Opening books and even more opening books: does it ever stop? Not likely, looking at the pile of opening books that have come out recently. In this review, I will look at a small selection of the sample from four different major publishers. But first I'd like to pose a question I have wondered about for as long as I can remember. Suppose you dislike all this 'modern theory' discussions about the Najdorf Sicilian, the Marshall Defense or the Botvinnik Slav. Boring! You decide to play something 'fun', something 'off-beat'. Something 'creative, yeah! You pick an opening that looks like fun, say the Sokolsky (1.b4). (Why not?) Now what do you do? Here are two options: 1. You look at some games from strong players, just to get a feel for the typical positions and ideas, and then without much further ado start playing it and have as much fun as possible.2. You buy as much books as you can (well, at least
one really good one) about the opening you selected and start to delve deeply into the intricacies of this new choice of yours, in order to be prepared as much as possible for all possible ways your opponent can react to your off-beat line. Personally, I've never understood why people would want to go for option 2. I mean, they wanted to be free from all these piles of theoretical knowledge, right? Isn't buying thick and well-researched book about off-beat openings something of a paradox? But fortunately, it isn't my job to tell you which option to choose, only to tell you which books are good and which aren't.
As you've probably guessed by now, these thoughts came into my head while reading Jerzy Konikowski & Marek Soszynski's new book
1.b4 - Theory and Practice of the Sokolsky Opening, published by Russell Enterprises Inc. - a very good book, in case you're wondering.In almost 300 pages, Konikowski and Soszynski sketch a rather subtle picture of the Sokolsky opening, which is both not as silly as it looks and not as wild as many people think. The authors are enthusiastic and objective - usually a winning combination - and their book is also full of interesting historical games. They're also very honest about their approach (the book isn't meant for white players only), and open about the fact that just last year, another book on the Sokolsky (Play 1.b4 by Lapshun and Conticello, 2008) has appeared:
We did not have sight of it until May 2008, by which time we had virtually completed all our analysis for the present work. Twenty-six of our illustrative games (...) happened to be in their selection of main games too. However, very little in their book prompted us to change our own content.
Moving on to the actual analyses of the book, what I found interesting as a frequent 1.b4 player myself, is that the authors spend a considerable amount of pages on lines that I never considered to be worthy of serious analysis, such as 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 f6!? which to me has always looked decidedly silly. After all, why weaken your kingside while you can also defend e5 with your d-pawn or take on b4 with tempo?It's true that nobody has ever tried this move against me yet, but after reading this book, I think I might try it myself as black some day! The point is, as I should have realized a long time ago, that after 2...f6, Black threatens to take on b4, winning time to play d7-d5, building a strong pawn center as early as move 3. (The authors suggest the interesting pawn sacrifice 3.e4!?, but they're objective enough to acknowledge that black is probably fine if he knows what he's doing.) Also, taking on b4 (2...Bxb4) doesn't only come with pluses, as the authors explain as follows:
Exchanging the b-pawn for the e-pawn should be in White's favour since it gives him a central pawn majority and increases the scope of his dark-squared bishop. However, Black counts on a development advantage and on mobilizing his forced aggressively.
This is just one example where 1.b4 - Theory and Practice of the Sokolsky Opening, has taught me something fundamental about this interesting line (and chess openings in general!) that I didn't know as consciously yet. If you like detailed analysis of both highly tactical and solidly positional ideas you can surprise your opponents with, this is definitely the book for you. For players who just like a general overview of the ideas before playing (or combatting) it, this book is also a fine choice, but it may be a bit too detailed.
Two recent opening books that cannot be accused of being too detailed, are part 2 and 3 in the Chess Essentials series, published by New in Chess. In
part two, all 1.d4 d5 and Queen's Gambit openings are discussed, while
part three deals with Indian Defenses. Since both books contain just under 300 pages, a totally different approach has been taken by the three authors (Stefan Djuric, Dimitri Komarov and Claudio Pantaleoni). The audience they're writing for are 'club players who want to understand what's going on in the opening of a chess game'. To make clear the main variations, ideas and the most important players, the publishers have used a few interesting, less conventional methods. The key positions of each opening are displayed in red (yes, red) diagrams. The name(s) of the inventors are in a bold, red font, and references to other sources or sections of the book are also in red. At first, I found this a bit confusing, but after a while I got used to it and actually found it very useful for finding my way around the books. So how do the authors explain 'what's going on' in each opening? As an example which will be useful in this review later on, let's consider the Dutch Defence (1.d4 f5) which they discuss in part two:
The idea of this move is to prevent 2.e4. Compared to the more natural 1...d5 or 1...Nf6, development will suffer. But in compensation, the advance f7-f5 lays the groundwork for an attack against the white king (which will almost always castle kingside) that is rarely offered by the more classical alternatives.
