One of the truisms of our time is that you should never explain yourself on the Internet – specifically social media. Over the weekend I was urged by one of our writers to engage with an individual who was slamming The Nemesis for being plagiarism. While the guy was not listening and repeating falsehoods, I thought there was general interest in the questions posed. And for this reason I am repeating the facts here, relating to the overlap between The Nemesis and Application of Chess Theory. (I know the link says out of print, but I think they have a newer version. Still this is what Google gave me).

First of all, The Nemesis is a new translation of a new compilation of Geller’s writings, published by Russian Chess House. We got the rights from them. In Application of Chess Theory there were 100 games grouped according to openings. I am not sure if this was Geller’s idea originally or if it was done by someone else.

It is also unclear to me if Application of Chess Theory is based on the sale of rights to Pergamon and if Geller was rewarded for this. I do not think anyone knows and doubt there is a way to work that out. As I see it, both books are legal.

Our friend was concerned that some of the translations ended up with similar meanings. I refer to a dictionary if someone does not know what translation means. 86 of the games are the same games. The Nemesis has added notes from Max Notkin in many places.

In Application of Chess Theory there are 14 games not in The Nemesis . The Nemesis has 49 games that are not in ACT. About 200 pages worth. Our original discussion

before the translation began was if we should make a small book of unpublished material or a large book with everything. We were torn. In the end my view, that it would be unfair to the readers to omit material, in order to save costs on printing, translation and transport, and that this was against the way we normally do things. This settled it.

I do not believe for a second that anyone believed that Geller, dead for almost 25 years, had reannotated the games already found in Application of Chess Theory. In other words, the idea that we are misleading even a single reader is probably fictitious. However, if it is not and you felt mislead or disappointed, get in touch and we will sort it out.

For those who want to compare the two books, the following overview is useful (all game numbers referring to Application of Chess Theory ). Hopefully this will inform any potential reader of either book and help them make the best choice for themselves.

Not in The Nemesis: Games 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 44, 47, 48, 64