Checkpoint

Reviewed this month:

The Slav
by Graham Burgess
Opening for Black according to Karpov
by Alexander Khalifman
New In Chess Yearbook 59
by Genna Sosonko and Paul van der Sterren (Eds)
The Computer Analyzes the Fried Liver and Lolli
by Dan Heisman
Checkpoint
Carsten Hansen
19th Century Today
The products presented in this month's Checkpoint are all highly modern, but the roots
of the openings covered stretch far back. The Fried Liver and Lolli Variations haven't
been topical for many years. The New in Chess Yearbook also takes a look at some
older lines and pay tribute to these by headlining it "19th Century Today". In recent
years we have seen old and forgotten opening lines being exposed to renewed interest.
The Evans Gambit has been played by Kasparov and more recently Morozevich; the
King's Gambit has often been essayed by Fedorov as well as Short; the Vienna Game
and Bishop Game are seen more often and the Scotch has received more attention ever
since Kasparov took it up against Karpov in one of their matches some years back.
Last month we saw Gutman write a little encyclopaedia on the Steinitz Variation
(4...Qh4) of the Scotch Game. Openings such as the Philidor Defence and the Latvian
Gambit have regained previously lost ground due to English GM Kosten's interesting
books on these subject, speaking of which, a new book by Kosten is about to be
released on the Latvian.
I enjoy this trend and think this is a wonderful way of exploring uncharted territory or
digging up long-forgotten material from old books and magazines. But with this
renewed interest in old openings, there is a huge demand for somebody to go in and
unearth this material and make it available to the common man and opening book
authors. The results can be very good, such as Gutman's recent effort (reviewed in the
August Checkpoint). I hope other quality authors are up for the job.
Before moving on to this month's review, I have to mention an error in my analysis to
a game in last month's Checkpoint. Dan Scoones wrote the following:
"In Minasian-van der Werf, cited by Carsten Hansen in the review of the
Nimzo-Larsen book, authors Jacobs and Tait recommend 10.Nf4! for White [CH: In
the position that arises after 1 b3 e5 2 Bb2 d6 3 e3 Nf6 4 Ne2 g6 5 f4 Bg7 6 fxe5 Ng4
7 h3 Nxe5 8 d4 Qh4+ 9 Kd2 Ng4]. Hansen gives a challenging response for Black that
casts doubt on their recommendation. However, no one mentions 10...Nxe3! 11.Kxe3
Bh6 12.Qf3 Qe1+ 13.Kd3 (13.Qe2 Qg3+) Bxf4 and Black wins material cleanly since
14.Qxf4 leads to mate or loss of the queen after 14...Bf5+."

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This is further evidence for the proposition that when you have found a good move,
start looking for an even better one.
The Slav by Graham Burgess, 2001 Gambit Publications Ltd, Figurine Algebraic
Notation, Paperback, 256 pp., $22.95
Graham Burgess is a man I have dealt a lot with over the years.
Several years back he moved to Funen Island in Denmark, the
very place where I grew up. We played three or four times, mostly
complicated games in the King's Indian with him as Black. Then
he moved back to the UK where he took a position as
commissioning editor at Batsford. In that position he signed Peter
Heine Nielsen and me to do a book on the Sicilian Accelerated
Dragon. That was in 1995. Some time went by, and he along with
Murray Chandler and John Nunn went on to start Gambit
Publications. This chess publishing house has probably released
the most amount of books that may eventually become classics. A
few examples are Watson's Secret of Modern Chess Strategy, Yermolinsky's The Road
to Chess Improvement and Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move. Burgess
edited all of them, something he also did on my two books on the English Opening.
Now in return I now get to review his books. Previously I have reviewed his book on
the Taimanov Sicilian, which is a must for anybody playing that particular system as
Black or allowing it as White. His latest book is The Slav.
Having worked with and for him, and knowing him quite well, you may well question
my ability to be objective with his books. You might well be right if he wrote awful
books and I praised them nonetheless, but that is fortunately not the case. Burgess has
over the years proven himself as an excellent author of chess books, with many
quality books to his name. In particular his opening manuals are must-buys. To start
of this review, I will quote at length from the introduction of the present book:
"The Slav seems to me to be an opening of contradictions. While its most obvious
hallmark is solidity, it frequently leads to wild and completely unbalanced positions.
In several major lines of the Slav, White is able to steer the game into sterile positions
or even a forced draw. However, this does not really make the Slav a drawish opening.
Primarily, White's drawish options are completely unambitious: it is difficult for
White to play for a win while keeping the draw in hand. Even boring players don't
generally like the idea of 'squandering a White'. In the Exchange Variation, generally
portrayed as a drawish line, there often comes a point where White faces a 'man or
mouse' decision: whether to play for a win at the cost of giving Black counterchances,
or to simplify to equality. Secondly, there are ways for Black to avoid drawish
simplifications (even in the Exchange Variation) which may not necessarily be the
most strongly approved options by theory, but are nevertheless playable and give
Black ample opportunity to outplay a weaker opponent.
“However, I do wish to give the impression that the Slav is an opening where Black
should expect to seize the initiative from an early stage or where there are ready made
attacking plans for Black. To play the Slav successfully as Black demands
considerable tenacity, robust defensive abilities and a healthy confidence in one's
all-round skills. A well-played Slav should give Black a playable middlegame or
endgame. Black's approach at this point ought to be ‘OK, I've Survived; now I can try
to outplay my opponent.’ This is different from openings such as the King's Indian or
Benoni, or indeed the Semi-Slav, where the opening dictates to significant degree the
plans for both sides, and the game hinges upon who is more accurate and consistent in
pursuing those plans."