This is a pretty good start, in my opinion. Also good is that they recommend 2.g3! as 'without doubt' White's best reply: not only is it something which may still be something of a surprise to players who almost automatically push their c-pawn on move 2, but it also shows that the authors aren't afraid to take a firm stand when necessary. (Both Karpov and Kasparov have occassionally played 2.c4.) However, in this kind of book setup, as the opening progresses and play gets more complex, the descriptions tend to become less firm als also less clear. The authors offer the following explanation for the Stonewall Dutch (which I will bring back to its essence for clarity's sake):
1.d5 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.c4 d5 Black can also play this move, which characterises the variation after ... Be7 or ...c6. Given that in recent times Black prefers the variation with ...Bd6, we will look at the move when it is played at this point in the game so as to maintain normal convention. 5.Nf3 is White's usual choice at this stage of the game, and we will discuss it soon. However, there is an important alternative that has an even better performance:5.Nh3!(...) Experience has taught us that the best configuration for the white knights is when they are on d3 and f3, from where they both bear down on e5; this placement is even more powerful after an exchange of the dark-squared bishops. In both cases [Nb1-d2-f3; Nf3-e1-d3 and Nb1-d2-f3; Nh3-f4-d3 - AWM] White needs 5 moves to get his knights to d3 and f3. However, in the second case, if Black plays ...Bd6 - as he so often does - White has the option to exploit the weakness on the dark squares with Bf4. Naturally, this is only the case if the knight is still on h3, from where it can take the black bishop without compromising White's pawn structure with gxf4 (...) 5... c6 6.0-0 Black almost always proceeds with6...Bd6 Given that this bishop is often exchanged on f4, the classical 6...Be7 has a certain logic. In this case, White can still seek to exchange off the dark bishops with 7.b3 0-0 8.Ba3 Bxa3 9.Nxa3, but then his knight finds itself away from the action.7.Bf4 Be7!? Paradoxical-looking, but in reality logical: the f4-square is no longer available for the h3 knight. (...)
Several things can be said about this extremely interesting fragment. Let's start with a small point: there's a comma missing in the comment after 4...d5 between 'variation' and 'after', without which the whole sentence doesn't make sense. This adds to the confusion which is sure to arise in the next lines: why does Black prefer ... Bd6 in recent times when the main line the authors give leads to unclear play, and when 6...Be7 has 'a certain logic'? Why, if 5.Nh3 scores so well, are games where Nf3 is played so much more frequent? Aren't there some tricky move-order things going on here? What if White plays Nh3 (or Nf3) later, or earlier, and what happens to the 'normal convention' when Black delays the move d7-d5? There is an answer, but it's a complex one - too complex for this book, as it turns out: I will discuss it in the next paragraph. However, let's not forget the good things of the above passage: readers are made aware of the possibility of Nh3 instead of Nf3, the questions of when, whether (and how) to exchange dark squared bishops, they've learned a valuable lesson about how the post e5 should be occupied and, later on, they do get a flavour of some of the interesting complications that can arise in this opening. However, the explanations are increasingly shallow as the game progesses and this can lead to confusion or even annoyance. This is a necessary evil of such books, of course, and players who do not care for such trifles will find
Chess Opening Essentials 2 and 3 to be valuable and easy-accessible guides to the basic ideas of all major chess openings.
