ghenghisclown wrote on 12/17/08 at 21:00:00:


Interesting question this. Under normal circumstances it would indeed be beyond the scope of the book to address the Catalan specifically. Perhaps if the same author had written repertoire books on both the NID and QID then an argument could be made for incorporating the Catalan, just as Aagaard did in his Chessbase DVDs.

That being said, it just so happens that one of my recommended lines often transposes to main line closed Catalan positions, so in effect the reader will indeed receive plenty of guidance against this opening!

The variation in question occurs after 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 0-0 8.0-0 c6 followed by ...d5. The Catalan move order would be 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 followed by ...Ba6. In the great majority of games the two lines will end up converging on the same positions.

Of course, the reader would still need to do a bit of his own research on rarer options like 5.Nbd2 (instead of 5.Bd2) in the Catalan, but apart from this and other minor details you will get a reliable anti-Catalan repertoire thrown into the bargain.

Andrew

It's probably outside the scope of your book, but would you consider sparing a page or two to briefly suggest something against the Catalan? That way someone could combine a Nimzo book (like Dearing's) with yours and have a complete repertoire against d4 and c4 rather than having to look around. Actually, I think the Catalan is being covered well from White's perspective. There's Avrikh's book, Khalifamn and Davies are getting in on the act as well.

The upcoming book 'Play the Queen's Indian' by IM Andrew Greet is going to be published in January/February 2009 according to Everyman Chess. For more details on the book see Everyman Chess: http://www.everymanchess.com/chess/books/Play_the_Queen%27s_Indian.

Given the high quality of Greet's books in the past, I will probably purchase this book myself as an update to Yrjola and Tella's 2003 book 'The Queen's Indian'. I was pleased with the high quality of coverage in the latter book, but it is now 5+ years old and obviously some of the coverage (specifically the 4.g3 main line) is now out of date.