Why 2100 Elo players should not write about chess.  A stronger player backing them up such as with Sverre Johnsen seems to work out ok though.

Of course it's not nearly as bad as David Rudel (under 1400) writing about the Colle-Zuketort.

About the Exchange...

4.Bf4: discussed a little on this forum (search for Taljechin post and the answer 4...Bd6!?)

4 Nf3 Bg4: variation I play (I can name it"Kasparov's line" if long castle for White and Black ... "opposite castling" if White castles short and Black long..merely with a Nc6 move for Black...see McDonald's book about French Winawer.. "Morphy stategy")

4...c6: I will not play it except for 4.Bb5+ c6 5.Bd3..because it not fits in my systems with opposite side castling....maybe book ginger runs for the "classical" lines of the Exchange (with short castles White and Black)

4 Bd3 Nc6 5 c3 Bd6 : opposite castling line, Nc6 deters White from playing c4

with 6 Nf3 Bg4 or 6 Qf3 Be6 7 Ne2 Qd7

4 c4 Nf6 5 Nf3 Be7 : going for queen's gambit line with isolated d-pawn line for White. I recommend to work about Normund Miesies games (with White).

and I add

4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 and here my current work (about many lines in my French repertoire) showed me (last saturday) an unsual line with 7...Nce7!?

ErictheRed wrote on 05/30/11 at 18:19:46:


Yes, there's quite a lot on the Exchange, since "it does occur regularly at club level."

His lines are:

— 4 Nf3 Bg4 and 4...c6 5 Bd3 Bg4
— 4 Bd3 Nc6 5 c3 Bd6 with 6 Nf3 Bg4 or 6 Qf3 Be6 7 Ne2 Qd7
— 4 c4 Nf6 5 Nf3 Be7

4 Bf4 is not mentioned, but there's also some stuff on 3...Qxd5!?

Suspect the overlap might well be minimal.

Think it'd be fair to say that all the lines are at least slightly speculative Its a little bit like an extended, sounder version of a dangerous weapons book. 

In fact he's impressively/almost surprisingly honest about it in places.

My only complaints are that some of the lines are speculative and he didn't use some excellent sources such as Moskalenko's Wonderful Winawer

Konstriktor wrote on 05/23/11 at 19:40:35:


The time is really overdue for some in-depth coverage of this system now. I've been trying to learn it starting from Williams' DVD and Pedersen's Tarrasch book a.o., but the first thing I realized is that White actually has many different playable setups, and can choose sharp and critical or a calm maneouvrig game, according to taste.

The Williams DVD covered the main lines 12.Bg5 0-0 13.Bh4, 12.Bg5 0-0 13.Rc1 and 12.g3. But White can also play the old 12.Nc3 a6 13.Bg5 (considered += in NCO), simple development with 12.Nc3 a6 13.Be3 followed by h3, Re1 etc., or the recently popular 12.Bd2!?. In a blitz game just a few hours ago I faced the completely non-theoretical 12.Ng3 0-0 13.Re1 and even that gave White a reasonable position, and on my database even 12.b3 (once played by Gashimov) is scoring well.

So while I'm starting to believe Black should be OK in this line, he should prepare something specific against each of White's tries and not just focus on the current main lines.

PS: The sample looks very good and inspirational (just like Williams' DVDs!). I hope he takes the 9.Nf4 Tarrasch line a bit more seriously in the book than on the DVD though. 

Indeed!

ericmittens wrote on 05/23/11 at 16:13:35:


In the "Poisoned Pawn" this time he recommends 7... Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Qd3 Nf5 instead of 12... d4 as on his DVD.