Genius in the Background and Reggio Emilia out on December 9

On the 9th of December we will publish GENIUS IN THE BACKGROUND and REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008, if everything goes right. We are working away on the other books to the best of our ability. Andrew has edited AM2 and typeset 5 out of the six chapters. I am about to begin typesetting AM1 (2nd edition). Hopefully I can do it much better than the first time around.

GM Repertoire 2 is getting closer to existence. Boris says he needs two weeks to hand in the remaining chapters. A lot of the previous chapters have been seriously formatted and need a quick edit before typesetting.

Once this is done, John will focus on finishing the puzzle book. The material has been collected. We have 2000+ positions, gathered over the last five years, now we need to select.

Boost your Chess 1 is close to going to the printer.

The rest should be coming on well, as always, the question is how fast the three of us can get the work done.

Attacking Manual Volume 2 13 January 2010
Attacking Manual Volume 1 2nd edition 13 January 2010
Boost your Chess 1 27 January 2010
Grandmaster Repertoire 2 – 1.d4 Volume Two 27 January 2010
The Alterman Gambit Guide – White Gambits 27 January 2010
Grossmeister Repertoire 3 – 1.c4 e5 27 January 2010
Quality Chess Puzzle Book 25 February 2010
Play the Scandinavian Defence 25 March 2010
Grandmaster Repertoire 6 – The Caro-Kann 25 February 2010
Karpov’s Strategic Wins: Volume 1 – 1961-1985 03 March 2010
Karpov’s Strategic Wins 2: Volume 2 – 1986 – 2009 03 March 2010

41 thoughts on “Genius in the Background and Reggio Emilia out on December 9”

  1. @Jacobo García

    Jacobo,

    We have not announced the author of the Scandinavian book yet, but now is as good a time as any. It is Christian Bauer. A French GM, rated about 2600, a fine author and he plays the Scandinavian with Black. Pretty much ideal from our point of view.

    The book will be more in complete style than a repertoire, but not on every line of the Scandinavian. It will concentrate on 2…Qxd5 and then 3…Qa5 (not so much on 3…Qd6).

  2. The King’s Gambit is on our books, still. We have to get through this list, and then we can finish it. Luckily it is not an opening where things happen quickly and our ideas go out of fashion.

    GM 5 is going to be later in the spring, but only when we have seen the full manuscript can we say with certainty, as this is a very demanding project.

    The Scandinavian with 2…Nf6 is unfortunately essentially refutated. I will include my lines in GM 7 or 8, but there is no reason for us to spend time on it from Black’s perspective.

  3. I do not think this is something I want to spend my time discussing in this detail. What matters is that the manuscript will be finished from Boris in 2 weeks time.

  4. I notice that Marin’s second volume on the English is missing on the schedule.
    Some days ago it was displayed and expected in the middle of february. I hope it will not postponed sine die…
    After the books on the Caro-Kann and the Scandinavian, there’s a chance to see a GMR series on the French Defence?
    I apologize for my poor english.
    Thanks in advance and kind regards.

  5. We are working on an idea for the French, but are not sure it will work out – so, no announcements.

    Marin will hand in his last chapter in the middle of February, he says. We want it out quickly, but it still takes five weeks to process it – so it fell off the immediate list. I already think this list is too concrete (it will change, most likely), but this is what we are working towards at the moment.

  6. I think a GM repertiore book on a Black defence to d4 is needed before anything on the French as there is 2 GM Rep books for Black already against e4 (Sicilian and Caro-Kann)and plans on a GMR for Black agianst 1.d4 other than the KID you have mentioned.

    P.S. Do you get fed up of all us guys hounding you all the time 🙂

  7. Dreams! Dreams only, I am afraid. We have 30 books on our list that we want to do in 2010. I think this should be enough for three guys. We do not want to cut down on ambition or quality, but want to avoid projects that kills half a year…

  8. It is nice to hear that GM Rep 2 will finally be done. I think out of any of the books mentioned it has taken the longest to finish, but I suppose it will be better than was expected (which was already good to start with). Will a .pdf excerpt be out in a month or so?

  9. Keeps getting pushed back–a good prop bet could be which gets there first–healthcare reform in the US or the publishing of the books listed above.

