How Ulf Beats Black

How Ulf Beats Black

In his prime in the 1970s and 80s, the Swedish grandmaster Ulf Andersson was a world top-ten player with an instantly recognisable style: he almost never lost, and he kept grinding out wins from positions that looked utterly quiet. This book reveals the secret — those positions only looked quiet.

Cyrus Lakdawala, who has played Andersson’s lines for decades, presents them as a complete White repertoire and explains the deep strategic understanding behind them. Andersson detected and exploited hidden chances better than almost anyone, and his openings glide smoothly from opening to middlegame and often straight into a favourable endgame — so this is far more than an opening manual; it is a course in positional squeezing.

The repertoire is built on the flexible 1.Nf3/1.c4/2.c4 move orders and covers everything Black can try: the King’s Indian, the Queen’s Indian and Hedgehog, the Catalan and Tarrasch structures, the Symmetrical English, the Modern and Pirc, the Dutch, and the Exchange Slav. The recommendations rest on understanding rather than memorised theory, so opponents can’t catch you with a novelty.

Lakdawala’s lucid, entertaining explanations make it ideal for club players who want to win the way Andersson did — quietly, positionally, and relentlessly.