What other book or set of books for advanced Black repertoires?
Repertoire Book(s) for Black
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There's "Chess Openings for Black, Explained," by Alburt and Dzindi. It's advanced enough, I'd say. They step you through the Hyper-accelerated Sicilian and various dark-square Nimzos, plus the odds and sods wacky stuff White can throw at Black.
The book provides a complete repertoire in one of the best educational formats I've seen in a chess book. You can argue about the lines, but for one-stop shopping it's pretty cool.
ipcress12 wrote:
There's "Chess Openings for Black, Explained," by Alburt and Dzindi. It's advanced enough, I'd say. They step you through the Hyper-accelerated Sicilian and various dark-square Nimzos, plus the odds and sods wacky stuff White can throw at Black.
The book provides a complete repertoire in one of the best educational formats I've seen in a chess book. You can argue about the lines, but for one-stop shopping it's pretty cool.
I've heard of this book. For some reason I was under the impression it only covered responses to 1.e4. Does it cover responses to every (reasonable) possible White opening?
Yes. It even has chapters for 1.b4 and 1.f4.
It's a thick book but it has an unusual binding so it will lay *flat*!
It also has high-quality white paper and uses black and blue inks to good effect. Really lovely compared to most chess books.
Awesome. Looks like it goes for the Sicilian against 1.e4? That's a lot of theory... Is that what it does? I wonder how that book compares to the Karpov book mentioned in this thread.
Also still considering, in addition, some separate books but I don't know which ones to look at...
They teach the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon Sicilian which cuts out a lot of theory. They also provide chapters for the Grand Prix, Closed Sicilian and Alapin/SmithMorra.
The main problem with the H-A Dragon is you can't avoid the Maroczy Bind. They have answers for the MB but their cheefulness seemed a bit forced. And it looks like a hard row to hoe for a win if White is content with a draw.
Well, nothing to stop one from replacing the book's response to 1.e4 with 1...e5, CK, French...readily found elsewhere..
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like a very worthwhile book to consider.
I have this book in my mind A complete repertoire for Black .
You could also consider video lessons, I think it's a faster way to learn, at least for me.
against 1.e4 against 1.c4 against 1.d4 Today is the last day you can purchase these videos with 50% discount (use coupon code HOLIDAY50 at checkout)
Thanks, bglanis. We were just discussing that book above. Looks good. Videos can be good, but I don't like having to take notes. I like videos that come with PGNs and written material (if they even exist.) I'll have a look though. Everyone learns differently. Pros and cons. Appreciate it.
You are welcome. Some of the video lessons come together with notes and pgn files. You can download complete DVDs for free on this website and see (one of the offers expires today).
Dec 9, 2014
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#33
Against e4 http://www.amazon.com/Grandmaster-Repertoire-7-The-Caro-Kann/dp/1906552568
c6-d5 is also a sound strategy versus the english.
Dec 9, 2014
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#34
The Lars Schandorff´s book is very high level and suggests solid lines.
CorfitzUlfeldt wrote:
Play the french against 1.e4. Buy the book "How to play against 1.e4" by Neil McDonald.
Play the Queen's Gambit Declined against 1.d4. You could read the book "Starting Out: The Queen's Gambit Declined" by Neil McDonald as well.
Or get John Cox "Declining the Queen's Gambit" instead, which also mentions the Catalan. (I haven't read that one myself though)
And perhaph John Cox "Dealing with d4 deviations"
John Watson's Play the French 4th and John Cox's "Declining the Queen's Gambit" make up the lion's share of my black repertoire, and was sufficient to get me just over 1800 USCF. Although I try to limit opening study to less than 20% of study time, I have both these books electronically on the Everyman App and I slowly loop through them again and again to keep the lines fresh.
Although many of the themes of the QGD and French are quite different, I think they do pair pretty well, much like the Slav and the Caro-Kann, or the KID and the Pirc.
Not a book, but these are amazing for a complete repertoire against 1 e4: http://shop.chessbase.com/en/products/gustafsson_package_vol1and2
With White I now play 1.e4 and have no variations preference whatsoever, save for that I currently avoid the Open Sicilian (it's surprizing how few people try to play it anyway, I haven't expected that with White). I like the Scotch game, the Ponziani, the Alapin, the King's Indian Defense, Caro-Kann, French and others but I haven't devoted much time to investigating those. With Black I play the Sicilian out of curiosity, but I haven't learned any variations too. As a whole I don't currently use any repertoire but rather try to improvise with openings, I play according to general principles and try to develop a sustainable middlegame performance. I could even say that I don't mind misplaying the opening if I'm going to have a calculational middlegame, because it's the middlegame I want to improve in. I no longer use Soltis' book's system because I want to correct some gaps in my play, hence I try to have various experiences with different openings and positions. It's not the book's fault that I left its reccomendations but rather that of my feeling I'll not be ready to put its knowledge to full use before I can calculate better. I don't feel I "deserve" to attempt to play it, so to say.