Very well put Gueler. I've been fence sitting regarding Giddin's Winawer until reading your post. I'll keep looking for your posts among the controversial issues as they are 'compass-like'. Thank you.

Gueler wrote on 04/01/13 at 01:23:12:


Thanks. That sounds interesting.   

tp2205 wrote on 03/31/13 at 15:40:07:


I am halfway through the book. And since the first couple of games are focusing on the positional Winawer lines, I thought I answer the question.

But first of all my 2 cents regarding the many comments about the author. In my opinion, what the vast majority of book reviews gets wrong is that people don't take three important aspects into consideration: 
1 - What is the objective of the book?
2 - How does the objective of the book add value to the books that are already published / what is already available in electronic format?
3 - Does the author meet his / her objective?

The fact that the author is not a 2500 player is irrelevant considering the objective of the book and I wonder if people actually understand what the book is trying to accomplish.

The book is trying to give an introduction to the Winawer, and is trying to give an overview of basic ideas and plans in typical Winawer structures. If you are already a 20 year Winawer aficionado or a 2200+ player this book is not for you (in which case  Moskalenko's wonderful books are probably more suitable, although they have a fair share of explanations). If you are expecting a repertoire that is rivaling Watson or the upcoming books from Quality Chess this book isn't for you either. If you are expecting encyclopedic coverage of the Winawer in "Psakhis-style", this book is not for you. And finally, if you are expecting the last cutting edge theory, hoping the book will push the boundaries and will provide a treasure trove of novelties in "Avrukh-Style", the book is still not for you.

In my opinion this book is more in line with "Mastering the French" by McDonald & Harley and possibly the Advance French (vol. 1) book by Sveshnikov.

Many of the games are well known such as Smyslov - Botvinnik (1944); Tolush - Botvinnik (1945); Timman - Korchnoi (1976); Suetin - Uhlmann (1967); Ragozin - Botvinnik (1944); Fischer - Uhlmann (1972) Byrne - Korchnoi ( 1979),... These are all games that should belong to the "standard education" of a Winawer practitioner and should be well known.

Talking about the positional Winawer:
Despite the selection of the games, which might be disappointing, since they are so well known, the strength lies in the explanations. There are explanations that I haven't seen that clearly articulated at all or are buried in some old books. Such as in the 1975 book "The French Defence" by Gligoric and Uhlmann (here I am referring to the endgame strategy of black in the a4 positional Winawer and how Smyslov fought this approach in his game against Letelier in 1950).

I also like the sequencing. It sometimes feels like a tennis game:
1 - Botvinnik's strategy to close the position with an early c4, winning the a4 pawn and subsequently the game
2 - White fights back by showing that an early c4 is premature and can be countered with the idea of Nf3-g5-h3-f4-h5, illustrating some key ideas in Planinec-Timman 1974 and  again Planinec-Timman 1974 (yes, the same opponents twice in the same year)
3 - Korchnoi putting the ball back into White's court by not closing the position too early with c4 and answering instead with f6 (which incidentally also avoids Ng5)

In my opinion, you will not find better explanations of the a4/Qa5/Bd2 Winawer anywhere.

The a4/Qa5/Qd2 Winawer is very well explained. The only decent explanation of what is going on was a comment (I think by Botvinnik, but could be wrong...) in the 1975 book I mentioned above. However Giddins improves on that and shows how black can successfully counter Smyslov's strategy. By the way, that endgame strategy (Black playing cd4 followed by Qd2 and ideally Na5 supported by a rook on c8) was also suggested by Watson in some of his PTF books, but never with such clear explanations. Of course other strategies are also mentioned such as the "Korchnoi approach" with f6.

I have to say though that the h4 line is very skinny. Fairly decent descriptions but clearly not up to the level of the a4 Winawer and a point of criticism.

The Nf3 system is very well handled. Giddins focusses a lot on the Qa5 reply neglecting a bit the Bd7 system in my opinion. However, the essential ideas are being explained in the a4/Qc7/Nf3 structures (Kanafsck-Atalik) and b6 system (Inarkiev-Vitiugov). Again, no encyclopedic coverage but all the ideas are covered (i.e. Bd7 when a4 has not been played with the threat of going to a4 to prevent a3-a4,  combined with Jussupov's idea of h6, Kd7 and Qg8-h7 to put pressure on c2 together with the bishop on a4. Also the idea of playing b6 with the idea of exchanging the "bad French bishop" on a6 and the significance of the Bb5 check diverting the Bc8 to d7 to prevent Ba6.) I enjoyed cross reading Giddins with Vitiugov's book as he uses similar structures. You will also better understand Vitiugov's "tempo-dance" after 7.a4 Qc7 8. Nf3 h6 and only b6 and 9. Bd3. You will also better understand the significance of the h6 move, which is not that well explained by Vitiugov (a nice example where you got your 2700 Elo author, but where the 2300 Elo guy did a better job ... based again on the objective of the move by move book).

On a different note. I haven't played the Portisch-Hook variation (Qa5 instead of Ne7 or Qc7) but after reading Giddings notes to Vidarsson-Ward, Poulton-Pert, Svidler-Lima, Karjakin-Nikolic and obviously Fischer-Hook and Liberzon-Hook  plus a few other games, I feel I understand the ideas of the early Qa5 setup fairly well and that this is actually a nice foundation before I will delve into heavy theory. 

A quick note: I haven't looked that the games regarding the 4th and 5th move deviations from White (such as 4.a3, 4.Bd2, 4.Ne2 or 5. Bd2). They are summarized at the end of the book and I haven't gone that far yet. But my first impression is that the coverage is rather "compressed".

In summary, the positional Winawer is very well described and I think that considering the objective of the book, I would highly recommend it. I think Giddins did a good job and the fact that he is not a 2500 player didn't negatively influence the book. I believe that reading this book will give you a very well rounded education on the Winawer and I have to say that I prefer this book over the respective chapters in the McDonald/Harley book.

... again remember what the book is trying to accomplish, before you are slamming it or the Elo strength of the author ...

Bibs wrote on 08/28/12 at 11:48:47:


He was at least > 2300 a few years back. 

I did see some favorable opinions somewhere on the web but cannot recall where right now. Did anyone have a look at the book in the meantime? I am quite curious how the positional main lines (7.Nf3/a4/h4) and some of the 4th/5th alternatives are handled

apparently anyone can write books about anything these days

The target audience is most likely well below 2200, so he should be able to provide a useful outline of the pros & cons of the various Winawer systems, and even find space for a brief note on the Winkelmann gambit.

If it's done comprehensively it would be interesting to see exactly how many viable Black systems there are after 4.e5 - it could probably compete with Black's options vs the Open Sicilian...

Yeah. Curious how he will pull it off...maybe he'll just go through three or four systems in the main line?

Will it mention the Winckelmann-Reimer Gambit?