| The second volume of Danish FM Carsten Hansen�s series on the English has just appeared. The Symmetrical English (Gambit Publications, 2000, 256 pp., figurine algebraic, paperback, $22.95) covers all the lines after 1.c4 c5 including the Hedgehog, Double Fianchetto, Rubinstein Variation (1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 d5), the Keres-Parma, and various Anti-Benoni variations. This is a lot of material to cover! Twenty years ago, John Watson helped to popularize the English with his ground breaking series on the opening. Today, Carsten Hansen is trying to update his efforts, but with the handicap that he only has the same amount of pages given to Watson. This is a real challenge because opening theory has exploded the past two decades. Today, authors (Suba and Palkovi to name two) have written entire books on the Hedgehog variation alone. If one wanted to, it would be very easy to produce a book on the Symmetrical English that would be twice the size of the present volume. A narrowly focused specialist work could zero in on a line like 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.0-0 e6 6.Nc3 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.Rd1 a6 10.Bg5 Nbd7 11.Qd2 0-0 12.Bf4 and explain why Black must play 12�Ne8, which Hansen correctly gives as Black�s best. It�s interesting that GM Lubomir Ftacnik, one of the world�s great experts on the Hedgehog, plays this line with both colors as does Polish GM Alex Wojtkiewicz. The latter, in fact, has stopped playing the Hedgehog because of this line. His feeling is that White must be better as he can confine the Knight to e8 while continuing to make useful moves to improve his own position. Of course, it must be pointed out that Wojtkiewicz lost with White in this line this past December in Las Vegas to GM Utut Adianto so matters are not so clear cut. Hansen�s book is more of an overview than the last word on the English. The author does a very good job of synthesizing existing theory and pointing the reader in the direction of what is important. Those interested in either side of the Symmetrical English will find this a useful work. |