Actually, in my experience, most players under 2000 would have no clue how to get to the main line. Therefore, many White players will simply deviate early. Or else they will likely avoid the main line of fear of being outprepared.

The book sounded great, especially since I already have some Slav/Semi-Slav experience, so I ordered directly from the UK. It arrived yesterday.

And man is it complicated. When an opening book gives you solutions on move 25 while saying "Black must play precisely here", you know it is serious. Plus there are multiple places where Scherbakov admits that Black's best option is to transpose to the Botvinnik Semi-Slav, so hopefully you already have that under your belt!

On the other hand, the writing is very clear, and is good about talking about larger issues than just variations. There's also a nice narrative thread through the chapters; the structure of the book is nicer than just a big list of variations. It's also extremely (maybe too?) comprehensive. It certainly feels like a book that could have been published by Quality Chess, which is a large compliment.

My conclusion is that it's too much for this 1900 to handle, even though I'm a better variation-memorizer than most. If you're sub-2200, browse through it before deciding if it's for you.

I actually would like to see more books like this. Variations and deep analyses that will be helpful especially for 2300+. An opening such as the Noteboom required heavy analysis anyway.

Page 190 has a variation numbered "D42221", a branch on Move 22. Again I do not complain about the extreme density of the analyses; instead I wish more opening books were at this level of detail, just like Grandmaster Repertoire series.

I got the book during the week.

This is a very broad repertoire book.  He covers lines for black that he doesnt even belive in (which learns us why NOT to play a certain line). He covers in general 2-3 answers for black and more white replies (of course).

I would say that this is a book for the advanced player. There are a lot of theory and a little bit of a jungle...at least for me. There are no illustrative games in this book so if you like trees of variaitions you certainly like this book.

For my own prefrence this book could have been done better with more verbal explanations of strategies . But in some places Ruslan shows that he really can explain strategy for the reader in a very good way. It should have just been a little more of it.

All in all I like the book and I am glad I have it. But it could have been done better when it comes to verbal explanations of ideas and strategies.

I give it  ,5   (3,5)   of  .

I would have given it 5/5 if t contained more verbal explanation. BUT if you just search a book where variations are the most important... I give it 5/5. And it is a nice book for the correspondance player.

gwnn wrote on 03/10/12 at 08:00:43:


Page 433: 3. Nc3 c6 4. cxd5 exd5.

Gilchrist is a legend wrote on 03/10/12 at 00:45:24:


I guess I'm wondering whether he's advocating the Exchange system as in Cox's book or the old Be7, Nbd7, c6, 0-0, Re8, Nf8, etc, variation?

What variation does Scherbakov recommend against the Exchange?