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| Mar-13-06 | | Chris00nj: Yes, I received my Bishop's Gambit book on Friday! I've started reading it. I like so far! I've started playing it online, but haven't had a chance to play it over the board. So far, the Qh4+ response is common as well as sticking to their Nf3 defense, meaning g5 is still common (all blitz against about 1500 rated players). Unfortunately the response e5 isn't actually very common over the board for people rated between 1600-2000. Either it is played by lower rated players, around 1400, or by higher rated 2100+ rated players (I'm 1930). But I need to start beating some more of them if I want to hit 2000. By the way, email to the address on your website gets rejected. You should blog as well. Cheers,
Chris
http://chesspundit.blogspot.com/ |
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| Mar-14-06 | | taljechin: >>By the way, email to the address on your website gets rejected. You should blog as well.<< Hmm, I haven't noticed / heard about any problem with that email address before, but maybe you've clicked on it at some page where I may've forgotten to update the address? It used to be '@hem.passagen.se' but since a few years back it's only '@passagen.se' Blogging could be something worth investigating I s'pose, but as it is I hardly get around to updating the website and a blog isn't really a blog if it's not updated often and regularly... |
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| Mar-14-06 | | Chris00nj: You probably forget to update it on a page. I looked back and sent it in Sept 2005, but it was to the @hem address. My personal blogging is cyclical, depending on what else I have going on. However, all the King's Gambiteers could have a common blog, to which they all could post to either discuss their games or which variation they prefer. If there are multiple people on a common blog, then it's there will be likely always be someone posting something. I like your book so far. I had the Foxy Opening DVD on the Bishop's Gambit which was recorded back in mid-90s and it either has a different take on positions (it likes exd5, rather than Bxd5) or it talks about outdated lines, like 7.Kf1 in Westernin. |
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| Mar-24-06 | | taljechin: Btw, I liked your review at amazon, nice to see that someone defended the FKG against the 'lame guy'! :) |
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| Mar-27-06 | | 17.Bxg7: This is a short biography of this remarkable player (I have included in Tigran Nalbandian 's forum a complete list): <Thomas Johansson (b. March 24, 1975, in Linköping, Sweden) is a professional tennis player. He joined the pro tour for the first time in 1994 and has won 9 top-level singles titles, including the 1999 Canada Masters (df. Yevgeny Kafelnikov) and the 2002 Australian Open Grand Slam championship. Johansson became the first Swedish player to win a Slam since Stefan Edberg won the 1992 U.S. Open title, and the first Swede to claim the Australian since Mats Wilander in 1988.Personal:
Idol growing up was Mats Wilander, who is captain of Swedish Davis Cup team. Enjoys reading books from Swedish author Henning Mankell and National Geographic magazine. His favorite actors are Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Chess is also one of his great interests; after a bad year in the ATP circuit (1998), he decided to pursue his chess career, achieving only a partial success. Consequently, he recover his motivation for playing tennis again, achieving his best results on the ATP tour since then. Currently, he is on 13th place in the ATP rankings and is also a regular commentator in several chess tournaments.> |
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| Mar-27-06 | | Jim Bartle: Earlier in that 2002 Australian Open Johansson played one of the best sets of tennis I've ever seen against Bjorkman. He had no errors! Not unforced, not forced, every single ball he touched went in. The eight points he lost were clean winners from Bjorkman. I'd never seen that before, and haven't seen it since. And he's actually a serious chess player! |
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| Mar-27-06 | | taljechin: "And he's actually a serious chess player!"
