VARIOUS PUBLISHERS ARCHIVE
The Fascinating Réti Gambit – 1.e4 e6 2.b3!? A Fun Anti-French! by Thomas Johansson, 28 pages, Self-published, 2006 $24.95 softback, $34.95 hardback
http://hem.passagen.se/tjmisha/
Thomas Johansson is a strong (around 2200) amateur player from Sweden. This is his third publication, following two well-received books on the King’s Gambit (The King's Gambit for the Creative Aggressor, a repertoire book based on the Knight’s Gambit, and The Fascinating King’s Gambit based on the Bishop’s Gambit).
OK, so what is the Réti Gambit? Most players will have heard of the Réti Opening 1 Nf3, but few will be aware that in the 1920s the Czech grandmaster Richard Réti (actually born in Pezinok, then in Hungary, in 1889) was one of the most inventive grandmasters around. His creativity was seen in the field of endgame studies as well as opening and middlegame plans. He was also a good writer (Modern Ideas in Chess, Masters of the Chessboard).
In Gothenburg (aka Göteborg), Sweden, in 1920, the first big chess event in Europe following World War I took place. In the third round, two experts in the French defence from different generations sat down to play each other. Réti had the White pieces against his older colleague, the renowned defensive expert Géza Maróczy (born 1870) from Hungary. It is not hard to imagine Réti racking his brains to decide what line he should choose... The game began 1 e4 e6 2 b3!?... I guess we shall never know whether this was over-the-board inspiration, a creative suggestion from Réti’s friend Breyer, or perhaps a whimsical suggestion from the ever-playful Tartakower, who later employed this line several times himself (both Breyer and Tartakower were also playing at Gothenburg). The game produced an unusual middlegame struggle and was drawn only after various vicissitudes. By the way, whilst it is possible to find games with 2.b3 played before Réti’s time, it seems that he was the first to offer the gambit 2....d5 3.Bb2.
If facing the French was a problem for Réti in 1920, it is an even bigger problem now. The expansion in French theory has been phenomenal. White’s three main continuations all have their snags: 3 Nc3 is generally regarded as theoretically strongest, but the ramifications are huge and complex; Sveshnikov considers that 3.e5 is the second best move and also sufficient for a white advantage, but proving it in practice against an experienced French Defence player is quite another matter; Karpov’s old favourite 3.Nd2 is still fully playable but it breaks the rules of development, so it is hardly surprising that Black gets to choose from among a wide choice of playable continuations, according to the type of position he prefers, or the degree of risk he is prepared to run.
2.b3!? might seem a rather extreme reaction to the problem of what to play against the French, but it has certain clear advantages:
a) it is playable, b) the theory is not yet well-developed, c) in most of its variations White is able to avoid the normal patterns of the French
and compel Black to fight in an unclear, unfamiliar position d) it is provocative therefore Black may over-react in an attempt to “punish” White.
Johansson’s book makes a good primer for anyone wishing to adopt this line. He appears to have made a pretty thorough investigation of the available material, has done his own analysis and tried it out in many games on the Internet. The material is laid out quite clearly, and there are many helpful verbal comments as well as analytical notes of varying depth. He even deals with possible transpositions to the more popular “Anti-Sicilian” 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 b3. There is a useful index of variations but unfortunately no index of players. Production values are very good for a book of this type.
Verdict: This won’t be for everyone, but for many amateur players this book will provide just what they need to create an unusual pattern of struggle in the often stereotyped French Defence. Rating: ****
The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack by Jerzy Konikowski and Marek Soszynski Russell Enterprises, 2005, 283 large pages, £16.95.
