Glenn Snow wrote on 03/01/11 at 06:57:52:
motörhead wrote on 02/28/11 at 22:13:11:
Well, I finally got my copy too. As I browsed through it now I quite naturally found some omissions.
E.g. The Euwe-Defence.
1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 and now Christoph gives
6...h6 as "?" with 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 and 8.Bb5+! etc with the well known slaugther.
The punctuation is a bit wrong to my taste. 6...h6 deserves a "?!" perhaps. The real mistake is 7...Qxf6 "?" in my eyes. Clearly better is 7...gxf6 "!" with a struggle ahead. But this move isn't mentioned by Christoph at all.
the same is with
6...c5 which Christoph calls premature. I would sign it with "!?". Christoph gives 7.Bxf6! Qxf6 8.Bb5+ Bd7 9.0-0 and "sees the Queen in the firing line again" and leaves you alone - at the wrong time, since at that very moment the party is just beginning. And you will not have a clue what to do.
Best for Black ist 9...cxd4 10.Se4 "?!" in my opinion 10...Qf4! and Black is heading for advantage. But you' ll find anything of this in the book. And all of this is not really new...
What came to my mind: I once saw Christoph in some of the BDG-threads here. The book was announced yet. Christoph gave some comments here and there - and then he suddenly left the scene. And the book announced with some 192 pages went back in the pipeline.
As I now saw, Christoph finally has used a lot of the quotations in the chess.pub-forums on his now 336 pages. You may call it the wisdom of the many.
And I do not want to critisize that. There are lots of new ideas by Christoph too.
But I have the impression that Christoph was impressed by the work done here by you, folks!
The book is 336 pages so at some point an author does have to leave something out. In the second variation after 9...cxd4 10.Ne4 Qf4, my engine thinks 11.Bxd7+ Nxd7 12.Nfg5 is decent.
First, Glenn, don't get me wrong, it is quite understandable that there have to be ommisions. But the first line (6...h6) in itself by far isn't that bad as it seems when you read the book. But after 6...h6 7.Bxf6 Black shouldn't play 7...Qxf6, clearly "?".
So to mark 6...h6 with "?" to my mind is simply not correct and the book leads wrong (sorry).
Christoph should have mentioned "7...gxf6! is the only way for Black to fight on" or sth. else like that. I know, that the problem now is, that there are no clear variations at all, cause there is simply no contact between the two teams (or armies). But a hint how to proceed would have been useful as 6...h6 is a quite normal continuation for us normals.
To the variation you gave after 6...c5 (7.Bxf6! Qxf6 8.Bb5+ Bd7 9.0-0 cxd4 10.Ne4 Qf4)
11.Bxd7+ Nxd7 12.Nfg5 : I got that continuation too, as it is known from the game Diemer - Terzi, Rastatt 1954. That game went on with 12...Qe3+ 13.Kh1 Be7 (13...Ne5 14.Nxe6!) 14.Rf3 and White soon won.
But in fact 12...Qe3+ is wrong. I found
12...Qe5! to be much better as now the white knights are badly tangled up - h7-h6 is threatening. If now
13.Qh5 then
13...0-0-0 14.Qxf7 h6 15.Nxe6 Qxe4 16.Nxd8 Kxd8 and Black is better.
So, sorry again, that variation isn't as easy as you might think if you browse through Christoph's book...