In case you're intrigued by the Stonewall problems mentioned above, I can heartily recommend
Win with the Stonewall Dutch by Sverre Johnson and Ivar Bern, recently published by Gambit. This book is an enthusiastic and solid invitation to, as Vladimir Kramnik put it, 'one of only a few openings where Black achieves an immediate advantage in space'. It contains a detailed overview of the main lines (divided into 12 'lessons'), lots of illustrated high-level games and a lot of useful excercises. Move-order issues are handled with care - something such extreme much care, that new confusion arises! Regarding the Nf3/Nh3 discussion, it turns out to be inseparable from the c4/no c4 question - a question which is ignored altogether by Djuric, Komarov and Pantaleoni. If White goes c4 on one of his first moves, Black shouldn't play 4...d5 at all, but 4...c6 first, and only then decide whether to go ...d5 or ...d6:
1. d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4. c4 c6! Black tries to discourage White from playing 5.Nh3 by indicating that he might go for ...d6 and ...e5 instead of a Stonewall structure. This plan takes advantage of the fact that Nh3 doesn't control the e5 square. (...)
Please note that I don't want to show that
Chess Opening Essentials is wrong, just that it's impossible to be precise and complete in such books. Anyway, there is no such thing as a perfect opening book, because
Win with the Stonewall Dutch is also a bit unclear on some points, as I will try to show now. The authors discuss the inaccurate move 4...d5 after which they indeed recommend 5.Nh3. Their explanation of the question Bd6/Be7 starts off in a similar was as the previous one, and then adds important information to it:
4...d5?! 5.Nh3! c6 6.0-0 Bd6Black intends to meet 7.Bf4 with 7...Be7 and then try to prove that it is to Black's advantage that the f4-square is occupied by a bishop (taking the square from the h3-knight). However, 6...Be7!? is a logical alternative. (...) 7.b3 0-0 and now 8.Ba3 Bxa3 transposes to the main game, but 8.Bb2!?, intending to play for the classical set-up with knights on f3 and d3, is logical as it's harder for Black to prepare ...c5 with ...b6 and ... Bb7 when the bishop is on e7. (...) With the bishop on e7 it's hard to find a good square for the black queen. If Black plans ...b6 and ...Bb7 he needs something to protect the e6 pawn, which will be attacked by the knight when it reaches f4. (...)7.b3!?This is one of the relatively few options which Black can avoid with the 4...c6 move-order. The ensuing play should remind you of certain themes from Lesson 1 [which discussed the variation 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 5.0-0 Bd6 6.c4 c6 7.b3 - AWM] . White succeeds in exchanging dark-squared bishops on a3, but with the knight on h3 (instead of f3 as in Lesson 1), Black can create counterplay in the centre with ...e5. 7.Bf4 is the main continuation, transposing to Game 41 after 7...Be7 8.Qc2.
Although I couldn't find any flaws in the above explanation, I must admit the authors still lost me at some point. And when I saw that Game 41 starts off with 4...c6 5.Qc2 (instead of 5.Nh3), I realized I would have to put a
lot more work into this opening before it all would make sense.
Win with the Stonewall Dutch is not only an enthusiastic book about an interesting and fun opening - it is also a very difficult and high-level book for serious chess students who not only are interested in this particular opening but in chess strategy in general. Highly recommened.
I started this review with a question, so I may as well end with one. Which do you think is heavier: the fiftheenth and latest edition of
Batsford's Modern Chess Openings, or my new Sony Vaio laptop (without battery)? Well, it's a very close call, but the book still triumphs the machine, making it still slightly more convenient for the tournament player to pack your BCO instead of any light laptop with a database and opening book. Of course, BCO is more than just a digital book with lines and evalutations, but my guess is books this like won't be around for too much longer. This doesn't mean BCO isn't a good book: it's still an extremely well-researched piece of work which gives a both compact and detailed overview of the current opening theory.It's impossible to do a proper review of this massive 700+ page book, so as a final excercise, let's look at what BCO has to say about the Stonewall and the Sokolsky. BCO doesn't delve into the discussion of whether to play c4 or not, and simply gives 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 as the
tabiya of the Stonewall Defense. After this, both 5.Nf3 and 5.Nh3 are analysed. After 5.Nh3, they give both 5...Be7 and 5...Bd6 (but not 5...c6). After Be7,they analyse the line with 7.b3 and 8.Bb2 (instead of Ba3) - it's the same as Johnsen and Bern. 5...Bd6 (not mentioned by Johnsen and Bern) is 'a good alternative' according to BCO, leading to a position where 'White's edge is small' after 12 moves. I'm afraid it all leaves me in a state of utter bewilderment.As for 1.b4, BCO's main line is actually 1...e5 2.Bb2 f6 after which they, too, suggest the pawn sacrifice 3.e4!?, though it does in the end lead to an advantage for Black. Confusing? Well, maybe one shouldn't take opening books too seriously. Sometimes it's much better to just play chess and worry about theory
after the game.
