Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Stonewall II

Monday evening I finally laid my hands on a copy of Aagaard's 'Stonewall II'. I have not had the time to study it any detail yet, but here are some observations and first impressions:
  • There are enough verbal annotations to make the book hard to read for non-German readers. In particular this is the case for the long introduction (almost 60 pages).
  • As far as I can see, all the games from the first edition are still there - mostly in the same order. One has been moved and one has had the name of a player corrected.
  • I have not yet been able to determine to which extent the annotations of the older games have been updated but obviously some new game references have been added.
  • There is a list of complete games, but surprisingly the games from the introduction can not be found there.
  • There is no complete index of variations, but at the end of each chapter there is a summary of important lines with references to relevant complete games.
  • The book seems to be only very lightly updated after 2004. I have so far only found four game references to 2005 games (Pogorelov-Moskalenko, Salou 2005; note to game 10. Feller-Petrisor, Herceg Novi 2005; note to game 10. Mamedjarova-Gleizerov, Abu Dhabi 2005; note to Game 17. Rogers-Jasim, Gibraltar 2005; note to game 67) but no doubt there are some more hidden in the notes.
  • It seems that the new games are somewhat better annotated than the older ones, but this is only my first impression.
Compared to the original English edition, there are 17 new games:

Mainline 7.b3
Game 5: Farago-Ulibin, Obervart 2001 (1/2-1/2)
Game
13: Korotylev-Ulibin, Genf 2001 (1/2-1/2)
Game
17: Romanov-Gleizerov, Minsk 1997 (0-1)
Game
20: Agdestein-Straeter, Germany 2001 (1/2-1/2)

Mainline 7.Bf4
Game 29: Hanley-Williams, Port Erin 2001 (1-0)
Game
31: Kahn-Vajda, Hungary Ch 2003 (0-1)
Game
34: Barkhagen-Jussupow, Stockholm 2002 (1/2-1/2)

White's Rare 7th
Game 51: Schandorff-Sandner, Germany 2004 (1-0)
Game
53: Schandorff-L.B. Hansen, Denmark 1997 (1-0)

5.Nh3
Game 58: Dreev-Radjabov, Tallinn 2004 (1/2-1/2)
Game
63: Anand-Schmittdiel, Germany 2004 (1-0)
Game
70: Kempinski-Radjabov, Antalaya 2004 (1/2-1/2)

Lines with an Early e3
Game 83: Cu. Hansen-Hillarp Persson, Copenhagen 2004 (1-0)
Game
85: Sasikiran-Krasenkow, Calvia Ol 2004 (1-0)
Game
89: Bareev-Jussupow, Prague rapid 2002 (0-1)
Game
90:Yakovich-Kharlov, Elista 2001 (0-1)
Game
93: Bareev-Grischuk, Enghien-les-Bains 2001 (0-1)

PS: For the Table of Content see my entry of August 8th.


Addendum:
Another 2005 reference: Lomineischvili-Tereladze, Georgia 2005; note to game 61. I will add more here if I come by anything.

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