Arcticmonkey wrote on 04/10/11 at 11:24:15:


Read it here:
http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jd/The_Sniper.html

Donaldson a notable Acc Dragon practitioner and author of course.
Good to read reviews which actually get to grips with content.  So few do, alas. Just Sadler years back in NIC, Watson on occasion nowadays.

Does anyone know anything about Donaldson's criticisms?
Since, i actually want to try the sniper and hopefully win, but i don't want to play an accelerated a move down in what appears to be some sort of well known line. What do i do?

It's only recently that I realised that you can read/post here without being a subscriber ... I can see that this allows some publicity and opportunity for 'upselling' people to subscriptions - but at the same time allows temporary accounts to arrive and do damage - perhaps some subscriber only threads would avoid some of the slanging and allow those who want to to focus on analysis.

Paul

TN wrote on 04/09/11 at 05:51:45:


I caution that too much censorship will kill this forum and make it tedious to read. Chess Players much as we hate to admit this come here to be entertained just as much as they come to be enlightened.

Some authors only post on this forum when it comes time to shamelessly plug their works, and that's their right. But what many of them are unprepared for is some of the valid criticisms thrown their way, and nowadays with every rank and file player armed with a laptop and Rybka fancying themselves an expert, only serves to make the situation more irritating for the author.

Its been said before, but it bares repeating, too much is expected of an Opening book. Too many variations and explanation suffers, too much explantion then details are left out, and on and on it goes. If an Opening books provides a sound enough framework for the reader to build upon himself, then the author has done his job. Anything extra is simply gravy.

If an author on the other hand comes here to pound his chest, no pun intended, and declare himself the second coming of christ, then he or she is likely in for a rough ride.

Regarding the opening variation in question, there is nothing  new under the sun, Roman Dzindzichashvili attempted to promote this line on one of his many many DVD's about 10 years ago but it never caught on for the reasons already hghlighted, i.e 4.dxc5 after both 3.Nc3 and to a slightly lesser extent 3.Nf3 pose very unpleasant problems for black to solve.

To round up, censorship should be the very last resort, and I really don't like the idea of deleting peoples post unless its really obscene or something like that. Often a thread loses coherence when one starts chopping here there and everywhere because a poster uses words like, for e.g. chicken, yellow or coward. Better to lock it if you must.

Pet peeve, I hate it when threads degenerate into thirty page long correspondence/computer games, this is not the ICCF site after all, but I suppose I can learn to live with it. Tolerance and a thicker skin equals a more vibrant and diverse forum in my humble opinion.

Going forward, lets all of us just make a more concerted effort to get along.

To quote President Obama, "Yes We Can!"

Regards,

Toppy

Pleased to see some rationality - about time some of the material was deleted, completely uncalled for (whatever people's view of the line and/or the book).

I have no issue with a small amount of advertising by the author - how many author's actually come on here and are prepared to discuss/defend what they have written?

Anyway - it seems the Charlie has packed his bags and gone back to his own forum, I can't see many other authors popping in if they receive the same reception.

Paul

Apparently it seems difficult to discuss moves in a chess forum.
Thread locked.

OK FINE, i will make a more specific post about the actual moves of the Black sniper so people won't get offended.

Donaldson points out the following:
'On page 59 he gives the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.Nc3 Qa5 and writes “5.Be2 is a passive approach that gives Black an easy ride”. He then gives (after 5.Be2) 5...Nf6 6.0-0 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nc6 8.Be3 0-0 9.f4 d6 10.Nb3 (“although this knight move gains a tempo, the net effect is that it is removed from the centre and, more so, from any attack on the black king”) 10...Qc7 and the line continues on with 11.Qd2 but in fact the position after 10...Qc7 is a main line in the 7.Bc4 Qa5 Accelerated Dragon where White has picked up a tempo – 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nb3 Qc7 10.Be2 d6 11.f4'

This is more of what i was referring to when i asked my question. Sorry if that wasn't clear to forum viewers. So what do i do if i want to play the sniper and don't want to transpose into the accelerated as given above?

Hello. Mr Storey, i was wondering what you thought about Donaldson's review, specifically related to the transpositions to the Sicilian dragon?