Paddy wrote on 02/27/11 at 14:19:32:


Not entirely. Barsky wrote a separate book on 1 d4 d6 2 e4:

http://www.chess-stars.com/graphics/eshop/books_special/Philidor_contents.pdf

motörhead wrote on 02/26/11 at 21:22:30:


Yes, a great book. Heartily concur.
Explains well, good examples used, solid material.

Still no comments on the content of the book. Is it good? This opening looks like something I'd like to play against the English.

Ametanoitos wrote on 01/05/11 at 16:58:28:


So it is. Barsky himself acc. to his preface gives this (but too gives the Pirc as a possibility to play against 1.e4).
On
www.schachversand.de/DBBilder/leseprob/LOBAR1D4D6.pdf
you get some insights in Barsky's halfway universal 1...d6 weapon.

TonyRo wrote on 01/05/11 at 14:19:01:


I own Barsky's "Modern Philidor" and to my feeling it is a waste of money if you own e.g. Bauer's "Philidor Files". Barsky offers the cold coffee for a second time.
What's really disappointing: To the main line Philidor with 7.Re1 c6 8.a4 he takes the inflexible 8...a5 as the only answer. What about modern? What about 8...b6? Or what about the inspiring (nearly) new 7...a6? No comment by Barsky...
Okay, that's Philidor. But I fear with his book on 1...d6 he to a large extend may only have reworked (and here an there refined) the "Explosive Opening repertoire".
I too would have liked to see someone write on the oldschool Oldindian with e7-e5, Nb8-d7 and Bf8-e7 instead of that Bc8-g4-thing, interesting as it may be. But the old way - formerly played frome time to time by Petrosjan, Kotow, Bronstein and even Tal - seems to be simply to passive and so is off the track. 

I’ve just received the book. It has the usual Chess Stars structure (each chapter comprises three sections: Quick Repertoire, Step by Step, Complete Games) and has the usual production values, which combine a small-format book (slightly less than A5) with nice paper, clear typeface, two columns and plenty of diagrams. The fairly light weight of the 224 page book is a real boon in these days of high prices for taking luggage on aircraft. In my view the only things seriously lacking in the book design-wise are a detailed index of variations and an index of the players of the illustrative games.

The 1 …d6 system is an interesting “unbalancing” defence which is solid enough to be playable on a regular basis, yet provides decent chances for Black to play for a win. It’s also very flexible, with many independent lines as well as possibilities of transposing to favourable (or favourite) versions of other defences such as the King’s Indian, Old Indian, Pirc, Modern or Philidor. It is no accident that 1 …d6 has been an important long-term element of the repertoires of GMs such as Hodgson, Hickl, Azmaiparashvili, Strikovic, Agrest and McNab. It has also been used sporadically by strong GMs such as Bologan, Smirin, Krasenkow and Tkachiev. I see two great advantages with this defence: 1) it sidesteps annoying d-pawn openings such as the Trompowski and Torre; 2) it can be used against 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 as well as 1 d4, so you only need to choose a single congenial “partner” defence to play against 1 d4 d6 2 e4 / 1 e4 and your Black repertoire is completed in a fairly economical fashion

I should declare an interest.  Chess Stars books tend to be translated into English from Russian by a Bulgarian - with fairly predictable results as regards the quality of the text. The contents are usually so good that many of us have been happy to overlook the often dodgy and at times incompehensible English, but for some readers this is definitely off-putting. However, readers should find that this book reads much more smoothly, since I helped Chess Stars eliminate a lot of the poor English in order to produce a more fluent (although probably not perfect) text.

It's a little disappointing that Barsky's recommendation after 2.Nf3 is the Wade/Hodgson line (2...Bg4), which is the main recommendation in Yrjola & Tella's "Explosive Repertoire for Black". I would have preferred to see a repertoire based on the main lines of the Old Indian, especially since this would have been a better fit with Barsky's book on the Modern Philidor. The forthcoming book by Cherniaev and Prokuronov doesn't cover the main lines of the Old Indian either.