MM0621 wrote on 11/05/15 at 16:28:29:
I never heard of the author. How can we find his rating?
That's what wonders me too. And it provokes me to some thoughts.
There are two obvious indications that the author is an Indian: the mere sound of his name and the fact, that he dedicates the book to the Indian GM Mir Sultan Khan.
But there are at severe indications that the author is a German: He publishes with a german based publishing house (and a totally unknown newbie in the business at that). Her uses a load of german books and magazines as references. And not too well known at that, e.g. the magazine Kaissiber, that you surely won't get the easy way in India. He even has a dutch language source, De leeuw, het zwarte wappen (van Reekom/Jansen), in his references , which may be easy to get in Germany but surely difficult in India.
And there are some translation hints on the german speaking nature of the author (e.g. unexplanably he uses the very unusal word "figure" for "piece" [as it is used in all normal english chess books], deriving from the german word "Figur", I think.)
I think that there is some logic that the author ist of second or even lesser rank regarding the rating and title. Would he be a titled player it would be normal that he would have gone to one of the usual thematic publishing houses to offer his manuscript. As there should be interest in the topic Old Indian Defence as there are or better were no special books at all about this defence. The more: The interest is for sure, as publisher everyman has shown with its recently published Old Indian Move by Move (so now OI fans - do those exist?! - now at once have two new books on the OI).
Only an unknown player with no credit to his name would have choosen the way to this unknown publishing house (where in fact he self is responsible for the content as epublishi surely has no lector or editor dedicated to chess).
And he did a good job as my first impression signals - look for the sample to judge yourself.)
But, given the asumption that Bannerjee is a pseudonym, who is he? This will be the search for the needle in the hay.
When browsing through the book I more the once came across the name Syed. I have no actual data base but only the internet as a source. Searching for a chess player called Syed leads to Tarek Syed from Frankfurt (and now perhaps Karlsruhe) with an ELO of only 2056...
Looking through his games shows that he is a real devotee to OI-themes with both colours. An with white he plays the half open games in the big clamp style given by van Reekom/Jansen in De Witte Leeuw...
But, okay, that is reading coffee grounds...
Could a 2056-player explain the depth of a complex opening like the OI? ...
I have no clue but my gut feeling yells out at least that Bannerjee is a pseudonym. Simply because you need experience to explain the subtlties of the OI. So you need someone who theorized and practized on it. And in our time that would leave traces in the internet. And and there are no traces to a Mr. Bannerjee...
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