Bad Experience With A Chess Book/Publisher

Never Mind

Here's a nice chess game though ...

Immortal draw.Right?
Nice.

I want to know about the book/publisher!

toet.

THIS IS WORSE THAN GETTING A WHITE GUMBALL FROM THE GUMBALL MACHINE, I just, HOW YOU COULD DO THIS? Would not read again.

Since Paul bailed out (what a tease 😉 ) , I guess anyone is free to jump in with his own bad experience.

And what's so bad about white gumballs? No flavor? Inquiring minds want to know!

Originally posted by Mad Rook
Since Paul bailed out (what a tease 😉 ) , I guess anyone is free to jump in with his own bad experience.

And what's so bad about white gumballs? No flavor? Inquiring minds want to know!

White gumballs are licorice. Not a flavor choice for those still wearing diapers!

C'mon Paul!!! Tell us, please!!! Are you planning to publish a book?

Originally posted by TerrierJack
White gumballs are licorice. Not a flavor choice for those still wearing diapers!

Ah, okay, licorice. I could see why that color might not be the popular favorite.

Regarding bad experiences with publishers/books, I don't really have one, except the one thing that immediately popped into mind is Pandolfini's Endgame Course. It has numerous typos (corrections available somewhere on the internet), and it's been in print for many, many years. Pandolfini mentioned at one time that he had wanted to issue a new printing or edition that would correct the typos, but the publisher (Simon & Schuster) said they wouldn't do it because the book was too good of a seller. How's that for treating your customers right? 😕

I am shocked! This gets more replies than any of my purely chess threads.
I guess scandal really does sell.

OK ... I will spill the beans.

Yesterday, I received Chess Openings For Black Explained 2nd Edition.

I had borrowed the first edition from a friend and knew what it was like.

Let me quote a line from the introduction to the 2nd edition:

"We discuss how to play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 against rare (but tricky) third moves, such as 3.g3 and 3.a3. And there are many more updates."

I have searched all over the place, even going page for page to find these variations. They are not in the index. Unless they are hidden somewhere in the text, they didn't include them at all.

My next step was to contact someone. The only email I could fine (and a logical one) was for Al Lawrence.

"We invite you to let us know how you liked the book and share your discoveries for the next edition by sending an email to al@outexcel.com ..."

Guess what? My email was returned. I got a failure to deliver message (twice), which means that email isn't valid. I guess there won't be a 3rd edition, or they don't really care.

Next step ...

I saw an ad in the book. "Keep Up to Date at ChessOpeningsExplained.com!"
Here you can ask questions about the lines in the book and so on.
There is only one problem ... All the site says is "coming soon".

I guess my phantom Catalan analysis will never be found. I'm not saying the book is bad in general, but it would have been nice if there was someone to contact and ask about this.

I think the publisher (Chess Information And Research Center / LOL) has really dropped the ball here.

Your thoughts?

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
I am shocked! This gets more replies than any of my purely chess threads.
I guess scandal really does sell.

OK ... I will spill the beans.

Yesterday, I received Chess Openings For Black Explained 2nd Edition.

I had borrowed the first edition from a friend and knew what it was like.

Let me quote a line from the introduction to t on And Research Center / LOL) has really dropped the ball here.

Your thoughts?

OK, now that we have the juicy details, we've all lost interest... 🙂

I found this thread on another forum, maybe it will help a little. (There are 2 pages to the thread)

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1229608721/15

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
I am shocked! This gets more replies than any of my purely chess threads.
I guess scandal really does sell.

OK ... I will spill the beans.

Yesterday, I received Chess Openings For Black Explained 2nd Edition.

I had borrowed the first edition from a friend and knew what it was like.

Let me quote a line from the introduction to t ...[text shortened]... on And Research Center / LOL) has really dropped the ball here.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts:

Dzindzi 😠
Keep your hands off anything with his name on.It will always leave you wanting.
Always!

They did not deliver what they said so they should refund your money.Or send you a pamflet with analysis of those lines,free of charge.

toet.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
OK, now that we have the juicy details, we've all lost interest... 🙂

I found this thread on another forum, maybe it will help a little.

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1229608721/15

Thanks !!!

Page 368 (and only Page 368) covers the Catalan !!!

I don't even care about 3.a3 anymore.

Thanks again for the link !!!

Would it have been so hard for the publisher to share that information?

Originally posted by toeternitoe
My thoughts:

Dzindzi 😠
Keep your hands off anything with his name on.It will always leave you wanting.
Always!

They did not deliver what they said so they should refund your money.Or send you a pamflet with analysis of those lines,free of charge.

toet.

Good Advice

I must confess though. Someone put his DVD on pawn structures on youtube, and I kind of enjoyed it.

Conclusion: Roman is well worth the money, as long as he is free.

I reviewed a couple of his DVD's on Chessville.

http://www.chessville.com/Chandler/videorev.htm

I find the guy totally hilarious, in a very nice way.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
OK, now that we have the juicy details, we've all lost interest... 🙂

I found this thread on another forum, maybe it will help a little. (There are 2 pages to the thread)

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1229608721/15

Super contribution by Bonsai in that thread:

Well, last year I was in one book shop (a Borders, I think) that distinguished "Chess books" and "Eric Schiller"

Seems to me the folks of that shop know their chess literature 🙂
Dzindzi belongs in the Schiller section

toet.