Here's my review of the book for our club website at
http://www.btinternet.com/~cccs.chess/review1.htmPlay the Semi-Slav, by David Vigorito, Quality Chess, (
http://www.qualitychessbooks.com), 277 large pages £16.99
The American IM David Vigorito (born 1970) has a reputation in his native land both for having an excellent grasp of opening theory and being able to put this across clearly. For the last few years he has been a popular lecturer at
http://www.chesslecture.com, but it is only recently that he has started writing openings books. His first effort, Challenging the Nimzo Indian (Quality Chess) was a complete repertoire for White against the Nimzo, based on 4 Qc2, and was excellent. Now he has produced a detailed study of the popular Semi-Slav. This defence forms an important part of the author’s own repertoire, which is always a good omen for an opening book.
For many years now, the Semi-Slav has been in the repertoires of many of the World’s strongest players. This defence is something of a paradox. Black declines the Queen’s Gambit, refuses the opportunity to develop his queen’s bishop outside the pawn chain (= the Slav) and sets up a passive-looking pawn triangle. Yet this can lead to some of the sharpest and most deeply analyzed variations in the whole of chess theory! How can this be?
Let us examine the typical sequence 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3; here Black can prepare to develop his Bc8 with either 4…dxc4 or 4…a6 (but NOT 4…Bf5? because of 5 cxd5 cxd5 6 Qb3!); if instead Black plays 4…e6 we have the Semi-Slav.
Now we have a parting of the ways. It is important to realize that at this point Black is ready to take on c4 and then hang on to his acquisition with …b5, so White has to decide whether to allow this or not.
If White protects the c4 pawn with 5 e3, then both sides have a blocked-in bishop, but White has the more aggressive stance in the centre and has the simple plan of expansion with Bd3 and e4; against passive play by Black this will give White some advantage.
In the 1920s, the great Akiva Rubinstein demonstrated that Black can respond actively with 5…Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 b5, granting White a mobile central pawn majority in return for space and activity on the queenside and the chance to develop the passive Bc8 on the long diagonal a8-h1. The bishop will be great on b7 if, and only if, the c6 pawn can be safely advanced to c5 in the next few moves; if not, the bishop will remain bad and the c6-pawn will be left backward and exposed on a semi-open file; there are two consequences: a) the b5 pawn needs either protecting or advancing, to permit …c5 without losing the b-pawn, and b) control of the c5 square can be very important. Meanwhile White has the obvious plan of advancing in the centre with e4, when both sides must consider the consequences of further white advances in the form of e5 or d5.
Thus it can be seen that this “Meran” variation of Rubinstein’s is likely to lead to a complex and dynamic struggle in which both sides have their trumps. In recent years there has been an understandable growth of interest in declining the challenge of the Meran by playing the flexible 6 Qc2; after the usual 6…Bd6, White can follow up positionally or with the aggressive modern gambit 7 g4!?.
The main alternative to 5 e3 is to press on with natural development by playing 5 Bg5. At this point, if Black simple unpins with 5…Be7, we have reached an Orthodox Queen’s Gambit Declined in which Black has played …c6 somewhat prematurely. This is regarded as rather passive for Black, but it is probably better than its reputation. Alternatively Black can transpose to the Cambridge Springs defence with 5…Nbd7. Neither of the above is covered in the present book, which focuses on the two principal continuations:
a) 5…dxc4, grabbing the pawn and intending to hang on to it after 6 e4 b5, when play typically continues 7 e5 h6 with great complications. This is known as the Botvinnik variation; although Botvinnik was not the first to play it, it was his games in the early 1940s against Lilienthal, Mikenas and (especially) Denker that popularized this line.
b) 5…h6, probing the intentions of the bishop before taking any committal action in the centre. This is known as the Moscow Variation. Now White can play the relatively quiet 6 Bxf6, conceding the bishop pair in return for an advantage in development, or he can tempt Black into the murky waters of the Anti-Moscow Gambit with 6 Bh4 dxc4 7 e4 g5 8 Bg3 b5; Black wins a pawn in this line but has structural weaknesses, and possible long-term problems with king safety.
It is worth noting that once Black has played …e6, and especially when he has played …Nbd7, he will generally answer an exchange on d5 with …exd5, when a type of Orthodox Queen’s Gambit Exchange (a.k.a. Carlsbad) variation is reached, but one in which it is hard for White to prove any real advantage, because he has committed his knight so early to f3.
Vigorito devotes most of the book to these four main lines: the Meran, the 6 Qc2 line, the Botvinnik and the Moscow/Anti-Moscow. But since this a repertoire book for Black, he also deals with (as far as I can tell) all White’s playable deviations, with special attention to the Slav Exchange variation, since he recommends heading for the Semi-Slav via the Slav route 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6, when if White exchanges on d5 at any point before Black plays …e6, Black will have to recapture with the c-pawn, producing the symmetrical, and therefore potentially drawish, Slav Exchange structure. Vigorito argues that Black should not fear this: “There are still 30 pieces left on the board, so there is still some fight ahead.”
The five-page introduction is particularly instructive and includes a discussion of the important issue of move orders. The analysis in the main chapters is copious and perhaps a bit intimidating, but there is a lot of very clear verbal guidance, including a useful “Conclusions” section, summarising the essence of each section and finally the chapter as a whole. There is a six-page index of variations and a list of the fifty complete games. There is a bibliography, including a useful indication of the cut-off point for the author’s research in the best known sources such as Chess Informant, New in Chess Yearbook and The Week In Chess.
You can find out more about the author and play through three of his own games with brief notes at
http://tinyurl.com/35zcmrVerdict: Another seriously good repertoire book from David Vigorito and Quality Chess. Highly recommended. *****
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