Smyslov_Fan wrote on 11/24/10 at 20:10:30:

Semkov's analysis is fantastic and it is presented in a style full of passion and wit.  This is truly one of my "favorite" opening books that i own.  I say favorite b/c i cannot call it the "best", nor the most useful or thorough.  But perhaps it is my favorite nonetheless!

I am a lifetime 1.e4 (mostly gambits) player who is just recently looking into playing 1.d4 2.c4.  I am quite happy to have purchased Semkov's book for $25 at a tournament.  So far I've only managed to play 2 blitz games in Semkov's mainline (Benoni w/ Re8) against 2000+ opponents, scoring 1.0/2.0.  Both games were a hard fight and featured more open-board tactics than an average King's Gambit!  And that is not any kind of exaggeration.    I get a dirty look when i play the Exchange Slav as White, but my view is that Black has only himself to blame for playing the Slav when a King's Indian would have led to a very exciting barnburner of a game in Semkov's FPA!!

The book appears to contain a dense, perhaps intimidating thicket of analysis , but many of the ideas are thematic like Black's weakness on the dark squares and White's strategic aim to exchange dark-squared bishops, and Nc3-e4 with knights hopping to f6 or g5, pounding the dark squares.  Such a rich, beautiful opening and a wonderful book that can work wonders for one's aesthetic appreciation of our game!

I have just noticed that I left the line C1 unchanged. It should be added that 14...Rf8 (page 63) transposes to the new line E after 15.Kh1!? The pdf is already corrected.

I looked at the content very briefly, but just wanted to be the first to thank you for being so generous with your chess and your books. You're one of few authors who come in here and chat and analyze with players who've purchased your books, and now you're adding analysis to chapters and posting them on internet for free. Truly amazing, so thanks very much Semkov!