Number One (on ICC)

(mainly) as result of the strong Houdini 1.5 engine(*), but
also due to the recent improvements in my Chess Partner book,
got a new 'standard' rating record of about 3050 on the
Internet Chess Club (ICC) with my 'bookbuilder' account,
on 28 December 2010, and nr 1 rating
for standard (rapid and slower_ play) !

On a 'simple' Quad comp, while there are some 6 core
comps around (with often an intel icore extreme), so
using a good book, does it matter ?

Yes, indeed it matters, especially at higher levels
of play (i.e. slower time controls, like in standard),
this now simply is proven in actual play,
and it makes sense, a chain is as weak as its weakest
part, and for a chess program this means everything has
to be without weaknesses, opening book, middlegame
(engine) practical endgame (engine) and theoretical
endgame (tablebases); have a lousy book, and against
a similar or even slightly weaker engine the
game can be lost, it makes a difference +/- 100
Elo or so, is my experience..but above a certain
level you can't increase improvement ofcourse
anymore, some booklines are perfect, others
are weak, and to some extent you can tune it
for the engine, playing style blitz/standard,
but thereafter its up to the engine (and the
hardware ofcourse); some concrete examples later
as i'm currently testing my CP book against
other CP books offline (preliminary results:
about 63 % with my recent book, vs 37% with
the older , general CP book, with the
same engine. How much Elo difference that is,
you may calculate..
:)

until next time,

jef

PS (*) quite an improvement now with Houdini,
and it plays especially well in the endgame, so with
a good book, achieving a slight advantage after the
opening, a reasonable (but not extremely) fast comp,
maintaining the advantage, Houdini often converts
such a slight advantage to a win in the endgame,
especially in slow (standard) games.

intermediate repertoire

Having found some better repertoire for advanced players,
and simplified the 1.e4 repertoire for beginners (exchange
RL instead of closed RL), a repertoire for intermediate/
average players was still lacking.

So, using some more recent analysis with Rybka4, i added
such a repertoire in my book 'better chess opening play',
and now advise the Petrov (e5 e5 Nf3 Nf6!) against e4,
instead of the Ruy Lopez (RL). Whereas i found it to be
more solid, it also avoids variations as Scotch, Giuoco
Piano, and many related gambits.

For further info see the book, a new version now has been
uploaded, and is available for registered users of Bookbuilder.

NB End of year 2010 special offer:
50 % price reduction !

While the book is not finished yet, i'm sure the latest
version can help you ie most chess players except super GM's
a lot in your chess play, and i also am getting to get
some positive feedback (eg from one user in the USA:
"excellent E-book") .
And you'll get a download link to the hugebook as well,
which you can use to practice a bit with your own repertoire
(you'll quickly discover that the advised repertoire in
the book is based on many novelties, and profound modern
chess analysis, having used the absolute top engines)

until later,
kec