Whilst on the subject of holes in COWE's coverage, here's a couple more:
a) 5...Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Na5 8.Qa4 Nc6 (! according to Nikitin; in my opinion 8...Bd7 is equally strong) 9.Nd2 (White can repeat the position with 9.Qb3, but in terms of the opening, this would be an admission of failure for White) 9...e6 10.Ngf3 Bd6 11.Ne5 0-0 12.Bg3 Qc7! 13.Ng4 (13.f4 Bf5!? 14.Bf5 ef5 15.0-0 Nh5 16.Qb5 Ne7 17.Rf3 a6 18.Qb3 Rfe8 19.Re1 Nf6 20.Rff1 Ne4 21.Ne4 fe4 22.Ng4 b5 23.Ne3 Qc6 24.Bh4 f6 equal) 13...Ng4 14.Qd1 Nf6 15.0-0 Bg3 16.hg3 e5 17.de5 Ne5 with counterplay, K.Muller-Agdestein, Germany Bundesliga 1998/99. This line should have been at least mentioned, but surprisingly this important move is not even considered. As other posters and myself have shown, it is a common tendency for ADP to ignore Black's most important options. See the posts in this thread and the other thread for the details.
b) 5...Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Na5 8.Qa4 Bd7 9.Qc2 Rc8 is also not mentioned, but seems to equalise quite simply as in Enklaar-Donner, Netherlands Championship 1974, where in spite of Black's eventual defeat, White had absolutely no advantage after 13...Nd7!. At least ADP offer an improvement over the game Maroczy-Capablanca, Lake Hopatcong 1926, although 10...Rc8 with the idea of playing a later ...Nc4-d6 to reroute the knight to the centre looks like an improvement over ADP's rather compliant 10...Nb3.
c) 7...Qb6 is also not mentioned, although to be honest I don't have much faith in this line for Black after 8.Qb6 ab6 9.Na3 when White seems very comfortable in this ending.
d) 7...Qc8 8.Nd2 Bh5 (this bears similarities to tracke's idea of 5...Qc7 6.Ne2 Bg4 7.f3 Bh5 idea) is another relatively rare yet important sideline, where White has difficulties proving an advantage, e.g. 9.Ngf3 Bg6 10.Bb5 a6 11.Be2 e6 12.0-0 Be7 with equal chances according to Nikitin. I can understand ADP not including 10...Bh5 since White keeps a very small edge there, but this move should have been included to ensure that the repertoire was thorough.
e) Expanding on tracke's line B, after 10.Be3 Qd6! Nikitin provides the following analysis to prove that Black equalises: 11.Qb3 Bf5 12.Be2 Nf6 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bh4 Nh5 15.Rfe1 g5 16.Bg3 Ng3 17.hg3 a6 18.Nf1 e6 19.Ne3 Bg6 with equality.
Quote:No I'll not let you off the hook that easy - the ...Re8 position is critical to the integrity of COWE so for that reason I suggested continuing with the analysis, which I will. We know the book doesnt cover all defences, my point is the ideas and other redeeming points more than make up for it. If you dont agree fine, but dont try and insist on upholding Watsons view of the book in every post, or if so be prepared to back it up. Its a far more interesting book than the usual "Play this" "Play that" database dumps produced these days which are basically a list of games copied from chessbase with an IM author throwing in a few wise-cracks.
The ...Re8 position is not as critical to the integrity of COWE as this 5...Qc7 line, as Nikitin's analysis shows. If you can find some improvements for White in the line occurring in Dzindzichashvili-Karpov, it will influence the theory of the line but not change the overall evaluation of the variation as being equal.
I don't believe the ideas compensate at all for not covering the best moves from Black's perspective. We may have to agree to disagree on that point. And I have already shown in previous posts that my opinion is not always the same as Watson's - to mention another example, I disagree with him on Aagaard's 'Attacking Manual'.
Quote:Its a far more interesting book than the usual "Play this" "Play that" database dumps produced these days which are basically a list of games copied from chessbase with an IM author throwing in a few wise-cracks.
I don't know of any recent books (from 2008-now) by Everyman, Gambit, Quality Chess or Chess Stars which are 'database dumps'; can you give some examples of books from one of the 4 book publishing companies listed to substantiate your claims? For what it's worth, all but a very small number of the repertoire books I own combine explanations, games and analysis very lucidly.
PS: There are also a number of flaws in the coverage of the Grand Prix, primarily claiming a slight advantage in equal positions - if you want to discuss this then feel free to start a thread in the Anti-Sicilians section.