Greetings Readers!
We are working hard here, and in later blog posts I’ll give some more specific details about upcoming titles and publication dates. For now, I’ll briefly touch on a variety of topics.
First, just to get the sad news out of the way, many of you will surely have heard about IM Adam Hunt’s death at the age of just 44. I first played Adam in 1989, when I was nine and he was eight, and I’m fairly sure he’s the earliest of my childhood opponents who remained active in chess all this time. I wrote a longer tribute on the English Chess Forum, which you can read here after scrolling down the page.
On the publishing front, Reimagining 1.e4 has been printed and is en route to our distributor, so we are on track to have it available in chess shops, partnered with Magic Chess Moves, on 18 December – just in time to get yourselves an early Christmas present.
Among the titles approaching publication, Learn from the Legends II is one that I’m personally spending a lot of time on. Learn from the Legends is one of the finest works in our history, and we are incredibly proud and excited to publish its sequel. In case you are wondering, there is no hyperlink to the new book because Kallia is still perfecting the front cover, but we’ll have the page up in the near future.

This is one of many wonderful photos to feature in Learn from the Legends II. Taken in Amsterdam 1972, it features the star of Chapter 2, Lev Polugaevsky on the right. He won the tournament with 12/15, a point clear of his compatriot on the left, who I’m sure most of you will recognize as Viktor Korchnoi.
Finally, I was sent this screenshot by our esteemed author Yochanan Afek:

Yochanan was obviously delighted that his own book was named; and it was lovely for us to see a second Quality Chess title, Under the Surface, named on Gukesh’s shortlist. And for a bit of icing on the cake, Game Changer is also part of our family as a New in Chess title.
Oh, and since I’ve mentioned Practical Chess Beauty, I may as well let you know another piece of exciting news: we have a second edition of this title in the works for 2025, featuring bonus studies composed by Yochanan since 2018, when the first book was published.
I know you have probably gotten this question 5 million times, but do you have any information on the final Negi book (1.e4 e5), like when it could be finished or any idea what the main recommendations are?
Sorry about the delays with this final volume. Pari has some good ideas of course, but he’s way too busy with his non-chess life to put the necessary time into finishing the final volume. We still hope to find a suitable author to produce the book, using Pari’s ideas as a foundation where appropriate, so the book will still have his ‘DNA’ in it. For now though, there is no clear path or timescale for completing it. At least we published Coffeehouse and Reimagining 1.e4 ( which will be available in less than a week) to give some nice weapons for White after 1.e4 e5.
I’ve got the opposite question to Brandon’s question, do you have any information on a 1…e5 against 1.e4 book? Thank you.
Hi,
I decided to look at French or 1…e5 openings in reply to 1.e4. I would like to ask if you are publishing a book on either of these openings?
I wish you a nice week
Sorry for being a bit slow replying to these questions. We had a technical issue affecting the blog, but it’s all good now.
Joseph – There is no such book currently in the works, but it’s definitely something we’ll consider moving forwards.
Stefan – we also have no upcoming books on the French. Our older titles by Ntirlis and Berg are still worth considering, although you would need to keep an eye on theoretical developments that have taken place since those works were published.
What’s the difference between understanding and mastering chess exchanges?
Bit of a ghost town here nowadays but Happy New Year to one and all and may your Chess in 2025 be super smart ( ie no jeans 👖) 😊
Yes a ghost town indeed. Happy New Year!!
Hi folks, sorry I’ve been a bit slow replying to questions due to other big things taking up my attention.
Regarding the two books on Exchanges, I can’t be too specific as I haven’t yet looked at the forthcoming book in any detail. However, I think it’s safe to say they both tackle broadly the same topic but approach it in different ways. In a few weeks we should have an excerpt ready for the new book, at which point you’ll be able to compare excerpts and see if you like the style of one book more than the other.