The French Defense Revisited is now among the upcoming items listed on the "Announcements" page on the Niggemann website. Perhaps Thinkers Publishing responded to the comments in this forum since the excerpt has been expanded beyond what was given on Forward Chess.  It now shows additional pages with the Table of Contents for the chapter on the Winawer plus about a dozen pages of the analysis of White's 4th and 5th move deviations from the main line. 

Like Anon in Reply #3, I'm not a fan of the layout. For example, the excerpt begins the analysis of 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 on page 103, but then proceeds to cover other White 4th moves. We don't get back to Black's response to 4.a3 until six pages later.

There's also a bit of editorial untidiness since the main Table of Contents refers to the "Winawer Attack" (a name that I haven't seen before), while the Chapter 5 calls it the usual "Winawer Variation" throughout.

The table of contents carries the reader out to move 3 in the The French Defense Revisited. As noted before, Kotronias's book on the King's Indian has an Index of variations that goes out to move 25. I suggest something between move 3 and 25. Somewhat arbitrarily, perhaps move 9 may be a reasonable guide or rule.

ForwardChess wrote on 04/19/23 at 16:48:05:


The TOC is not enough since it does not provide any information beyond we cover the French Defence with sample games and exercises (the only thing I understood was that after 3, Nc3 the book covers Bb4 and after 3. Nd2 Nc6) but which lines in the WInawer (e.g. allowing Qxg7 and if so the ...d4 lines or more classical lines, 7...O-O, 6...Qc7, 6...Qa5, 4...b6) I have no idea, similarly there is no indication of what system is chosen against the Advance Variation. 

But as Anon posted 3... c5 4. ed Qd5 is also covered. The current TOC gives no indication of that.

Ideally I would like
- a sample chapter/part of a chapter to be able to get an idea of the style and depth of analysis (current chapter is fine)- - 
- (optionally abbreviated) index of variations (for me the most important)
- one sample exercise 
- one sample game 

The last two would not be necessary if exercises/games are just a small part of the book, however since they seem to cover a large portion of the book (Part 2 and 3) including them would be very helpful.

Also the TOC does not include page numbers so there is no way to guess the relative size of the various parts. The exercises could be an afterthought covered in a few pages or each exercise might get the royal treatment with detailed discussion of plans, variations etc.

We would definitely appreciate your advice and help on how to present the content/samples. Generally speaking, we try to follow the samples that the publishers put out, to avoid, you know, arguments about giving away too much.

It seems that in this case the TOC is not good enough.
What would you recommend we did? All help is welcome!

I share your frustration regarding the sample pages. They give some information on the lines recommended against 2.b3 and 2.Qe2, but there's absolutely nothing on the main French lines.  It almost seems like the sample was designed to withhold that information from potential buyers of the book.  Perhaps it's selective memory on my part, but this sort of inadequate preview appears to be happening with some regularity with books and and other products, such as Chessable courses.  A potential buyer gets the impression that the publisher is deliberately being vague since it's felt that giving buyers more information may hurt sales.

In the past, I've written to Thinkers Publishing about a problem with one of their previews.  In that case, the table of contents had been omitted, so it was impossible to know what was covered in the book.  I received a friendly reply from TP saying that they would correct the error, but nothing was ever done.  Given that experience, I don't know if there's a point to trying again with this new French book.

There is a new book out on the French (on forwardchess): 

    The French Defense Revisited: A Practical Guide for Black by Zlatanovic & Jacimovic

The sample pages are useless. Does anybody know which lines are actually covered?