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I don't know about you, but when I read this in my first read-through of the book, I
felt inspired to take up the opening on the spot.
The remainder of the introduction gives a walk-through of the first moves, explaining
the moves of what currently may be considered the main line: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3
Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 a4 Bf5 6 Ne5 e6 7 f3 Bb4 8 e4. Each move is explained with
typical ideas and themes mentioned, and the multitude of options to drag the opening
into other systems are indicated.
All in all, I think the introduction gives us a good look into the basics of this opening.
The remainder of the book is divided as follows:
● 1 3 Nc3 and the Exchange Variation without Nf3 (39 pages)
● 2 3 Nf3: Deviations from the Main Lines (31 pages)
● 3 The Exchange Variation with Nf3 (28 pages)
● 4 The Main Line ...a6 Slav (24 pages)
● 5 4 Nc3 dxc4 without 5 a4 (23 pages)
● 6 5 a4 without 5...Bf5 (22 pages)
● 7 6 Nh4 and the Dutch Variation (42 pages)
● 8 6 Ne5: Deviation from the Main Line (20 pages)
● 9 The Bishop Sacrifice (21 pages)
Looking at the number of pages assigned to each chapter, I have no problem
admitting, that I find it admirable that Burgess manages to keep himself within 256
pages for this book, when the material in my mind demands at least a couple of
hundred more pages to cover. However, the limitation on the number of pages of
course means that you as the author have to cut corners from time to time. Unless you
are very organized and structured, you will have to do that in the end, which is just
about the worst time to do it, because that's when it hurts the most, cutting perfectly
good, publishable material.
Burgess makes these observations, e.g., on the line 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3
Bf5?!.
He writes: "4...Bf5?! was played in some high-level games in the early part of the 20th
century, but has for a long time been considered very dubious, and is no longer played
at master level. However, it is surprisingly popular at club level (do some Slav players
really start making it up as they go along as early as move 4 in the main line?), so it is
worth investigating it some detail. The main problem is that Black leaves b7 too
exposed and in some lines there are problems on the a4-e8 diagonal." Then he follows
up with almost a page of analysis of this, for Black, quite a poor line. Definitely not
much for the professional to make use of, but for the club player who occasionally
runs into this line, this is of course just what the doctor ordered, particularly since
standard works like the ECO and NCO don't invest a lot of space in lines such as the
above.
Usually in Burgess' books there are plenty of suggestions and analysis of his own; this
book is no exception. Let's have a look.
The first example is from one of the more interesting lines in the Exchange Variation:
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 cxd5 cxd5 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 Bf4 a6 7 e3 Bg4 8 h3. The
normal move is now 8...Bxf3, but Burgess also analyses 8...Bh5, which he calls

