Did you fix the spelling of my name too?

ebook now available

with MacCutcheon corrected therein to McCutcheon

I want to apologize to the Chess Publishing community for my unruly behavior. I can definitely see where it would be crazy to avoid buying book on the basis of a misspelled name. The "Winter" inside got the better of me.

I will hear the opinions of french players and base my decision of buying the book on their evaluations.

My apologies.

Blue Flaneur wrote on 07/16/12 at 17:20:35:


Yes, John spelled it "MacCutcheon" – the same as Tim Harding (Batsford) and Steffen Pedersen (Gambit) [but not, as it happens, Byron Jacobs (Everyman)]. It didn't occur to me that it might be wrong, otherwise I'd have suggested changing it. Sorry.

...
Did I attack Watson? No. I understand he is one the most influential chess writers of our day. In fact one of my first books was SOMCS and I enjoyed it thoroughly; that was at the age of 14.

I simply stated that if the spelling error is not addressed I simply won't be purchasing it. That's it. I am going to draw the line. ...

Also, I was curious as to how french players rated the chapters on the Tarrasch. I expect nothing but highly thoughtful work from Watson but I wanted a first hand opinion, as many masters often do...

Edited:

why am I thinking rdecredico ...

White getting a "solid, indisputable advantage" against the 3...Nf6 Tarrasch sounds to me something like the view of the 1970s, but not of recent times ...

I have the Kindle PTF4 version to go with my hard copy of PTF3.  I really like it so far.  He does a good job of cross referencing to PTF3, Dangerous Weapons French, Moskalenko, Simon Williams etc.  He may mention a sideline, say it is in good shape and suggest you look someplace else.  It is almost like a combination repertoire book and French Defense opening book review (similar to what we sometimes see in the ChessPub columns).

As far as specific variations, I like that he included the Portisch-Hook as an alternative to the Poison Pawn but wonder whether it is easy to play by feel as he suggests.  The database stats suggest White tends to get more than a normal advantage.  In my mind, stats matter more if we are talking about a less specific position.  

I have played both the Classical and Winawer over time.  Both approaches allow you to develop complementary sharp and quiet repertoires.  I am thinking of moving back to the Winawer, and would put in the work to make PH my quiet option (recognizing this is not always the case).  

What do people think of PH?  For people who play either side of the PH on a regular basis, how do you like Watson's analysis in PTF4 vs. Moskalenko?

saubhikr wrote on 12/24/11 at 12:59:49:


Working on that now, but it'll take a while; it's a big job.