The Four Pawns Attack against the King’s Indian (and Modern Benoni) has been somewhat neglected in recent years, but the authors show that it remains a very dangerous weapon for which Black must be well prepared. I was struck by the variety of ways in which White can handle the Four Pawns Attack; whilst the authors treat as the main line 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 0-0 6 Nf3 c5 7 d5 e6 8 Be2 exd5 9 cxd5 Re8 10 e5 dxe5 11 fxe5 Ng4 12 Bg5, they also show that White has a variety of other options, of varying soundness perhaps, but all setting Black problems of different kinds; in reverse order, they are: 12 0-0, 10 Nd2, 9 e5, 9 exd5, 8 dxe6, 7 Be2 and 7 dxc5. I know from first hand how dangerous the last option can be, since I had to face it in the 2005 Monarch Assurance event. Even though I had done some preparation on this line, I soon found Black’s position difficult to handle against Yuri Zimmerman, a Four Pawns expert and co-author of one of the books quoted in the bibliography of The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack. The game went: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f4 O-O 6. Nf3 c5 7. dxc5 Qa5 8. Bd3 Qxc5 9. Qe2 Nc6 10. Be3 Qa5 11. O-O Bg4 12. Rac1 Nd7 13. Qf2 Nc5 14. Bb1 Bxf3 15. gxf3 Na4 16. Nd1! Nc5 17. Kh1 Rac8 18. Rg1 (mentioned on page 55 of The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack) and here I probably chose the wrong plan: 18...e6?! 19. Rg5 f6 20. Rg1 f5 21. exf5 gxf5? (The open g-file will be more useful to White.) 22. Nc3 Kh8 23. Nb5 Rcd8 24. Nxd6 Rxd6 25. Bxc5 Bd4 26. Bxd4+ Rxd4 27. Qg3 Qc7 28. Rce1 Rxc4 29. Rxe6 Nd4 30. Ree1 Rc6 31. Qf2 Rd8?? 32. Qxd4+! 1-0
In the main line 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 0-0 6 Nf3 c5 7 d5 e6 8 Be2 exd5 9 cxd5 Re8 10 e5 dxe5 11 fxe5 Ng4 12 Bg5 the authors are undoubtedly correct in identifying 13. O-O Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Bc4 Qxb2 16. d6 Rf8 17. Bxf7+ Kg7! as critical. According to Semkov (who lost a game to Marin after 18.Qd5) this is fine for Black, to the extent that he felt he had to give up the Four Pawns Attack altogether, but Konikowski and Soszynski give some examples which indicate that 18. Bd5 Qxc3 19.Rxf8 Kxf8 20. Qf1+ Bf5 21 Rd1 Nd7 22 g4 may be equal. They also mention 21...Qb2 (preventing g2-g4) as unclear, I may be wrong, but I strongly suspect that White is in trouble here.
I was surprised that only 14 pages are devoted to 6...Na6, the preference of several KID experts such as McShane, Hebden and Gallagher, but the authors claim that Black has a difficult game if White proceeds with the logical and aggressive 7 e5
Whilst this book “contains a lot of moves”, as someone once said, it is not a database dump. The authors have provided a lot of verbal explanation and contributed many original suggestions. There is an extensive bibliography, an index of variations and a list of the complete annotated games. The book is well laid out, printed on good paper and has an attractive cover.
Verdict: The Four Pawns Attack is not played much by masters these days but this book makes a strong case that it deserves more attention. This will be a useful book for anyone who plays these lines with either colour. It should be particularly useful as a source for correspondence players. Rating: ***
Experts vs. the Sicilian (2nd Edition) by Jacob Aagaard & John Shaw (editors) Quality Chess, (http://www.qualitychessbooks.com), 228 large pages £16.99
The first edition of this book was a great success. Quality Chess have taken the opportunity of a second edition not only to provide some updating, correcting and expansion of the contents but also to re-format it to comply with what has evolved quite rapidly into their house style – handsome, large format books, well designed and on good paper. The result is a book that is both pleasant to handle and easy to work with. For anyone who missed the first edition, here is what the fuss is all about: the aim is to provide an aggressive repertoire for White using the Open Sicilian against all Black’s options (except 2…Nf6 and 2…a6 which require special treatment). The publishers have engaged a number of experts each to write a chapter, so for instance we have Mikhail Golubev on the Dragon and Peter Wells on the Richter-Rauser. Whilst one could argue with some of the repertoire choices, the overall impression is very favourable indeed. There is some terrific stuff here and a keen player with a good memory will find some formidable weapons. I did notice some problem areas though:
a ) I found Pinski’s treatment of the so-called Kalashnikov rather superficial and dismissive; the main games are well chosen and instructively annotated, but this line is still being actively developed by Sveshnikov and others and Pinski fails to mention for instance the interesting 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 d6 6. N1c3 a6 7. Na3 Be6 8. Nc4 Rc8!? – I have over forty examples of this in my database played in the period 2004-2006 (including two wins by Sveshnikov himself) and Black has been scoring about 50%, so whatever the objective merits of 8…Rc8, I think it deserved some attention by Pinski. b) in Thomas Luther’s chapter dealing with 6 Bg5 against the Najdorf (possibly the most controversial repertoire choice in the whole book), against 6…e6 7 f4 Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0 Nbd7 he recommends 10 g4 (50 years old and still going strong!) 10…b5 11 Bxf6 Nxf6 12 g5 Nd7 13 f5 and now his main line game goes 13…Nc5, whereas I know from my own experience and study that 13…Bxg5+ can be a very tough nut to crack if Black knows his stuff; even Luther admits that this move is “the principled reaction”, but there is a lack of detail here that could prove fatal to the unwary.
