THREE OPENING BOOKS FROM EVERYMAN

STARTING OUT: QUEEN’S INDIAN

Author: John Emms

176 pages

Everyman Chess (www.everymanchess.com)

$17.95

STARTING OUT: ALEKHINE’S DEFENCE

Author: John Cox

192 pages

Everyman Chess (www.everymanchess.com)

$18.95

PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN

Author: Joe Gallagher

208 pages

Everyman Chess (www.everymanchess.com)

$19.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

Everyman Chess has recently published three fine opening books. Two are from Everyman’s Starting Out series, a line of titles aimed at club players that are attractively produced large (9 1/2 by 7 inch) format books. The emphasis in this series is on explaining things with lots of prose and model games. There are very useful summaries as well as highlighted tips to aid the learning process. The latest productions are the QUEEN’S INDIAN by Grandmaster John Emms and the ALEKHINE’S DEFENCE by Fide Master John Cox.

Grandmaster Emms needs no introduction. He is well known both as an author and player. The Queen's Indian has long figured in his repertoire and this extensive experience shows. The 45 model games cover all lines including the Nimzo-Queen’s Hybrid lines with Bg5 and ...Bb4. This book is all players below 2300 need to play the Queen’s Indian.

English FIDE Master John Cox has made a strong debut with his ALEKHINE’S DEFENCE, which features one very welcome novelty. Near the front of the book he offers readers three suggested repertoires using the Alekhine’s as the answer to 1.e4. The first is for non-theoretical players, the second for positional ones and the third for those who like tactics. He then offers three ways to answer 1...Nf6 for the same three groups. Cox’s suggestions are well thought and inspire one to give this slightly non-mainstream answer to 1.e4 a try. One thing I learned reading this book is that Black might well do best to meet 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 with 2...e5 rather than stay in pure Alekhine territory with 2...d5. Cox rightly points out that Black is doing just fine in the Vienna and Four Knight’s Game.

STARTING OUT: ALEKHINE’S DEFENCE, is an excellent instruction to this underrated opening. Players below the Master level will likely find this is all they need while stronger players may be use it as inspiration to take up 1...Nf6.

The third new offering, PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN by Joe Gallagher, is likely to change the way that many players answer one 1.d4. Gallagher, in just over 200 meaty but quite readable pages, covers all the ins and outs. This book offers one set answer to each of White’s principal tries (Averbakh, Saemisch, Four Pawns, Fianchetto, etc.) except the Classical where both the main lines with 7...Nc6 and 7...Na6 are covered. Gallagher, while offering a tremendous amount of instructive and enlightening material, has not lost his sense of humor. Check out his comments about players who answer 6...e5 in the Classical with 7.dxe5 and you will see what I mean!

One line that a lot of KID players don’t like to face is the Fianchetto variation, and more than one player that answers 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 with 2...g6 has been known to play the Grunfeld when White whips out g2-g3, but Gallagher is not among them. The Ukrainian GM Borovikov put an end to the old Gallagher variation:

V Borovikov (2593) – M Golubev (2526) [E68]

Ukraine 2001

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0–0 Nbd7 7.Nc3 e5 8.e4 exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.h3 a6 11.Be3 Rb8 12.b3 c5 13.Nde2 b5 14.Qxd6 b4 15.Na4 Nxe4 16.Bxe4 Rxe4 17.Rad1 Qe8 18.Nxc5 Rxe3 19.Nxd7 Rxe2 20.Nxb8 Bxh3 21.Qb6 Bf8 22.Rd8 Qe4 23.Qc6 Qxc6 24.Nxc6 Bxf1 25.Kxf1 Rxa2 26.Nxb4 Ra1+ 27.Ke2 Kg7 28.Nd3 Rb1 29.Rb8 a5 30.c5 a4 31.b4 Bxc5 32.Nxc5 a3 33.Ra8 Rxb4 34.Rxa3 h5 35.Nd3 Rb7 36.Nf4 Re7+ 37.Kf3 Rd7 38.Rd3 Re7 39.Rd6 Re5 40.Rd7 Kf6 41.Ra7 Kg7 42.Nd3 Re6 43.Kf4 Re2 44.f3 Kf6 45.Ra6+ Kg7 46.Ne5 g5+ 47.Kf5 h4 48.gxh4 gxh4 49.Ra7 h3 50.Rxf7+ Kg8 51.Rf6 Kg7 52.Rg6+ Kh7, 1–0.

Now Joe likes 8...a6 with the idea 9.h3 b5 and 9.Re1 exd4 10.Nxd4 Ng4! 11.h3 Qf6!. Critical is 9.Qc2 which Gallagher analyses at length. Black appears to have sufficient resources and gets interesting, dynamic play.

My prediction is that PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN is going to justly sell very well and attract many converts to the KID. This book is suitable for masters on up with Gallagher’s STARTING OUT: THE KING’S INDIAN just the thing for amateur players.

Click to see Bauer's review of STARTING OUT: THE KING'S INDIAN.

Click to buy STARTING OUT: THE KING'S INDIAN

Click to buy PLAY THE KING'S INDIAN

Click to buy STARTING OUT: ALEKHINE'S DEFENSE

Click to buy STARTING OUT: THE QUEEN'S INDIAN