Donaldson's A Strategic Opening Repertoire draws upon his expertise on the White side of systems involving the first three moves 1.Nf3, 2.c4, and 3.g3. Several top players, most prominently Kramnik, use this order (or 1.c4 and 2.Nf3) in order to transpose into those queen-pawn (1.d4) openings that suit them, while avoiding others. In this regard, I find rather amusing Donaldson's statement that by playing 1.Nf3, "we are aiming for Queenside openings that restrict Black's counterplay. That mean no 1.c4 e5, and no Modern Benoni, Budapest Gambit, King's Indian, etc." But for most 1.d4 players (myself included), these are precisely the defenses one most hopes to meet, since they are fun and offer White a wide variety of promising approaches. In fact, Kramnik and most of the other GMs Donaldson cites in his introduction use the 1.Nf3, 2.c4 move order to avoid the dreaded Nimzo-Indian and associated ...e6 openings, and perhaps (if they aren't in the mood) the Grunfeld Defense as well; a small point, but perhaps of interest to the reader. What about the essence of the book, the White repertoire? John does a terrific job of outlining the fundamental ideas and strategies of a complete 1.Nf3/English Opening scheme. For readers who complain that they can't stand reams of analysis and want the relevant ideas outlined, this is your book. John's whole goal is to substitute concepts for variations wherever possible, an approach I have philosophical differences with, but which is nevertheless precisely what many players (including some of my own students) will most appreciate. The chapters on the Reversed Closed Sicilian (with ...Nc6), the Hedgehog, and the Double Fianchetto systems are wonderfully economical, giving the reader the conceptual arsenal to play the White systems for a lifetime. John's main anti-...e6/...d5 weapon is the Catalan; in a solid 13 pages, he presents the basic ideas, although there are a few systems missing, and the reader would do well to supplement this chapter with another book and/or databases. In general, the main problem with this book (and other I.C.E. books related to opening theory) is that it's much too short, without enough attention to exact move orders, and does not allow Donaldson to give us the full benefit of what I know to be his in-depth knowledge of these systems. The limited extent of the book also leads to omissions; for example, the author is ambiguous at best about dealing with 1...c6 and 2...d5, and he neglects a variety of possible transpositions into a Leningrad Dutch structure, apparently believing they will transpose to a Closed Sicilian Reversed structure (which they don't necessarily do). This brings up one more complaint: if ever a book needed an Index of Variations, this is it. For John Donaldson of all people to have neglected this strikes me as implausible; I prefer to believe that space constraints were again at fault.

In the big picture, my fault-finding notwithstanding, this is a book that's been needed for years (along with something on the English Opening), and the average player has an opportunity to pick up a self-sufficient repertoire for White, taught by one of our very best chess writers. As a core book for a greatly expanded second edition, A Strategic Opening Repertoire also has the potential to grow into something really exceptional.