WHITE ACCORDING TO ANAND – 1e4, volumes 1-7.

    I’m deeply disappointed that 1e4 repertoire is so degraded.

  2. I am sure that Chess Stars will be very happy to take your money. Also, I think they have 11 or 12 volumes out by now.

  3. Obviously it depends on the location! Inside the EU it would probably be 2-4 days, but I actually am not sure. I know we send it out the most effective we can.

  4. Jacob Aagaard :
    I am sure that Chess Stars will be very happy to take your money. Also, I think they have 11 or 12 volumes out by now.

    This is your “fault”, and now you’re laughing at me!!!

  5. Would you care to provide a sneak preview of what Marin has prepared for 1..c5. Will it be 2. g3 again similar to Kosten. Or perhaps it is 2. Nf3 with an early d4?

  6. He takes on the hedgehog, I think. No 3.d4 stuff. Also in the Slav and 1…e6 he has some pawn sacrificing lines with g3 systems, no soft e3 stuff…

  7. Just got my copy of Marin’s book which I ordered on 11.09. Uau, what a great service and so quick shipping within Europe. I am in a hurry to see what is inside and to take a deeper look on the content this night :). Just one remark or proposal. Jacob and John, I am wondering why the shipping terms dissapeared from your site as Terms and Conditions. There is no doubt that your service is simply superb, but adding them somewhere I think will bring more customers, especially if they know that they will receive his books in such a short time :). And also when I am looking at my account my recent order still appears there as not shipped…

  8. And one more addition. Why there is no option to logout where I am in my account area. Usualy most users use public PCs for this, so this would be a nice feature 🙂

  9. Shipping terms – They had grown out of date, so we took legal advise. We were recommended not to have any t&c, as we always have to live up to certain rights anyway, and that what we were risking were having t&c on our site that did not mention all of the customers rights, and thus be in breech.

    Logging out – This has been corrected.

    I hope you will enjoy the book. We are terribly proud of it.

  10. I am contemplating placing an order for GM Rep 2, but it hasn’t been released yet. I suppose if I place order now, it will ship automatically when it is released on 14 Oct?

  11. Yes, if it is shipped on the 14th (Boris is falling behind). What some also have done, is to buy more books, saving on postage, but getting the books shipped at publication.

  12. Just wanted to say GM Repetoire 3 is a fantastic book, however I think I have found a small ommision. I wanted to check the reccomendation against a system Short sometimes plays ….e5…d6…Be6….Qd7. A note on Page 406 refers to 1.c4 e5 2.g3 d6 3. Nc3 Be6 stating “4.Bg2 Nc6 5.e4 is likely to transpose to Chapters 13 to 18”. No it doesn’t, it drops a pawn to 5..Bxc4. I presume it should state 5.d3 is likely to transpose to Chapters 13 to 18″ but then 5.d3 Qd7 6.e4 (any other move than ..g6) isn’t covered. Note a big ommission but worth mentioning.

  13. I have the Caro-Kann book–the book was likely a poor translation from Russian.
    So Chess Stars is on their nth repertoire book against the Sicilian; at this rate it’ll take at least 25 volumes to complete it!

    It’s too big an opening to be covered easily–but good luck to whoever is doing the e4 series as I’m sure the Ponziani will NOT be covered. Everyman has that one covered (soon).

  14. It’s about a week I’m studing Marin’s The English Opening 1 and I just want to say it’s a great book! Wonderful, outstanding, awesome! The very best opening book I’ve ever read! All my compliments to Marin and the Quality Chess Staff for a book that worth every single cent of its price! Clear cut explanations and very deep and detailed coverage of all the variations. I can’t wait for the vol. 2!!!!
    Since I play the French with Black…there is a chance to see a Grandmaster Repertoire book dedicated to it?
    Thanks in advance and kind regards

  15. Are you able at this time to give any more details as to how Marin will treat 1…c5, in particular Black’s attempts to play a Hedgehog?

  16. @Jacob Aagaard
    Marin’s book on the English is fantastic, unfortunately I have to find another Christmas present since Volume 2 will not be published in time.

    Thanks guys for this most inspiring work and for Mihail good luck with the work on Volume 2

  17. It would be really nice if more effort could be put into the structure of the further GM repertoire books.
    E.g. Marin’s book: Why is there a break between coverage of the Keres variation 2…Nf6, 3…c6 and the accelerated Keres variation 2. ..c6? (Considering 2…d6 in-between doesn’t make much sense)
    In Avrukh’s book, in the Slav section the various bishop developments Bf5, Bg4
    should be covered after each other.

