Thanks for your comments.

Re: Kovalchuk, I'm a bit put off by the 500 pages (without d-pawn specials or Anti-Grünfelds to boost the page count even), but I guess that shouldn't matter if the book is good.
Re: Delchev, I get the feeling that it might be a bit more readable for someone relatively lazy like me.
Re: Zherebukh, I've heard that it's not a great book in general.

Kerangali wrote on 11/15/22 at 14:14:06:


To clarify, I'm not completely new to the Grünfeld. I've never played it in a serious OTB game, but I have played it off-and-on in internet games since about 2014.

Kovalchuk's is perhaps the most comprehensive book among the recent ones. I see two more:
- Delchev's "The Safest Grunfeld reloaded" (2019) is concise and has great insights. Very useful to start with.
- Zherebukh's "The Modernized Grünfeld" (2020) is quite passionate but imho can't be recommended as a first book (lots of complex lines).

It turns out that Schach Niggemann (the german chess shop) has reviews for Delchev and Kovalchuk books, the latter containing a comparison of recent (~2020) Grunfeld books.  Goggle the site (not sure I can link here), find the books and then the "Rezensionen" (reviews) tab for valuable German reviews that can be pasted into Google Translate. Hope this helps.

PS. One remark about the Modernized series by Thinkers Publishing. I only have 2 (Modern and Grunfeld) but the pattern is the same: they take young GMs and ask them to publish their files - made readable - on their pet openings. As a result the books lack organisation, but carry many novelties and fresh insights. Indeed this is relevant to modernize one's repertoire, but not as reference books.

Hi, 
in your opinion which recent-ish (maybe last 5 years?) Grünfeld book has the best explanation of general ideas? In general, I have sources that contain a bunch of theory (plus access to computers of course) and also Rowson's (1998) Understanding book. Is there a more modern book that has particularly strong prose (or maybe a good DVD). Thanks!