It’s rare when a Grandmaster author takes
a trendy opening and shares the inside secrets
he’s developed over the years, and that
is what makes this book worthwhile to players
on both sides of this important defense. Chris
Ward is uniquely qualified – he’s
both a lifelong practitioner of the defense and
a proponent of 1.d4. To his credit, he provides
much useful commentary on the lines that he has
favored as both white and black, and this is one
of the book’s strengths.
This popular variation can arise
from a variety of move orders. Its most straightforward
development would be after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3
Bb4 4.Nf3, but it often arises after 3.Nf3 Bb4+
4.Nc3 or (more frequently) after 3.Nf3 b6 4.Nc3
Bb4. Of course, in this last move order black
is committed to the queenside fianchetto.
The author has written several useful
opening books, and they generally exhibit an engaging
conversational writing style that makes it easier
for the reader to get into the subject matter.
In particular, his most notable efforts focus
on the Dragon Sicilian and Nimzo-Indian Defense.
The crux of this variation often
revolves around white’s desire to play Bg5,
and the author jumps right into the heart of the
variation in the first chapter by covering lines
where black immediately plays to trade off the
bishop with…h6…g5… and …Ne4.
Many of the book’s fine points are on display
in this chapter. For example, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4
e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 b6 5.Bg5 Bb7 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4
g5 8.Bg3 Ne4 9.Qc2 the author points out that
while most opening texts concentrate on 9...Bxc3+
10.bxc3 d6 11.Bd3 f5, the alternative method heading
for this “tabiah” with 9…f5
creates a whole new set of alternatives to deviate
for both sides, which he analyzes. Often the player
who is more familiar with this sort of nuance
will be better equipped to handle these types
of positions when they arise over the board.
Move order issues and the author’s
ability to distill them down into understandable
concepts abound. For example, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4
e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 b6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Bg3
the author notes that the immediate 7…Ne4
(rather than the oft-played 7…Bb7) avoids
a lot of lines, including the Kasparov pawn gambit
seen after 7…Bb7 8.e3 Ne4 9.Nd2 Nxc3 10.bxc3
Bxc3 11.Rc1 and a whole chapter of lines that
arise after, for example, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3
Bb4 4.Nf3 b6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 Bb7 7.Nd2.
The author also shows a willingness
to challenge established theory. In the line mentioned
above with 9…Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 d6 11.Bd3 f5
12.d5 Nd7 it has generally been suggested that
white gets no joy out of grabbing the pawn with
13.Bxe4 fxe4 14.Qxe4, but Ward suggests that 14…Qf6
15.Qxe6+!? Qxe6 16.dxe6 Nc5 17.h4! gives white
plenty of practical chances. Another example can
be found after 4…Nc6 where the author notes
that “I don’t believe that black should
have anything to fear from the ‘throwaway’
suggestion of 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 d6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4
g5 (not forced) 9.Bg3 Ne4 (not forced) 10.Nd2
Nxd2 (not forced!) 11.Qxd2 f5 12.f3 Qf6 13.e3,
which is assessed as better for White in ECO.”
For those unfamiliar with the general
layout of Everyman Chess opening guides, the lines
are presented via illustrative games, and at the
close of the chapter there is a brief index of
the move orders covered as well as a brief summary.
While in some books the summaries aren’t
all that helpful, Ward does a good job of getting
to the heart of the matter in these couple of
paragraphs. Generally it directs the reader to
the critical lines, as well as offering useful
guidance. For example, in the chapter dealing
with lesser alternatives to the main lines of
4…b6 and 4…c5, the author explains
that “Originally this chapter was only going
to concentrate on 4…0-0 and I was going
to label my final chapter as ‘Other Black
Four Moves.’: Let’s be honest, though.
Traditionally that implies that such lines are
not really up to much and hence the pages aren’t
worth more than a cursory glance. I later reconsidered
that decision as I thought that was doing the
likes of 4…d6, 4…Ne4 and 4…Nc6
a major disservice. Indeed, if Black doesn’t
want to get embroiled in the theoretical debates
of 4…b6 and 4…c5, then any of these
three possibilities could be worth a punt.”
