Glad to be of help Mtal, and in my opinion you can afford to pass on the So DVD, yes he's a Super GM but the analysis offered is quite superficial, his Modern Italian DVD isn't much better either. I'm a big fan of Wesley's play, so should he decide to do something for Chessbase again I sincerely hope it will be more compelling and without the superfluous co-presenter.

Good luck in your 1.b3 games.

Marcellus wrote on 02/15/18 at 20:06:39:


All of Jan Gustafsson's stuff for Chessbase and Chess24 are very good; Negi's Books/DVD are also excellent; Bologan's early Books and DVD's are quite good, his more recent stuff is a bit inconsistent in quality; Robin Van Kampen has done some good stuff for Chess24 of which his KID series stands out, his White Rep vs The Sicilian on the other hand started out promising, but as was pointed out in the comments on chess24 had too many omissions to satisfy a tournament or even serious club player.

I was very impressed by newcomer Super GM Vidit Gujrathi's two part Caro-Kann repertoire for Chessbase, looking forward to more stuff from him. Deserving mention is the slightly unknown (In DVD circles) GM Ivan Salgado's Anti-Sicilian DVD for chess24, his recommendations are sound, powerful and up to date, its a pity that most of his work for chess24 is in spanish, but I hope he decides to do some more stuff in English in the future.

I am sure they are other Presenters that should have made the list, but that's who jumped out at me off the top of my head. Feel free to add or subtract from the list if you feel strongly about something or someone.

Bye for now. 

Postscript: Oops, among authors I forgot to include Kotronias and Gallagher as two of my favorites. Guess I was focusing more on the DVDs.

Marcellus wrote on 02/15/18 at 03:33:33:


I have a friend that buys a lot of them, and then he hesitantly asks for my thoughts, I say hesitantly because he knows how sceptical I often am of these DVD offerings and then he has buyers remorse. Lately though he has figured out that he can put my input to good use to trip up opponents in tournament play. To be honest I could post many more reviews, but for one I'm lazy by nature and two I'm patiently waiting to use some of my discoveries otb, provided I can remember them if the opportunity arises. 

There are so many glaring analytical errors on many of these DVDs when you put them under the microscope that it can be depressing at times, but as I said, the knowledge could be used to good effect from the other side of the board, so purchases are neccessarily wasted.

Caveat Emptor, there is a lot of Snake oil out there.

Bye.

@TopNotch: Thanks for your views on these 1.b3 DVDs.

I considered both, but they seem a bit on the short side at around 3 hours. I like to get more content for the prices they charge.* 

Would you say the Rozman DVD adds real value to the standard non-DVD sources? I have the books by Tait/Jacobs, Odessky and Lakdawala, and will resume my ChessPublishing subscription in a few months.

Edit: This blurb for 1.b3 Bash is a bit of a turn-off: Quote:

My usual opponents don't do something inaccurate as early as move 4 or 5! I expect a good DVD to be helpful even against decent opposition. But it seems from TopNotch's review that this DVD is not just for beginners after all.

*Though people can likely pick up the Rozman one at a discount on one of the many sales at TheChessWorld - setting unusually high regular prices but running lots of actively promoted sales seems to be the modus operandi of both TheChessWorld and iChess.

Mtal wrote on 02/12/18 at 17:35:42:


Against 1...d5 So never claimed 2.Nf3 to be strong or better than 2.Bb2, In typical annoying So style, where its like pulling teeth to get him to reveal what he seriously thinks about any move or position. When pressed continually by his Co-Host for a concrete answer, So's fall back is usually the unhelpful response 'its a matter of taste', regarding 1...d5 he says if you don't mind the mess after 2.Bb2 Bg4 3.f3 as favored by Rapport 
then go for that, if you want to avoid it, then go 2.Nf3 first - Now that's really 2800 insight .   

Nothing special or particularly interesting is revealed on this DVD, and the material being offered could just as easilly have been delivered by a lesser player (Lorin D'Costa for instance) with a good working knowledge of the opening.   

To sum up this mini DVD review: Pro's - Very Polite and humble 2800> presenter.
Cons:  Not clear what are the recommendations. Target audience seems to be 1600 - 1700, was expecting it to be much higher. Format is more like a summary of lines rather than a true repertoire DVD. Also I dislike the two presenter format, I find it more distracting and time consuming than useful.

Lastly Chessbase need more accurate blurbs.

Hope that helps.

Bye

Glenn Snow wrote on 02/13/18 at 06:17:07:

Wow I did not know there was another b3 video out there next to Martin's and Davies'.

Maybe you're thinking of 1. Nf3 d5 2. b3 c5, when 3. Bb2 is considered inferior to 3. e3 (going back at least to a game Petrosian-Fischer).