Opening books account for probably 80 percent of all books on chess that are published today, but the only recent offering from Gambit is An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black by GM Jouni Yrjola and IM Jussi Tella. It continues Gambits trend of publishing fresh and original work, this time a complete repertoire based on 1...d6.

The two Finns cover a lot of ground in this groundbreaking effort. The Pirc is the key component to this repertoire, taking approximately 20 percent of the book. There is a lot of material offered here which can be found nowhere else, though some readers may not like allowing White the forced draw in the Austrian Attack in the Seirawan line after 5...c5 6.Bb5+.

One of the strong points of the authors is their communication with the reader. In the aforementioned line they let the reader know what is going on and what his alternatives are, and just how good the alternatives are. They also do a very good job of pointing out various move-order options. For example against 1.d4 d6 2.c4 they analyze 2...e5, but freely admit that after 2.g3 e5 Black is suffering after 3.dxe5 dxe5 4.Qxd8+. The absence of the pawn on c4 being a major plus for White.

This book has very good coverage of lines involving ...d6 and ...Bg4, be it from 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 or 3.e4, with over 70 pages dedicated to this scheme of development. They even offer an alternative repertoire based on the Old Indian line 1.d4 d6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bf5.

This is not your typical opening book, or even your typical opening repertoire book. The reader is given choices with the various pros and cons openly discussed. Players from 2000 on up will derive the most benefit from this book and this endorsement includes titled players.

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