Leaving out Mongoose Press isn't a big deal however. They don't have the expansive library of an Everyman or the well known authors of Gambit. I can't think of a single book in their catalog that routinely shows up in must have lists either.
Should Jeremy Silman Write About Chess Books?
Sort:
Jan 16, 2015
0
#23
" They don't have the expansive library of an Everyman or the well known authors of Gambit."
Or Quality Chess, Chess Stars or even Batsford.
I haven´t noticed Mongoose before, I don´t own any book by them.
After reviewing mongoose press's chess book, i can see why Silman left them out. Nothing against mongoose press, always good to see a book company putting out chess books. But obviously they are either new, not as established as other chess book companies, or just not as good.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#25
SocialPanda wrote:
" They don't have the expansive library of an Everyman or the well known authors of Gambit."
Or Quality Chess, Chess Stars or even Batsford.
Mongoose Press is eight years old. They publish the following well known authors:
GM Andrew Soltis (The Inner Game of Chess, on DANIEL RENSCH's Best Book list)
NM Dan Heisman (multiple books, most of which have been praised to no end by the beginner to intermediate crowd)
GM Aleksadria Kosteniuk (her autobiography / game collection, who doesn't know who she is?)
WGM Jen Shahade (her only instructional book to date, Play Like a Girl) Okay, some of you might not like her politics, but to say that she is not well-known is just nonsense. She does great commentary for all the St. Loiuis Chess Club's live broadcasts.
GM Sergey Shipov (his two-volume over 1000-page fantastic, philosophical and instructional treatise on chess, almost won book of the year). Shipov sometimes does commentary for one of the online sites, but I forget where.
Plus many others, of course....
And IMHO, Mongoose takes pride in their editing, makes sure their punctuation and grammar is well done, etc.
Old enough and established enough not to be ignored, no?
A great injustice was done! The great Mongoose fell victim to a pointless and likely imaginary conspiracy! The horror! The dead horse has been beaten to within an inch of its, uh, death!
!!!
Feel better now?
Okay. That was a bit harsh. I just don't think you're going to get what you want here. The author of the article was under no obligation to be objective or comprehensive so he wasn't. Case closed.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#28
Jan 17, 2015
0
#29
Two seperate articles here, people. The first was Silman's award-winning article for Chess Life Online (linked in my OP), where he (IMHO) purposefully left out Mongoose Press and Forward Chess because they are competitors to his own self-interests; and in the the second article he perked up my radar because here was somebody who has a blatent conflict of interest and showed in the past that he could not be unbiased. My OP simply asked the question if someone (take Jeremy Silman's famous name out of the equation for a sec) who has demonstrated an unfair bias to promote his own press and chess book e-reader app should be reviewing chess books for pay, in a formal setting. Okay, so he asked his friends, too. Great. But that's not the point of my question.
Now, a part of me would love to hear what Silman has to say about books. But another part of me wonders if he can be objective, given his historical inability to avoid conflict of interest.
The partial reason why the OP was so long was beause I needed to give some background info. Go read Silman's original CLO article. Look, I'm just trying to defend one of my favorite publishers and the publisher of one of my books. Mongoose deserves more respect than what they've got here. If a powerful figure like Silman ignores them, then this doesn't help their publicity, right?
Moriarty, actually, I think Silman was under an obligation to be objective in his original CLO article. It was supposed to be a review of iOS apps. In one part of the article he listed ALL of the major publishers EXCEPT Mongoose, and then he went on to not even mention Forward Chess (which supports Mongoose book, and which is arguably the best chess book e-reader app), and not to even mention it was ingenuous.
If Silman showed some objectivity in his earlier writing, then I would notthink twice about his qualifications to write chess book reviews. I have not seen him demonstrate objectivity in the past, hence my question and our discussion.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#30
OneArrow wrote:
Two seperate articles here, people. The first was Silman's award-winning article for Chess Life Online (linked in my OP), where he (IMHO) purposefully left out Mongoose Press and Forward Chess because they are competitors to his own self-interests; and in the the second article he perked up my radar because here was somebody who has a blatent conflict of interest and showed in the past that he could not be unbiased...