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"risky, but possibly not bad". The analysis continues 9 g4 Bg6 10 Ne5 e6 11 h4 Qb6
12 a3
Burgess tells us at this point that this was analysed
by Ståhlberg via a different move order, but he
doesn't let us know which move order. The
different move order is the following: 6...Bf5 7 e3
a6 8 Ne5 e6 9 g4 Bg6 10 h4 Qb6 11 a3. With the
other move order, Burgess does direct us to our
main line, but interestingly enough
Silman/Donaldson in their standard work on the
Exchange Variation, The Exchange Variation of
the Slav, do not manage to link the two lines
together. They only give the latter move order,
while they in our main line stop at 10 Ne5 (after
having given 8...Bh5 a '?' and 9 g4 a '!') with the
comment "leaves White with the threats of 11 Nxc6 (giving Black a backward
c-pawn) and 11 h4 (hunting down the Bishop)." In the diagrammed position, Black
has three options: (a) 12...Qxb2; (b) 12...Nxe5 and (c) 12...Rc8. Let's have a look at
the analysis given.
(a) 12...Qxb2 (this was Ståhlberg's main line) 13 Na4 Qc2 14 Qxc2 Bxc2 15 Nb6 Ra7
(Silman/Donaldson mention that 15...Rd8 is met with 16 Nxc6 bxc6 17 Bc7, winning
the exchange) 16 Kd2 Be4 (16...Bb3 is according to Burgess best met with 17 Kc3,
which should give White a comfortable edge in the endgame. However,
Silman/Donaldson write that 17 Nxc6 bxc6 18 Rb1 wins for White, overlooking that
17...Ne4+ leaves Black okay, e.g. 18 Ke1 bxc6 19 Rb1?! Ba2, and now 20 Rb2 is met
with 20...Bxa3! 21 Rxa2 Bb4+ with a nasty check on c3 to follow) 17 f3 Nxe5 18
dxe5 Nd7 (Burgess makes no mention of Ståhlberg's 18...Bxf3 19 exf6 Bxh1 20 Bb8
gxf6 21 Bxa7, and White has a very big plus) 19 Nxd7 Bxf3 20 Rh3 Bxg4 21 Rg3
Kxd7 22 Rxg4 with a small edge for White according to Burgess.
(b) 12...Nxe5 (this was given as 'insufficient' by Silman/Donaldson, quoting
Ståhlberg) 13 dxe5 Nxg4 (or 13...Ne4 14 Nxe4 Bxe4 15 f3 Bxf3 16 Qxf3 Qxb2 17
Qd1 += Burgess) 14 Be2 (Burgess also gives 14 Qa4+ Kd8 15 Bg5+ 'might be better,
but is still nothing clear for White'; he sure is right, e.g. 15...f6 16 exf6 Nxf6 17 0-0-0
Rc8, and White has very little to show for his pawn) 14...h5 (14...f5 is also an
alternative according to Burgess) 15 Qa4+ Kd8 16 Bxg4 hxg4 (16...Qxb2 'isn't
obviously bad either' - Burgess, in fact as far as I can see Black must be better, e.g. 17
Bg5+ Be7 18 Qa5 b6, and Black will end up ahead) 17 Rd1 'gives White a dangerous
attack according to Ståhlberg'. Burgess analyzes a bit further:
(b1) 17...Qxb2? 18 Nxd5 exd5 19 Rxd5+ Kc7 20 Qc4+ Kb8 (20...Kb6 is worse and
also analyzed Burgess) 21 e6+ Ka7 22 Be5 Qb1+ 23 Ke2 with a clear edge.
(b2) 17...Qc6! 'simply looks like a good move, I then see nothing at all convincing for
White'. Absolutely right White has not adequate compensation for the pawn.
(c) However, it surprises me a lot that Burgess has completely ignored 12...Rc8!?
which is covered by Silman/Donaldson:
(c1) 13 h5 Nxe5 [CH: 13...Be4!?] 14 dxe5 Be4 15 f3 [CH: '?' 15 Nxe4 Nxe4 16 Qa4+
Rc6 17 b4 isn't necessarily worse for White] 15...Bxf3 16 Qxf3 [CH: 16 Bb5+!? is
better] 16...Qxb2 17 exd6 Qxa1+ with a clear edge for Black according to Kevitz.
(c2) 13 Na4 Qa5+ 14 b4 Nxb4 15 axb4 Bxb4+ 16 Ke2 Rc2+ 17 Kf3 Be4+ 18 Kg3
Rd2, and Black is better according to Fine, but is this correct? For example 19 Kc1
Rc2 20 Qb1 threatening Bd3 with a slight edge for White. However, an interesting

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option for Black is 16....Bc2 17 Qc1 Qb5+ 18 Kf3 Qxa4 19 Rxa4 Be4+ 20 Ke2 Rxc1
21 f3 Be7 22 fxe4 Nxe4, and Black has pretty good chances.
(c3) 13 Nxg6 hxg6 14 Rb1 Na5 [CH: 14...Qa5!? followed ...b5 looks plainly better for
Black] 15 Be2 Bd6 - analysis by Fine [CH: Black doesn't have any problems here, and
the position is about equal].
As we can see from the above, Burgess has done his homework, refined and added to
the previous theoretical status of a line and as much old and not thoroughly worked
through material, there is plenty of possibilities to explore. I'm surprised that he made
no mention of 12...Rc8!?, since it is mentioned in the Silman/Donaldson book on the
particular line, a book which furthermore is mentioned in the bibliography.
A particular highlight in the book, at least in my opinion, is the coverage of the Geller
Gambit: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 e4, a line which Burgess himself has
played as White. Burgess writes: "The teenage Kasparov also used it a few times and
in 1985 the famous and respected theoretician John Watson cautiously advocated its
use in a small book on the Two Knights QGA [CH: Queen's Gambit Accepted].
However, his work, if anything, just prompted Slav players to take this gambit more
seriously, and refine their defences. Certainly by the late 1980s, the best defences
were largely worked out, and White was scraping around for new ideas. Nevertheless,
I am sure this gambit will appeal to a lot of players. The play is sharpened
considerably, and any errors by Black will be drastically punished. Having played this
gambit myself quite a lot over the years, I can confirm it can be extremely effective in
practice. Still, my advice to anyone thinking of taking it up is simple: 'Don't!' If Black
knows what he doing, then you will be banging your head against a brick wall, a wall
that will often fall on top of you."
Honesty right from the beginning, I like that. Once again there is plenty of original
analysis, improvements and other suggestions. While I'm quite clueless in regards to
the efforts for either side to keep this line alive, I'm able to recognize the effort that
has been put into this chapter, and Burgess quite clearly knows what he talking about.
The present book is clearly a testament to what kind quality material that can be
produced by a topnotch theoretician: All lines are covered in detail, plenty of original
analysis, improvements and suggestions can be found throughout the book. Nothing is
kept for own use at a later stage. This is what you should be able to expect from all
opening books, but only precious few books are written as well as this one. This is the
kind of book I would buy on the spot if I didn't have it already. Anybody employing
the Slav or allowing it as White must own a copy of this book.
There is of course the problem that this book is not for everybody. Despite the author
stopping once in a while to explain typical ideas and set-ups, there is nowhere near
enough for those not-so-strong players that are thinking about taking this opening up.

