I have the book now, and I agree, the book is not really a opening book, but a ligthly annotated game collection of KG games.

Since I probably have all the games in my database already (admit I have not checked!) it is limited how helpful this book is.

Seems more like an old fashined book from before the days of the big chess databases. And even though the games are lightly annotated I can't see the annotations brings much you cannot find better elsewhere or by doing your own analysis.

But if you prefer using a book and play out the games on a board instead of on the computer than I guess the book is OK. But otherwise I think you can use your book money better on other books.

I have a funny story about the book.  I was playing a blitz game on ICC the other day with a free trial account and my opponent just resigned all of the sudden in an equal position right out of the opening.  Then he asked if I had used an engine for the game.  I said, "No I didn't.  Why did you resign though?  You weren't lost there.  The position was equal."  He admitted that he had been using this new Kalinichenko book and that the book told him that White had to resign here!  It was hilarious.  I have never had this happen in a game before that my opponent uses an opening book and it tells him to resign.

tafl wrote on 01/13/10 at 07:41:43:

They are just bad, to be honest. Vienna section is incredibly awful.

Kalinichenko has an ICCF correspondence chess rating of 2550. The last result is from 2004, so he is apparently nor playing anymore, at least not in ICCF.

I have ordered the book, mostly because I have a lot of KG books, so I was to curious to be able to resist buying this one!

In my UltraCorr3 Database he has 46 games but only one with the KG. Playing black!

[Event "Mario Napolitano Memorial"]
[Site "corr ASIGC"]
[Date "1998.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Grasso, Giorgio Luigi (ITA)"]
[Black "Kalinichenko, NikolaiMikhailovich"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C39"]
[PlyCount "110"]
[EventDate "1998.11.01"]
[EventType "tourn (corr)"]
[Source "Chess Mail Ltd"]
[SourceDate "2009.08.21"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ne5 d6 6. Nxg4 Be7 7. d4 Bxh4+ 8. Nf2
Qg5 9. Qf3 Nc6 10. Qxf4 Bxf2+ 11. Kxf2 Qxf4+ 12. Bxf4 Nxd4 13. Nc3 Bg4 14. e5
Ne6 15. Kg3 Nxf4 16. exd6 h5 17. Kxf4 cxd6 18. Re1+ Kf8 19. Bd3 Rh6 20. Nd5 Be6
21. Ne3 Rc8 22. a3 Rc5 23. c4 h4 24. b4 Rf6+ 25. Ke4 Re5+ 26. Kd4 Rf4+ 27. Kc3
Nf6 28. Nc2 Ne4+ 29. Bxe4 Rexe4 30. Rxe4 Rxe4 31. Kd3 Rf4 32. Ne3 Ke7 33. Kc3
Kf6 34. Re1 Re4 35. Kd3 Bf5 36. Rh1 Bg6 37. Rh3 Kg5 38. Kc3 f5 39. Nf1 f4 40.
Nd2 Re3+ 41. Kd4 Rxh3 42. gxh3 Bf5 43. Ne4+ Kh5 44. Nf2 Bxh3 45. Ke4 Bf1 46.
Kxf4 Bxc4 47. Ng4 h3 48. Kg3 Kg5 49. Nf2 h2 50. Kxh2 Kf4 51. Kg2 Be2 52. Nh3+
Ke3 53. Kg3 d5 54. Nf4 Bf3 55. Ne6 d4 0-1

Kalinichenko, together with Gufeld, wrote the book "Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player" and "Opening Repertoire for the Positional Player". Both were decent (but not very good) books. However, in particular the Attacking book was a very dangerous buy, recommending a very risky repertoire (the Dragon for Black) with woefully inadequate supporting analysis.

Worse is that these now very outdated books (they didn't seem fresh in 1998) were republished by "Russian Chess House" in 2007. The books were reformatted and only symbolically updated (a very few recent game fragments were added). This would not have been so bad if the books hadn't been given new titles, tricking potential buyers into thinking these were new books. Don’t buy “An Aggressive Opening Repertoire for the Club Player” or “A Positional Opening Repertoire for the Club Player”. The books are a complete waste of money and the publishers may learn a lesson if they are left on the book shop’s shelves.   

I am very sceptical to this new King's Gambit book and will not buy it until I have had the chance to browse through it.