Bibs wrote on 01/18/08 at 01:47:34:


Isn't the Vigus book a repertoire for Black?

Tony Kosten recently said on John Watson's Chess talk that he is writing part of a book on Dangerous Weapons in the English.

The Dynamic Catalan has a nice ring to it.  But that really is a book in itself.  Mind you, I have been playing 1.Nf3 2.c4 3.g3 against e6/Nf6/d5, so I presume 1.c4 2.g3 3.Nf3 would fit with the original repertoire plan.  Looking at the suggestions above, how much overlap would there be with Khalifman's Kramnik repertoire?

GMTonyKosten wrote on 02/19/07 at 00:29:16:


Actually, that would be exactly the kind of book I would buy (and hopefully study as well.) You've already done the whole repertoire thing. My experience with repertoire books is that the authors are usually so obsessed with giving "whole repertoires" that they end up wasting valuable space on quite irrelevant stuff.

I have to admit though that for quite a time I was hooked like a junkie on your Dynamic English. It's a wonderful read and fully deserves its almost cult status.

GMTonyKosten wrote on 01/07/03 at 04:29:19:


A whole-heartedly endorse a 2nd edition of your book, GM Kosten. Loved the first edition.

Recommendations for a 2nd edition:

1) a few annotated games for each section, perhaps just two to show the basic  middlegames and/or endgame ideas, since I am a patzer and cannot get anough annotated games

2) several puzzle positions for each section highlighting recurring tactical/strategic motifs that often arise, for the same reason as above (my patzerness)

3) THE TEN MOST IMPORTANT ENGLISH GAMES TO KNOW - ten deeply annotated games which are critical to understanding how to play the English. Botvinnik-Portisch Monte Carlo 1968 comes to mind immediately for the Reversed Dragon

Tony - I swear I'll read every page! Honest.....

But for example, if you were to use the Catalan wouldn't you introduce lots of other theory that the first book avoided?  Aside from the Cat itself, things like 1.c4 e6 2.d4 f5 would crop up, or do you prefer a different move order with 2.g3 maybe? 

I've already confessed to using and abusing the Botvinnik system in too many different scenarios, so I'm too accustomed to having my pawn on d3 rather than d4 - it's going to be a bit of a culture shock to start playing with d4....   

I guess I'd buy either book you propose but ultimately would prefer the more complete rep volume even if it doesn't promise White advantageous or exciting positions - familiarity with the position counts more for me than the promise of cut and thrust, if that's a reasonable way to express what I mean.

Hi Tony, great to hear you are considering a sequel to your book, which I like and still use a lot! Here are some of my thoughts. Some have been addressed before, some not:

- I'd love to see a book where the opening-repertoire of volume I is 'refined'. In that sense it wouldn't be necessary to write a new repertoire-book, but just to improve suggestions and ideas in selected lines.

- I think the lines suggested in the symmetrical variation 1.c4 c5 are too harmless. Maybe mainlines with d2-d4 are an idea? Watson seems to think they are promising for white, it would be nice to hear your thoughts here.

- I also like to meet 1.c4 c6 with 2.e4, because of 2...d5 3.exd cxd 4.cxd Nf6 5.Qa4+ which I've been doing well with. The problem is that black can go 1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 when we are back to the problem of 4..dxc, which have been addressed above and in this thread: http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1082723263

- Against 1..e6 there is a similar problem after 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 dxc4!? See this thread: http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1153817559/0 but in general I like your suggestions here.

- Maybe some suggestions against blacks solid e6,d5,c6,Nf6 setup are worth some lines.

- Against the KID your suggestion works wonders! No problem there.

- I'd like to know if you are still playing your suggested lines against the English Defence? I often feel my center crumbles with white lagging in development, but I probably haven't studied the positions properly.

- Maybe 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.d4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Na6 also should be addressed..

Sure, as long as the writer points out the holes and indicates what possibilities the reader has to meet them. In fact Eric Schiller did this in one of his decent books, on the Catalan. Example:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+
"I recommend transposition to the Bogo-Indian/Queen's Indian with 4.Bd2. Here is a summary of the theory after 4.Bd2:" Follows slightly more than 1 page. The Tarrasch/Semi-Tarrasch got the same treatment.
This also gives the author the opportunity to advertise for other fine books of his publisher.