c) Luther’s treatment of the Poisoned Pawn variation seems over-optimistic, if my own experience is anything to go by; I followed Guseinov-Villaviciencio 2002 (page 33-4) in an email game and ran into a major improvement: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. Qd2 Qxb2 9. Nb3 Qa3 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Be2 h5 12. O-O Nd7 13. f5 Be7 14. Qd4 b5 15.Rf3 Bb7 16. fxe6 fxe6 17. Rh3 Bd8! N 18. Kh1 Bb6 19. Qd2 O-O-O 20. Rf1 Kb8 21.Rxh5 Bc7 22. Rh6 Rxh6 23. Qxh6 b4 24. Nb1 Qxa2 25. N1d2 Qb2 26. Bc4 Qe5 27. Bd3 d5 28. Nf3 Qd6 29. exd5 Bxd5 30. Nbd2 f5 31. Bc4 Bxc4 32. Nxc4 Qd5 33. Qh4 a5 34. Re1 Nb6 35. Nxb6 Bxb6 0-1 Adams,P-Hall,RVM, BFCC Club Championship 2003 (- my own fault of course – I should have checked the line far more thoroughly before firing it out against such a strong correspondence player).
Nevertheless, my overall impression of this book remains very favourable – no opening book is perfect and you should always supplement it with personal research using a database, a chess engine…oh, and your human brain!
Verdict: A seriously good repertoire book. Highly recommended. Rating: ****
The Benko
Gambit by Jan Pinski, Quality Chess,
(http://www.qualitychessbooksbooks.com), 124 large pages £13.99
This is my first review of a product from a new chess
publisher, Quality Chess. If this book is anything to go by, the name is apt.
The production values are high: nice cover, nice paper, good layout, a useful
index of variations, two (!) indexes of the 49 complete annotated games. One
aspect I really appreciate is that there is a summary Game conclusion
after each illustrative game, and an overall summary Chapter
conclusions at the end of each chapter.
Jan Pinski is a Polish IM
whose previous opening books for other publishers I have already reviewed,
generally quite favourably. But when authors are prolific, one begins to
suspect that each new offering is a “pot-boiler”, however, that does not seem
to be the case here. My database indicates that Pinski
has played the Benko many times himself, and this is
reflected not only in the game references but in the many shrewd insights found
throughout the book.
The Benko is very much an
ideas-based opening, based on a single all-important structure; this is
discussed in the first long chapter Introduction to the Classical Benko Structures (24 pages) which I think is excellent.