My assessment of this book:

Order The Slav
by Graham Burgess

Opening for Black according to Karpov by Alexander Khalifman, 2001 Chess Stars,
Figurine Algebraic Notation, Paperback, 191 pp., $29.95

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A few months back I reviewed Khalifman's first volume on

Kramnik's opening repertoire with White, starting with 1 Nf3.
Rather than the obvious choice to complete the coverage of
Kramnik's White opening repertoire, he now presents us with
Karpov's opening repertoire as Black. A lot of people will probably
find Khalifman's choice of Karpov somewhat odd, since Karpov no
longer is the player he used to be (something I, as a fan of Karpov's
style, have taken a long time to admit) and he doesn't play
tournaments with the same frequency he used to do. Nevertheless I
find his choice interesting. For many years Karpov ruled the chess
world with a very solid opening repertoire as Black.
Before moving over to looking at the material itself, I have to say that when I received
the book, I was thinking to myself how on earth anybody would be able to cover the
entire Black repertoire of Karpov in a book as short as this. Although 191 pages may
sound like a lot, it is precious little space if you have to cover material in just some
detail. This is how Khalifman has divided the material:
● Part 1 - Caro-Kann Defence (total 28 pages)
● 1 e4 c6
● 1 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 (12 pages)
● 2 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 (6 pages)
● 3 2 d4 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 c4 Nf6 (5 pages)
● 4 2 d3; 2 Nc3; 2 c4; 2 b3 (5 pages)
● Part 2 - Nimzo-Indian Defence (total 53 pages)
● 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4
● 5 4 Qc2 0-0 (14 pages)
● 6 4 e3 c5 (12 pages)
● 7 4 a3 Bxc3+ 5 bxc3 c5 (12 pages)
● 8 4 Nf3 c5 5 e3 Nc6 6 Bd3 Bxc3+ 7 bxc3 d6 (6 pages)
● 9 4 Bg5 h6 (3 pages)
● 10 4 g3 c5 (4 pages)
● 11 4 Qb3; various (2 pages)
● Part 3 - Queen's Indian Defence (total 36 pages)
● 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6
● 12 4 g3 Ba6 (14 pages)
● 13 4 a3 Bb7 5 Nc3 d5 (13 pages)
● 14 4 e3 Bb7 (4 pages)
● 15 4 Bf4 Bb7 5 e3 Be7 (2 pages)
● 16 4 Bg5 Bb7 (3 pages)
● Part 4 - Catalan Opening (total 13 pages)

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● 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 d5 4 Bg2 Be7

● 17 5 Nf3 0-0 various; 6 0-0 dxc4 various (6 pages)
● 18 5 Nf3 0-0 6 0-0 dxc4 7 Qc2 a6 (7 pages)
● Part 5 - English Opening (total 38 pages)
● 19 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 various (15 pages)
● 20 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 g3 (8 pages)
● 21 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 (7 pages)
● 22 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 b6 (8 pages)
● Part 6 - Various (total 15 pages)
● 23 1 d4 Nf6 various; 2 Bg5 e6 various (4 pages)
● 24 Various; 1 Nf3 Nf6 various (11 pages)
While the weighting seems just about right, I can't say the same amount the number of
pages that has been appointed each part. Covering a repertoire for Black in the
Nimzo-Indian in 53 pages is simply not possible unless you take some serious
short-cuts along the way. The Caro-Kann coverage of 14 pages on the Smyslov
Variation and 6 pages for the advance variation sounds like a joke. That aside, you can
hardly claim that this is Karpov's entire repertoire that is being presented and
examined, but Khalifman had to draw a line somewhere; whether you agree with
where he drew it is a different story.
Before moving on, I have to mention a curious fact. Inside the book it says that the
copyright of this book belongs to Khalifman and Sergei Soloviov (the latter is on the
editorial panel of Chess Stars) but did Soloviov write part of this book? Possibly so,
but no mention is made of it elsewhere, and if he contributed, it should definitely be
mentioned where. But as is common with Chess Star products, the material is divided
between several contributors without mentioning who did what. This is something
they should reconsider for future books.
In part 1, chapter 1, I have also come across few curious things. First of all, Khalifman
calls 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 'Classical System'. Well, if I'm not
mistaken 4...Nd7 is called the Smyslov Variation, while 4...Bf5 is the Classical
System. Furthermore, on the top of each page in this chapter the moves 1 e4 c6 2 d4
d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nbd7 are given.
In addition, Khalifman never gives any playable alternatives to the main line for
Black. This is very troubling. Given the pace that the theory develops in these lines,
people who follow Khalifman's recommendations may end up with nowhere to go if
one of the lines is busted.
Let’s look at the line 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Bc4 Ngf6 6 Ng5 e6 7
Qe2 Nb6 8 Bb3 h6 9 N5f3 a5 10 c3 c5

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Instead of 10...c5, McDonald in his recent book,