    Why don’t you group chapters into logical units? E.g. Avrukh’s book, coverage of the Catalan: fifth moves alternatives for black after 4…dc4:
    These could be grouped into “Black wants to hang on to the c4 pawn: 5…c6, ….”
    etc.

    The TOC and the index of variations aren’t helpful when navigating the book. More useful would be a table in the form 1.d4 d5 2.c4 A. Nc6: see p. xyz B.c5: see p. xyz C.dc4: see p. xyz

    There are quite a few typos in Marin’s book in the chapter overviews.

    As I understand, this is the job of the editor.

  18. @DrDolittle

    Dr Dolittle,

    I don’t agree with your opinion of the structure. Plenty of effort was put into arranging it in a way we feel is logical. For example, you suggest the Keres and Accelerated Keres should be together (group by theme), but in a repertoire book it also makes sense to split second move options from third move options.

    Also, I don’t agree with your view of the TOC and index. I find it clear and logical.

    And “quite a few typos”. Not that I know of, but of course no book is perfect.

  19. I don’t want to sound too negative (taking the three best Everyman chess books together would still be inferior to a grandmaster rep book), but still there are some issues.

    From a quick glance, it should read on p. 289: 13. Bb2, 13.Qc2 and on p.309, 12. b5.

    As it is in the book, it doesn’t make sense to study the Keres 1 c4 e5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 c6 d4, switch to 1 c4 e5 2 g3 d6 and then back to 1 c4 e5 2 g3 c6 – just change the accelerated Keres with 1 c4 e5 2 g3 d6 and this makes sense.

    In Avrukh’s book, the Stonewall and Meran don’t fit under the heading “The Slav”.
    Moreover, repeating 4…dc4: in nine chapter headings should be replaced by making a subsection.
    Also, chapter 12 is way too long (split it at least into 10…Be4 and alternative moves for black).

    I needed to look up 1 c4 e5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 h6 and finally found it in the hilariously entitled “Odds and trends” chapter. As it is, the index of variations would greatly benefit from an informator table style: this would add information to the book.

    I much prefer the table of contents and index of variations of “Dismantling the Sicilian”; the feature of giving a quick summary over sharp lines is really something that should be incorporated into every future opening book
    (at least in those of your standards).

  20. @DrDolittle

    Dr Dolittle,

    Thanks for the 3 examples. Just some misnumbering on the move numbers (nothing that would confuse anyone too much) but certainly errors that can be corrected if and when we reprint.

    Re your opinions on structure: they may be interesting, but we clearly see the issues differently. For example, you say the Stonewall line (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 f5) and the Semi-Slav don’t fit under the heading The Slav. I say they definitely do. For me the Slav is 2…c6 and there are many sub-variations within it (including the Classical Slav and the Semi-Slav). I guess you are defining the Slav differently, perhaps taking The Slav to mean only the lines where Black’s light-squared bishop gets outside the pawn chain? (Which I would call the Classical Slav).

    On the line 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 h6: I am glad you found the title “Odds and Trends” hilarious (I choose to take your comment at face value). The title is intentional; we are well aware the usual title is “Odds and Ends” but we like to keep the reader awake (although I think we have used the “Odds and Trends” title before in some book I can’t quite remember).

    I intend to check out “Dismantling the Sicilian”. In fact, I think we have just bought it as part of our usual effort to keep up-to-date with all interesting chess books.

  21. Indeed I had a different definition of the Slav, roughly that of the lines covered in Burgess’ “The Slav”. Wikipedia calls 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 already the Slav, so I’ll concede that point – but then by ECO, wikipedia and every other source I’m aware of, the Dutch Stonewall is in fact a line of the Dutch.

    I usually don’t turn to a table of contents for a good laugh. In fact, even the best joke loses some of its charm when you read it more than 100 times – and a TOC is designed for constant reference, I suppose.

    — On a different note, it isn’t very logical to advertise “A repertoire for a lifetime” when Avrukh writes “I expect interesting developments in the near future” every 20 pages or so.

  22. The fact that lines go out of fashion is another thing than that lines develop. The lines recommended in this book are very unlikely to become null and void, which explains why it is a repertoire to last a lietime.

  23. I am a chess fan and am rated (in a informal way) about 2100-2200. I used to play in tournaments when I was in my 20,s. Now I am coming back to chess a little bit. I remember how hard was to understand the opening books by that time, they were books with a lot of variants and very few text explanations inside (The things were worst because I come from a latin american country and by that time I did not speak english, so I had to buy my chess books in spanish). Now, with the Marin´s book I feel emotion. This is the best opening book I have ever read. Congratulations to Marin and quality chess. I would like Quality publishes something related to French and/or pirc defense. Congratulations again I am very happy with this book, excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!.

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