    Personally, I think if you could combine resources with Gambit, you might get the books out a little sooner. I own 13-14 Qaulity Chess books, and it’s fustrating to see the publishing schedule slip so much.

    Speaking of the Scandinavian, I’m not enamored of the opening, so is …Qa5 the only good continuation? I usually play the Najdorf or the French against 1. e4.

  10. Living in Britain, I’m not sure about your healthcare. In any case, it is frustrating, not so much the delay, but the magnitude of delay, viz. GM Rep 2 was scheduled to be out in July 2009, but the date has been pushed back at least 7 months. It would be quite difficult to play tournaments only having half a repertoire because one could get killed in the opening if opponents played lines in the other half of the repertoire.

  11. mikeel,

    I would recommend betting against Quality Chess combining with Gambit. On the other hand, I think John Nunn is an excellent author, but I doubt he would write a book for us.

    Re the Scandinavian: After 3.Nc3, 3…Qd6 is trendy, 3…Qd8 is not so daft, and …Qe5+ is a legal move that has been played against me, but 3…Qa5 is the traditional main line and the move Christian Bauer wants to concentrate on.

    mikeel and Nic,

    We would also like every schedule to be met, but our first priority is high quality.

  12. Wow…30 books is really ambitious! The challenge is to maintain the high quality as the quantity increases. But of course you already know this! I look forward to hearing more about some of the upcoming titles.

  13. @Jacob Aagaard
    Many thanks for your kind reply. I really hope the French Book will see the light!
    Now I believe that your decision to fill off the list with Marin’s second book is very fair and correct to customers. I ‘ll gently wait… 🙂 I agree, as you did so far, that first priority is high quality.
    And by the way…this Blog is great! Keep us informed about the upcoming titles and projects. Thank you very much indeed!

  14. guys, what happened to the King’s Gambit previously slated for the 27th of January? has it been pushed back a bit or (gasp!) axed completely?

  15. Not axed. We are working on it, and all blizt games in the office are mandatory KG. So far there is a 90% score in those 🙂

  16. Jacob Aagaard :
    Not axed. We are working on it, and all blizt games in the office are mandatory KG. So far there is a 90% score in those

    90% score for Black. 🙂 Wow…Shaw has his work cut out for him.

  17. You guys are killing me! Pushing back GM rep 2 again?! At this rate I’m going to have to study middlegames or even worse endgames.

  18. Are there any plans for an English-language version of “Stonewall II”? (Also, another book on the French would be very welcome.)

  19. Any chance of a PDF extract for Genius in the Background? From the blurb it appears to be both about chess coaching and lesser known brilliancies – is that a fair summary?

  20. Amazon.com has shots of the covers of Karpov’s Strategic Wins 1 and 2. Seems like opening books dominates discussion here. But I am looking forward to these two volumes most.

  21. Roberto Belliotti

    I preordered the Reggio Emilia from Amazon, but it turned out to be a big April Fool joke. Even today, it continues to taunt me with the cruel caption “April 1, 2009.”

  22. We will ship the GM2 from Poland the 27th Jan. Everything else depends on the postage time.

    Stonewall II is an expansion on my Everyman book. They declined to do an English version, so although it exists pre-translation, it will never see the light of day.

    I will get a PDF up soon of Genius. I have been very busy the last few weeks.

  23. @Matthew

    Matthew,

    Genius in the Background is about people who have made a significant contribution to chess, but are not as well known as they deserve to be. So that includes Kasparov and Topalov’s junior coaches. Also a few players who, although they did not hit the top level, are notable in some way. For example, Nadanian, who has found some important opening novelties. And some great study composers, such as Pervakov and Afek.

    Each personality is profiled and interviewed, and a selection of his greatest chess moments (games or studies) is included. Naturally I am biased, but I think Tibor Karolyi has written an interesting and unusual book.

  24. Mike van Rooyen

    Hello All,
    This probably has been asked before,but does anyone have any idea what Marin intends
    against …e6 and d5 setups in his next volume on the English.
    Cheers

  25. Mike van Rooyen

    Hello All,
    This probably has been asked before,but does anyone have any idea what Marin intends
    against …e6 and d5 setups in his next volume on the English.
    Cheers

    @Jacob Aagaard
    Avoiding the catalan one presumes?

  26. In January. But I think GM1 can be taken as a big excerpt. The book will not be much different, only different openings.

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