Starting Out The Modern Defense

STARTING OUT: THE MODERN DEFENSE
Author: Nigel Davies
Everyman Chess (2008)
188 pages
$23.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

STARTING OUT: THE MODERN DEFENSE is a more advanced and personal book than the typical effort in the Everyman STARTING OUT series. Almost half of the 58 annotated games featured, which make up the bulk of the book, are Davies. He also shares with the reader previously unpublished analysis from his private notebooks.

STARTING OUT: THE MODERN DEFENSE offers the following repertoire against 1.e4, 1.d4 and 1.c4.
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 e6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bg5 Nc6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bc4 e6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nge2 Nc6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 Nc6
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nf3 a6
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.c4 a6
1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 d6

Probably the most important chapter in the book is on 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 a6, which receives a 15 page treatment. If you are not familiar with Black’s last move I’m sure you will have company. It’s decidedly less common than other Black attempts to sidestep the King’s Indian - 4…Nc6, 4…Nd7 and 4…e5 advocated in TIGER’S MODERN by GM Tiger Hillarp Persson – which all have issues that make them difficult to unequivocally recommend. While the Czech IM Maximilian Ujtelky was the first to regularly play 4…a6, which …aims for …c6 and …b5 and sometimes …Bg4 pressuring d4 with …Nf6 delayed, it is Davies who is the highest rated player to employ it repeatedly. His results suggest it deserves more tests.

Davies also recommends another answer to 1.d4, albeit from a different, sneakier move-order by White. I had always thought that after 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Be2 White, by avoiding the development of his queen knight, could force 4…Nf6. That plans based on …a6 and …b5 didn’t make any sense. Davies agrees with this but proposes that 4…Nd7 is playable. After 5.c4 e5 6.Nc3 c6 (6…Nh6 invites 7.h4) 7.0-0 Nh6 He quotes the game Stohl-Berezovics, Mlada Boleslav 1993, which continued 8.c5 exd4 9.Bxh6 Bxh6 10.Qxd4 0-0 11.cxd6 and now suggests Black improve with 11…Qb6 (! – Davies) and says “12.Qxb6 axb6 13.Rfd1 Bg7 14.a3 b5 with compensation for the pawn in the endgame”. This looks like it might well be true, but it would be useful for Black to know of the game Franco-Leskovar, Calvia 2005, where 14.a4 (14.Rac1 and 14.Nd2 are also possible) was played. White won, but it doesn’t look like it had anything to do with the position out of the opening. This is a good example of what STARTING OUT: THE MODERN DEFENSE is about. It’s a guide to this opening for newcomers with some valuable ideas and insights for experienced practioners – not a detailed treatise like Hillarp Persson’s book.

Recommended.

Click to buy (or get more information about) STARTING OUT: THE MODERN

Another great book on the Modern that was also recommended by Mr. Donaldson: TIGER'S MODERN