ErictheRed wrote on 01/19/12 at 15:56:38:
That sounds like a safe bet to me. I can tell you btw that usually  after I buy a book I always have a little buyer's remorse but now there was none because this really is an interesting book. Some might say weird too I guess.

One last line that I saw asked about: against the Scotch he does indeed give Nb6 instead of Ba6.

Re: the KID, I hope it was clear that this was Kaufman's assessment, not mine! I couldn't even refute the Englund gambit etc. The exact quote for the record is

"As far as I can tell it is very nearly a refutation of the whole Nc6 branch of the KID which is the main line! white allows Black a scary-looking attack, but hard analysis seems to show that White just wins material on the queenside and beats off the attack."

My apologies if I misled anyone.

I don't know what the rules are for posting too much from a book, so I hope it's ok. The main line according to him is
9 Ne1 Nd7 10 Be3 f5 11 f3 f4 12 Bf2 g5 13 Rc1 (rare but his choice) .. Ng6 14 Nb5! b6 15 b4 a6 16 Nc3 according to him (in this line, not necessarily this position) "White is surely better, but perhaps Black can hold." His analysis ends at move 30 with a Q+B vs Q+opposite B and 5 pawns vs 4 which he admits black should hold.

Matemax wrote on 01/19/12 at 17:10:16:


Hyperbole.

It sounds like, while possibly being far from a perfect book, it covers so much ground that it should have enough interesting ideas to make it worthwhile for just about anyone to buy it.  I'm sold.

What is not clear to me is what is the underlining philosophy behind this repertoire and the choice of lines. In the "Chess Advantage in Black and White", he aimed for 'second-best' less theoretical lines. This new repertoire seems to be a hodgepodge of the critical/objectively best  and the pragmatic.

From the excerpt, I notice there  are chapters on "Avoiding the Nimzo-Indian" and on "Starting with 1. Nf3". Yet the choice against the QGD is the exchange variation. Even in the Karpovian style Nf3 lines of the exchange QGD, White cannot commit to Nf3 too early. Presumably, Kaufman has an answer to this perceived incongruence somewhere in the text.

Well hard to say, I mean you see the number of pages yourself right? It can't be comprehensive and I don't know so many Grunfeld lines.

In the Neo-Grunfeld (10 pages) he covers 3 f3 Nc6 and against the g3 stuff he plays d5 without c6 (game 2: Carlsen Giri 0-1 2011).

In the Anti-Grunfeld he covers among others Topalov's 5 Qc2 vs Kamsky.

In the Exchange he has 11 games packed in (I think) 25 pages. He often cuts the illustrative games where he found an improvement and goes on for a few more moves, so the coverage of most games ends at move 20-25. If he found no obvious improvements, he gives later moves without comments.

Some stuff that I found interesting on e4 e5 (about which I do know a little): 
1 e4 e5; 2 d4 exd4; 3 c3 Qe7!?
1 e4 e5; 2 Nf3 Nc6; 3 Nc3 Nf6; 4 Bb5 (4 Bc4 Nxe4; 5 Nxe4 d5 6 Bd3 Nb4!? he thinks there is no clear equality in the mainline fork trick)  Bc5!? and now he says there's equality for black here.
other stuff after e4 e5: he plays Bc5 over the Italian and plays Ba5 in the Evans. Falkbeer Countergambit.

In the White repertoire again there are some interesting lines, for example he does accept the Slav Bishop sacrifice but instead plays Nxc4 and Kf2 on the next move (sorry don't remember the move # but the main line starts 8 e4 Bxe4 doesn't it? so instead of this he plays 8 Nxc4 as he thinks the bishop sac positions are just too complicated). Good news for black knight tango players as I couldn't find your opening anywhere but maybe it is covered after all.

Against QGD he plays the exchange but with an eventual Nf3 (not Nge2). Against QGA he plays 3 e4 but also shows Carlsen Nisipeanu (dxc5) for people who prefer that sort of stuff. Against the Nimzo he plays Qc2 but there's a whole chapter on 3 Nf3 as I said. Against the Benko he castles by hand and plays an early a4 to plug a knight in b5 early. Against the Grunfeld he says that he had a tough time coming up with something that promises an edge everywhere except perhaps one line, but that line is probably the Russian. However, in the Black side (unless I misread him) he says the Hungarian line (his choice) is probably just one of the many ways to equalise.

There's a funny section "repertoire in practice" where he shows the openings he played in two US tournaments along with the USCF ratings of his opponents. He claimed in the first one that barring one game (where he "only" equalised with black in 12 moves or so) he got an advantage every time by religiously following his then unpublished book.

Other impressions: very many current games, many from the Candidates, some from Bazna/Medias 2011, I didn't see anything from the GP or Tal memorials but maybe there are. Heavy reliance on engines, but not to the obvious detriment of chess explanations/ideas. Often says "current theory holds that (...) is the best line but engines don't like it at all." Maybe don't buy the book if that sort of thing irritates you (it doesn't irritate me at all). He takes no prisoners in his assessments: the KID with Nc6 seems to be refuted, the Breyer is the best defence against 1. e4. It doesn't bother me personally as I'm a weakish player so I may as well take for granted a GM's opinion, even if very strong/controversial.

Got the book today. Indeed you have to flip the book around (upside down) to get to the black section. For some reason it doesn't feel silly. The back cover is the same as the front except it is based on black.

Plenty of interesting suggestions for e4-e5. I don't know much about the Grunfeld but he does try to cover all white tries to avoid it (Nf3, KIA, what have you).

In the white section he gives 4 Qc2 vs the Nimzo but also covers 3 Nf3. vs the KID he plays 9 Ne1 and 10 Be3 and he calls it a near refutation of Nc6 (as far as he is concerned). I think he does give quite some explanation as well as moves. I guess it means he doesn't cover nearly as many possibilities as a GM rep book or so.