Main Line Caro-Kann, mentions that 10...a4 is
also reasonable. Given that Khalifman doesn't
offer alternatives for Black, this is not mentioned.
After 10...c5, Khalifman, he only offers 11 a3 as
played in Kasparov-Karpov, Linares 1994, and 11
Be3, but fails to mention 11 dxc5, which was tried
out in Adams-Seirawan, Bermuda 1999.
Furthermore, in his main line after 11 a3 Qc7, he
only gives 12 Ne5, which McDonald gives '?!' ,
which concurs with Karpov's conclusions in
Informator 60. In the game continuation, there
followed: 12...cxd4 13 cxd4 a4 14 Bc2 Bd7 15 Nxd7 Nbxd7 16 Qxd1 (16 Nf3!? is
given by Karpov, but Khalifman doesn't tell us that) 16...Bd6 (Karpov claims an edge
for Black after 16...b5!? 17 Ne2 Qc6 18 0-0 Nb6, needless to say, Khalifman has no
mention of this) 17 Ne2 Nd5, which Khalifman gives as '=', whereas McDonald
continues one move further with 18 Bd2 b5!, 'and Black had a clear advantage'. I have
a feeling the truth lies somewhere in between, but Khalifman really lets us down here.
The coverage of 8 Bd3 is more in order, but nonetheless nothing impressive. It looks
and is very superficial and I have not come across any suggestions or original analysis
by Khalifman that is worth mentioning here and that is very disappointing.
Moving on to chapter 2, he calls the advance variation (3 e5 Bf5) the 'Closed System'.
I don't know if this comes from Russian and then is being translated, but it looks
strange in English. Talking about the Advance Variation, it is clear that the theoretical
coverage in this book should be compared with the Kasparov-Karpov game from
Linares this year. While it's obviously too recent to be included in the present book, it
does illustrate the problem with a narrow opening presentation: 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6
Nge2 Ne7 7 Nf4 c5 8 dxc5 Nd7 Khalifman only gives 8...Nec6 9 h4 Nxe5 (9...Qc7
was tried by Bareev against Shirov in New Delhi 2000, and lost miserably, although
Kasparov has indicated that Black could have defended) 10 Bg2 h5 11 Qe2 Nbc6 and
it will transpose into our main game.
9 h4 Nxe5 10 Bg2 h5 11 Qe2 N7c6 12 Nxg6 Nxg6 And here Shirov played 13 Nxd5,
and after 13...Bxc5 14 Bg5 Nge7, Black was okay in Shirov-Karpov, Monaco 2000.
Kasparov tried something different. 13 Bg5 Be7 14 gxh5, and here Karpov got
himself into serious problems with 14...Nf8? and quickly lost. So what are you
supposed to do as Black now? Give up the Caro-Kann? Khalifman doesn't offer any
alternatives, so go ahead and try to repair this line yourself. I'm sure you will do well;
after all, Karpov couldn't work it out at the table. Good luck! Am I the only one left
with a funny feeling here?
Okay, the Caro-Kann part wasn't any good, so what about part 2 on the
Nimzo-Indian? I will take a look at chapter 8 to illustrate his efforts here.
As seen above, chapter 8 covers 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 c5 5 e3 Nc6 6
Bd3 Bxc3 7 bxc3 d6

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For some strange reason, Khalifman calls the

above line the Blockade System, but as far as I
know, this is called the Hübner Variation.
However, Taimanov doesn't mention that in his
monograph on the Nimzo-Indian from 1985,
Zashchita Nimzovicha, either.
Khalifman gives three main lines: (a) 8 0-0; (b) 8
Nd2; and (c) 8 e4; but as Pliester mentions in his
book, Rubinstein Complex, 8 Nd2 usually
transposes to 8 0-0. Looking over the lines, we
find the same pattern as in the above chapter, i.e,
there are almost no alternatives to the Black
moves. For example, in line (a), 8 0-0, after 8...0-0 9 Nd2, it would be obvious to
mention the classic game, Johner-Nimzowitsch, Dresden 1926: 9...b6 10 Nb3 e5 11
f4? (11 f3!) 11...e4 (11...a5! Pliester) 12 Be2 Qd7!! 13 h3 Ne7 14 Qe1? h5! 15 Bd2
Qf5! 16 Kh2 Qh7!, and Black went on to win a beautiful game. But Khalifman
doesn't.
Instead he continues with 9...e5, and at this point his main line is 10 d5, which is
reasonable enough since it's the most popular move. As alternatives he offers: 10 Ne4,
10 Re1 and 10 Qc2, but the more popular moves 10 Nb3 and Bareev's 10 Rb1 go
unmentioned, which is nothing short of mind-bending. In my database I found 5
games with 10 Re1, 48 games with 10 Nb3 and 38 games with 10 Rb1!
Instead of 9 Nd2, White can also play the more aggressive 9 Ng5. After 9...e5, his
main line is 10 f4, and mentions the very rarely played 10 dxc5 as an alternative, but
the more critical 10 Ne4 and 10 Qc2 are not mentioned. Following the main line 10 f4
exd4 (also playable, but not mentioned by Khalifman are 10...h6 and even 10...exf4)
11 cxd4 Re8 (no alternatives are given, but Pliester has 11...cxd4 as the main line, and
also mentions 11...h6, which transposes into Khalifman's 11...Re8) 12 d5 Nb4 13 Bb1
h6 14 Nf3 b5!? (14...Ne4!? was used with great success in Babula-Haba, Zlin 1997 -
0-1 in 22, but Khalifman gives no hint of this either) 15 a3 Na6 16 cxb5 Nc7 =+,
Villeneuve (Khalifman spells it 'Villenueve')-Boudre.
I could go on, but it should be obvious, I'm not terribly impressed with Mr.
Khalifman's effort in this book. In fact, I'm quite disappointed. He has left out
important lines, he doesn't offer alternatives for Black, he presents very little new
material, and almost no analysis or suggestions of his own. That being said, the
repertoire of Karpov's that Khalifman (or actually Karpov) has put together for us is
worth studying, particularly if you don't mind a draw as Black or just a solid position
without too much action. However, it is not so much the repertoire, but Khalifman's
effort we have to assess, and quite frankly, he has let us down.
Khalifman's book on Kramnik's repertoire was pretty good, this one isn't. Let's hope
that the next volume on Kramnik's repertoire as White, and for that matter the
upcoming book on Anand's repertoire as White will be better than the present volume.

