i don't have the Flear/Prie book with me now, 
but i'm sure that Flear/Prie do not cover the 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 stuff like Colle/London/Torre. 

just ordered Shirov's Slav/Semi-Slav DVD, its probably going to be a better buy than Martin's i think, though whether or not it measures to Van Wely's is another story. we'll see.

Laramonet wrote on 04/23/07 at 20:21:50:


exchange- yes
2. Nf3 without c4-no (get cox's good book)

Hello,

The 5e3 Bf5 side-line at least looks quite decent. 5. e3 Bf5 6. Qb3 Ra7 7. Bd2 e6 8. Nh4 doesn't look too bad for black to me, but think would prefer  6... b5 which Svidler has played. 
                   I agree that 5c5 Bg4 does not look very tempting for black.


Bye John S

Debbie Does Dallas?   

Probably useful all the way upto 2800 and beyond...   

John

Yes 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 a6 5. Qc2 is missing, though its a fairly respectable system, it was often used by Bareev for one. Some of the games presented are also redundant, in that they show unambitious play by both sides and are completely unremarkable (e.g. Gormally-Haslinger in the exchange slav). 

Anyway I got this DVD for a friend who's around 1700 elo, he thoroughly enjoyed it... until i showed him in a few blitz games what was *not* on the DVD  I suppose one should look at these DVDs as what they are: introductions. If you have >2000 elo then this DVD is definitely not sufficient imho.

Hello everyone, 

Just finished watching the new DVD by Andrew Martin. 
It seems Mr. Martin really likes these light-squared defences, previously he did videos on the Caro-Kann and Scandinavian. In this DVD Martin builds a repertoire for Black around the Chebenenko (4...a6). 

First observation: Martin mostly recommends sidelines. e.g.  5. c5 Bg4 , 5. e3 Bf5, 5. g3 b5, 5. h3 Bf5.
 
I can't say Martin's analysis is completely convincing in a few places. For example, 5. e3 Bf5 6. Qb3 Ra7 7. Bd2 e6 8. Nh4 is not so pleasant for Black imho as Black is getting a worse version of 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4, but Martin shows the really one-sided Kraai-Kamsky to say Black is fine, think i need abit more proof. In the line 5. a4 e6 6. Bg5 a5 Martin also hasn't addressed some challenging ideas posed by Rogozenko in CBM 113. 
   
The impression one gets is that psychology and surprise plays a fairly big theme in the DVD, and one might legitimately wonder if Martin is going too far?! For example Martin justifies 5. c5 Bg4 on the grounds that the typical White player is well-booked up against 5.... Nbd7 and will no doubt repeat Topalov's latest moves.  5. g3 b5 is also a surprise, does Martin thinks White has full comp after 5... dxc4? More likely, Martin made his choice on psychological grounds, to deny the White player the kind of play he wants, a typical attitude throughout the DVD. I remember Sakaev on e3e5.com site recommended 6. c5 with some advantage for White though. 

For sure these sidelines are fairly surprising, though i can't help but think that if White is well prepared he should be able to get a slightly bigger advantage than he would in the main lines. 

Overall this DVD is still on the "worthy-of-purchase" side, Martin is as polished and smooth as ever and the material was thought-provoking. But you need to do more independent work if you are facing strong players. 

Anybody has any thoughts?