I have also seen a section of the GPA on Michael Gueller's site and I completely agree. It is ridiculous, to assume, that Karpov would have strived for self mate as in the line given by DAP. If this is representive for the whole book, then everyone, no matter what level, just should leave it in the shop.
For those interested: it's the Caro-Kann game Dzin-Karpov, Mazatlan 1988. The "winning" attack begins with 18.Rh3.

Can I enter another candidate for the best book on the Pirc? My book 'The Pirc in Black and White' (Everyman) will be out in 2007 Well, I certainly can't promise that it will be better than all the others, but it might help to dispel some exaggerated rumours of the Pirc's demise. It's great to see some recent threads and good analysis on this opening. 

To Marc: the author of the ChessBase CD is Lugovoi.

'Carpathian Warrior' is an interesting book, if not recommended as bedtime reading. It contains a great deal of useful analysis on an interesting, recently rediscovered idea, 5 a3 in the Austrian Attack (a kind of waiting move also directed against Black's intention of ...c5 and ...Qa5). 
It also has a long section on the much-discussed 'Chinese Attack' (Be2 and g4). However, some of the other sections, on more mainstream Austrian lines, are less inspiring, and several times the authors present different analysis of the same positions, not noting that a transposition has occurred.

To JEH: Dzindzi has refined his Be3 and h3 line in the very recent book with Alburt and Perelshteyn, Chess Openings for White, Explained. (I've reviewed this in the September British Chess Magazine.) I trust, though, that you will remain healthily unconvinced by his conclusions...

Perhaps the biggest current theoretical dangers for the Pirc are to be found in Khalifman & Soloviev's book recommending the Austrian Attack for White. Could I invite discussion about one of their main lines? They don't give the game Medvegy-Beliavsky but it seems to me a critical one.

Z.Medvegy (2498) - A.Beliavsky (2668) [B09]
Hungary 2003

1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 f4 Bg7 5 Nf3 c5 6 Bb5+ Bd7 7 Bxd7+ 
(long thought innocuous, until championed by Shirov) 
Nfxd7 
(7...Nbxd7 is ok, but taking with the king's knight allows a quick queenside expansion that will otherwise be stifled by White's a2-a4) 
8 d5 b5 9 Nxb5 
Khalifman & Soloviev's recommendation for White. White is aiming for an ending, whereas Shirov usually plays 9 Qe2, which is a different kettle of fish!
9 ..Qa5+ 10 Nc3 Bxc3+ 11 bxc3 Qxc3+ 12 Bd2 Qc4 13 Qe2! Nb6 
All quite forcing. 13...Qxc2 14 0-0 followed by e5 or f5 as appropriate is very dangerous, as K&S point out, while 13...Qxe2+ is somewhat passive.
14 a4 a5 15 Qxc4 Nxc4 16 Ke2! 
After 16 Bc3 0-0 White's centre can be quite vulnerable to an ...f5 break. This is almost always key to Black's strategy here.
16 ..0-0 
K&S don't consider this obvious move, instead concentrating on 16...Nd7 which is less flexible as the knight can no longer hop to a6 and perhaps b4.
17 Kd3 
The big question is: why not 17 Rhb1? In addition to Rb7, White now threatens to move the bishop and play Kd3, trapping Black's knight. I think Black must strike back at once with 17...f5 when one conceivable Fritz-generated line is 18 Ng5 fxe4 19 Rb7 Na6 20 Rxe7 Nxd2 21 Kxd2 Rxf4 22 Nxe4 Nc7 23 c4 Kf8 24 g3 Kxe7 25 gxf4 when Black must still take a bit of care to steer towards a draw. I'm not offering this as best play, but just as work in progress!
In the remainder of the Beliavsky game White was pressing a bit but I suppose Beliavsky never felt in very serious danger:
17 ..Nxd2 18 Nxd2 Na6 19 c4 Rfb8 20 Rhb1 Rb4 21 Rxb4 cxb4 22 Nb3 Nc5+ 23 Nxc5 dxc5 24 e5 f5 25 exf6 exf6 26 Re1 Kf7 27 Re6 Rb8 28 Kc2 b3+ 29 Kb2 Rb4 30 Ra6 Ke7 31 Rxa5 Rxc4 32 Ra6 Rb4 33 a5 c4 34 Rb6 Rxb6 35 axb6 Kd6 36 g4 ½-½

So the questions are: if 9 Nxb5 is so good, why do Shirov et al avoid it? Is it because White doesn't have anything very serious after Beliavsky's 16...0-0? But what do people think of 17 Rhb1 f5, and are Black players put off playing 7...Nfxd7 because of the prospect of defending this endgame?

Apologies in advance if I'm slow to respond to any replies on this: I might not have much Internet access for a week or so.
Looking forward to more Pirc discussion!