Then we begin our exploration of particular variations: The Benko Gambit Accepted 1 (ten pages) deals with some
minor options for White after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6, as
well as explaining why 5...g6 is more accurate than 5...Bxa6 and much better
than 5...e6. Then The Benko Gambit Accepted II
(fifteen pages) examines the important lines in which White allows the exchange
of light-squared bishops: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4
c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 e4 Bxf1 8 Kxf1 d6. The Benko Gambit Accepted III (14 pages) deals with the
line in which White avoids the exchange of bishops by means of a kingside fianchetto. Next we see White returning the pawn with The
Positional 5.b6 (11 pages). Only
seven pages are devoted to The Ambitious 5.e3 which was regarded almost
as a refutation of the Benko in the 1980s. Next up we
have 5.f3, a white favourite of the early 90s (13 pages). For sheer
entertainment the next line must be hard to beat: 5 Nc3- The Zaitzev Variation (five pages); both sides are on thin
ice in this line, but Black’s resources in the critical 5...axb5 6 e4 b4 7 Nb5
d6 8 Bf4 g5! now seem more than adequate. Finally there is a chapter entitled
Five sidelines (ten pages) where, given the
thoroughness of the coverage in the rest of the book, I was surprised at the
omission of the line 4 f3, recommended in Dunnington’s
Attacking with 1 d4.
I know of several club players who score well with the
Benko as Black; and I know others who open with 1 d4
and who really hate facing the Benko. What is clear
is that if White wishes to play ambitiously (with 2 c4 instead of 2 Nf3) then
he must take the gambit seriously and prepare one line very well. Someone once
remarked to the effect that, up to a certain (and quite high – even Rowson has struggled against it a couple of times) level of
chess, the Benko is rather easier to play for Black
than for White, and I think this remains true. I feel sure that a club player
who absorbs nothing more than the material in Pinski’s
introduction will be able to play the Benko with
confidence and do well with it at club level.
At higher levels, the situation is rather different.
Several of the gambit’s strongest supporters in the early 90s now seem to have
abandoned it, e.g. Adams, Khalifman, Hebden. When Topalov
played it against Kramnik in 2003 he lost in a
pawn-down rook ending that he might have drawn, but the depressing thing was
that he was always chasing the game.
The Dutch GM Karel van der Weide, a long-time Benko fan, has written eloquently in New in Chess Yearbook
about his giving up the gambit. Van der Weide’s main concerns focus on two variations. A) the “king-walk” variation 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6
5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 e4 Bxf1 8 Kxf1 d6 9 g3 Bg7 10 Kg2 0-0 11 Nf3 Nbd7 when
12 Re1! seems to pose more problems for Black than
previously thought. Pinski reckons that Black can
seek counterplay with 12...Ra6 (Van der Weide disagrees), can explore
relatively uncharted waters with 12...Nb6 or can hold the draw with 12....Qb6
(neither move is mentioned by van der Weide in YB66). B) Epishin’s (typoed as Epinshi on page 60 of Pinski’s book) favourite 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6
5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 g3 d6 8 Bg2 Bg7 9 Nf3 Nbd7 10 Rb1, planning b3. Pinski recommends 10...Nb6, but does not mention 11 a4,
played in Epishin-van der Weide quoted in YB68. (It is not clear whether Pinski was aware of van der Weide’s articles, since unfortunately there is no
bibliography and no indication of the cut-off point in the research - this
should surely be standard in any opening book in this information age.)
Recently there have been successful attempts to revive the older move 10...Qa5,
not mentioned by Pinski.
Verdict: a quality chess book
indeed, and certainly a must for all Benko Gambit
fans. For players wishing to take up the Benko, the
introductory chapter alone provides a great tutorial. Recommended,
with the reservations indicated above. ***(*)
Experts vs. the Sicilian (2nd Edition) by
Jacob Aagaard & John Shaw (editors), Quality
Chess, (http://www.qualitychessbooks.com), 228 large pages £16.99
The first edition of this book was a great success.
Quality Chess have taken the opportunity of a second edition not only to
provide some updating, correcting and expansion of the contents but also to
re-format it to comply with what has evolved quite rapidly into their house
style – handsome, large format books, well designed and on good paper. The
result is a book that is both pleasant to handle and easy to work with.
For anyone who missed the first edition, here is what
the fuss is all about: the aim is to provide an aggressive repertoire for White
using the Open Sicilian against all Black’s options (except 2…Nf6 and 2…a6
which require special treatment). The publishers have engaged a number of
experts each to write a chapter, so for instance we have Mikhail Golubev on the Dragon and Peter Wells on the Richter-Rauser. Whilst one could argue with some of the repertoire
choices, the overall impression is very favourable indeed. There is some
terrific stuff here and a keen player with a good memory will find some
formidable weapons.
