Alexander Khalifman was the last FIDE World Champion before Anand, and is a first-class grandmaster of enormous talent. Here he has a new idea for a book: to present Kramnik's White repertoire while filling in the many gaps for subvariations that Kramnik hasn't faced. This task is done in considerable detail, but also with more than adequate explanation for the average player. Such depth is possible because the book is split up into 3 volumes, and thus will presumably extend to somewhere between 600 and 800 pages by the time it's done.

When explicit guidance (in words) is lacking, I am particularly impressed with Khalifman's choice of examples, always strictly relevant to the issue at hand. This is very often not the case for other opening books, whose authors tend to throw in cute but misleading games.

Khalifman's effort also illustrates the distinct practical advantages of a repertoire book. The good author can concentrate upon the theory of the recommended solutions and needn't fill in the theory of inferior moves for his own side. The King's Indian Defence dominates this first volume, with Kramnik's latter-day mainstay 9.b4 in the main line. What I enjoyed most and learned most from was Khalifman's coverage of the 'sidelines' to the KID such as 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Bg4, or here 6...e5 7.0-0 Na6. With his guidance, one can cut through all the confusing theory associated with such lines and find an effective way to play the White side.

I don't, however, understand Khalifman's decision to use 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qa4+ and 5.e4 Nxc3 6.dxc3 versus the Grunfeld. I can only find 6 Kramnik games with the first (harmless) option and not a single one with the second! Instead, Kramnik almost exclusively plays for the position after 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.d4 in this line. Or, about half the time, he has played 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 etc. In both cases we see him playing the introductory position of a main-line Gruenfeld. In that position, Kramnik has played and developed the theory on 7.Bb5+ (in about 18 games), played absolutely key games with 7.Nf3 and 8.Rb1 (39 times), and has often played 7.Bc4 over the years. In this case, then, Khalifman seems to be trying to save space rather than follow Kramnik. On the other hand, neither of Khalifman's repertoire solutions require much memorization and thus have practical advantages.

My only other and truly minor complaint is the poor translation. However, this is almost always the case when someone whose native language is X tries to translate into language Y. The other way around is usually preferable, but it can also be expensive or difficult to arrange.

I have used and am very pleased with this book, and I look forward to the other volumes in this series. Club and tournament players of just about any strength will benefit by studying this book and adopting at least some of its variations in their play.