Which book is the best will obviously vary from player to player and with the experience and playing strength of the reader. Speaking as a relatively weak but improving player, as I explained in another post yesterday, perhaps I can offer a viewpoint of someone who hadn't encountered either opening before getting 'Pirc Alert' on a friends recommendation around 18 months ago. I can't tell you which offers the most accurate analyses but I can tell you what I gained from the 5 books I now have and which have helped me go from losing just over 80% of my black games against 1.e4 last season to winning about 80% of them this season.

1. Pirc Alert! - I plan to go back to this book in the future as I found the style easy to read but the content a bit intimidating due to the number of different lines it seemed to give. However, even if I never take it off the shelf again it might well prove to be one of the most valuable opening books I will have read for chapter 3 alone- How To Study an Opening might only be 7 pages long but it changed the way I approach the subject- I now can get more than just eye-strain and a headache out of it! The next chapter which treats the Pirc as a concept rather than a list of moves was also an approach I hadn't come across before.

2. Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern- I think I wasted my £12.99 on this one as I couldn't get into it so got nothing out of it. I don't know why but I had the same problem with the Sicilian book from the same series. They may have the best analyses going for all I know but the best I can say for them is that they look nice on the bookshelf....

3.The Hippopotamus Rises: I only got this one a couple of months ago- I have a feeling it will be more entertaining than informative in the long run but I have enjoyed it so far and used the basic ideas to get a draw with a player rated 450 above me so it has been of use already. A bit expensive for 140 pages but fun all the same, which counts for a lot as far as I'm concerned.

4.Tiger's Modern: This is the best of the bunch for me! Easy to understand and written in a clear style with a good dose of wry humour. Fun to read and presented the ideas in such a way that I was able to use them successfully- what more could you ask for!

5. Journal of a Chess Original by Stephan Gerzadowicz: Not an opening manual as such but a well written games collection with quite a few Modern Defence games well explained and , once again, entertainingly written. I enjoyed reading what thoughts were going through the players head rather than a dry technical explanation of the moves alone.

In the unlikely event that I manage to become an expert player ( at the age of 38 I have probably left it a bit late!) I might revise the way I look at these books, but I play chess for the enjoyment I get out of it so I would welcome comments on the entertainment value of the other books people have mentioned as well as their educational value.
Thanks for listening/reading!

MNb wrote on 02/22/06 at 02:16:45:


Those sources might get a repetoire up and running, but against a player of your experience then yes, more work is required.

PS I don't think you've met a Pirc addict quite like me yet  

chessy wrote on 02/20/06 at 09:25:56:


This line is also recommended in Roman's Lab Volume 25, "Easy Way to Beat the Pirc Modern defence". Oh if only it was. I have my antidote ready  . Yep, as a Pirc junkie, I pick up the stuff written for White too. 

LivePircLive!

Quote:


Spot on g3g6. This highlights the dangers facing Black against the Austrian. 9 f5 is recommended by Khalifmann in OFWATA. 9. ... fg is too dangerous IMO. In fact, Black may even be worse by force. I like the look of 9. ...Qa5 instead as in Hammer - Markowski, St Vincent 2005 which is in Megabase but not in OFWATA. Ah, so many paths to explore!

As for asking Mr McNab, well he plays the oldschool Nc6 against the Austrian, and scores mightily well!

Little story: few years ago i bought Pirc Defence by Videki. In reality include nearly only new game, for readers are included without full understading Pirc and without autor's own investigation. But in Austrian attack include one sharp variation, which ended in a draw. I was surprised - only one /maybe little more, but.../ own analysis for all book, but very interesting. I cannot found this line in other souce /books, magazines,my not a small database/. I started analyze this line, i found big hole. Big, big, big . Few monhts later a bought older book - Ultimate Pirc by Nunn&McNab. What i was surprised - here was identical line, with the same bad evalution /in reality opposite - Videki include identical same line/. Which line? McNab, can i share? . Maybe this was a trap made by GM Nunn for his opponents?
OK, here is it: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Rb8 9.f5 gxf5 10.Nh4 fxe4 11.Nxe4 c4 12.Nxf6 Bxf6 13.Rxf6 exf6 14.Bxh7 Kxh7 15.Qh5 Kg8 16.Ng6 or so draw. Everything is OK? No. Primitive 13.Bxh7! Kxh7 14.Qh5 Kg8 15.Rf3+-
Ultimate Pirc is not a bad book. Its maybe older /1998/, but Pirc theory don't change very much since releasing. But material, which is included in Ultimate Pirc i have accesible with more comfort in database, when add value Ultimate Pirc as book is minimal /for me/.

OFWATA in latest volumes include nonsense games, one was blitz played in our pub between my 2 friends, and lot of are from ICC /games from ICC are less or more unpublic, and i have doubts about way what was use for getting him .../.... but still included lot of original work /this is nice from Bezgodov/, but maybe 70-80% novelties are unsound, very often evalution is too optimistic

Will be continue ....(?)