Links
Opening books and even more opening books: does it ever stop? Not likely, looking at the pile of opening books that have come out recently. In this review, I will look at a small selection of the sample from four different major publishers. But first I'd like to pose a question I have wondered about for as long as I can remember. Suppose you dislike all this 'modern theory' discussions about the Najdorf Sicilian, the Marshall Defense or the Botvinnik Slav. Boring! You decide to play something 'fun', something 'off-beat'. Something 'creative, yeah! You pick an opening that looks like fun, say the Sokolsky (1.b4). (Why not?) Now what do you do? Here are two options: 1. You look at some games from strong players, just to get a feel for the typical positions and ideas, and then without much further ado start playing it and have as much fun as possible.2. You buy as much books as you can (well, at least one really good one) about the opening you selected and start to delve deeply into the intricacies of this new choice of yours, in order to be prepared as much as possible for all possible ways your opponent can react to your off-beat line. Personally, I've never understood why people would want to go for option 2. I mean, they wanted to be free from all these piles of theoretical knowledge, right? Isn't buying thick and well-researched book about off-beat openings something of a paradox? But fortunately, it isn't my job to tell you which option to choose, only to tell you which books are good and which aren't.
As you've probably guessed by now, these thoughts came into my head while reading Jerzy Konikowski & Marek Soszynski's new book 1.b4 - Theory and Practice of the Sokolsky Opening, published by Russell Enterprises Inc. - a very good book, in case you're wondering.In almost 300 pages, Konikowski and Soszynski sketch a rather subtle picture of the Sokolsky opening, which is both not as silly as it looks and not as wild as many people think. The authors are enthusiastic and objective - usually a winning combination - and their book is also full of interesting historical games. They're also very honest about their approach (the book isn't meant for white players only), and open about the fact that just last year, another book on the Sokolsky (Play 1.b4 by Lapshun and Conticello, 2008) has appeared:
Two recent opening books that cannot be accused of being too detailed, are part 2 and 3 in the Chess Essentials series, published by New in Chess. In part two, all 1.d4 d5 and Queen's Gambit openings are discussed, while part three deals with Indian Defenses. Since both books contain just under 300 pages, a totally different approach has been taken by the three authors (Stefan Djuric, Dimitri Komarov and Claudio Pantaleoni). The audience they're writing for are 'club players who want to understand what's going on in the opening of a chess game'. To make clear the main variations, ideas and the most important players, the publishers have used a few interesting, less conventional methods. The key positions of each opening are displayed in red (yes, red) diagrams. The name(s) of the inventors are in a bold, red font, and references to other sources or sections of the book are also in red. At first, I found this a bit confusing, but after a while I got used to it and actually found it very useful for finding my way around the books. So how do the authors explain 'what's going on' in each opening? As an example which will be useful in this review later on, let's consider the Dutch Defence (1.d4 f5) which they discuss in part two:
Black can also play this move, which characterises the variation after ... Be7 or ...c6. Given that in recent times Black prefers the variation with ...Bd6, we will look at the move when it is played at this point in the game so as to maintain normal convention. 5.Nf3 is White's usual choice at this stage of the game, and we will discuss it soon. However, there is an important alternative that has an even better performance:5.Nh3!(...) Experience has taught us that the best configuration for the white knights is when they are on d3 and f3, from where they both bear down on e5; this placement is even more powerful after an exchange of the dark-squared bishops. In both cases [Nb1-d2-f3; Nf3-e1-d3 and Nb1-d2-f3; Nh3-f4-d3 - AWM] White needs 5 moves to get his knights to d3 and f3. However, in the second case, if Black plays ...Bd6 - as he so often does - White has the option to exploit the weakness on the dark squares with Bf4. Naturally, this is only the case if the knight is still on h3, from where it can take the black bishop without compromising White's pawn structure with gxf4 (...) 5... c6 6.0-0 Black almost always proceeds with6...Bd6 Given that this bishop is often exchanged on f4, the classical 6...Be7 has a certain logic. In this case, White can still seek to exchange off the dark bishops with 7.b3 0-0 8.Ba3 Bxa3 9.Nxa3, but then his knight finds itself away from the action.7.Bf4 Be7!? Paradoxical-looking, but in reality logical: the f4-square is no longer available for the h3 knight. (...)
