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Normal Topic End of an era (Read 1152 times)
Nernstian59
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Re: End of an era
Reply #7 - 11/02/25 at 21:31:26
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aoc - Thanks for the correction. A cursory Google search didn't find any publications by London Chess Centre Publishing other than the upcoming Colle-Zukertort book, so I jumped to the conclusion that LCCP was a new imprint. I'm still curious why LCCP is publishing Palliser's book. After all, New in Chess has done the previous print adaptations of Chessable opening courses, and Palliser has had a long relationship with Everyman as an author.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: End of an era
Reply #6 - 11/01/25 at 23:48:36
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RoleyPoley wrote on 11/01/25 at 18:42:15:
Not heard of them before and would guess it is a newish imprint owned by Malcolm Pein?

I also had not heard of them, but I found several titles by them. The earliest I saw was Jonathan Hinton A Gnat May Drink from 2013.
  
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Nernstian59
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Re: End of an era
Reply #5 - 11/01/25 at 23:26:26
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RoleyPoley - Thanks for pointing out this upcoming book and the possible connection with Malcolm Pein. I saw the book a couple days ago when it appeared in the "Coming Soon/Pre-Order" section of the Chess4Less website. Like you, I'm not familiar with London Chess Centre Publishing and suspect that this upcoming Colle-Zukertort work will be their first publication. It's just pure speculation on my part, but perhaps the entrepreneurial Mr. Pein saw an opportunity with most other publishers seeming giving up on opening books. At any rate, a new chess publisher is a welcome addition to our area of interest.

The previous books based on Chessable courses were published by New in Chess, although "Chessable" appeared prominently on the covers. Sielecki's Keep It Simple Black and King's two Sicilian books were relatively reasonably priced hardcovers that were well produced, with color diagrams among other nice touches. The Colle-Zukertort book is a paperback with a rather higher price. The pdf excerpt shows it has black and white diagrams, though the layout looks decent. Interestingly, Palliser is also credited with being the editor and typesetter. It's as though the book is self-published with London Chess Centre Publishing just involved in the last step of bringing it to market. 

One trivial item I noticed in the bibliography shown in the excerpt: David Rudel's Zuke 'Em is credited to Thinkers Publishing when it was actually the late Bob Long's Thinkers' Press that served as publisher. Perhaps this is one of the pitfalls of acting as one's own editor.
  
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RoleyPoley
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Re: End of an era
Reply #4 - 11/01/25 at 18:42:15
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Nernstian59 wrote on 10/09/25 at 21:58:24:
so I'm still concerned that the three major publishers that comprise the NIC Group don't have an opening book in the works


I got an email yesterday from chess and bridge that Richard Palliser has a book coming out based on the Chessable course he and Williams put together on the colle Zuketort opening. 

For some reason I had assumed this was being published by  Everyman/ Popular Chess. But I have just had another look at it and it's being published by 'London Chess Centre Publishing'...Not heard of them before and would guess it is a newish imprint owned by Malcolm Pein?
  

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Nernstian59
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Re: End of an era
Reply #3 - 10/09/25 at 21:58:24
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an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 10/07/25 at 23:08:04:
Most likely that's just neglecting to update the Coming Soon.

It looks like the "Coming Soon" page was updated in the last day or two. Not much changed - three new items were added and one book was moved to the "What's New" page. At least, there's now an opening book in the "Coming Soon" area: The Benko Bible Vol 1, which is already being discussed by TonyRo and others in the Daring Defences section of the forum. The Benko book is published by Russell Enterprises, so I'm still concerned that the three major publishers that comprise the NIC Group don't have an opening book in the works. I hope they're just slow in making their plans public.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: End of an era
Reply #2 - 10/07/25 at 23:08:04
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Nernstian59 wrote on 10/07/25 at 20:17:06:
there's not much to look forward to among the books in the "Coming Soon" section

Most likely that's just neglecting to update the Coming Soon. For example if you filter for Chessable there is only one title, but Chessable offers new courses two or more times per week. A similar lack of update can be observed in the What's New, where for example almost all the Batsford books say "discontinued". Not that Batsford is putting out many new books, but these have clearly been listed as new for way too long.
  
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Nernstian59
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Re: End of an era
Reply #1 - 10/07/25 at 20:17:06
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Well, the Quality Chess website recently became just a page on the New in Chess site. I noticed this yesterday. However, Quality Chess has been part of the New in Chess Group for over a year. As stated on the new QC page, "In 2024 we merged operations with Popular Chess and New in Chess".  However, they go on to say, "while keeping our identity". Presumably this statement means they'll continue to publish books as Quality Chess. 

Popular Chess (formerly Everyman Chess) still had a separate website yesterday, but I just checked, and it's also been switched to a page on the NIC site.

One feature that I liked on the old Quality Chess site was the blog, where readers could direct comments and inquiries to Jacob Aagaard, John Shaw, and other QC editors and authors. It was one of the few places where we enjoyed such access to those involved in chess publishing. Even though the discussions and exchanges in the blog haven't been as lively recently as in its heyday, it was still potentially useful. Sadly, it seems to have disappeared in the transition to the NIC site.

One other worrisome development that I noticed when perusing the NIC site: there's not much to look forward to among the books in the "Coming Soon" section. Very little is new, and the page is dominated by the re-releases of the five My Great Predecessors volumes. There are three second/new editions of books previously released and two print versions of Chessable courses. Apparently the only truly new book is an account by a WIM about her relationship with Bobby Fischer.  For those of us on this forum, the total absence of opening books is of especial concern. I had hoped that at least a few opening volumes would continue to be published, but perhaps the total changeover to products such as those offered by Chessable and Modern-chess has been faster than I expected.
  
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End of an era
10/07/25 at 15:29:10
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With disappointment I noticed that Quality Chess per se does not exists any more.
Merged with New in Chess they vanished. 

What to say....money kills all...
  
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