This is a second edition of “A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire”; the original came out in 1999. This is a great book for aspiring players who have some time to spend working on their openings as White, but don’t want to get involved with endlessly long strings of theory.
Centered on playing 1.d4 / 2.Nf3 as White the book develops a solid repertoire for White in 8 chapters. The sequence of the chapters seems to me to be based on popularity of Black defenses.
The first 2 chapters (Barry Attack and 150 Attack) examine the position 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 which is how Kings Indian/Grunfeld players would play the sequence. Next are 2 chapters on 1.d4 d5 (Colle Zukertort and Beating the Anti-Colle Systems), the standard for Slav/Queens Gambit Accepted players. Then a chapter for Nimzo-Indian advocates (Classical Queens Indian), one for Benoni/Benko players (Anti-Benoni), Dutch is next (Anti Dutch 2.Bg5) and finally and Odds and Ends chapter.
Most works on these systems start the reader out by examining 1.d4 d5 systems and working towards the Indian defenses after that. Whether it is some sort of historical quirk or not, the sequence in this book works very well. It has been a standard opinion that if White plays 2.Nf3 in the queens pawn opening Black is well advised to go for a kingside fianchetto, mostly because Black has avoided some of the sharper lines. I don’t know if this was intentional, but Summerscale and Johnsen decided to tackle the kingside fianchetto defenses and then move on to the “main” lines.
The chapters on the Zukertort, Anti-Colle and Queens Indian form a cohesive approach to playing the opening from the White side. I played this for a few years and was always surprised how simply I seemed to get either a large advantage or winning attack right out of the opening. Paying close attention to these chapters is a very worthwhile endeavor.
The Anti-Dutch 2.Bg5 chapter is different, mostly because it is not as “systematized” as the previous material. This line is very dangerous, but requires White to be ready for a bit of creative interpretation to be successful.
In total, the material in this book works well and goes together better than the vast majority of repertoire books I have seen.
The reader should be aware of a couple of things before obtaining this book.
The “Anti-Colle” approach is a bit harder than might appear. The authors do as good a job as anyone else I have seen, yet there are gaps. An example of what I mean is the idea of Black posting Bf5 in the opening. In game 32 the sequence 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 is addressed with 3.c4 e6 4. Qb3 Nc6 5.c5 Rb8 6.Bf4 giving White an easy game. Game 41 goes 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 c6 4.c4 Bf5 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Qb3 with White having a real chance for advantage. How to deal with 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.e3 Bf5 4.c4 e6? Black will recapture on d5 with the e-pawn and deny White an easy plan. This is a trivial point, but surely some opponent will think of this.
Another thing is that the book is dated. Certainly the material in this book is very good, but a number of the lines have evolved a great deal since the first edition. Johnsen writes that only six new games appear in this edition and only one was taken out, also that some games were expanded.
A strange thing happened between 1999 and 2010, these queen pawn systems became popular and found a place in main line theory. The variation mentioned from game 41 above has gone through a number of changes which a better prepared player might take advantage of.
More notably, the Barry and 150 attacks have seen an evolution. The original king of the Barry attack, English GM Mark Hebden, switched from 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 to 5.Qd2 in order to slip away from the increased amount of information on the Barry.
This is an example of how the landscape for the lines in this book has changed, not a detraction from the material. I suspect that GM Hebden switched because of a couple of possibilities for Black to reach easy equality.
I like this book a lot and would recommend it to players in the 1700-2100 range. At club level the material will be a heavy winner and in local tournaments nearly as potent. The most valuable aspect for readers of the book is seeing how the opening flows together as the piece arrangements work with the selected pawn structures. A perfect book for improving players in the rating range I mentioned.
I've read this book around a month ago, and it was highly instructive. It provides an ideal 1. d4 repertoire revolving around the magnificently flexible colle-zukertort and how to beat other responses. I recommend this book!
