Danish
IM Jacob Aagaard is not only at the front of the
FIDE rating list, but is also one of Everyman’s
mainstays. His recent book, QUEEN’S INDIAN
DEFENSE, is another solid work from this interesting
and opinionated author (click to see Jeremy
Silman’s review of
this same book).
Entire books have been written about variations
of the Queen’s Indian, so author Aagaard
has his work cut out for him. He manages to present
a great deal of material in the 66 model games
(10 feature Karpov, the great expert on the QID)
working around his space disadvantage by presenting
almost entirely high quality examples from Grandmaster
practice. Unlike a lot of other books in the Everyman
series, these games range from a much wider time
span with examples going back until the early
1980s. This reflects the author’s desire
to present material he feels will best help the
reader develop a feel for this opening.
Another way Aagaard deals with space is by weighting
his material. If you play either side of the old
classical main line 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6
4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 Ne4 8.Qc2 Nxc3
9.Qxc3, this is not the book for you as there
is only one game with this line featured. On the
other hand, if you play lines with …Ba6
against g3 you will find 21 games and a very good
explanation of systems where …Bb7, …d5,
and …Na6 are played. Karpov championed this
approach in the 1970s via the main line 7.Nc3
d5 8.Ne5 Na6, but it ran into problems when White
found precise methods to deal with it. Today this
type of setup is again popular via 4…Ba6
and …Bb4+-e7, where White may find himself
winning tempi (b3 and Bd2) that may often hurt
him more than help him. Aagaard does a good of
explaining these nuances.
One last point – The QUEEN’S INDIAN
DEFENSE also covers 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6
4.Nc3 Bb4, which often arises from the QID move
order, but is usually only examined in treatises
on the Nimzo-Indian.
Those wishing to take up the Queen’s Indian
will find Aagaard’s QUEEN’S INDIAN
DEFENSE to be an inspirational book.
YOU
CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT
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