Quote:


To me this is the main problem with most chess books.
1) The authors focus mainly on GM lines.
Let me just give one example: In the King's Gambit every recent book (except Johansson's) give 3...d6 4.d4 g5 5.h4 against the Fischer defence. While I agree that this may be the most common line at the GM level, things are not so below the 2000 mark. There you will face 3...d6 4.d4 Nf6, 4...Bg4 or some other inferior continuation.
2) On the other hand authors tend to only give enough detail in their chosen lines so as to satisfy the below 2000 players.

What you get is a book with lines that are for +2000 players but the amount of detail is for below 2000 players so who is supposed to read this?

Ok, I have played the Leningrad Dutch for many years and own both Kindermann and Beim's books, which are both excellent, though not flawless, but if you want that you will never buy another book. I have also previously read both Pedersen's and the older "Winning with the Dutch" by Robert Bellin, and skimmed all remaining recent Leningrad books (Hall/Cartier [IMHO the title "Strategy and tactics" is unwarranted], McDonald, DeVault etc.)
My problem is that the lines I want to play, NEVER feature in these books by GMs or IMs.
Both Kindermann, Pedersen and Beim actually have a lot of explanations and some detail, but the problem I have with these books is their suggested repertoire.
My repertoire is:

A)
1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d6 (3...g6 4.h4 is more complicated and both Pedersen and Kindermann has coverage of this. Rather surprisingly Malaniuk is happy to play 3...g6 and noone plays 4.h4 against him) 4.Nf3 g6 5.g3 Bg7 6.Bg2 d6 7.Nc3 Nc6. This is the main line with Nc6. The problem with this line is that there are some books that cover all main lines but they are not any good! The (good= Pedersen, Kindermann and Beim) repertoire books all go for 7...Qe8 or 7...c6.
The only books that to my knowledge cover 7...Nc6 are Bellin's (good, but old and out of print) and one by Luccioni (lots of material but not very dependable).

B)
2.Bg5 h6. Yes, this line is very risky but playable. Beim is the only one to cover this.

C)
2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 e6 (3...d5 is soooo boring, and I don't buy into the improved Stonewall justification - you can't polish a turd)
This line was in Bellin's book if I am not mistaken.

D)
2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 (4.Bg5 e6 is C ) 4...d5. Everyone gives 4...Nc6.

E) In general you will meet lots of strange lines that are not in the books either, line 2.Qd3 or 2.g4 fxg4 3.e4 or one of those c3 lines.

Buying either book will only give me a 50% coverage of my repertoire even if I switch one of two of my preferred lines.

The bottom line is this. I like to play in a certain way and get certain positions, and the Dutch is the only way against 1.d4 to deny the spoilers who seem hellbent on boring me to death with the Colle (c3,e3) or the London system (Bf4,e3).
Before switching to the Dutch I played the Albin and the Botvinnik semi-slav, but everyone would just play 2.Nf3 and then what? It's like the way I spent countless hours on the Marshall attack in the Ruy Lopez and then got to play it twice in 7 years, then I switched to the Latvian gambit...

I guess we will have to wait for someone to bring out a book for us sub-IM hacks who want to have some fun with the black pieces.

Meanwhile there is some coverage of A) in the New In Chess Yearbooks 68 and 70.

regards,

Michael.

It is difficult to avoid having a solid 'GM perspective' these days, for if you dare suggest anything a bit risky you get criticised from all sides! Look at my recommendation of the b4 pawn sac in the Pure Symmetric English in my book The Dynamic English!
No-one ever says "what a great practical line this is", they all say: "Watson didn't like this, isn't White a pawn down?"!!

Well Mitch, Beim's book is not perfect either, but reasonably good in my view and I am glad I have it. The book in general (not always, see one of my posts above) made a reliable impression on me. For my own repertoire, I used Pedersen's book (next to Kindermann's, my main source) more though. On many occasions, the recommendations actually coincide in all these books. On the other hand, I do not recommend Hall and Cartier's book. I hardly use it. I found it far from complete and not sufficiently deep, but it does have some coverage of all Black's continuations in the main line (7...Na6, 7...Nc6, 7...c6, 7...Qe8 ). I hope it helps, and please come back with a review of your new book(s).

Hi Panda,
Which lines don't you like in Kindermann's repertoire and why? What else do you suggest in those lines?

Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely look into Pedersen's book. I was particularly interested in any specific comments people had on the Beim or Hall&Cartier books because Beim's book is the newest and the subtitle on Hall and Cartier's book, "Strategy and Tactics" also sounds interesting.

I'd say that for general strategic explanations Kindermann is pretty good. Pedersen probably offers slightly less in that respect, although I suppose his book is an interesting complement, because he looks at a somewhat different selection of repertoire lines (generally sharper ones than Kindermann). McDonald's book didn't impress me much, definitely Kindermann seems to have been much more thourough. McDonald does give a good overview over the *whole* Leningrad Dutch (i.e. including Nc6 or c7-c6 systems, Leningrad Stonewal and so on) , but it's an overview and I'm not sure how much it would help with understanding specific lines better. I've never looked at any of the other books.

I also have Pedersen's, Beim's and Kindermann's books on the Leningrad.  I use mostly the last one. 

I only wish to add to the previous comparisons that after 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 Beim does not consider the dangerous 4.h4!?. Due to this continuation, both Kindermann and Pedersen recommend 3...d6 in their repertoire, and Kindermann devotes a whole chapter to it.

I ordered Leningrader System and it arrived yesterday. I could not be more pleased. The theory is easy to understand (even in German) and even the explanations and themes can be easily understood with the help of the German-English Chess Dictionary as posted above. If you have the time/patience to wait for the english edition, I'd say it's probably worth it but I needed a good guide to the Leningrad so I bought it. I also bought "Opening for White According to Anand" and although Khalifman gives excellent explanations, it may hinder players who don't play all main line. For example, I play 3. d4 against the Petroff so 40 pages of theory on 3. Nxe5 weren't exactly helpful to me. In addition, Khalifman only deals with Nxd4 recaptures after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 and 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. d4 exd4. However, overall the explanations are excellent and it should help players looking for a repertoire book. I hope the second edition, which will cover the Ruy Lopez 3...a6 variations (1st volume is rare systems, latvian, philidor, Petroff, and Ruy Lopez without a6).

Thanks to everyone who has responded and helped me with my search. Just one final question on the Beim book; does it cover both 7...Qe8 8. d5 Na6 and 8...a5 or only Na6?