A Rock-Solid Chess Opening Repertoire for Black by Viacheslav Eingorn

Hi there,

I was perusing through amazon looking for a good openings book, and came across "A Rock-Solid Chess Opening Repertoire for Black" by Viacheslav Eingorn. Acorrding to amazon it just came out today and since its so new there have been no reviews. I was curious if any of you early birders out there could enlighten me on it's quality and depth. I know Gambit to be a very reliable publisher but am unfamiliar with the author beyond seeing his name in a few places. Thanks for you time.

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Solid-Chess-Opening-Repertoire-Black/dp/1906454310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337721129&sr=1-1

It seems being a good book, Eingorn is a good author (and a French expert).

There is already a sort-of-review in Chesspub forum, but I won't give direct link as it may be considered spam/ promotion of an antagonistic site.

The only thing I find odd is his recommendation against 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3. He suggests 2...c5, allowing 3.e4 and a Sicilian, which he does cover using a minor, solid, but rather passive variation. True, most 1.d4 players will not play 3.e4 here, but...

I had a quick look at this book last week, as I play related openings.

His repertoire looks interesting, but is pretty technical, and requires the ability to play very differrent pawn structures (especially against 1.d4). I've decided to pick a few lines, but to adopt the repertoire as a whole, I think you must already be quite strong.

edit : and yes, same remark than cilj - I like Eingorn's suggestions against 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2 (in the 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ section), but his recommended lines against 3.Bd2 look more difficult to play...

He gives two lines :

• 3...Bxd2 4.Qxd2 Nf6 5.Nf3 d5 6.g3 Nbd7 with a closed Catalan structure, but it looks like white has a lot of good options there
• 3...a5!? (more interesting) with the clever idea 4.Nf3 d6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 e5! which is a kind of 'accelerated Bogo-Indian'

Thanks a lot for the replys.I was able to track down the forum post at chesspub on the book and am defintely interested. Might head down to the book store and pick it up. More to follow...

I have a book here that recommends, as a solid defense, the KID. Any opening is only as good as the player playing it, so it comes down to the kind of games you like and are good at...tactical.....positional...etc.

I quite like this book. Straightforward reliable lines for most part. The closed Catalan structure mentioned by Hicetnunc has been played three times recently by Carlsen, with two wins against Topalov and Kramnik. So not too shabby. Those not really typical results of course. In 80's Andersen played many games in this line, with many draws. Still solid 1.d4 club player types will have great difficulty using one of their favorite techniques of milking the two bishops...After 4Qxd2 black can try dutch structures with 4...f5, not covered in book, but very similar position after 3...a5 4a3 etc is.

 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 c5 which played quite a bit in past only one opponent Bogdan Lalic in a rapid game tranposed to sicilian with 3e4. Wasn't really favorite whatever opening I played. If don't like four knights sicilian, can use whatever your favorite e6 sicilian is, the Taimanov in my case. In practise the most common response was the lame 3c3 for some reason. 

The coverage against flank openings a bit disappointing. Basically chouldn't find any use for immediate 1...e6. 

Is this book too much for beginner level players?

It's not aimed at beginners. I would say minimum OTB elo 1700-1800, and probably more useful for people 2000+.

Yep, I figured that out. Thank you for the reply.

It depends on what type of beginner you are too. The standard advise for ambitious ones is to learn 1.d4 d5, and 1.e4 e5 because these are the most fundamentel but not necessarily easy openings. In fact 1.e4 e5 leads exactly to the type of open position an experienced player will rip into a beginner player. So you will have to be prepared for a large amount of learning by losing. 1e4 e6 covers f7 immediately and might get you into the game. Eingorn's book covers more straightforward French lines than majority of rep books. Would still advise learning 1.d4 d5 because queens pawns openings are more interconnected than 1.e4 ones. For example, NimzoIndian was designed as improvement on  Queens Gambit declined (1.d4 d5 2c4 e6), so not having any idea what trying to improve is a bit silly.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1721435

Is another Kramnik lose in the 3...Bxd2 4.Qxd2 Nf6 5.Nf3 d5 6.g3 Nbd7 with a closed Catalan structure line. Black describes the Bb4ch, BxB idea as unthematic but reliable. Maybe club players are screamish about this opening because don't like exchanging the good bishop. When get into the concrete details it is hard for white to prove anything though. White has to speed time getting queen to effective post. In game 12Qa3 was new idea, but as well as game continuation,immediate QxQ and trying to show Na3 misplaced playable for black.

yeah, you got that right

this book sounds quite interesting. i'm currently playing 1... e6 vs both e4 and d4, mostly in the hope that someone playing d4 will transpose into a french - but that never happens.

what does he suggest against c4? i'm currently toying around with either a QID type set up or the english defence. 

2....Bb4ch then if 3Bd2 the lines mentioned above, and if 3Nc3 either 3...b6 with English defence, avoiding most dangerous lines for white, or 3...c5 with Nimzo Indian styled lines.

The English Defense is a lot of fun