Well, I follow Chesscafe critic for a long time, and I find them very balanced in relation to many others, but there are other places to find independent critics who are not trying to sell anything. In Amazon, the critic is from the buyers and like Markovic correctly said, we can find very bad ones, but is always possible to gain some experience buying books acording to critics and separate the good from the bad ones. John Watson shows are another good way.

Poll is more nonsense from Gambit. Perhaps best if such folly kept within suitable cordoned-off areas - appropriate thread, or better still, his school chess club.

Someone pls remove the infection.

Grunfeld - yeah, appears a fair book. Enthusiastic, appears throrough from what I am able to determine (pinch of salt required there).
Cant say more as 1) not an expert and 2) havent eaten brekkie yet.

Quote:


Interesting about Shirov. If you read Sakaev, he comes pretty close to "+=" in the exchange sac, pawn sac, and Seville variations, all three.  I don't know if he's right, but you can readily see why Dembo didn't want to battle on so wide a field as that, in such a short book.  But most people these days are playing ...Bd7, her recommendation, aren't they?

Mortal Games wrote on 11/07/07 at 12:18:58:


My review of it is on amazon.com.  I posted it mostly to counterract a bad review that some idiot put there.  It's not a beginner's book, but it's not a bad book either.  The best Gruenfeld book of which I know is Sakaev's on 7.Bc4.  Leaving aside its excellence as a theoretical work, there is a most amusing picture of its author on the back cover.

I was quite enjoying this book as well but I got waylaid by Vera's book on the Meran (as you can tell, I'm very much undecided in my defence to 1.d4  )- however, I used to play the Grunfeld rather casually and thought this would be a good way to try to get to grips with the opening properly. I didn't realise 7.Bc4 had become so popular, and I found that neither of those lines you mention which Yelena gives coverage of are very pleasant for Black. 

I like the enthusiasm she imparts with the book, though, and I was glad she recommended 9...b6 in the 8.Rb1 Exchange line, as that's what I always used to play on the rare occasions my games followed theory that far (my online opponents seemed usually to avoid the big mainlines, or simply not know them). I still don't know that 7...Nc6 versus the Russian System (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4) feels comfortable for black, although I remember that it was also Rowson's recommendation in his Grunfeld book.  I guess a lot of the problem for me is finding the right opening and positions that I feel happy with, rather than the quality of the coverage in the book, which I'm sure is good.    

@Inn2 - as a Semi Slav player yourself and someone who has obviously also grabbed a look at this Grunfeld book I'd like to ask you a 'comparison' question about the two openings - I'll PM you to avoid hijacking this thread, although it would be nice if a moderator could remove the odd 'Poll' that has attached itself to this thread for those who do want to continue reading it.....?

Hello,

Yelena recommends playing the KID or Grunfeld to her students, so has more experience in these lines than might think. I have her privately produced books on the middle game, which are of a very high standard, particularly the first book. Also have been shown some nice ideas for my opening Rep. (Other people who I know are coached by Yelena have been impressed with the analysis they have got).
                            This of course does not guarante that the Grunfeld book will be good, but hopefully people will be pleasantly suprised.

Bye John S

This point is clear. Greet did not call himself (nor did the publisher) an expert on the Qe2-Ruy Lopez, quite the contrary.

I wonder what the expectations were on Greet's book on the Ruy Lopez. I wouldn't judge a book before it has been published.