My friend told me that in her Grunfeld book, Dembo offers a pawn sacrifice that "busts" the 5. Bg5 Grunfeld given in Grivas' "Beating the Fianchetto Defences", specifically mentioning a line that she thinks is bad in his book.  Since I use Grivas' reportoire, can anyone tell me what this line is and whether it's actually a problem?  I have heard a lot of negative things about Dembo's moves, also it is a "Play The..." book, so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's probably something aggressive that, under proper computer analysis, should be fine for white.

I don't have either book, but my guess is he's talking about 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Bg7 or the related 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 0-0.  I don't really know anything about these lines, but I seem to recall some Gruenfeld book recommending them...hmm...

It's 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bg5 Ne4 6. Bh4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 dxc4 8. Qa4+ Qd7 9. Qxc4 b6.  Something after this.

What Negative things have you heard about this book?

Reverse wrote on 07/23/10 at 15:34:10:

What Negative things have you heard about this book?

Dembo's book is a perfectly fine Gruenfeld repertoire book, aimed at fairly strong players (given that it lacks much explanation at many points).  Undoubtedly there will be some mistakes in it, but it mystifies me that some people keep badmouthing it here.  By now I am starting to wonder if Dembo's being a woman is part of the equation, for some people.

It never fails that when I need a certain book, it is the precise element of my extensive chess library that will not come to hand.  So I can't address the original question.  When I can find my copy, I will do so, if no one else has by then.

vasilicus wrote on 07/11/10 at 20:46:02:

It's 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bg5 Ne4 6. Bh4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 dxc4 8. Qa4+ Qd7 9. Qxc4 b6.  Something after this.

More specifically Dembo advocates line 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bg5 Ne4 6. Bh4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 dxc4 8.Qa4+ Qd7 9. Qxc4 b6 10. e3 Ba6 11. Qb3 Bxf1 12. Kxf1 O-O 13. Ke2 c5 14. dxc5 Na6 against Grivas' repetoire and improves over his analysis after 15. Rad1 Qc7 16. c6 Nc5 17. Qc4 with 17...Rfe8. She also offers a second line from this point that she apparently came up with and analyzed together with Grivas.

As she points out, I think rightly 15.Rad1 looks funny (well, 14.dxc5 already looks strange to me at first glance, but I guess it is very hard otherwise to find any advantage after 14.Rhd1).

Markovich wrote on 07/24/10 at 15:14:02:

It never fails that when I need a certain book, it is the precise element of my extensive chess library that will not come to hand.

Try alphabetic order, on author? Demands some discipline though (regularly putting your books back were they belong).

MNb wrote on 07/25/10 at 11:09:00:

Markovich wrote on 07/24/10 at 15:14:02: It never fails that when I need a certain book, it is the precise element of my extensive chess library that will not come to hand. Try alphabetic order, on author? Demands some discipline though (regularly putting your books back were they belong).

No, they're all perfectly organized by system.  It's just that I'm not as careful as I should be always to put away the books I've been using.  I sometimes take them out of my study to read with a pocket chess set, and that sort of thing.