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I just got this book and I'm having a great time working through it. I love Tim Taylor's writing. He's a natural as a chess annotator--lively and funny. Where he's really good is at organizing the material. Here's this 224 page book on the Bird, but somehow Taylor makes it seem pretty simple to play.
It breaks down this way:
1--23 pages on the Classical Bird. Looks like the Classical Dutch, strangely enough. This is his favorite attempt to get a consistent edge with White against grandmaster competition, which is why he analyzes it first.
2--15 pages on the Queenside Fianchetto. The lowdown here is that White gets a great game if Black lets White do one of two things: 1) pin his knight on c6 with Bb5, or 2) get in b4 before Black plays ...c5. Otherwise, equality.
3--18 pages on what Taylor calls "The Recipe," which is Black's plan of 1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bg5, followed by ...Nd7, ...Bxf3, and ...e5. This is what a lot of repetoire books recommend as an easy way to kill the Bird. Taylor recommends 4. h3 Bxf3 5. Qxf3, followed by an almost immediate pawn storm with g4 &c. The sample game is amazing. He recommends Black sac a pawn with 5...e5 to combat this--another crazy game.
4--25 pages on the Lenningrad Bird. Play is tricky and White has a lot of good lines, but Black has a one line that leads to an equal, Queenless middle-game.
5--14 pages on the Antoshin, an attempt by White to get in e4 in one move, that involves the early moves c3, d3, Qc2, and then e4. If it works, you've got a kind of Classical Bird with an extra tempo, but Black has several equalizing lines.
6--13 pages on the Stonewall. A solid line, but so solid that White's extra tempo doesn't mean much, and Black can achieve easy equality.
It's great to have all this material on the Antoshin or the Stonewall, because unless Black happens to know a few critical lines, White can swing the game in his favor by suddenly switching what kind of Bird's he's playing. Sometimes the Stonewall is a great choice.
7--21 pages on From's Gambit, Lasker Variation. There's a lot of honest-to-god theory on the From's Gambit, unlike a lot of the lines in this book, and Taylor goes into it. Lasker's line is the one that goes 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d5 3. exd6 Bd6 4. Nf3 g5. This is just about winning for White, it turns out.
8--20 pages on From's Gambit, Mestel Variation. This one goes 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd5 Bxd6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. d4 Ng4. This is one of the most complicated positions in chess. Taylor says these variations are so strange "I have more than once, while analyzing, had the computer switch from 'winning for White' to 'winning with Black' on the same move!" Looks like loads of fun, but if White chickens out, he can always force a draw on move 15.
9--9 pages on "Other Froms", where either side deviates.
10--16 pages on 1...c5. Taylor says that White only try against this is to play an early e4. If White plays in more normal Bird style, then it takes him two moves to get a pawn to e4, which puts him a tempo down on a lot of Sicilian lines. Essentially, if White wants an advantage, he can't play a Bird's. For the sake of the repetorie, Taylor talks about a little-know Sicilian line with e4, Nf3, and Be2, a kind of Grand Prix where White's KB stays at home.
11--19 pages on "other". Against 1...b6 he gives 2. e4, 3. d3, and 4. Nf3, recommending from there an Antoshin set-up. Against the King's Indian, 2. Nf3, 3. b4. He spends a lot of time on 1...f5, going over several different plans: fianchettoing the Queen Bishop, 2. e4!?, and 2. g3.
Well--I play the Dutch as Black, so something about these Bird lines seems easy to grasp. I can see it being a nice alternative to my usual 1. e4, particularly against booked-up opponents. I can't wait to whip this sucker out at my next Blitz tournament.
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Tim Taylor's Bird book (Read 56294 times)
