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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) New edition of Bauer book (Read 9478 times)
an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #19 - 05/05/21 at 16:45:09
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Straggler wrote on 05/05/21 at 08:29:37:
I wonder what the thinking was.
I can imagine the emails.


Here's an early draft of my changes. I'll send the rest after my tournament this weekend.
--C

Thanks, all looks good. I sent it to the printers yesterday.
--A
  
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #18 - 05/05/21 at 08:29:37
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Thanks. Leaving aside the misleading description, I wonder what the thinking was. It wouldn't have been hard to include the important developments in those chapters too, and would surely have paid for itself in increased sales. I certainly won't be buying this edition now.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #17 - 05/04/21 at 21:22:49
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Straggler wrote on 05/04/21 at 19:08:09:
So the "2nd edition" makes no attempt to update chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 13 and 14, which by my reckoning make up around 39% 50% of the original text?

Fixed that for you.
  
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #16 - 05/04/21 at 19:08:09
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So the "2nd edition" makes no attempt to update chapters 1, 2, 7, 12, 13 and 14, which by my reckoning make up around 39% of the original text?

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/04/21 at 15:17:38:
I prepared a table of contents pgn for the update section, something I do for any new book I get. I put these in my junk drawer pgn. Later when I dig deeper in a variation I can see at a glance which authors cover it.

I make notes in Chess Openings Wizard for that. Otherwise I'd never be able to keep track.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #15 - 05/04/21 at 15:17:38
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Straggler wrote on 05/04/21 at 09:55:32:
Paddy's list of topics covered in the update doesn't seem to include 3.Nc3 e5 4.dxe5 (which is what my opponents usually play) or the main line without 5.g4 or 6.Ng5. Could I ask how much space those lines get, if any?
Zero.

@Michael Ayton - 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.f4 e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Qxd4 c6. After 7.Bd2!? Bauer gives 7...d5? short shrift, and covers 7...Qb6 on one page. After 7.Be3 he likewise quickly rejects 7...Be7?!, 7...Qb6?!, and covers 7...d5 on nine pages.

I prepared a table of contents pgn for the update section, something I do for any new book I get. I put these in my junk drawer pgn. Later when I dig deeper in a variation I can see at a glance which authors cover it.
  

Bauer-2020-Philidor2-TOC.pgn ( 2 KB | 123 Downloads )
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #14 - 05/04/21 at 09:55:32
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Thanks, aoc. Paddy's list of topics covered in the update doesn't seem to include 3.Nc3 e5 4.dxe5 (which is what my opponents usually play) or the main line without 5.g4 or 6.Ng5. Could I ask how much space those lines get, if any?

Looking more closely at lepionpasse.com, I now see that they say "Les mises à jour de 2020 de Christian Bauer suivent l'édition originale". So it wasn't entirely fair of me to complain that it's just the 1st edition plus an update. I'd much rather have a proper 2nd edition, but at least they don't pretend that that's what it is.

I'm assuming that the update actually is by Bauer, despite the copyright notice. I suppose he had his reasons for assigning the copyright.
  
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #13 - 05/03/21 at 22:13:57
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Paddy wrote on 05/01/21 at 17:09:55:
So, not a complete waste of money by any means, but not quite what I was expecting. Dedicated Philidor fans should certainly consider getting hold of a copy.

My book arrived today. I'm glad I bought it. I'm not glad how much I had to pay for shipping, but that's on me.

In addition to the three things mentioned by Paddy there's a fourth one: Many evaluation symbols in the update section have been replaced by a placeholder [?]. I have a very good idea how it happened technically. But from an editorial point of view I'm not sure which explanation would be worse: didn't check, checked but didn't notice, or noticed but decided to ship as-is. "Fortunately", they only used proper symbols for some of the evaluations. Others were done as ordinary ascii keys, so it's still possible to read these: +- , += , = , =+ , -+ . That means the [?]'s could be: +/- , -/+ , unclear , compensation. Those are far enough apart that in most cases I can guess from the context. If in doubt I will turn on the engine and should be able to decipher the meaning that way.

I put any defects in the book on the publisher, not the author. And indeed, unlike The Philidor Files which is [c] 2006 Christian Bauer, Tout sur le Philidor 2e édition is [c] Alain Benlolo 2020.

Quote:
When I learned Le Pion Passé was preparing to reissue Tout sur le Philidor, I didn't hesitate long before proposing to them to bring up to date certain variations. It seemed a shame, given the evolution of the theory, not to dust off the lines I analyzed 15 years ago.
--Christian Bauer, page 237 (my translation)

I will look at a couple of lines later. Once nice thing about having a separate update at the end is, it made it much simpler for me to compare the English and French first editions. What I saw is the chess content and even the verbiage is the same, except of course one is in English and the other is in French. Another nice thing is, since I already went through the first edition, now I can skip right to the updated parts. Of course anybody who doesn't have a first edition will be annoyed that they have to look in two places in one book.
  
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Michael Ayton
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #12 - 05/02/21 at 22:30:35
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Many thanks, Paddy. Maybe I was right to write after all! Personally I’m mainly interested in ‘Stealth Philidor’ stuff (1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 Nc3 e5 5 Bc4 Be7 6 a4 0-0 7 0-0 c6) and it’s disappointing B. seems to say no more about possibly critical main lines here (e.g. things like 7 a4 c6 8 h3 Qc7 9 Re1 h6!? 10 Be3 Re8 11 a5 ed), but it looks as though there’s just about enough other stuff to make the book worth snaffling!

