The Colle finally gets some respect!?

While the Colle has never gotten the respect of more traditional d4 openings such as the Queen’s Gambit or Catalan, it still has a loyal following, especially amongst club players.  I believe this is because it is relatively “easy” to play (meaning it requires minimal theoretical knowledge), yet still contains some poison if Black fails to take it seriously.

Recently, GM Nigel Davies came out with a Chessbase DVD on the Colle, and last year IM Richard Palliser came out with starting out: the Colle, which is the subject of this review.  Note that while Davies DVD only focuses on the Zukertort variation (b3 and Bb2) - as did GM Susan Polgar’s excellent DVD on this variation (which I reviewed here), Palliser’s book takes the other road and only covers the so-called Koltanowski variation (c3 and Nbd2, leaving the queen’s bishop on its home square during the opening phase).

Palliser begins the book with an 11 page introduction that is quite good. I will give two excerpts.  The first is some history about the opening’s two “fathers”:

This system dates back to the Nineteenth Century, but came to be named after by far its leading protagonist in the 1920s, the Belgian Edgard Colle (1897-1932).  Following Colle’s untimely death, his favourite system was adopted by his countryman, George Koltanowski (1903-2000); a player chiefly remembered today outside the United States for his vast blindfold simultaneous exhibitions.  Undoubtedly Koltanowski did much to popularize the opening in America (after arriving there during the Second World War), and it is nowadays sometimes even referred to as the ‘Colle-Koltanowski System’.

The second excerpt is Palliser’s honest evaluation of the Colle under the heading/common criticism: Grandmasters Don’t Play the Colle: 

Usually some sort of exception is made for Yusupov (a man who once reached a Candidates’ semi-final no less), but one will often hear that few or even no grandmasters specialize in the Colle.  Such an argument most certainly has its merits.  Anand, Svidler and Ponomariov might have employed either the Colle or the Zukertort, but that was only on the odd occasion: respectively when facing a computer, when very young and a mere 2480, and against a much weaker opponent in rapidplay.  Quite simply at 2600+ level, the likely absence of of strategical middlegame mistakes in the Colle, aligned to good theoretical knowledge and defensive technique, means that White’s winning chances are pretty slim in comparison with the sharper 1.e4 and 1.d4 main lines in vogue at the highest level.

So the Colle might not be a good opening at the likes of Linares, but at slightly less exalted levels, the Colle and Zukertort are both found; Grandmaster Kovacevic has employed the opening against all-comers for more than twenty years.  Going back to the 1920s and 1930s, we find a number of Colles in the leading events of the time, and by no means only when Colle himself was playing: Alekhine (who even employed the Colle against both Bogoljubow and Euwe in World Championship matches), Capablanca, Euwe and Rubinstein all made good use of the opening.  Quite simply the World’s elite in those days were not yet certain that 3.c4 (after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6) was a superior move to 3.e3.  Chess understanding has greatly increased since the thirties, but the elite of those days were still somewhat superior to your average clubplayer nowadays.  If they found the Colle a good opening to employ, and their opponents often struggled against it, there can be no reason for the amateur player to reject it as ‘not strong enough’ today.

A very realistic assessment of the opening I think.  Okay, let’s take a look at the lines covered in the book as per the Contents page:

Part One – The Colle System

1 Black Plays …c5 and Nc6

2 The Main Line with 9…Qc7

3 Black Plays …c5 and Nbd7

4 Other Black Set-ups after 3…e6

Part Two – The Anti Colle

5 Black’s Third Move Alternatives

6 Black Delays …Nf6

Index of Variations

Index of Complete Games

Obviously space doesn’t permit us to look at all the lines, so let’s just take a peek at what Palliser considers the main line:

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.0–0 0–0 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.e4 Qc7

The “main line” after Black’s 9…Qc7

Says Palliser: 

The ideas behind 9…Qc7 are fairly obvious: Black wants to prevent e4-e5 and, as Rizzitano puts it so well, ‘Black’s goal is to contest the centre before White can initiate a kingside attack’.  White, for his part, can still hope to gain such an attack, but must be especially aware that forcing through e4-e5 by no means guarantees him the advantage and may even on occasion play into Black’s hands.

You have to admire Palliser’s honesty here.  While some chess authors tend to only show the “shiny side” of the particular opening they are covering, Richard is carefull not to do this here.  Very refreshing.

Let’s pick up the action from a beautiful game featuring one of the fathers of the opening, George Koltanowski.  Here “Kolty” (playing White) squares off against one of his countrymen, Marcel Defosse (Belgium 1936; game 11 in the book):

10.Qe2 (This is considered White’s main move in this position; renewing the possibility of e5.) 10…Bd6 (Black tries to prevent it once again) 11.Re1 Ng4 12.h3 Nge5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.exd5 exd5 15.Nf3 Nxf3+ 16.Qxf3 Be6 17.Be3 Rad8 18.Bc2 b5 19.Bd4 Bc5 20.Rad1 b4 21.Be5 Bd6

White to move

22.Bxh7+! Kxh7 23.Qh5+ Kg8 24.Bxg7! (The double bishop sac is always a crowd pleaser!) Kxg7 25.Qg5+ Kh7 26.Rd4 Bh2+ 27.Kh1 Qf4 28.Rxf4 Bxf4 29.Qxf4 Rg8 30.Re5 1–0 (If 30…Rg6 31.Qh4+ picks up the rook on d8).

What a game!  (Note that the comments above are mine.  Palliser’s notes are a lot more detailed.)

The Bottom Line

Good books on the Colle have been few and far between; in my own library, I have three:

1) The Colle System by George Koltanowski (Chess Enterprises).  This book is by the man himself and is quite good.  His enthusiasm for the opening is very contagious.  (Note: it is currently out-of-print, so if you see a copy at a used book store or online you should snap it up!).

2) Winning with the Colle System by Ken Smith and John Hall (Chess Digest 1990).  This book is very helpful to lower-rated players as there are annotations after just about every move.  Covers both 5.c3 (the Colle-Koltanowski system) and 5.b3 (the Colle-Zukertort System).

3) The Ultimate Colle by IM Gary Lane (Batsford, 2001).  A solid book that covers both 5.c3 (the Colle-Koltanowski system) and 5.b3 (the Colle-Zukertort System).

GM Andy Soltis put out a pair of Colle books (Chess Digest, 1998), one covering the the Colle-Koltanowski system and the other covering the Colle-Zukertort System.  However, they are filled with too much white-space and too little substance and cannot really be recommended.

Thus, I would have to say that the best book available on the Koltanowski variation of the Colle is Palliser’s.  (For the Zukertort variation, I would recommend Susan Polgar’s DVD).  On a scale of 1-10, starting out: the Colle by Richard Palliser gets a 9.
 

From the Publisher's website:  Richard Palliser is an International Master with numerous tournament successes to his name, and in 2006 he became Joint British Rapidplay Champion. He has already established a reputation as a skilled and prolific chess writer; previous works for Everyman Chess include Starting Out: Sicilian Najdorf and Beating Unusual Chess Openings, both of which were warmly received by the critics and chess public alike.

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