You did write that it was your opinion, but you are treating that opinion as fact in your further analysis of what Silman either wrote or did not write.
Do you have proof that he was so evilly motivated for leaving out Mongoose Press and Forward Chess?
Also, that article was in 2011. Just because he missed the app in his review doesn't mean that he intentionally did so.
What do you want done? Are you saying that all reputable sources no longer publish any of Silman's articles?
Should Silman be arrested, taken to civil court and sued, for this serious breach of information inclusion?
The first article you are sniping at was something like 3 years ago. Should we insist that Silman edit it to include the quality and beauty of Mongoose and Forward Chess?
Perhaps you should simply write an article yourself listing the quality Chess apps on the market currently, you know 2015 not 2011.
You could also include a list of quality publishers, including Mongoose.
There you go.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#31
First of all, it was 2013, not 2011. Second of all, no he doesn't need ot be arrested. This is a forum to just throw around ideas and shoot the bull. And, no, I don't have proof. But one of Silman's favorite tactics books was republished (from Russian) by Mongoose (before 2013), so perhaps this is proof that he knew about the company but decided not to mention them or their supporter Forward Chess. I don't have Silman under oath nor will I ever. But I happen to follow chess publishers closely, I read what I can, and most reasonable people who have enough background info would conclude that Silman "forgot" to mention Mongoose and Forward Chess if he mentions every single major chess publisher besides them.
Look, this is a forum. I believe that I've raised some reasonable doubt, even though most people here would rather give me heat. No problem.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#32
Yes, this is a forum.
What would you like to be done about the problem(s) you perceive and present?
Talking, negatively and on assumption does noone any good.
When we now read Silman articles, I am sure that most of us will take it with a grain of salt, but only a grain. As you said, most of what he writes is excellent.
I imagine if you were to write an article with more information in it than Silman's, Chess.com would put it on the home page.
Go for it.
Jan 17, 2015
0
#33
Maybe a more positive way to deal with all this would be to publish an article/blog entry on the Forward Chess App and the Mongoose press books you like, including your own if you feel like it 
Jan 17, 2015
0
#36
OneArrow wrote:
I have mixed feelings about this. Silman is an exceptional teacher, but his psychology and bias sometimes prevent objective reviews.
In 2013, Jeremy Silman's article "Dinos to the Slav: Silman on Apple Apps" placed 3rd in the annual Best of Chess Life Online writing competition. In the article, Silman reviewed an ostensibly complete lineup of English-language chess publishers and chess-related iOS apps. Judges praised the article for its completeness. GM Ben Finegold wrote, "Jeremy certainly did his homework...."
I think that I should get bent out of shape. My own iOS reviews are far more comprehensive than Silman's list.
For example, he left out the best iOS tactics training which I review at http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2012/07/tactic-trainer-for-ipad-ipod-iphone.html.
This review lists one that he does and three that he omits. http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/02/chess-tactics-training-on-ipad.html
yes_dear wrote:
Now we're reading Silman's mind. Brilliant!
chessmicky wrote:
Authors think that their books are good and have something special to offer, that's not bias, that's believe in yourself and your books. If the author didn't think his book was good, he wouldn't have written it!
You think Eric Shiller really thinks his books are good?
Keep grinding that axe, OneArrow. You obviously are only looking for one answer here so just tell it to yourself - a few times, if that's what tickles your fancy - and please just leave the dead horse alone. Unless you have conclusive proof that out of all the apps and publishers in the world, Silman deliberately chose to ignore your personal favourites, then you don't really have an argument. Instead you have a rant based on a grudge based on a fact that may not even be a fact.
Have you tried to contact the author about his ommissions? You might get more satisfaction going that route.
Never heard of that echess app before. Leaving out Forward Chess is unconscionable because it's the best app of them all. Looks like echess publishes a lot of the same books FC does. I'd be interested in trying it, but apparently they deem only apple users good enough to create an app for, so I'll stick with the best.