Hello,
during the Christmas holidays I decided to take a deeper look on the book. I had an idea to create something like a repertoire based on the book (even I rarely play 1.d4 in my corr. games). So I started with the Chapter on Chigorin Defence (Chapter 26 in the book), which is somehow popular in a correspondence tournaments at IECG and at club level tournaments in my city. Here is the summary of the chapter - there are about 40 games mentioned in the chapter and seems that again we have a lack of corr. games (I already complained about this in my opininions on other books, especialy those from Chess Stars). I managed to find only 2, if LSS means LSS chess server (the server ran by IECG). There are 11 novelties in the chapter marked with the well known symbol 'N'. Quite a high number - almost one per page.
And below are my findings:

• Line C (page 395) - final position. In the book it is mentioned that the position arose in the game Lazarev-Skembris (which is of course true), but after checking it I found that also the game Dreev-Zviagintsev, 1997 reached that position (even it arose from NID). I think that the assessment is based on the latter game. Maybe the author forgot to mention that this kind of positions could be reached also from Nimzo Indian move order. He only mentions that this is a worse redaction of Ragozin variation.
• Line D1 (page 396) - 6.e4, which is mentioned as a TN is already played in the game C.Hansen-S.B.Hansen, 2002 and the latter game is commented by Dautov in Mega and CBM.  
• Line D2 (page 399) - instead of 14.h3 given by the author I think that 14.d5 deserves serious attention. My short analysis shows that White has better prospects comparing to the text move. But I am not a GM. Would be interested to hear opinions on this idea.
• Line D3 (page 401) - the line with 7.d5 Na5 is given by Ftacnik in his comments on the game Milov-Morozevich, Tilburg 1994 and this is not mentioned in the book. I think that instead of 8...c6, 8...b5 or even 8...g5 deserve serious attention. I made some analysis and latter seems the best in the position. Again I am curious to hear your opinions.
• Line D3 (page 400) - the move 8.gxf3 marked as a novelty is already played in the game Hucks-Dammkoehler, corr IECG, 1995. In fact GM Avrukh's 9.Bg3 is the novelty. The before-mentioned game continued 9.Qd4.

Anyway I like the book and I recommend it to every chess player. There are a lot of interesting findings and ideas. Of course there is no prefect books. I will continue to build up my repertoire (not only white's) based on the book and I will share my findings here if the publishers and authors do not have any objections.
My overal assessment of the book is 8.5/10.

Regards
Milen Petrov
FIDE IA
IECG IM

Quote:


I think it is highly probable that he would offer a fianchetto against the Benoni as well due to the moveorder  1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5. If so, unless Avrukh has some fresh ideas, this may the one weakness of this repertiore, since I have never seen a Benoni player fear the fianchetto.

Of course, it is also possible that he suggests 4. Nf3 here instead  of 4. d5 and offers something else against the pure Benoni moveorder.

ruhroh wrote on 01/02/09 at 17:24:21:


Hey bud, this is the 1.d4 d5 zone, so go please go elsewhere with your Sicilian speculations.

Or something like that - I did try just Gleizerov, though, and got up all his other games. Curious. Thanks for the game.

I don't find that very convincing! Black played like an idiot. In that case I shall offer my proposal (of what I thought were the forced moves 20-22) as a valuable TN.

Very good and interesting book. I do have a question. On page 1137 or thereabouts, Avrukh says that in the game Gleizerov-Demanjuk, Khanty-Mantiysk 2007, White convincingly proved his advantage after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 dc 5 Bg2 a6 6 00 Nc6 7 Nc3 Rb8 8 e4 b5 9 Qe2 Be7 10 Rd1 00 11 d5 ed 12 e5 d4 13 ef Bf6 14 Qe4 Bb7 15 Nd5 d3 16 Qf5 Nd4 17 Nf6+ Qf6 18 Nd4 Qd4 19 Be3 Qxb2 20 Ba7. (sans board so the sequence might be wrong but I think the end position's right)

How'd he do that, then? I can't find this game in Megabase or TWIC, and I can't see White's advantage either after 20...Bxg2 21 Bxb8 Rxb8 22 Kxg2 d2. 

Anyone got better database skills than me? I did wonder if the citation was correct, but a position search doesn't do it either.

We have not decided to announce the book yet, so in principle I do not want to tell. I want to promote books we have coming out in the next 3 months first. 

Thank you for all the praise - I will pass it on to Boris, as well as the 4...b6 move, which it makes sense to cover with a few words as well.

Wow, what a great opening book. This is how they should be written.
Awesomely (sic) analysed, passionately written and truly inspiring. After reading this one I actually feel like throwing the majority of my opening books in the dumpster.

My problem (as of now, a former 1.e4 player) is to build a standby repertoire against 1...Nf6 on my own until the second edition comes out.

Cheers