slates wrote on 01/16/08 at 19:56:16:
It's unfortunate that my comments may have been interpreted as unnecessarily harsh - they may not represent the views of others who bought the book (which I do think looks excellent, by the way). I just found myself in agreement with BlkSabb on this one, despite generally enjoying Quality Chess products (such as the San Luis tournament book, which is excellent by anybody's standards) and also after having been impressed by Mr Aagaard's own books in the past, especially the Sveshnikov and first 'Excelling ...' title. I appreciate that they want to give the best product possible and applaud that philosophy, so will await developments with interest.
However, it seems unlikely that Jacob will revisit this thread, which is a shame.
Why apologise?
A book on 1...e5 that warrants an update of 100 plus pages so soon after being published, by definition cannot be excellent.
Thankfully I never purchased the previous book, and I am grateful to this forum for guiding me to this decision.
Marin is a strong Grandmaster and acclaimed writer, but in the specialised realm of Opening books he remained largely untested. I think his acclaim in writing about other aspects of the game influenced some of the overly glowing reviews this two part series got.
A clear warning sign that this book had some major problems, was the ommission of the Belgrade Gambit. Granted this gambit is not so popular nowadays, but still it is a rather dangerous line for those not familiar with its nuances. Such a glaring omission was enough to put me off as a buyer, not because I hold the Belgrade in high esteem, I certainly do not, but rather because it pointed to a lack of diligence which I surmised would more than likely manifest itself in other areas of the book.
Moreover, at least three preceeding major repertoire works that covered this 1...e5 material, namely: Play the Open Ganes as Black by Emms; Play 1e4 e5! by Nigel Davies and The Chess Advantage in Black & White by Larry Kaufman all covered the Belgrade Gambit adequately and in the case of Kaufman and Davies works were all the more impressive as he had to cover not only the non Ruy Lopez lines but the Ruy Lopez as well, a task which they both accomplished admirably. This raises another important question for me, that is, what source materials were cited in the Bibliography.
This next query may seem amusing for some, but I wonder if Marin considered the Halloween Gambit. The Halloween surely lacks the respectibility of some of the more long standing and established Gambits, but yet again this is one not to be dismissed too lightly in a repertoire book aimed primarily at club level players. Of the three repertoire books I mentioned earlier, only Emms book failed to consider the Halloween Gambit, and this may have a bit to do with its publication date of 2000 which may have been just prior to the rise of this gambit as a dangerous and popular cult weapon particularly in online chess.
Considering Marin's credentials and the fact that this book only deals with 1...e5 non Ruy Lopez lines, there really is no excuse for glaring omissions or a lack of theoretical depth in the lines considered.
The fact that such a massive updated new edition has appeared or is planned so soon after the first one was released does not surprise me that much. The speed of this new release could possibly be as a consequence of many letters and emails to the editor from dissatisfied customers.
Regrettably I suspect that those luckless souls who rushed impulsively to pick up the first edition will have to bite the bullet and once again pay full price of admission for the second.
Its a pity that chess books aren't more like motor cars, in that where a serious manufacturers flaw is detected there is usually a mass recall and customers compensated accordingly. In this case, considering the time frame between the first and second editions, it seems only equitable that prior customers should be granted free access to the new updated material, but that's just me.
Lets not blame Mr. Aagaard for being
'too busy' to follow the customer feedback in this thread, after all, why empathise with the feelings of one or two disgruntled customers who feel like they are being milked for all they are worth. I eagerly look forward to the third edition of 1...e5! by Marin with all the updated analysis in a few months, as I am sure there must be loads of repeat customers willing to pay full price yet again for overlapping analysis with a few new ideas tossed into the mix.
Caveat Emptor my friends, Caveat Emptor.
Toppy