I did notice some problem areas though:
a ) I found Pinski’s
treatment of the so-called Kalashnikov rather superficial and dismissive; the
main games are well chosen and instructively annotated, but this line is still
being actively developed by Sveshnikov and others and
Pinski fails to mention for instance the interesting
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 d6 6. N1c3 a6 7. Na3 Be6
8. Nc4
Rc8!? – I have over forty examples of this in my database played in the period
2004-2006 (including two wins by Sveshnikov himself)
and Black has been scoring about 50%, so whatever the objective merits of
8…Rc8, I think it deserved some attention by Pinski.
b) in Thomas Luther’s chapter dealing with 6 Bg5
against the Najdorf (possibly the most controversial
repertoire choice in the whole book), against 6…e6 7 f4 Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0
Nbd7 he recommends 10 g4 (50 years old and still going strong!) 10…b5 11 Bxf6
Nxf6 12 g5 Nd7 13 f5 and now his main line game goes 13…Nc5, whereas I know
from my own experience and study that 13…Bxg5+ can be a very tough nut to crack
if Black knows his stuff; even Luther admits that this move is “the principled
reaction”, but there is a lack of detail here that could prove fatal to the
unwary.
c) Luther’s treatment of the Poisoned Pawn variation
seems over-optimistic, if my own experience is anything to go by; I followed Guseinov-Villaviciencio 2002 (page 33-4) in an email game
and ran into a major improvement: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3.
d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. Qd2 Qxb2 9. Nb3 Qa3 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Be2 h5 12. O-O Nd7 13. f5 Be7 14. Qd4 b5 15.Rf3 Bb7 16. fxe6 fxe6 17. Rh3
Bd8! N 18. Kh1 Bb6 19. Qd2 O-O-O 20.
Rf1 Kb8 21.Rxh5 Bc7 22. Rh6 Rxh6 23. Qxh6 b4 24. Nb1 Qxa2 25. N1d2 Qb2 26. Bc4
Qe5 27. Bd3 d5 28. Nf3 Qd6 29. exd5 Bxd5 30. Nbd2 f5 31. Bc4 Bxc4 32. Nxc4 Qd5
33. Qh4 a5 34. Re1 Nb6 35. Nxb6 Bxb6 0-1
Nevertheless, my overall impression of this book
remains very favourable – no opening book is perfect and you should always
supplement it with personal research using a database, a chess engine…oh, and
your human brain!
Verdict: A seriously good repertoire book. Highly
recommended. ****
The Fascinating Réti Gambit – 1.e4 e6 2.b3!? A Fun Anti-French!,
by Thomas Johansson, 228
pages, Self-published, 2006.
$24.95 softback, $34.95 hardback.
http://hem.passagen.se/tjmisha/
Thomas
Johansson is a strong (around 2200) amateur player from
OK, so what
is the Réti Gambit? Most players will have heard of
the Réti Opening 1 Nf3, but few will be aware that in
the 1920s Richard Réti (born in Pezinok,
then in
In
Gothenburg (aka Göteborg),
Sweden, in 1920, the first big chess event in Europe following World War
I, two experts in the French defence
from different generations sat down to play each other in the third round; Réti had the White pieces against his older colleague, the
renowned defensive expert Géza Maróczy
(born 1870) from Hungary. It is not hard to imagine Réti
racking his brains to decide what line he should choose... The game began 1 e4
e6 2 b3!?... I guess we shall never know whether this was over-the-board
inspiration, a creative suggestion from Réti’s friend
Breyer, or perhaps a whimsical suggestion from the
ever-playful Tartakower, who later employed this line
several times himself (both Breyer and Tartakower were also playing at Gothenburg). The game
produced an unusual middlegame struggle and was drawn
only after various vicissitudes.
If facing
the French was a problem for Réti in 1920, it is an
even bigger problem now. The expansion in French theory has been phenomenal.