That’s a lot more fun (and useful) than
many chapter summaries in other books.
Still, I will continue to mark down,
at least slightly, books that use the illustrative
game format as opposed to a tree method for analysis.
In my experience, it is much more difficult to
follow the variations and assimilate the theory
from this method. It almost always leads to at
least one pulling my hair out by the roots incident.
In this book, it occurs after 4…b6 5.Qb3
c5 6.Bg5 the author covers 6…Nc6 and mentions
some concerns about 6…h6 in one game and
says that he will cover the primary alternative,
6…Bb7 in the next game. That’s all
fine and good, but my assimilation of the text
gets screwed up when, in the next game, the author
not only analyzes the expected 6…Bb7 but
provides another game example on 6…h6. An
author focused on helping his reader wend his
way through the material would have included that
6…h6 example in the earlier game. While
this may seem like a minor quibble, it happens
all the time when using this format, and it shouldn’t.
Every now and then, the author also
could have subjected some key positions to a bit
more original analysis. For example, after 4…b6
5.Bg5 Bb7 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 g5 8.Bg3 Ne4 9.Nd2 Nxc3
10.bxc3 Bxc3 11.Rc1 Ba5!? 12.h4 Rg8 the author
says “13.Qc2?! A harsh assessment, perhaps,
but White never seems too enthusiastic about venturing
with the queen down to h7 anyway. Hence I’d
have to say that for someone who has just sacrificed
a pawn, this is a touch too passive. 13.c5!? looks
more to the point, whilst the more ambitious Qh5
could be consider now or after the more energetic
c-pawn thrust.” While I can’t really
disagree with the author, I would expect at least
a cursory look at the lines after these suggestions.
If not, how can the reader judge whether this
is any better as a suggestion that the ‘throwaway’
type he disdains from ECO in the example cited
above?
My final issue isn’t so much
a criticism as a commentary about coverage decisions.
Every reader hopes that a book on a variation
will cover all the reasonable alternatives within
the covered move order. Of course, this is often
not achievable. For example, a book on the Queen’s
Indian after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 cannot be
expected to cover the Benoni that can arise after
3…c5 4.d5. In this book, the “fly
in the ointment” arises after 4…d5
5.Bg5, when, after 6…dxc4 6.e4 we have transposed
to the very sharp Queen’s Gambit Declined
Vienna Variation. Alternatively, white can avoid
this and transpose to the Ragozin variation of
the Queen’s Gambit Declined with 5.cxd5
exd5 6.Bg5 or 5.Qa4+. Should this have been covered
here? The author is correct that this is entirely
a different opening, and many books dismiss material
that is outside the scope of the opening they
are discussing – often using the ECO classification
code as justification. There are exceptions, however.
In Vandeki’s THE PIRC DEFENSE (for my review
of that book, click HERE),
for example, after 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3
Bg7 5.Be2 0-0 6.0-0 c5 7.d5 is generally not covered
in Pirc books, since it is classified as a Benoni
by ECO. However, this is a perfectly reasonable
move order, and the author spends over 16 pages
on it. Everybody has to judge for themselves how
important these issues are to them.
In the end, though, this is a solid
effort by a seasoned author and theorist. It’s
always comforting to know that the author is well
versed in the theory under discussion, and that
is certainly the case here. It’s notable
that 10 of the book’s 68 illustrative games
involve the author – 8 handling white and
2 as black. Throughout, there are other examples
of the author’s play and theoretical contributions.
In conclusion, GM Ward provides
a balanced view of theory in a newly popular variation.
He adroitly deals with the many move order possibilities
and provides more than a bit of challenge to existing
theory. While there isn’t an extensive amount
of new in-depth analysis, most players will find
helpful and insightful discussions of themes and
plans for both sides.
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