My assessment of this book:

Order Opening for Black
according to Karpov
by Alexander Khalifman

New In Chess Yearbook 59 by Genna Sosonko and Paul van der Sterren (Eds), 2001

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Interchess BV, Figurine Algebraic Notation, Hardback, 235 pp., $29.95

I have reviewed the NIC Yearbooks a couple of times before in
this column, and generally speaking I'm quite pleased. The NIC
Yearbook focuses on a niche which is pretty much untouched by
others. The concept is clear, a few letters from readers, an article
by Sosonko, many theoretical surveys, and finally some book
reviews.
The material is divided as follows:
● NIC Forum and Sosonko's Corner
● Letters from Reader (9 pages)
● Sosonko's Corner (3 pages)
● NIC Surveys
● Semi-Open Game (12 surveys - 68 pages)
● Open Game (7 surveys - 33 pages)
● Queen's Pawn Openings (1 survey - 5 pages)
● Queen's Gambit incl. Slav & Catalan (11 surveys - 55
pages)
● Indian Defences (7 surveys - 45 pages)
● NIC Service
● NIC Review (5 pages)
● NIC Statistics (1 page)
● NIC Key Summary (5 pages)
● NIC Code System (1 page)
To start with the last part first, the Key Summary and Code System obviously have to
be included. The Statistics chapter is only one page long and this discusses the start
position. The statistics are derived from the NIC Database “containing more than
800,000 games”. Not an awfully large database, if you ask me; my database is about 2
million games and many players have databases even bigger. However, I presume a
lot of games from not-so-important events, such as championships for very young
children and small local events without participation of stronger players have been
filtered out of the mix.
The statistics show that White's overall score is 54.8 %. Only two 1st moves are
considered: 1 e4 and 1 d4. The former move is played more often than the latter, but 1
d4 scores better. With 1 d4, White scores 56.1 %, while with 1 e4, 54.1 %. As the man
behind the statistics points out, this is partly due to the Sicilian Defence, against which
White “only” scores 52.3 %. While this statistic is fairly interesting, but also
somewhat predictable, I don't understand why they don't disclose the name of the
person who has written the text and conducted the statistical “analysis”.
Likewise, we are told who writes the book reviews in that section. There is a total of
10 reviews of books and CD-ROMs, of which one review is by Matthew Sadler, a
review of Watson's excellent book on the Modern Benoni. The rest of the reviews are
fairly short, fairly superficial but generally positive.

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In the Forum section, there is a total of 9 letters. The first five of these are fairly
lightly examined, although some of the ideas are quite interesting. However, the last
four letters are more beefy. One letter is by GM Igor Stohl on a line in the Grünfeld
Indian (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bf4 0-0 6 Rc1 dxc4 7 e3), followed
by a letter by IM Tibor Fogarasi on the Benko Gambit (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4
Nd2 bxc4), then one by IM Jeroen Bosch on the Sicilian Najdorf (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3
d4 cd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bc4 e6 7 Bb3 b5 8 f4), and finally a rather interesting
entry by the theoretician and correspondence player A.C. van der Tak on another line
in the Grünfeld, the line that Hans Berliner argued so strongly for in his controversial,
but nonetheless quite interesting book The System (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5
Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Bc4 c5 8 Ne2 0-0 9 Be3 Nc6 10 Rc1 cxd4 11 cxd4 Qa5
12 Kf1). The line analyzed in this last entry is very fascinating, and although popular
theory claims that Black is doing fine, Berliner insist on White being better if not
winning. A rather bold statement, I'd say, but despite having made several attempts to
refute the analysis shown in this Yearbook, White still seems to be better as a
minimum and in many lines even winning. Definitely food for thought, but I will not
show the analysis here, so should you be interested in this line, check out this book, it
may save you for some embarrassment or gain you some extra points, given which
side you look at it from.
Next follows Sosonko's Corner, which this time tells a little story about Iosif
Dorfman, who used to give lessons to a group of talented juniors, amongst whom you
found Mikhail Gurevich and Alexander Chernin. He then follows it with a game from
the German Bundesliga 2000/01 between Gurevich and Dorfman.
The cornerstone in the NIC Yearbooks is the opening surveys. Some of the surveys
cover topical or critical lines in contemporary opening theory, others topics seem
more randomly picked. There are 38 total surveys.
These surveys are conducted by a number of people. Many of the surveys are good or
very good. The way I determine this is if the introduction discusses the various aspects
of the line, which moves and games are critical, new ideas that worthy of attention,
independent analysis and finally sticking to the point. A point I pay particular
attention to is the 'Study Material' that accompanies every survey. In some surveys
many of the games go virtually unannotated, something which in my opinion really is
of only little or no help at all. In the best surveys, every single game has some sort of
annotation and analysis. In the present volume the best surveys are conducted by
Tibor Karolyi, Sergei Tiviakov, A.C. van der Tak, Jeroen Bosch, Martin Appleberry
& Vladimir Okhotnik; those by René Olthof (Supervisor of the editorial staff), John
van der Wiel and Jan van de Mortel are also on a high level. At the other end of the
list I have to mention the surveys by Rini Kuijf, who seems to have been doing
something else while putting the surveys together. They are short and hardly worth
going through if you were to judge them on the surveyor's effort.
However, having said something negative, I must highlight Tibor Karolyi who must
have invested dozens of hours on the surveys he has conducted. They are very
insightful, interesting and packed with independent analysis, a true feast for the
serious chess student.
I would like to show a game, which can be found in a survey conducted by Jan van de
Mortel, who is also a member of the editorial staff. The game of main interest in this
particular survey is Goldin-Chuchelov, from the Open in Capelle la Grande this year.
The game in the Yearbook is annotated by the Norwegian GM Simen Agdestein:
Goldin-Chuchelov, Cappelle la Grande 2001
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6
9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.Be2 Qc7 11.f4 Bc5 12.b4 Bd4 13.e5 Nd5!!