White’s three main continuations all have their snags: 3 Nc3 is generally
regarded as theoretically strongest, but the ramifications are huge and
complex; Sveshnikov considers that 3.e5 is the second
best move and also sufficient for a white advantage, but proving it in practice
against an experienced French Defence player is quite another matter; Karpov’s old favourite 3.Nd2 is still fully playable but it
breaks the rules of development, so it is hardly surprising that Black gets to
choose from among a wide choice of playable continuations, according to the
type of position he prefers, or the degree of risk he is prepared to run.
2.b3!?
might seem a rather extreme reaction to the problem of what to play against the
French, but it has certain clear advantages: a) it is playable; b) the theory
is not yet well-developed; c) in most of its variations White is able to avoid
the normal patterns of the French and compell Black
to fight in an unclear, unfamiliar position; d) it is provocative, therefore
Black may over-react in an attempt to “punish” White.
Johansson’s
book makes a good primer for anyone wishing to adopt this line. He appears to
have made a pretty through of the available material, has done his own analysis
and tried it out in many games on the Internet. The material is laid out quite
clearly, and there are many helpful verbal comments as well as analytical notes
of varying depth. He even deals with possible transpositions to the more
popular “Anti-Sicilian” 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 b3. There is a useful index of
variations but unfortunately no index of players. Production values are very
good for a book of this type.
Verdict: This won’t be for
everyone, but for many amateur players this book will provide just what they
need to create an unusual pattern of struggle in the often stereotyped French
Defence. ****
The Fearsome
Four Pawns Attack by Jerzy Konikowski
and Marek Soszynski,
Russell Enterprises, 2005, 283 large pages, £16.95.
The Four Pawns Attack against the
King’s Indian (and Modern Benoni) has been somewhat
neglected in recent years, but the authors show that it remains a very
dangerous weapon for which Black must be well prepared. I was struck by the
variety of ways in which White can handle the Four Pawns Attack; whilst the
authors treat as the main line 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 0-0 6
Nf3 c5 7 d5 e6 8 Be2 exd5 9 cxd5 Re8 10 e5 dxe5 11 fxe5 Ng4 12 Bg5, they also
show that White has a variety of other options, of varying soundness perhaps,
but all setting Black problems of different kinds; in reverse order, they are:
12 0-0, 10 Nd2, 9 e5, 9 exd5, 8 dxe6, 7 Be2 and 7 dxc5. I know from first hand
how dangerous the last option can be, since I had to face it in the 2005
Monarch Assurance event. Even though I had done some preparation on this line,
I soon found Black’s position difficult to handle against Yuri Zimmerman, a
Four Pawns expert and co-author of one of the books quoted in the bibliography
of The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack.
The game went: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f4 O-O 6. Nf3 c5 7. dxc5 Qa5 8. Bd3 Qxc5 9. Qe2 Nc6 10. Be3 Qa5 11. O-O Bg4 12. Rac1 Nd7 13. Qf2 Nc5 14. Bb1 Bxf3 15. gxf3 Na4 16. Nd1! Nc5 17. Kh1 Rac8 18. Rg1 (mentioned on page 55 of The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack) and here
I probably chose the wrong plan: 18...e6?! 19. Rg5 f6 20. Rg1
f5 21. exf5 gxf5? (The open g-file will be more
useful to White.) 22. Nc3 Kh8 23. Nb5 Rcd8 24. Nxd6 Rxd6 25. Bxc5 Bd4 26. Bxd4+ Rxd4 27. Qg3 Qc7 28. Rce1 Rxc4 29. Rxe6 Nd4 30. Ree1 Rc6 31. Qf2 Rd8?? 32. Qxd4+!
1-0
In the main line 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3
Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 0-0 6 Nf3 c5 7 d5 e6 8 Be2 exd5 9 cxd5 Re8 10 e5 dxe5 11
fxe5 Ng4 12 Bg5 the authors are undoubtedly correct in identifying 13. O-O Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Bc4 Qxb2 16.
d6 Rf8 17. Bxf7+ Kg7! as critical.