As regards the 3 …Nbd7 4 f4 e5 5 Nf3 ed 6 Qd4 c6 lines (if the sometimes-suggested 6 …Nc5 works I’m a banana!), I don’t seem to have any notes on 7 Be3, but I assume the ending Paddy mentions is that after 7 Bd2 Qb6 8 0-0-0 Qd4 9 Nd4 Nc5 – just how much worse Black is and what his plan should be might be a matter of debate? Gawain Jones on ChessPublishing calls the ‘other’ ending after 8 …Be7 9 h3 0-0 10 g4 Re8 11 Bg2 Bf8 12 Rhe1 Qd4 13 Nd4 ‘playable’, but it looks a bit thankless to me. (I see that I wondered, a while back, if 9 …Qd4 10 Nd4 Nc5 might be an improvement, but also whether White mightn’t just go 9 g3 and 10 Bg2 iso 9 h3.) What I really don’t follow is why 7 Bd2 d5 8 0-0 Bc5 9 Qd3 0-0 10 ed Qc7 11 Ng5 Bd6 (can 11 …Bb4 be any better?) 12 dc bc 13 Qf3 Rb8 has been recommended – 14 Nge4 just looks good for White to me (14 …Be7 15 Bc4).
  
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #11 - 05/02/21 at 03:38:56
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Michael Ayton wrote on 04/29/21 at 17:54:39:
That's interesting Paddy. I mailed Everyman about it today -- had I seen your post first I might not have bothered!

It'd be interesting to know if the updating seems to be general or mainly focused on specific lines. (Does Bauer (still?) uphold 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 f4 e5 5 Nf3 ed 6 Qd4 c6, which currently seems to me just bad after 7 Be3 or 7 Bd2?)

I don't know much about this line because I play differently for both white and black. But I'm certainly willing to engage with you here about what Bauer gives. If it's bad for black, I'll have something sharper for white. If it's not bad for black, I'll have another variation to play occasionally. Although 4.g4 is also a concern.

If all goes well my book should arrive in a couple days. I purchased from lepionpasse.com, but my advertising email (which I carefully *unchecked* the box for during checkout) came from toutpourlesechecs at gmail, so the same outfit Paddy purchased from. (There's an unsubscribe button, not sure if I should bother to see if it doesn't work.)
  
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Straggler
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #10 - 05/01/21 at 17:26:56
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Paddy, thanks very much for this. Sticking an update on to the original material and calling it a 2nd edition is a bit shoddy. I’m glad I didn’t succeed in buying it.
  
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Paddy
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #9 - 05/01/21 at 17:09:55
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Michael Ayton wrote on 04/29/21 at 17:54:39:
That's interesting Paddy. I mailed Everyman about it today -- had I seen your post first I might not have bothered!

It'd be interesting to know if the updating seems to be general or mainly focused on specific lines. (Does Bauer (still?) uphold 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 f4 e5 5 Nf3 ed 6 Qd4 c6, which currently seems to me just bad after 7 Be3 or 7 Bd2?)


The first thing that struck me was that the editors have messed up the diagrams in the introduction.

The second thing was that instead of a completely new edition, what we are offered is all the old material followed by 58 pages of added material (in a larger font).

The third thing was that it uses French algebraic notation, which is OK with me, but might put some readers off.

The extra material covers:
1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Bd3
1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 f3
The Antoshin with 6 g3
The Antoshin with 6 Bf4
The Antoshin with 6 Be2 0-0 7 Bf4
The mainline modern Philidor with 6 Ng5 0-0 7 Bxf7+ etc
The 5 g4 gambit
1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 g4
1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 f4 e5 5 Nf3 exd4 - 10 pages on this, concluding that Black "is walking a tightrope here and everything depends whether he can hold the different versions of the ending..." arising at move 18.

So, not a complete waste of money by any means, but not quite what I was expecting. Dedicated Philidor fans should certainly consider getting hold of a copy.




  
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Michael Ayton
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #8 - 04/29/21 at 17:54:39
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That's interesting Paddy. I mailed Everyman about it today -- had I seen your post first I might not have bothered!

It'd be interesting to know if the updating seems to be general or mainly focused on specific lines. (Does Bauer (still?) uphold 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 f4 e5 5 Nf3 ed 6 Qd4 c6, which currently seems to me just bad after 7 Be3 or 7 Bd2?)
  
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Paddy
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #7 - 04/29/21 at 16:00:31
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Straggler wrote on 08/28/20 at 22:15:44:
Has anyone seen Bauer's new book Tout sur la Défense Philidor? It's described as the 2nd edition, so I assume it's an update of The Philidor Files, but there's no indication on the Everyman website that an English version is in the pipeline. It might be worth brushing up my rusty French for this.


I obtained this book in September 2020, from Tout pour les Echecs, as I recall.

I should say that I was disappointed at the small amount of updating I found and the unimpressive production values.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #6 - 04/28/21 at 20:46:08
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It's the old "you can't get there from here". What you need is two friends, one in IRL and the other in N-IRL. Or perhaps one friend in France who is planning a trip to London. They just need to dog-ear the book first, so it counts as used.
  
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Re: New edition of Bauer book
Reply #5 - 04/28/21 at 20:28:51
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Well, that's just not fair. When I try to order it from Le Pion Passé, I'm told it can't be delivered to my address in London. I know we're outside the EU now, but really!
  
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