I enjoyed the follow-up article, and the honesty with which Bronznik's clarification deals with my earlier comment would certainly encourage me to recommend this book to anyone interested in this system.

This was the first opening I learned past the first three moves and it really gave me confidence against stronger players.  I'll look for this book

 Dear Friends,

Thank you for the feedback.

Perhaps you could have a look at the follow up here:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/colle-koltanowski-revisited

I think it's a little bit passive, white can only attack after black decides to open d or e-file.. I like something more aggresive 

If you check out Colle's games with this opening at chessgames.com, you are in for a treat! Game after game he gives up material for brilliant kingside attacks. It is truly exciting chess in the spirit of Tal. Look it up!

idosheepallnight, yes, the Queen's Gambit Declined or Accepted is played more than the Colle.That is why some choose to play something else. One aim of playing the Colle is to avoid what others know or prefer to play. Another aim is to avoid at least some studying of lines that can be avoided.

The comment, "If you want to push your book," seems misplaced. The author is Valerij Bronznik. The reviewer is Prof. Nagesh Havanur. The opening itself is fine. As madpawn states, he used it against much stronger opposition with the consideration of the comfort zone of each player. Wilsonia mentions Chigorin players delighting at 3.e3. Delight and comfort zone are related ideas. I am sure some Chigorin players are challenging White's comfort. The choice of openings is part of the shell game (or 3 card monte) of chess. Each player gives information with each move and also withholds information with each move. It is not simply a matter of the best move or "truth," but the psychological struggle. Part of that struggle is internal. A FIDE master, who I have known for many years, used the Colle at a World Open. His positions and results were so good that he was asked for a draw in the last round by a leading grandmaster. He accepted, despite having a good position, since the draw earned him the under 2400 prize.

I've always considered the colle, in all its forms, to be boring, passionless and defensive, if not downright bad. I note that in all the games black played e6 rather than develop his bishop and I would like to se a game where white wins against Black's extra active piece.

Wilsonia probably has this opening summed up with "many players on the black side give the opening too much respect and play too passively"

I don't know anything about the book or the author so I will restrict my comments to the opening in question.

It's a very dull opening, although it's not a bad choice for positionally minded sub-2000 rated players as many players on the black side give the opening too much respect and play too passively.

The article mentions that after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5, 4.Bd3 is an error as after 4...e6 5.Bxf5 exf5 the black position is very solid as white has no chance to achieve the typical e3-e4 pawn break. Instead, white should play 4.c4 but after c6 we enter a main line Slav which means that white suddenly has to acquaint him/herself with a different and important opening, which somewhat defeats the object of being a Colle player.

What's more, any Chigorin players out there should be delighted to see 3.e3 appear on the board. At worst, black's getting a slightly improved version of his/her usual opening. At best - if white just blindly plays the usual Colle moves without paying attention to what black is doing - black will obtain the initiative by playing an early e5.

i used to do this opening frequently.

Now i only use the English/accelerated fianchetto variation though :)

I used this opening many years ago and gained a winning position against a much stronger opponent because he was out of his comfort zone. I occasionally use it now, but the theory has advanced since I first took it up.

Thanks for posting prof.

thanks for the insights

I've only ever used this system once on a whim of wishing to try new openings, and it turned out to be a gritty, almost deadlocked game with a slow queen side pawn push eventually turning the game in my favour.  I don't really have the patience for it though.

Nice opening.