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SECRETS OF OPENING SURPRISES Volume 10
Author: Jeroen Bosch
NIC (2009)
144 pages
$24.95
Reviewed by John Donaldson
The publication of the 10th volume in the New in Chess series SECRETS OF OPENING SURPRISES by IM Jeroen Bosch, is a welcome event. Well received since its inception, the S.O.S. series has met a need by providing easy to learn lines that offer surprise value without sacrificing soundness.
Volume 10 offers the following material:
Jeroen Bosch The SOS Files page 8
2; Dorian Rogozenco The Blumenfeld Gambit; Jeroen Bosch The Lewis Gambit; Dimitri Reinderman The Retreat Variation; Adrian Mikhalchishin Steinitz’s Anti-French; Arthur Kogan Slav: the Bellon-Murey Variation; Jeroen Bosch Slav: a Marshall Gambit of Sorts; Alexander Finkel Queen’s Fianchetto in the Alekhine; Igor Lysyj Grünfeld Indian: Kruppa Variation; Igor Khenkin SOS in a Flexible Caro-Kann; Sergey Tiviakov Queen’s Indian: Double Fianchetto; Adrian Mikhalchishin Sicilian: Romanishin Variation; Jeroen Bosch Modern Provocation; David Navara Tricky Line vs the Slav; Alexander Finkel Taking Chances in the Volga; Cohen Petroff for Beginners; Jeroen Bosch Winning Ugly in the Tarrasch.
Some of the suggestions are on the slight side – chapter 5 – 1.e4 e6 2.e5 and chapter 8 – 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.b3 look like they are aimed more at those wishing to get off the beaten path than hoping for an opening advantage. It’s not likely than any GM is going to start playing 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 (chapter 16) in tournaments with a classical time control but it might prove useful as a surprise weapon for blitz or rapid games. The same goes for 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Ng8 (chapter 4). The Lewis Gambit (chapter 3) looks interesting but not that many players meet 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 with 2…Bc5. These caveats aside, the rest of volume 10, should prove interesting for a large number of players.
Among them will be Caro-Kann regulars that have been having trouble in the Two Knights Variation line 1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4. GM Igor Khenkin advocates instead 3…Nf6 4.e5 Ne4!?.
Searching for something new with some sting in the heavily analyzed Grunfeld? Try the Kruppa variation – 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bg5 c5 8.Rc1.
Need a weapon to meet the Semi-Slav, especially now when the Meran is looking good for Black? Consider 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Qd3 which 2700 player David Navara champions.
The S.O.S. series has always been a mixture of the offbeat, newly discovered lines at the top level and the audacious. For the latter volume 10 offers readers two suggestions courtesy of series editor IM Jeroen Bosch. The first occurs after only three moves! Consider the position after 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3. As Bosch notes Black usually plays 3…d6 here, that 3…c6 and 3…c5 have been tried. The shocking 3…d5 is even possible and was written about in the very first S.O.S. volume. Surely this is the end of all reasonable moves short of groveling tries like 3…e6 or 3…a6, or is it? Consider the provocative 3…Nc6!? Which it turns out is a favorite of the Bulgarian GM Milko Popchev and has even been tried out by the likes of GM Larry Christiansen. Who says there is nothing new in the opening?
IM Bosch, a noted expert in the Tarrasch Defense to the Queen’s Gambit, ends SECRETS OF OPENING SURPRISES: Volume 10, with an attempt to liven up play for Black in the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.exd5 cxd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bg5. Here in the play after 6…Be7 7.Bxe7 Ngxe7 8.e3 Black is not in great troubles but can easily suffer from a slight but nagging disadvantage. To combat 6.Bg5 Bosch proposes 6…f6, first played unsuccessfully by Janowski against Marshall at Paris 1905. It’s not hard to figure out how Bosch got the title for this chapter (Winning Ugly in the Tarrasch) but as he shows, 6…f6 is much more effective than one might initially suspect.
SECRETS OF OPENING SURPRISES has met a need since it first appearance and I have no doubt that some years from now Volume 20 will be appearing.
Click to buy (or get more information about) SECRETS OF OPENING SURPRISES: VOLUME 10
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