According to Semkov (who lost a game to Marin after
18.Qd5) this is fine for Black, to the extent that he felt he had to give up
the Four Pawns Attack altogether, but Konikowski and Soszynski give some examples which indicate that 18. Bd5 Qxc3 19.Rxf8 Kxf8 20. Qf1+ Bf5 21 Rd1 Nd7 22 g4 may be
equal. They also mention 21...Qb2 (preventing g2-g4) as unclear, I may be
wrong, but I strongly suspect that White is in trouble here.
I was surprised that only 14 pages
are devoted to 6...Na6, the preference of several KID experts such as McShane, Hebden and Gallagher,
but the authors claim that Black has a difficult game if White proceeds with
the logical and aggressive 7 e5
Whilst this book “contains a lot of
moves”, as someone once said, it is not a database dump. The authors have
provided a lot of verbal explanation and contributed many original suggestions.
There is an extensive bibliography,
an index of variations and a list of the complete annotated games. The book is
well laid out, printed on good paper and has an attractive cover.
Verdict: The Four Pawns Attack is not played much by
masters these days but this book makes a strong case that it deserves more
attention. This will be a useful book for anyone who plays these lines with
either colour. It should be particularly useful as a source for correspondence
players. ***
Focus on Hocus-Pocus by Erwin Brecher &
Danny Roth, Panacea Press 2004, 200 pages, £11.95
This is a most unusual book
- unique as far as I know. Throughout the book, chess puzzles alternate with
bridge puzzles - 100 of each in all.
You have to turn the page
to find the solution. The bridge section was edited by Maureen Dennison and the
chess section was compiled with the help of Leonard Barden.
Chess fans will find that most of the chess puzzles are taken from real games
(rather than being composed "problems"); some are taken from old
games, but many are from games played in the last few years, not just in
international tournaments but in arenas such as the 4NCL (British league), the
London league. The book is nicely produced and printed.
Verdict: an ideal travelling companion for anyone with an interest in both
chess and bridge - would make a neat present.
Tiger’s Modern by Tiger Hillarp
Persson, Quality Chessbooks,
(http://www.qualitychessbooksbooks.com), 216 large pages £15.99
It seems that there is a definite trend among
professional players to mistrust all or nearly all the black defences that
concede space. This is a great shame, since the imbalance created in such
defences as the Pirc or King's Indian has produced
many great fighting games over the years. I do hope it is just a phase; the
thought of more and more people playing the Slav and the Petroff
is very depressing! Anyway, for those of you who don't want to abandon your
...g6 defences just yet, you could start making your opponent's prep a lot more
difficult by adopting the flexible Modern move order - the recent book Tiger's
Modern from Quality Chessbooks is a fantastic source
of inspiration, good advice and hard analysis.
The exotically-named author (born 1970) is a
grandmaster (current ELO 2533) from Sweden who (unlike many other chess
authors) practises what he preaches; my database contains 65 games featuring
him on the black side of the Modern Defence with an early ...a6; his score is
an impressive 61% for Black (1-0: 18, draw: 15, 0-1: 32)!
In his useful nine-page introduction, the author
explains his choice of opening: “...it gives White zero chances of playing for
a draw and therefore it is an excellent choice in situations where playing for
a win is essential. In these lines there is no exchange-variation or
I-am-a-sucker-for-a-draw variation, or any other way for White to exchange a
bunch of pieces on move ten.” The introduction also discusses typical ideas for
both sides and offers some rules of thumb. Then we have six chapters in which
Black plays 4...a6, including a ground-breaking chapter on the Hippopotamus
structure in which Black fianchettoes both bishops,
plays d6 and e6 and develops the knights to d7 and e7. Then we have four chapters dealing with white
set-ups against which the author considers 4...a6 to be inappropriate. Finally
we have a chapter in which the author considers Black’s possible responses to
White’s playing 1 e4, 2 d4, 3 c4 which for some reason has become known as the Averbakh variation (mis-spelt as Averbach in the chapter heading). The author himself admits
that in this case he normally transposes to the King’s Indian, which he
considers more reliable than other treatments; but he offers the reader who
might be unwilling to play the King’s Indian some material on 1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7
3 c4 d6 4 Nc3 e5.