LOL! Well, maybe I am - but unfortunately I don't play tennis. 'Johansson' is probably the most common swedish last name (- though 'Andersson' is a close 2nd). So, virtually every major sport in Sweden has at least one 'Thomas Johansson' participatin'. In chess, there's at least two of us with an Elo - and chess isn't very popular in Sweden, so just imagine how many soccer, hockey etc players there are too... |
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| Mar-27-06 | | Jim Bartle: Thomas: I was referring to the 2002 Australian champion, who I read above is also a competitive chess player. |
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| Mar-28-06 | | taljechin: Well, if he is a serious chess player I'm sure I would have heard about it by now, and from a more reliable source e.g a swedish chess magazine. "17.Bxg7" has probably just drawn his own conclusions from seeing the same name in the database... So, don't believe everything you read! |
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| Mar-31-06 | | 17.Bxg7: <Jim Bartle, taljechin> Actually it was a joke, by adding a ficticious fragment to the Wikipedia biography of Mr. Johansson, taking advantage of the common name. Jin: My apologies, probable I wrote it too serious so it wasn't clear the joke from the beginning. |
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| Mar-31-06 | | Jim Bartle: Well, you took me in...well done. Next you'll tell me Simen Agdestein was a top-level football player. |
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| May-11-06 | | taljechin: For those interested, my new book - The Fascinating Réti Gambit (i.e. 1.e4 e6 2.b3!?), should soon be available for purchase online. (ETA = 1-2 weeks from now! :) |
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| Aug-17-06 | | TheKid: Is the King's Gambit for the Creative Aggressor still available somewhere? (Is the Cunningham covered at all?) |
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| Aug-24-06 | | taljechin: Yes, it should still be available from Kania Schachverlag and some of the major resellers should probably still have it in stock as it was reprinted for the 2nd time in the fall of 2005. |
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| Nov-20-06 | | TheKid: What do you, personally, use more: the Bishop's Gambit or the King's Knight? Or which would you recommend? |
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| Jan-11-07 | | taljechin: Nowadays, I only play the Bishop's Gambit, which I'd also recommend of course, hence the FKG book! :) However, my opponents rarely answer 1...e5 these days, so atm I'm leaning towards doing something useful instead - or perhaps take up Gothic chess. ;) |
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| May-12-07 | | thesonicvision: your lectures on the reti gambit
at videochess.net are very informative.
this expert at the local chess club
is always outplaying me in the french.
i'm considering the reti gambit as
a playable alternative when i'm not
in the mood for a main line winawer. |
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| May-14-07 | | taljechin: Thanks! :) Btw, if you always get beaten in the main line Winawer by this guy then the Reti should be an excellent choice. The RG does tend to bring out the patzer in black, simply because 1) they're not used to that kind of position and 2) play becomes critical much sooner than usual in the french. |
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| Mar-06-08 | | arthurp: Mentioned this before but a Fascinating Scandinavian Defence book
would be something to think about?Writing about an opening from the black side would "balance" your chess writing career!Enjoy your Reti Gambit videos! |
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| May-19-08 | | Zygalski: I recently got a copy of King's Gambit for the Creative Aggressor from chessdirect.co.uk
I just want to say what a great author this guy is. I also have The Fascinating Réti Gambit which is a superb resource for a 1.e4 club player who struggles in the normal French Defence lines.
The Fascinating Ruy Lopez Schliemann would be my personal wish, as there isn't a great deal on this dynamic opening. I don't know what Thomas thinks of this for Black though, being a 1...c5 player.
I strongly recommend any of Mr Johansson's books as they are not only thorough, but they convey Thomas's enthusiasm so well.
Long may he continue to inspire others! |
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| Jun-08-08 | | taljechin: Thanx for the praise and suggestions, arthurp & Zygalski. :) I doubt I'll write any more chess books - at least for the foreseeable future. Though both the Scandinavian and Schliemann are worthy subjects but the Scandinavian has already some good efforts on it and the Ruy as black is not quite my cup o tea. *If* I wrote on a black defence it would probably be 1.e4 Nc6!? as I enjoy its flexibility, its undeserved shady reputation and its numerous transpositions. And it would be nice to get to know it better. :) - But it would demand too much of my already slim spare time. :( -Btw Zygalski, I'm not really a Sicilian player though I play it occasionally. Several of 'my' 1...c5 games here are actually by another guy with the same name... |
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| Jun-08-08 | | DrGrobb: Taljechin,I am a big fan of the Creative Aggressor.I coach chess at
the grade school level and use that book to teach the Kings Gambit. Plan to get the Bishops gambit and use that. Thank you for your hard work on your books!!! |
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| Jun-14-08 | | taljechin: Thx DrGrobb, but I fear that the FKG may be a bit too much for young kids. That's yet another tempting possible project I suppose - making a version for players who want a introduction to the KGA with 3.Bc4 & a quick repertoire for white... :) However, apparently there's already a bunch of new KG-books in the pipelines of the big publishers, though delayed, so sooner or later I guess they'll show up on the market. |
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| Jun-14-08 | | Zygalski: You're correct about the delays in at least a couple of promising looking KG books. Jan Pinski & Jonathan Tait were both due to bring out books several months ago but failed to do so?!
I had to suffice with a pristine 15 year-old copy of Gallagher's "Winning with the King's Gambit" for the few lines that Mr Johansson doesn't cover. Only cost me £20 & I bought it from Ken Neat (via amazon) of all people. |
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| Sep-14-08 | | taljechin: By the way, if you're looking for older chess books in excellent condition I can recommend labatechess.com, though £20 for WwtKG sounds like a very good deal indeed! |
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