Markovich wrote on 05/30/07 at 18:41:04:

Well there is this chapter on 3..Bc5 and since I seem to remember some ongoing discussion on the moveorder to reach the classical (which to play first 3..Bc5 or 3..Nf6)....

Markovich wrote on 05/29/07 at 13:33:36:


You play the black side of the Ruy Lopez, don't you?    (I am guessing this on the observation that you have made several contributions to 1.e4 e5 for the black side.)  You show much more restraint than I do.  (It would be really hard to justify my purchase of Gambiteer I on the basis of the openings I prefer to play.)

In order to have some to relevance to the topic, I'll say that this book has a lot of original suggestions and is a pleasant book to read.  OK, maybe that sounds generic, but I really like this book.

Thought I would revive this thread with an important new game in the Worall system.
 
[Event "RUS-chT"]
[Site "Sochi"]
[Date "2007.05.02"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Tiviakov,Sergei"]
[Black "Grischuk,Alexander"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "C77"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 Bc5 6.d3 d6 7.c3 0-0 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 g5!? 10.Bg3 Nh5 11.Nbd2 Qf6 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.d4 exd4 14.e5 d3 15.Qxd3 Bf5 16.Qxa6 Nxg3 
17.hxg3 Rxa6 18.exf6 Re8+ 19.Kd1 Bxf2 20.Nd4 Bxd4 21.cxd4 Kh7 22.Re1 Be6 23.a4 Rb8 24.Kc2 Rb4 25.b3 Rxd4 26.Kc3 c5 27.Re4 Rxe4 28.Nxe4 Bd5 29.Re1 Kg6 30.g4 c4 31.bxc4 Bxe4 32.Rxe4 Rxa4 33.Re7 c5 34.Rd7 Ra6 35.Rd8 Kxf6 36.Rh8 Ra3+ 37.Kd2 Rg3 0-1

Grischuk's novel treatment, in particular dispensing with or delaying b5 in favor of bold pawn thrusts on the other side of the board, looks rather convincing to me. Should that be the case White's safest course would probably be to defer Qe2 until Black commits to Be7. However, in so doing White must be prepared for the extra workload of meeting the Open Ruy and Moller/Archangel complexes.

Despite Grischuk's success in the above game though, I still always find it a bit curious and surprising how often a player can get away with pushing pawns in front of his own castled position.  

Tops     

Markovich wrote on 04/09/07 at 18:51:56:


I often tell them I need help with the self help books, and then stare at them as the conundrum flies right past them with my follow-up question: Is it still Self-help if you point me towards it?

In the states, these chain stores have become "pseudo-libraries" where people pretend to be serious in their studies as they hang out with selection of mainstream marketed titles that gets more and more myopic with each passing day.

Got Sudoku?

There are still decent congress book stores in the north of England. But yes the stock in shops has got a lot worse really quite recently.
(Waterstones in Manchester used to be rather good until ~1/2 years ago. The one in Leeds does still seem to get some Gambit books in at least. Oddly new Batsford books aren't so hard to find.).

I'd guess that most of the bridge books in book stores are brought by/for semi serious bridge players than really serious tournament players - you get lots of people who seem to take the game up more for the social aspect than anything else.  You certainly can't get many of the more serious books like the World championship books outside of London

The good thing for bridge professionals are the playing sponsors - top teams can (and frequently do) win major events (including World championships) with one non professional player paying the other members of the team. It's a rather less serious handicap than it would be in chess.

To be fair to the booksellers, Markovich, just because you don’t know what you were looking for, it doesn’t follow that you don’t know whether you’ve found it or not.

But I agree about browsing. I’d never buy chess books through Amazon. We’ll miss Malcolm (Chess and bridge, that is) and his ilk when they’re gone. Easy to say living in London of course; I dare say one has no choice in, say, anywhere else in the country.

I used to play bridge seriously and you’d be surprised how many tournament bridge players there are; I would have thought more than chess in this country. Certainly substantially more professionals in the US too than in chess.

DD-OK wrote on 04/09/07 at 18:07:02:


Oh, I fully agree.  For me, browsing is the main point of visiting a bookstore.  It amuses me that always at the Borders checkout, they ask you, "Did you find what you were looking for?"  And these people are booksellers?  Usually, I go into a bookstore not knowing what I'm looking for.  Books aren't like hardware, for crying out loud.   

But in any case yes, there does appear to be a suboptimal equilibrium, from the point of view of chess hobbyists, emerging in the book trade.  Indeed, a great many of the threads here seem to be intended to elicit the sort of information about given books that would best be learnt by browsing.

DD-OK wrote on 04/09/07 at 13:38:09:


That must be a Princeton phenomenon.  Not surprising, I suppose.  Around here, Barnes and Noble is a cut below Borders on most subjects, including chess.

woofwoof:  me, too.