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Initially I thought there was some kind of joke involved here. It seems to me that to have something “complete” doesn’t involve multiple volumes, sort of like “Total roads of the world, north to south edition.” Ok, it wasn’t a joke. The subject needs more than one book and I can deal with that. After seeing the book’s size my thoughts turn to whether one person can play all of this opening!
This particular formation has proven useful in a number of settings; Sicilian defense and Queens or Nimzo Indians are notable arenas for the beast. “Complete Hedgehog” deals with the variation in the English opening after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6:
This
was a very common battleground for GM’s in the 80’s and 90’s as players such
as Ftacnik, Psakhis and Ribli would regularly be seen on either side of the
variation, plus GM Suba built a career out of it. This line’s pedigree is
not in doubt. Two qualities are apparent about Shipov’s work on this book. First of all, the defense is illuminated by presenting lines framed in a chronological context. Well into the 1970’s such formations for Black were thought to be nearly unplayable because White could easily play d4 gaining a spatial edge. This is termed the "classical 8.Qxd4" continuation. Then players found tactical resources for the Black side, White countered with immediate attacks on the d6 point, a refinement in move order for Black returned things to even, players on the White side changed tack by aiming advantage by aiming for certain piece exchanges or trying define matters clearly with a quick e4-e5, and so on. This is presented in Part 1 of the book where a chapter of “history and pioneers” illustrates much of the learning involved. To a hedgehog novice, such as me, this helps to clear up many strategic questions going forward.
After this the focus is on the strategic points and tactical possibilities that follow from White’s attempts against the Hedgehog. Part 2 revolves around a bit of a refinement for White. Playing 7.Re1 White seeks to advance e4 and only then follow up with d4. The pawn on e4 prevents an exchange of white square bishops if White later recaptures on d4 with the Nf3. This may seem counter-intuitive because the e4-pawn is blocking the Bg2 as well as a later target for Black, yet the side with more space generally seeks to keep pieces on the board to cause more congestion in the enemies camp. Well, all of this is a bit esoteric to a player of my capabilities so suffice it to say that White seems to gain quite a better set of chances after 7.Re1 and 8.e4. Shipov deals with this setup from Black’s perspective and once again follows a historical line of ideas in the variation. For the reader what comes across is how the ideas of playing the variation have developed as well as the factors involved in different continuations.
The second thing that Shipov shares is insight into how he assesses positions. It is all fine and good to list the various points to consider in a position, yet we all have to sort out these things at the board. Shipov helps to sort some of these out with subtle insights. A passage on page 273 refers to a game Shipov played as Black. In a critical position he explains how he analyzed some typical continuations, but didn’t like the resulting positions. Of importance are the reasons he found some of these possibilities discomforting. His comments are brief and contain subtlety, but help to clarify the reasons for some moves. This involves the reader to a little more of a degree, but is worth the time involved. This is a big book. It has to be to have the thoroughness that the author wants. The presentation is well thought out and Shipov’s writing is very engaging. The popularity of this setup is evidenced by having none other than Gary Kasparov writing the forward for the book.
The book is aimed at players who are seeking to take up the Hedgehog as their defense against the English. Yes those who already play it will enjoy it also, yet a lot of the material will be redundant for them. This leads me to believe that GM Shipov wrote the book out of an abundance of enthusiasm for the defense and not with a marketing scheme in mind. For that, I applaud him and recommend this book to anyone seeking a good dynamic way to play against the English.
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