| Two from Gambit Press The Main Line French: 3.Nc3 (Gambit Press 2001, 256 pages, figurine algebraic, $22.95, http://www.gambitbooks.com) by Danish IM Steffen Pedersen is a very good overview of the Winawer, Classical, MacCutcheon, Rubinstein and Burn variations. Pedersen devotes the largest portion of the book to the Winawer (close to 100 pages) but all major lines get good treatment including those that are quite popular among top GMs at the moment like the Burn (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4) and Steinitz (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5) variations. One drawback of trying to cover so much territory in one volume is that there isn�t so much room to deal with the fine points of lines but Pedersen handles this dilemma pretty well . This past October IM Vinay Bhat was playing in the World Youth Championships in Spain and I was one of the two American coaches. Vinay is a regular French player who answers the Tarrasch with 3�Nf6 and meets 3.Nc3 with 3�Nf6 as well. As a consequence he often arrives in a position that comes about after 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Nce2 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Nf3 or 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ndf3 Qb6 8.Ne2. In the first half of the tournament he faced the Romanian representative Constanin Lupulescu in this variation and followed John Watson�s suggestion in his excellent Play the French repertoire book: 8�f6 9.g3 cxd4 10.cxd4 fxe5 11.fxe5 Bb4+ 12.Nc3 O-O 13.Bf4 g5 but after 14.Nxg5 Qxd4 15.Qxd4 Nxd4 16.0-0-0 h6 17.Rxd4 Bxc3 18.Nxe6 Bxd4 19.Nxd4 Re8 20.e6 Nc5 21.Bb5 Nxe6 22.Bxe8 Nxd4 23.Bh5 Bf5 24.Kd2 Rc8 25.Rc1 Rxc1 26.Kxc1 found himself in a very difficult ending. Afterwards Lupulescu mentioned that he analyzed the position to the two Bishop ending with his trainer GM Nisipeanu! Looking for places to vary Vinay and I were struck by the difficulties Black faces in this line. For example after 13�Be7 Pedersen points out that 14.a3! is quite strong and he is right. Not to mention that if White is of a peaceful nature he can offer a draw with 14.Na4 (14�Qa5+ 15.Nc3 Qb6) or force Black to take a worse position by retreating his Queen to d8. The suggestion of The Main Line French: 3.Nc3 is to delay exchanging on e5 to deny White�s pieces the use of f4 temporarily - i.e. 10�.Bb4+ 11.Nc3 O-O. Pedersen offers good analysis to back this up, though the Steinitz still looks like a very testing line. This book is recommended for all experienced practitioners of the French. The Sicilian Sozin (Gambit 2001, 272 pages, paperback, figurine algebraic, $22.95, http://www.gambitbooks.com) by Mikhail Golubev is yet another excellent opening book by Gambit publications. Golubev, a GM from Ukraine, covers Bc4 against both the Najdorf and the Classical Sicilian (...d6, ...Nf6 and ...Nc6) in comprehensive fashion. The book starts out with a very useful introduction in which Golubev covers the development of Bc4 beginning with a short biographical piece on the founder of this variation, Veniamin Sozin. He then traces Fischer�s wide influence as both White and Black before bringing things up to the present. The Sicilian Sozin starts out by pointing that Bc4 is not an effective weapon against the Scheveningen as Black has the possibility of ...Na6-c5 since he hasn�t committed to either ...a7-a6 or ...Nb8-c6. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bc4 Be7 7.Bb3 Na6 8.f4 0-0 9.Qf3 Nc5 10.Be3 a5 11.0-0-0 a4 12.Bc4 a3 13.b3 Ncxe4 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Qxe4 d5 16.Bxd5 exd5 17.Qf3 Re8 " it appears that Black should have sufficient counter-chances; for example, 18.Nb5 Bf5 19.Rxd5 Qc8" (Golubev). The heart of the book is the coverage of Bc4 versus the Najdorf (dubbed the Fischer Attack where Golubev likes 5...a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Nbd7!) and the Sozin and Velimirovic Attacks. These chapters take up almost 200 pages and are filled with detailed coverage including a lot of original analysis. The final chapter in The Sicilian Sozin covers anti-Sozins lines. One thing I learned was that after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 Bd7 White has 7.0-0 g6 8.Nxc6! which is rather discouraging for Black. Benko�s favorite 6...Qb6, championed today by Vladimir Kramnik, gets a thorough treatment with an interesting observation. Golubev points out that 6...Qb6 has been favored by those who have been most successful against the Sozin Attack. His believes the explanation for this is not fundamental, but rather that White practitioners have devoted most of their attention to the more colorful 6...e6 rather than 6...Qb6. The Sicilian Sozin is must reading for those who play either side of this fascinating opening. |