Wow!!! - My expectations were quite high but this book is even better!
This book is very good and close to outstanding! 9,5 out of 10 !
Definitly a must-buy for any slav player or starter 1700-2400 ! A nice forword, a fascinating introduction, extensive thoughts about
move orders and repertoire choices, deep analysis, obviously Vigus
(and assistant editor Palliser?!) really have read and analyzed all books
they mention in the long bibliography, many improvements over white
repertoire books, many new suggestions...etc...etc...
Personally I have some very minor reservations (not theoretical but
instructional/paedagocical) about some repertoire choices (9...Bg4
in the Dutch var, 6..Nh5 in the exchange). Of course, these are sound
main lines and no offbeat choices waiting for refutation. But to my
general understanding there are main lines and main main lines, the
latter ones principially constituating the whole complex. And therefor
should be studied first! - Maybe I should compare to Watson´s
outstanding Play the french vol.3: Most black players expected a
wonderful update on 3...Nf6 Tarrasch. And they got ... a wonderful
coverage of 3...Be7 and 3...c5 4exd5 Qxd5. Some loved this, others
were dissapointed. Most probably those frenchies were right (and
more successful) who added the new lines to their old repertoire, as
main weapon or as new alternative. Disregarding any move-by-move
arguments (I´m too weak a player to do this with Watson) I "believe"
that a deep understanding of 3...Nf6 (and 3...c5 4.exd5 exd5!) is
absolute necessary to play the black side of the Tarrasch (including
the new lines!) really well. Frenchies who start their french career with
vol.3 might face some minor problems (and don´t realize that because
it´s not a problem of the variations). Or they need more time. - And now,
please try to understand me, imo Vigus has omitted vols.1+2 and started,
yes, with an excellent Play the Slav vol.3. - Well, maybe I´m just wrong... -
This point should not be any problem for players with some slav experience,
for players 1900+ or for those who take some days for a lecture of Sadler.
But I want to stress that Vigus is definitly a must-buy for all players ~1700+
and of much use for anyone playing the Slav! Sadly, even for d4 player...
tracke
(If Everyman would pose the book´s introduction for a free download on their
website they would not be able to print copies as fast as these were ordered)