alumbrado wrote on 12/20/07 at 14:41:54:


Is this really such a  bad thing? I mean, Donaldson tried to offer a complete repertoire in his book, and failed in his coverage of the 1..e6 and 1...c6 lines. Kosten also tried to offer a complete repertoire and also left a lot to be desired in this section.

It seems to me that the best way to handle an early ...e6 is for White to go for either the QG or the Catalan. In either case, a sizable portion of  the book would have to be allocated to this option. This is unnecessary, especially in the case of the former, where there are plenty of other good sources. The book is only 192 pages. 

Would you not rather that the bulk of the book be spent on the real English lines, which are not as widely covered in published literature?

I didn't look in too much detail at the lines he gave - my first question was 'how does he deal with black trying for a QGD?' and since he didn't I already had a negative view. But my impression was of a somewhat superficial level of coverage throughout the book and I suspect that a serious look would discover plenty of other holes.

In truth, though, you shouldn't pay too much attention to my view of the book, other than the caveat about the QGD, as I didn't look at it properly.

I have pre-ordered this book from Amazon and my order history states quite clearly that when I did so, the provisional title for this book was 'A Complete Chess Opening Repertoire for White'.

I see that this has now changed to 'An Active Opening Repertoire for White'.  I didn't think anything of this particularly until I happened to be walking past the BCM shop yesterday and decided to look in.  The book is now out and was on display so I had a thumb through, and I will confess that my first impressions were not good.

But a major flaw is that the repertoire seems to me to depend on a willingness to play the Queen's Gambit with an early Nf3, as the repertoire given includes 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3.  Pritchett does not cover 3...d5 as far as I could see, so you need to be aware that this is NOT a complete repertoire (as Kosten's is).

As far as I can see Pritchett does not even mention that 3...d5 is a possibility - not even to say that the game transposes into a Queen's Gambit and that this is beyond the book's scope.

Frankly, the rest of the book didn't look all that great to me either and I may save myself a few quid and cancel it.

Hi,
everymanchess: This book is out now! 
Is that true?(- because Niggemann says something different...)

greetings

wolfsblut

Craig doesn't cover the Botvinnik, but rather those lines which he plays and is interested in. In general that's systems with Nf3. Thus he advocates 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 d4 against the Symmetrical, taking on the Hedgehog, and 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 in the Reversed Sicilian. The coverage of the main lines does look pretty good: Craig clearly understands the key ideas, as well as many small nuances, pretty well.
Hope this helps a little!

Hi,
now come on!?- Does really nobody knows some moveorderstuff about this book?? Perhaps Mr. Palliser?
Just a little info.....

greetings!

wolfsblut

Does not really say which lines he picks, does it ?

In fact it is a totally superfluous blurb : people who pick up the book will already know what the English is about.
There is however not even a hint of an answer to the real question...

Now that's exactly what I want to know, but I have not found more details either...
(Could it be that there are chess writers out there who don't visit this forum ?)