The material is mostly embedded in sixty-nine complete
annotated games; twenty-six of which feature the author handling the black
pieces. The games are well indexed, by chronology and alphabetically; there is
also a detailed index of variations.
The author has clearly made a great effort with this
his first book; on practically every page there are personal touches and hugely
valuable insights into this opening and the game of chess generally. The reader
gets the distinct impression that author is honest, enthusiastic about his
chosen subject and is holding nothing back. I confess that I don’t play the
Modern for Black, so I am not really qualified to comment on the technical content
of this book; however, if I wanted to take up this opening then this would be
my choice – it seems far and away the best available.
By the way, the production values of this book are
very high; good cover, nice layout and design, pleasant typeface, no wasted
space.
Verdict: A fine achievement. Players of all strengths who are
interested in playing this opening need look no further; this is the new Modern
Defence bible. ****(*)
The Sveshnikov Reloaded by
Dorian Rogzenko, Quality Chess, (http://www.qualitychessbooksbooks.com),
340 large pages £16.99
Against a background of initial scepticism as to its
soundness, the stock of the variation 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5
Nc3 e5, popularised by Sveshnikov in the 1970s, rose
steadily during the nineties until it seemed that most of the world’s top
players were playing it, including Kramnik, Leko, Shirov, Anand,
Topalov and (in the years just before his retirement)
even Kasparov. The Sveshnikov combines solidity
(Black’s king tends to be much safer than in most other variations of the open
Sicilian), a fair share of the central space (staked out by the ...e5 advance),
and considerable imbalance (in the main line Black gains the bishop pair and a
central pawn majority, compensating for White’s sounder pawns and an outpost at
d5). It therefore appealed to many players of different levels as an ideal
choice for playing for a win with Black.
Yet the popularity of the Sveshnikov
may already have peaked in 2003, with nearly 1,000 games being played with this
opening by players rated over 2000 ELO. Whilst it has continued to feature in
the games of (e.g.) Kramnik and Leko,
there appears to have been a fall in the number of Sveshnikovs
played in 2004 and 2005 (although the numbers are still substantial). I can
think of three plausible reasons for this. Firstly, the huge expansion in the
theory of the Sveshnikov has probably put off a lot
of players. In 1999 Nigel Short felt able to write in the Sunday Telegraph:
"I can heartily recommend the Sveshnikov to anyone
these days. It is the ideal "idiot variation" because it is
strategically very simple and does not even require that much rote learning.
Furthermore it is difficult to avoid and, to cap it all,
it might even objectively be very strong”. But by 2005 Short was writing
(Sunday Telegraph, 6th February): “It is one of those openings, with limited strategical ideas, that lends
itself readily to computer analysis and concomitant memorisation – in short,
everything I detest about modern chess.” The second reason may well be an
indirect complement to the strength of the Sveshnikov
and the Open Sicilian generally – more Whites may be choosing to decline the
challenge of the Open Sicilian, choosing Anti-Sicilian systems such 3 Bb5 or 2
c3, or specifically Anti-Sveshnikov move orders such
as 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 instead. A third possible reason is that many seams
of the Sveshnikov have now been quarried so deeply
that it is becoming hard to find new resources, plus many variations have been
found to reduce to a drawn ending; this is no threat to its soundness, of
course, but it means that the Sveshnikov may be
losing a little of its attraction as a way of playing for a win.
Rogozenko is a GM from
There is an impressive bibliography which includes
every important Sveshnikov source of which I am
aware, with the exception of Dutch GM John van der Wiel’s De Sveshnikov bijbel. A useful feature (which should be universal in
opening books) is that the cut-off point for the research is indicated (e.g.
Informant 1-91). There is also an index of variations. The texts in Rogozenko’s CD-ROM were sometimes rather stilted or just
plain bad English; in this book, however, the editors Shaw and Aagaard have produced a text that reads pretty well. As usual with books from this
newly-established publisher, the production values are very high: good cover,
nice layout and design, pleasant typeface and little wasted space.
Verdict:. an opening book of very high
quality and a must for Sveshnikov fans. *****