In case you're intrigued by the Stonewall problems mentioned above, I can heartily recommend Win with the Stonewall Dutch by Sverre Johnson and Ivar Bern, recently published by Gambit. This book is an enthusiastic and solid invitation to, as Vladimir Kramnik put it, 'one of only a few openings where Black achieves an immediate advantage in space'. It contains a detailed overview of the main lines (divided into 12 'lessons'), lots of illustrated high-level games and a lot of useful excercises. Move-order issues are handled with care - something such extreme much care, that new confusion arises! Regarding the Nf3/Nh3 discussion, it turns out to be inseparable from the c4/no c4 question - a question which is ignored altogether by Djuric, Komarov and Pantaleoni. If White goes c4 on one of his first moves, Black shouldn't play 4...d5 at all, but 4...c6 first, and only then decide whether to go ...d5 or ...d6:
Black intends to meet 7.Bf4 with 7...Be7 and then try to prove that it is to Black's advantage that the f4-square is occupied by a bishop (taking the square from the h3-knight). However, 6...Be7!? is a logical alternative. (...) 7.b3 0-0 and now 8.Ba3 Bxa3 transposes to the main game, but 8.Bb2!?, intending to play for the classical set-up with knights on f3 and d3, is logical as it's harder for Black to prepare ...c5 with ...b6 and ... Bb7 when the bishop is on e7. (...) With the bishop on e7 it's hard to find a good square for the black queen. If Black plans ...b6 and ...Bb7 he needs something to protect the e6 pawn, which will be attacked by the knight when it reaches f4. (...)7.b3!?This is one of the relatively few options which Black can avoid with the 4...c6 move-order. The ensuing play should remind you of certain themes from Lesson 1 [which discussed the variation 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 5.0-0 Bd6 6.c4 c6 7.b3 - AWM] . White succeeds in exchanging dark-squared bishops on a3, but with the knight on h3 (instead of f3 as in Lesson 1), Black can create counterplay in the centre with ...e5. 7.Bf4 is the main continuation, transposing to Game 41 after 7...Be7 8.Qc2.
I started this review with a question, so I may as well end with one. Which do you think is heavier: the fiftheenth and latest edition of Batsford's Modern Chess Openings, or my new Sony Vaio laptop (without battery)? Well, it's a very close call, but the book still triumphs the machine, making it still slightly more convenient for the tournament player to pack your BCO instead of any light laptop with a database and opening book. Of course, BCO is more than just a digital book with lines and evalutations, but my guess is books this like won't be around for too much longer. This doesn't mean BCO isn't a good book: it's still an extremely well-researched piece of work which gives a both compact and detailed overview of the current opening theory.It's impossible to do a proper review of this massive 700+ page book, so as a final excercise, let's look at what BCO has to say about the Stonewall and the Sokolsky. BCO doesn't delve into the discussion of whether to play c4 or not, and simply gives 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 as the tabiya of the Stonewall Defense. After this, both 5.Nf3 and 5.Nh3 are analysed. After 5.Nh3, they give both 5...Be7 and 5...Bd6 (but not 5...c6). After Be7,they analyse the line with 7.b3 and 8.Bb2 (instead of Ba3) - it's the same as Johnsen and Bern. 5...Bd6 (not mentioned by Johnsen and Bern) is 'a good alternative' according to BCO, leading to a position where 'White's edge is small' after 12 moves. I'm afraid it all leaves me in a state of utter bewilderment.As for 1.b4, BCO's main line is actually 1...e5 2.Bb2 f6 after which they, too, suggest the pawn sacrifice 3.e4!?, though it does in the end lead to an advantage for Black. Confusing? Well, maybe one shouldn't take opening books too seriously. Sometimes it's much better to just play chess and worry about theory after the game.
