JonathanB wrote on 10/31/15 at 11:46:48:
btw: with respect to your problems with Austrian attack did you ever try
1 e4 g6, 2 d4 Bg7, 3 Nc3 c6, 4 f4 d5
or
1 e4 g6, 2 d4 d6, 3 Nc3 c6, 4 f4 d5
I just call it the Gurg
Yes, done this. Some opening books influenced my repertoire choices early on, and one was Opening Tactics for Club Players by Sergiu Samarian and E. Pritchard. Actually a collection of opening systems, and within it was the Gurgenidze modern. Later I got more ideas on the Modern from Norwood's "Winning with the Modern" including the accelerated move order.
The book that put me off this system for Black was Khalifmann's Opening for White According to Anand book 4.
Also, I'd taken up 1. ...d6 as a universal reply to avoid various KID systems, but necessitating using the Pirc rather than the Modern, the latter requiring you to play the KID in full or choose what are to my mind inferior although probably playable systems in the Modern.
I see Chess stars are planning
http://www.chess-stars.com/Future_Plans.html "• A Complete Black repertoire book based on the Pirc and the KI
by Alexei Kornev
Expected in February 2016"
Which hopefully will re-inforce this system for me.
I find though 1. ...e5 much easier to play as I find the White players in my usual opposition pool (say club players up to FMs) duck the critical systems, whereas against the Pirc, they have something better prepared.
In De la Villa's "Dismantling the Sicilian", his philospophy is main lines against main lines, side lines against side lines. Yet often I find my opponents doing the opposite.
I want to expand my general chess knowledge too. I've not just played the Pirc over my chess career, but I'm enjoying looking at a new opening and encouraged by the results.
At a recent tournament, I had a nice win in the Black side of an Italian, but didn't like either of my Pirc middle games, despite them being normal theory positions, and was lucky to get 0.5/2
The plan is still to keep both, using the Pirc/Czech/Philidor for mainly just the d4 players.