A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire
New Enlarged Edition
by Aaron Summerscale and Sverre Johnsen
Reviewed by NM Bill McGeary
ISBN: 9781906454180
figurine algebraic notation
This is a second edition of “A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire”; the original came out in 1999. This is a great book for aspiring players who have some time to spend working on their openings as White, but don’t want to get involved with endlessly long strings of theory.
Centered on playing 1.d4 / 2.Nf3 as White the book develops a solid repertoire for White in 8 chapters. The sequence of the chapters seems to me to be based on popularity of Black defenses.
The first 2 chapters (Barry Attack and 150 Attack) examine the position 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 which is how Kings Indian/Grunfeld players would play the sequence. Next are 2 chapters on 1.d4 d5 (Colle Zukertort and Beating the Anti-Colle Systems), the standard for Slav/Queens Gambit Accepted players. Then a chapter for Nimzo-Indian advocates (Classical Queens Indian), one for Benoni/Benko players (Anti-Benoni), Dutch is next (Anti Dutch 2.Bg5) and finally and Odds and Ends chapter.
Most works on these systems start the reader out by examining 1.d4 d5 systems and working towards the Indian defenses after that. Whether it is some sort of historical quirk or not, the sequence in this book works very well. It has been a standard opinion that if White plays 2.Nf3 in the queens pawn opening Black is well advised to go for a kingside fianchetto, mostly because Black has avoided some of the sharper lines. I don’t know if this was intentional, but Summerscale and Johnsen decided to tackle the kingside fianchetto defenses and then move on to the “main” lines.
The chapters on the Zukertort, Anti-Colle and Queens Indian form a cohesive approach to playing the opening from the White side. I played this for a few years and was always surprised how simply I seemed to get either a large advantage or winning attack right out of the opening. Paying close attention to these chapters is a very worthwhile endeavor.
The Anti-Dutch 2.Bg5 chapter is different, mostly because it is not as “systematized” as the previous material. This line is very dangerous, but requires White to be ready for a bit of creative interpretation to be successful.
In total, the material in this book works well and goes together better than the vast majority of repertoire books I have seen.
The reader should be aware of a couple of things before obtaining this book.
The “Anti-Colle” approach is a bit harder than might appear. The authors do as good a job as anyone else I have seen, yet there are gaps. An example of what I mean is the idea of Black posting Bf5 in the opening. In game 32 the sequence 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 is addressed with 3.c4 e6 4. Qb3 Nc6 5.c5 Rb8 6.Bf4 giving White an easy game. Game 41 goes 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 c6 4.c4 Bf5 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Qb3 with White having a real chance for advantage. How to deal with 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.e3 Bf5 4.c4 e6? Black will recapture on d5 with the e-pawn and deny White an easy plan. This is a trivial point, but surely some opponent will think of this.
Another thing is that the book is dated. Certainly the material in this book is very good, but a number of the lines have evolved a great deal since the first edition. Johnsen writes that only six new games appear in this edition and only one was taken out, also that some games were expanded.
A strange thing happened between 1999 and 2010, these queen pawn systems became popular and found a place in main line theory. The variation mentioned from game 41 above has gone through a number of changes which a better prepared player might take advantage of.
More notably, the Barry and 150 attacks have seen an evolution. The original king of the Barry attack, English GM Mark Hebden, switched from 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 to 5.Qd2 in order to slip away from the increased amount of information on the Barry.
This is an example of how the landscape for the lines in this book has changed, not a detraction from the material. I suspect that GM Hebden switched because of a couple of possibilities for Black to reach easy equality.
I like this book a lot and would recommend it to players in the 1700-2100 range. At club level the material will be a heavy winner and in local tournaments nearly as potent. The most valuable aspect for readers of the book is seeing how the opening flows together as the piece arrangements work with the selected pawn structures. A perfect book for improving players in the rating range I mentioned.
I've read this book around a month ago, and it was highly instructive. It provides an ideal 1. d4 repertoire revolving around the magnificently flexible colle-zukertort and how to beat other responses. I recommend this book!