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This is the novelty that all the raving is about.

However, as I was entering the moves with my
electronic friend Junior turned on, it had suggested
13...Nd5 in less than a second! In a previous game
in this line, White had obtained a clear edge after
13...Bxc3 14 Qxc3 Ne4 15 Qe3 0-0 16 0-0 f6 17
exf6 Nxf6 18 Bb2, N.Pert-Chandler, London 2000.
14.Ne4 Nxf4! 15.Nd6+ Qxd6!! 16.exd6 Nxg2+
17.Kd2 Bxa1 18.Bb2 Bxb2 19.Qxb2 0–0 20.Rg1
f6 21.Qc3 Nh4 22.b5 Bb7 23.c5 bxc5 24.Qxc5
Ng6 25.Qc7 Bd5 26.Rc1 Ne5 27.Qa5 f5 28.Rc7
f4 29.Qc3 Rf5 30.a4 f3 31.Bf1 f2 32.Kc1 Rg5
33.Rc8+ Kf7 34.Rxa8 Rg1 35.Qh3 Bxa8 36.Kd2
Be4 37.Ke3 Bd3 38.Qh5+ Kf6 39.Bh3 f1Q 40.Bxf1 Rxf1 41.Kd2 Rf4 42.Qd1 Bxb5,
and White finally resigned. 0-1.
The NIC Yearbook, here in its 59th rendition, is clearly a product that you have to pay
attention to, and I hope a lot of people are. Obviously not everybody is going to find
something in each volume that aims directly at their repertoire. An example is that a
popular opening such as the English Opening does not get any coverage in this
volume. Nonetheless, the editorial staff headed by Olthof, Sosonko and van der
Sterren do an amazing job at offering something for everybody, highly topical lines
such as the Najdorf Sicilian as well distinctly dormant openings such the Urusov
Gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 d4). A better look into the status of contemporary
opening theory probably cannot be found in print anywhere. I still wish that all of the
surveys would be of the same level as those made by the first group of people I
mentioned above, but the overall quality is improving from good to very good, and if
the editors keep picking the right people to do the job, it will no doubt soon be an even
greater joy to work your way through these yearbooks.

My assessment of this book:

Order New In Chess
Yearbook 59
by Genna Sosonko and
Paul van der Sterren

The Computer Analyzes the Fried Liver and Lolli by Dan Heisman, 2001 Pickard &
Sons, Figurine Algebraic Notation, E-book, $14.95
One of the more recent additions to the ChessCafe.com columnist line-up is Dan
Heisman, whose articles are a pure gold mine for any improving chess player, young
or old, or for coaches and parents to players in this group. His ideas are well-explained
and well-illustrated, and if you can't pick up a hint or two on how to improve yourself
as a chess player, you must be a very strong (stronger than I) and very organized in
your way of studying. Something similar can be said about his Everyone's 2nd
Chessbook (2000 Thinkers Press).
Last year Dan Heisman had another ebook, The Traxler Counterattack, that was
masterpiece when it came to man and computer(s) teaming up to take an opening to
the next level analytically. This time around, he has thrown himself and his silicone
friend into another project, the Fried Liver and Lolli Variations. For those not familiar
with these two opening lines, they start as follows: 1e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4
Ng5 d5 5 exd5 Nxd5, and here 6 Nxf7 is the Fried Liver Variation, while 6 d4 is the

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so-called Lolli variation.

