I think  Mr. Aagard would be sensible to offer some kind of discount/incentives for those who bought earlier editions if this is the way that he is going especially if the new editions are released relatively

Perhaps the best way to organise a website with these updates in return for some additional charge upfront for them. Perhaps Tony could give him assistance doing this.

I cannot see what the objection is. If the first edition had not sold out, we would not print a second edition at all. It is cheaper and easier for us to reprint without doing any extra work, which is what the other publishers would do, because it is cost efficient. We care about quality and will continue to do so.

So, the person who bought the first edition should not feel cheated. It is still an amazin book. Only, at some point it makes sense to make the material as up-to-date as when we published the first edition. How does that affect the quality of the first edition. Not at all.

To not buy our books because we continually try to improve the product is a possibility, though I personally would rather prefer to buy books from a publisher that cares about the reader.

For those who want to know what reviewers thought of the first editions, please go to Silman's website.

And yes, we are considering an update on the website, but it will probably be in pgn format.

Jacob Aagaard
(I will not follow the thread. I am too busy, sorry)

What are all of these customer who just spent $30 on their book supposed to do about this?  Are they at least releasing the new material in .pdf form?  I'm thinking about not buying any books from them if I have to update them every few months.

I can see why they'd want to keep this a secret.

This is just like the Queen's Gambit Accepted book from Chess Stars that's about to be on the third edition already.  Who is going to keep buying these things again and again?  I feel like I'm getting cheated here.

Apparently, the info in the previous version of this post was a big secret (for some reason I was/am not aware), so I have deleted it. Antillan, can you delete your quote in the post below? Probably doesn't help much, but still...

My latest acquired wisdom: it is better to know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about a position that to dimly recall some moves that make your analysis biased towards what you think you remember.

Have a read of Leif's Johanesen (?) preface in his Zaitsev book. Basically he trusted his ability to play logical moves when facing sidelines!

That is very good advice. However, if it were 100% true, then I would never have bought any opening books and probably would not be on this forum  

So in the future, if I'm not absolutely convinced I remember something, I'll "think without prejudice" about the position (to borrow a phrase from Mr GM, Zebra-loving Rowson).

Seth_Xoma wrote on 01/06/08 at 01:06:41:


My latest acquired wisdom: it is better to know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about a position that to dimly recall some moves that make your analysis biased towards what you think you remember.

Have a read of Leif's Johanesen (?) preface in his Zaitsev book. Basically he trusted his ability to play logical moves when facing sidelines!

That c3 system looks like nothing too special anyway

It's a very short section.  1 e4 e5; 2 Bc4 Nc6 and he says that White can't give the game an independent character.  He gives a few examples of how this will transpose into something else he already covered.

TopNotch wrote on 01/06/08 at 01:25:39:


Yes, Emms covers the Max Lange in addition to the 2Ns, and that is where this variation is covered. However, he reaches it via 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.0-0 Bc5 6.c3!? Nxe4 7.cxd4 d5 8.dxc5 dxc4 etc then covers 9. Qxd8+ and 9.Qe2. I just looked over the chapter again, and found out where I messed up during my game  
P.S NEVER MIND. I just found the line in Marin's book, after a few hours more detective work. Pg 145, Giuoco Piano-Classical main line note 1. Shut my mouth