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Books can surprise
you, really they can. As a novice player I had plopped my king pawn
up to the fourth rank as White almost religiously. Then, a friend
recommended the book Flank Openings by GM Raymond Keene. I was
skeptical, but the best player in my area published a game in which he
mentioned the book. So, I obtained a copy. Immediately I was engrossed by the book and have kept my e-pawn back many times over the years because of it. Learning that the "Dangerous Weapons" series was coming out with a "Flank Openings" edition my curiosity and excitement were tempered with a bit of doubt. My feeling has been that Flank Openings are a bit too amorphous to be lumped into categories like the Sicilian or Queens Gambit. Still, I could not contain my eagerness to open the cover when my copy arrived. I was instantly surprised! Twelve chapters make up the book:
1 Fun Times
with Nimzowitsch's 4.e4 As listed the book has three authors, each taking a different topic. Tony Kosten takes the White side of the Reti/English, the Black side of the English is carried by Richard Palliser and the final two chapters see James Vigus on Bird's opening. In the preface Palliser explains that much work was focused on selecting the material to go into the book, seeking lines that would produce interesting games. I would certainly be interested to know what was passed over for the book, yet I appreciate the explanation. This suggests a collaborative effort instead of three writers lumping material together. Six chapters have been written by GM Kosten and they are quite intriguing. The chapters on Nmzowitsch's 4.e4 in the Four-Knights English and the Mikenas attack are an excellent supplement to his famous book The Dynamic English. In practice I would think the "Slaying the Slav" and "An Enhanced Benoni" would get more work, while "Kramer's Gambit" is a bit of fun for the imaginative player. Palliser's work is focused on "Anti English" lines. The "Fighting Against the Kostenites" chapters look specifically at a large recommendation from The Dynamic English and display updated and enhanced material for Black players facing 1.c4 / 2.g3. The "Kasparov Gambit" chapter is probably the most "mainline" section of the book, being a staple of many Benoni/Benko players. The material by both of these authors is well thought out and written for a wider audience base than many of today's books. Of all these pieces of work I feel that Chapter 1 "Fun Times with Nimzowitsch's 4.e4" and Chapter 8 "Slaying the Slav" will repay study. There are two reasons: first, these are the most likely to get work and secondly Kosten does an excellent job of defining some of the positional/strategic points necessary to play them successfully. An illustration is on page 11 at the bottom where a natural move like castling is likely a dreadful mistake. This kind of work helps a large number of readers to get a feel for the opening. Any player looking to open or defend 1.c4 or 1.Nf3 will gain a lot of expertise from reviewing the work by Kosten and Palliser. Vigus' look at 1.f4 in the final two chapters was the real surprise. Bird's Opening is the unloved cousin in the flank opening family, likely because it is misunderstood. Vigus takes steps to change that. Chapter 11 reviews a little known or underappreciated approach for White against the From's Gambit. Stemming from the venerable Bent Larsen's practice in the 1960's, the analysis of the line 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5.Nc3!? will go a long way to building a player's confidence in 1.f4. Though it takes a keen understanding and an unerring eye for tactics, this line should afford the White player a very palatable middle game. Vigus has gone a step further by including work, some of it independent, on small sidelines in the From's. This is very valuable material for the "Bird" master. In the final chapter Vigus borrows from GM Henrik Danielsen in naming the reversed Leningrad Dutch "The Polar Bear". Danielsen has done much work on the system and put a lot of it online. Vigus includes much of Danielsen's work in this chapter, while keeping it to a manageable size. Due to the misunderstanding of the Bird's by the general public there are many places where an unfamiliar circumstance will cause a player anguish. Vigus does a very good job of clearing up some of these points by minimizing the drama of "slips" by the White player and accentuating the positive points of the opening. It would be a big reach for me to suggest that these last two chapters constitute a White opening repertoire, but they make an excellent starting point. As I said, this book surprised me. I would have hoped for something in a more "mainstream" line like the Reversed Dragon or the Anti Grunfeld 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5. Qa4+, but as stated in the preface much work was put into deciding what to publish. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the choices and found the work on Bird's opening an extremely welcome direction for the book. The work in the book is written to deliver concepts related to the positions that arise in the opening and not to give computer-like sequences of moves to show that a line inevitably leads to advantage. This goes back, I think, to the idea about collaboration.
It is not clear to me at
this point what the direction of the "Dangerous Weapons" series is intended
to be, an update of current theory, an amalgamation of semi-theoretical
sidelines or just attempts to expand the comprehension of openings by
advocating non "main lines" for either side. In any of these cases, I think
Dangerous Weapons Flank Openings is a great addition to the
collection of any player working with 1.c4 or 1.Nf3 and a greater addition
to the advanced appreciation of 1.f4. Who knows, maybe there are surprises
everywhere!
More Dangerous Weapons reviewed: Dangerous Weapons 1.e4 e5 by John Emms, Glenn Flear and Andrew Greet (Everyman Chess, 2008), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary Dangerous Weapons: The Benoni and Benko by Richard Palliser, John Emms, Chris Ward and Gawain Jones (Everyman Chess, 2008), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary Dangerous Weapons: The French by IM John Watson, reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Dangerous Weapons: The Nimzo-Indian by John Emms, Chris Ward, and
Richard Palliser, and
Dangerous Weapons: The Sicilian by John Emms and Richard Palliser,
reviewed by S. Evan Kreider
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