When I was 12 or 13 years old, I ran into these lines all the time, but I haven't seen
them since, probably due to the reputation of the Lolli as clearly advantageous for
White. In the fairly recent Nunn's Chess Openings, these two lines are packed into one
footnote. So much for the popularity of these lines. But nonetheless, the Liver and
Lolli are great lines to analyze with a computer.
The lines are often quite forced and raw calculating power is the way forward in these
lines, just like in the Traxler.
This ebook contains the following:
● An Introduction
● Introductory text on the Fried Liver
● Introductory text on the Lolli
● Database report on the Fried Liver
● Database report on the Lolli
● Six surveys on the Fried Liver
● Four surveys on the Lolli
● 511-game database.
In the introduction, Heisman tells us a little about the opening, the critical lines and a
little bit of analysis. He also tells us about the way he has been working with the
computer:
“1) I did NOT just let the computer run overnight and copy analysis.
“2) I forced the computer to look at the most likely candidate moves for most
positions, with the purpose of generating candidate moves for the next position, and
repeated this process down the ‘tree’. I also forced it to look at all the moves
suggested in the most recent publications on the Traxler and the Lolli. If one move
emerged as much better, that is the move shown in the Survey. If multiple moves were
close or of interest, they created alternate lines to investigate.
“3) I repeated this process over and over to create the analysis tree until either many
candidate moves yielded the same evaluation (which meant that the line could be
evaluated - this happened in a much higher percentage of positions in this e-book than
in the Traxler book), and there would be diminishing returns on further analysis, or
the lines became either winning for one side or the other, or there was a forced draw.
“4) The analysis was primarily done with a Pentium III processor running at 600 MHz
on Fritz 6. Typically, I let the computer run 10-12 ply in order to select the top
candidate moves, but often longer on key positions.”
Next follows introductory text about each line. It links together with the surveys that
follows. In the introductory texts, Heisman tells us about how theory previously has
been evaluating the lines in question, and then proceeds to tell us which conclusions
he has reached. The text reached. The texts are straight to the point and a great help
when you want to get an idea of the larger picture.
The database reports which also have been included are generated by ChessBase 7,
but with so little game material it makes absolutely no sense in these cases. For
example it tells us that the latest grandmaster game played in the Fried Liver is
Tyrisha-EggSalad, ICC (Internet Chess Club) 2001. Since I'm not a frequent visitor to

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the ICC, I have no idea who these to people are.

Nor do I recognize many of the names on the list of strong grandmasters who have
played the Fried Liver: Flamer2, checkagain, checkmt, Killergrob and so on. But the
electronic media allows us to waste space on non-essential things such as reports like
these. Heisman himself also warns the reader from drawing conclusions from these
reports, because of the many blunders that are being played in these games with
shorter time limit on the ICC.
I will not dive into the surveys themselves as they are very extensive, and without
something like ChessBase to support and navigate through the analysis, it is terribly
difficult to keep track of everything.
However, instead over looking at the surveys, I will here add some of his conclusions,
given in the general introduction, that are based on the results of his computer:
“1) The discredited line for Black in the Fried Liver, 8...Ne7 (formerly "?")[CH: after
the moves 1 e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d5 5 exd5 Nxd5 6 Nxf7 Kxf7 7 Qf3+
Ke6 8 Nc3] 9.d4, does NOT lose by force for Black as widely published! In fact,
many of the published "refutations" contain outright bad moves for Black. I would not
say that 8...Ne7 is better than the good move 8...Nb4, but it certainly is not as bad as
previously considered. Ironically, if Iwamoto and Bernstein's new idea 9.Bb3 gives
White any advantage against 8...Nb4, then 8...Ne7 may even be almost as good?! Also
check out the computer's novelty 17...Kg6 in the main 8...Ne7 line.
“2) It does not seem that White can improve upon the Fried Liver line with 8...Nb4
9.Qe4. In fact, if White plays that way, Black may even be able to get a small
advantage with perfect play.
“3) It seems that Black, as has been recently suggested elsewhere, can capture the
a1-Rook without losing in the Fried Liver Attack after 9.a3 Nxc2+ 10.Kd1. Indeed,
the conclusion seems to be that both in practice and in theory that 10...Nxa1!? is
probably superior to the classical 10...Nd4.
“4) I did manage to prove that the main line given for Black against the Lolli
(involving 6...Bb4+ 7.c3 Be7 8.Nxf7) in Nunn's Chess Openings (NCO) seems to lose
by force.
“5) Overall, the "main line" Lolli is close to winning for White, even after 6...Bb4+,
while the Fried Liver remains defendable for Black, but....
“6) Lolli defenders looking for a shocker should try 6...Nxd4!? 7.c3 b5!? (or ...f6!?,
which also seems playable and may even be better) and watch White turn red while
they try to figure out how to get an advantage (8.Bd3! does it, but that is not the first
move one would consider in this unknown line). While this line is still good for White
(and therefore 5...Nxd5 is probably not best), I think that 6...Nxd4 is the best line for
Black against 6.d4 and analysis within seems to show that:
5...Nxd5 likely does not lose!"
Interesting stuff and worth a thought, whether you play these lines or not. Should you
have any interest in these lines as White or as Black, I think you should go out and
invest in this e-book. Future chess book authors should not be without this e-book, if
they consider writing about the Two Knight's Defence.
The nature of this work makes it unattractive to a large number of people, because
they don't think they can manage to memorize all the theory in question. However, I'm
once again impressed with the quality of the work performed. Even though a
computer has been used to generate 99% of the analysis, the introductions and the and

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surveys are well-made and easy to understand.

My assessment of this e-book book:

The Ratings

— A poor book, not recommended.

— Not a particularly good book, but perhaps useful for some readers.

— A useful book.

— Good book, recommended.

— Excellent book, highly recommended.

Copyright 2001 Carsten Hansen. All rights reserved.

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